pes•si•mism (ˈpɛs əˌmɪz əm) n. 1.the tendency to see only what is disadvantageous or gloomy or to anticipate the worst outcome. 2.the doctrine that the existing world is the worst of all possible worlds or that all things naturally tend toward evil. 3.the belief that the evil and pain in the worldoutweigh any goodness or happiness. “If man merely sat back and thought about his impending termination, and his terrifying insignificance and aloneness in the cosmos, he would surely go mad, or succumb to a numbing sense of futility. Why, he might ask himself, should he bother to write a great symphony, […]