Admitting that every aspect of existence is pervaded by discomfort and suffering and that certain actions need to be taken to abolish that very suffering could very much be argued to be philosophically pessimist . Contrast it to something like Leibniz ' optimism where he states we already live in the best possible world , it ' s clear Buddhism runs contrary to this . Pessimism need not imply some kind of hard line stance that the cessation of suffering is impossible and it is best just to die although sometimes that is the case see Philip Mainlander and Hegesias of Cyrene , for example . If anything , most pessimist schools of thinking are life affirming . If calling Buddhism ' philosophically pessimistic ' I ' m not saying it is seems absurd to anybody , it ' s probably because they conflate philosophical pessimism with ' regular ' pessimism , as in a certain emotional disposition towards the world .