Always look on the bright side? How ‘optimism’ came to mean foolishness

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Scientists claimed this week that being optimistic helps us live longer – but it isn’t always a positive feeling

This week scientists claimed that being optimistic could help you live longer, though some may feel the gloom descend on being ordered to be cheerful. But optimism originally meant something much stronger than mere confidence in the future.

The word was coined in French – optimisme – by the mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who argued in 1710 that God had optimised the universe to allow the largest possible amount of good for the least cost of evil. This was, therefore, the best of all possible worlds. Someone who believes that things are optimal (Latin optimus, best) is an optimist.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2L5jlPj

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