  In an earlier pamphlet, titled “Dare to Be Wise” (reprinted in his Philosophical Studies), McTaggart defined “pessimism” as the view that the universe as a whole is more bad than good, and “optimism” as the view that the universe as a whole is more good than bad. According to McTaggart, whether optimism is true is one of the central religious questions. Probably no philosophical belief was more important to McTaggart than optimism. McTaggart defended optimism very early in his career, in a pamphlet published in 1893 titled “On the Furthermore determination of the Absolute” (reprinted in his Philosophical Studies), and the second volume of the Nature of Existence concludes with a full-throttled argument for optimism. 