Nihlism

  • Monroe;

    Monroe; (615)

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    fool's paradise:
    ^ So you're a misanthropist, and yet you're posting on a community forum? I find that a little strange.

    I tend to strongly dislike people as a majority, but I do realize there are lots of wonderful individuals around.

    I've already made my opinion on the subject clear. To me, it honestly seems like the creation of a troubled and pessimistic mind. There are certainly things about this world that I find upsetting, but I could never sink low enough to lose complete faith in the world and consider all of our exploits, efforts, and emotions utterly meaningless.
    I'm not exactly socially interacting with them, am I? All I'm doing is tapping keys. This is for boredom.
    August 28th, 2009 at 12:32pm
  • Einahpets

    Einahpets (150)

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    The Doctor.:
    Am I the only one who doesn't really mind if existance itself is pointless?
    I don't really mind.

    I don't see why there has to be some Great Purpose for me to enjoy life.
    August 28th, 2009 at 12:38pm
  • Dancing Caveman

    Dancing Caveman (450)

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    I don't understand how a nihlist mindest seems to come from the mind of someone troubled and pessimistic. Personally, I find the view of an afterlife to be more of a troubled and pessimistic attitude: Life sucks here on Earth, but when I die, I'll get to go to a glorious paradise and all those mean people will burn forever.
    August 28th, 2009 at 04:39pm
  • modern mariah.

    modern mariah. (100)

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    I believe that we live, then we day, but that doesn't make life unimportant. Because I know I'm never going to live again, might as well have a good first time.
    August 28th, 2009 at 04:59pm
  • Xsoteria

    Xsoteria (100)

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    Existential nihilism (the one some identify with here) is surprisingly widespread. But there are several forms of nihilism. Some, like moral nihilism, suggest that due to the "pointlesness" of everything there is no moral whatsoever, that say, murdering a person is neither wrong nor right.
    August 28th, 2009 at 07:46pm
  • kafka.

    kafka. (150)

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    Dancing Caveman:
    I don't understand how a nihlist mindest seems to come from the mind of someone troubled and pessimistic. Personally, I find the view of an afterlife to be more of a troubled and pessimistic attitude: Life sucks here on Earth, but when I die, I'll get to go to a glorious paradise and all those mean people will burn forever.
    The possibility of an afterlife only makes everything (including pain) meaningful, it doesn't mean everything "sucks", but rather that everything can be enjoyed or at least bore because there's a higher purpose to it all.
    August 30th, 2009 at 03:49pm
  • Matt Smith

    Matt Smith (900)

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    kafka.:
    The possibility of an afterlife only makes everything (including pain) meaningful, it doesn't mean everything "sucks", but rather that everything can be enjoyed or at least bore because there's a higher purpose to it all.
    My pain is meaningful to me because it makes the periods where I'm without pain more intense and valuable and enjoyable. My pain gives meaning to my achievements because I have gained things even with the additional factor of ill-health to contend with. It makes material success more meaningful because I have to work harder to achieve it.

    On the whole it depends on your priorities. If you're intent on living life and enjoying it then you'll do it under whatever circumstances. I don't need to be told my pain will be cured in heaven or that it has a higher purpose. I just think if pain and illness are a part of your life then you adapt to it very quickly. Then you stop viewing the world according to everybody else's standards and viewing it on your own terms. So it's possible to live with physical pain (just one example) and still think life is beautiful even though you know it doesn't serve any higher purpose. Which I suppose is the opposite of Nihilism in a way.
    August 30th, 2009 at 07:53pm
  • Lonely Speck

    Lonely Speck (100)

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    What bothers me is people saying that the idea that life has no meaning is depressing or troubling. To you all it may be. You rely on some higher meaning to fuel your choices, your life. But, to Nihilists, the whole point of finding a meaning doesn't matter. They get on with their lives knowing this. It seems more refreshing than the usual opinion on matters.

    How can a lack of something be depressing to a person who does not believe that said something exists?
    August 31st, 2009 at 04:14am
  • chrissie.

    chrissie. (250)

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    I have to agree.
    I mean, in the end, what's going to become of the world? What's the point in the universe at all?
    The whole 'life' thing makes absolutely no sense to me at all.
    September 3rd, 2009 at 02:39pm
  • Syd Barrett.

    Syd Barrett. (100)

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    I agree with fool's paradise--nihilism just doesn't make sense to me. I don't judge people who believe in it, though. And I think I can understand why one would come to adopt such a philosophy.
    September 11th, 2009 at 10:38pm
  • maybe i'm a king

    maybe i'm a king (150)

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    Dancing Caveman:
    I don't understand how a nihlist mindest seems to come from the mind of someone troubled and pessimistic. Personally, I find the view of an afterlife to be more of a troubled and pessimistic attitude: Life sucks here on Earth, but when I die, I'll get to go to a glorious paradise and all those mean people will burn forever.
    I agree.

    However, many people who are nihilists, I think, aren't as "happy" as those who aren't. I think it all ties into thinking too deeply and when you think too deeply into something, happiness isn't really there anymore. Ignorance is bliss, and they're just not being ignorant. That's not to say everyone who isn't a nihilist is ignorant. I mean to them, they probably feel that others are etc. They're not living with a (possibly) false hope of an afterlife and eternal happiness, they're living with the idea that everything amounts to nothing. Honestly I don't see it as that depressing, really. It hits me in the same area as atheism; it just seems incredibly logical. Those who are very logical are people who have a difficult time with emotion anyway, I find.
    I think branding nihilists as troubled is rather silly. Though I suppose they might be if they get into the mindset of, "If everything amounts to nothing and there's no purpose to life, why should I bother living?" then they're "troubled" I guess.
    People who hold nihilistic views on the world could also see it as "Well, this life is meaningless and amounts to nothing so I should just do whatever I want and have mad fun..."
    So hey, it could be a pretty great way to see things. You can do whatever you want and it won't matter at all ever.
    September 13th, 2009 at 06:33pm
  • Bells.

    Bells. (365)

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    utjeha kose:
    Dancing Caveman:
    I don't understand how a nihlist mindest seems to come from the mind of someone troubled and pessimistic. Personally, I find the view of an afterlife to be more of a troubled and pessimistic attitude: Life sucks here on Earth, but when I die, I'll get to go to a glorious paradise and all those mean people will burn forever.
    I agree.

    However, many people who are nihilists, I think, aren't as "happy" as those who aren't. I think it all ties into thinking too deeply and when you think too deeply into something, happiness isn't really there anymore. Ignorance is bliss, and they're just not being ignorant. That's not to say everyone who isn't a nihilist is ignorant. I mean to them, they probably feel that others are etc. They're not living with a (possibly) false hope of an afterlife and eternal happiness, they're living with the idea that everything amounts to nothing. Honestly I don't see it as that depressing, really. It hits me in the same area as atheism; it just seems incredibly logical. Those who are very logical are people who have a difficult time with emotion anyway, I find.
    I think branding nihilists as troubled is rather silly. Though I suppose they might be if they get into the mindset of, "If everything amounts to nothing and there's no purpose to life, why should I bother living?" then they're "troubled" I guess.
    People who hold nihilistic views on the world could also see it as "Well, this life is meaningless and amounts to nothing so I should just do whatever I want and have mad fun..."
    So hey, it could be a pretty great way to see things. You can do whatever you want and it won't matter at all ever.
    You can't really say it won't ever matter, because it will matter in the near future, and it will matter for however many years you have to live, and it may matter after you die too, only you won't be there to witness it, and others will.

    I don't know whether I agree with Nihilism or not. I think there is a point to everything we do, but eventually everything will die anyway.

    However, I don't know whether there's an afterlife. I don't believe that there's a god, and I don't believe that we all turn into animals, but there are so many other possibilities out there, you can't really focus on just one.

    I think Nihilism could be viewed in many different ways. It's all a matter of interpretation, really.
    September 15th, 2009 at 11:50am
  • sketch.

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    I'm going to be honest, I had no idea what Nihilism was before I clicked on this topic, though I had heard the word before.

    It seems quite an interesting concept, to read/study/consider (anyone want to reccomend any books that discuss it?) but right now I am not sure I understand it completely. From what I can gather, nihilists argue that there is no point in anything because all we are is physical matter that lives and dies and... ceases entirely to exist after our bodies run out, so to speak. I fail to see how this means there is no or should be no meaning in anything. I suppose it's because I put so much faith and belief in feelings and emotions... perhaps that's a weakness, but I just can't swing around to the idea that everything has no meaning just because there's nothing after "death". Surely there's a possibility of meaning existing purely in the here and now and mattering here and now, no matter what happens again?
    As I say, I probably am just too stupid to grasp the concept, but there you go, these are my thoughts so far.

    edit: I read up and properly checked what intristic values means, and I think I get the gist of it now... still, don't think I agree.
    September 15th, 2009 at 09:11pm
  • julieranger

    julieranger (100)

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    Just because there may not be an afterlife doesn't entirely mean that life is meaningless. Thinking like that should only make you realize you don't need to freak out over stupid things like failing tests, because thats not always that important. I think you should only worry about the things that will have a major affect on who you are. (like doing drugs or drinking, etc.)
    But our lives effect those who will come later in life, like our children and their children. Even if you cease to exsist, your life still has a role in the world, for if you never gave birth then theres a million people to never exsist.

    Am I making sense?
    September 16th, 2009 at 12:37am
  • sketch.

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    ^ I'm pretty sure I get what you mean, and I like the way you think about this, even if i don't agree with every point you've made.

    Also, how can things be meaningless at all? that's my question... I mean, if something means something to you in your heart and soul, or to another person (i have no doubt everyone here is important to at least one other person) then how can it possibly be meaningless? I'm probably missing the point entirely... but I just think that whether or not something has meaning is a subjective thing and I don't even understand how it's possible for everything to be "meaningless" when we define meaning by human design and we know there are things that are meaningful.
    September 16th, 2009 at 03:28am
  • Einahpets

    Einahpets (150)

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    Our lives may not be meaningless now, or in the near future after our death, or even in the far future, but what about in, say, the year 100 trillion, when the entire Universe ceases to exist? How can there possibly be a meaning when absaloutly everything will stop existing one day?
    September 16th, 2009 at 11:47am
  • void.

    void. (100)

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    Um... Not to sound rude, but to all you people who are not Nihilist, have you ever spoken to one? Associated yourself with one? If so, what abot two? Maybe if you had, you would find they aren't as depressing as you think.

    If, by any chance, you did find a sad little depressing Nihilist boy/girl, find another one. After all, Nihilism is a philosophy, meaning, one person will apply or process it differently than another. I was a Nihilist for a long while. It wasn't until about a month ago I started believing in certain things (even so, I find myself thinking like a Nihilist still). What I wanted to point out though, was:
    While I was Nihilist, I was in no way depressing. I had a boy friend, looked to the future, and lived what little of life I could. Just because a Nihilist thinks there isn't a meaning to something doesn't mean they want to crawl up into a hole and die.
    September 18th, 2009 at 07:34pm
  • maybe i'm a king

    maybe i'm a king (150)

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    The Unknown:
    Um... Not to sound rude, but to all you people who are not Nihilist, have you ever spoken to one? Associated yourself with one? If so, what abot two? Maybe if you had, you would find they aren't as depressing as you think.
    ^ Agreed.
    September 19th, 2009 at 11:55pm
  • void.

    void. (100)

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    utjeha kose:
    The Unknown:
    Um... Not to sound rude, but to all you people who are not Nihilist, have you ever spoken to one? Associated yourself with one? If so, what about two? Maybe if you had, you would find they aren't as depressing as you think.
    ^ Agreed.
    As to your post (above the most recent one).
    If the person is so depressed as to thinking there is no meaning (and wishing him- or herself dead because of that) they are most likely "troubled"... Or raging with hormones. Lol.

    Anywho, I also agree to the fact that there's always a choice to how you live. If I remember correctly, you worded it, "Have mad fun" xD
    September 20th, 2009 at 05:32am
  • MatthewMagic

    MatthewMagic (100)

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    Meaning is something humans ascribe to things. Without our subjective opinions there would be no meaning. From a "god's eye" point of view the universe is really nothing more but molecules floating in air.

    We do not need an afterlife to have meaning. At the same time, we can not be so vain to think there is an objective meaning.
    September 21st, 2009 at 09:42am