Nihlism

^What's the big deal about the universe either? It's all pointless. It takes a human to give anything meaning. That's how I see it, anyway.

pen. leaf:

^What's the big deal about the universe either? It's all pointless. It takes a human to give anything meaning. That's how I see it, anyway.

I'm not sure, I never really red up properly on it so...

SelfConclusion:

In my opinion people who believe the world is meaningless should commit suicide. If they don't then they don't truly believe that. Besides, life is to... Orderly to be meaningless.

Suicide or a leap of faith are not the only two alternatives a man aware of the absurdity of life has. Living within the absurd, accepting that the constant struggle with it as well as the finality of your life allows you to be free to think and behave as you wish within the boundaries of human nature (which you understand), but also to be happy because all experiences become meaningful/important in absence of any scale of values.

pen. leaf:

^What's the big deal about the universe either? It's all pointless. It takes a human to give anything meaning. That's how I see it, anyway.

The universe is pretty. Aesthetic value gives it meaning?

kafka.:

Suicide or a leap of faith are not the only two alternatives a man aware of the absurdity of life has. Living within the absurd, accepting that the constant struggle with it as well as the finality of your life allows you to be free to think and behave as you wish within the boundaries of human nature (which you understand), but also to be happy because all experiences become meaningful/important in absence of any scale of values.

Well said. Very well said. That sums up how I view my own view of life flawlessly.

kafka.:

The universe is pretty. Aesthetic value gives it meaning?

Prettiness and Aesthetic value are labels we give to things we view as pretty. So without us it's meaningless, then?

Nihlism seems to deliver the message that we're a single drop in the ocean, and it's correct that on our own we can do nothing. Our lives in sigular are pointless and in the grand scheme of things mean nothing to anyone but ourselves. But that brings about two hopeful points against the 'depressing' fact of pointlessness:

1. Together - to put it in a cheesy metaphorical sense - those drops can create a wave that will last a short amount of time, but is a damn lot more than the drop can do on its own. Revolutions, wars, musical legends...To the universe they mean nothing, but to the people who follow on and hear the legends, they can mean a lot.
How many people can say that Marilyn Monroe meant nothing? Hitler didn't leave a single scar on this planet? These people touched many people's lives and got a huge amount of support regardless of who they are. They may not live on in some eternal life in religion, but they can live on through memory and what they leave behind.

And 2. You should live life to bring joys to yourself and the ones you love, and there's no need to abide by the rules of some great entity. I'm not sure about those whose immediate reaction was 'this is depressing', but to me this is ridiculously uplifting and freeing.

@The Common Dread:

Really, it is a source of happiness. I hate how most people assume that with Nihilism comes depression and immorality. When I told my economics teacher I was a Nihilist back in high school, the first thing he said was "So, you think what Hitler did was okay?".

-_-

^ Oh Godwin's law, how everything deemed as negative in someone's mind somehow always relates back to the work of Hitler.

I agree though, it's a source of happiness in itself. Some people find happiness in faith, some find it in other people, and others just find it in plain old reality.

^Nihilism isn't negative though. People think it's negative because they associate nothingness with negativity.

A lot of people don't understand that. I gave religion a try once but it just wasn't the thing for me. I don't find happiness in faith at all, if anything it only dissapoints. I look to the people who are important to me, and they make me feel happy.

I think it is true in a way, but you shouldn't go and live in your basement waiting for your death because of that.

Of course, life ends and after that every one gets forgotten sometime and some people think that's depressing, but really, in my opinion that's kind of selfish.
I mean, people just don't want to know that they're meaningless to six billlion other humans. And if they really don't want to know, okay, I don't care.

But you really shouldn't just go 'Oh, that's depressing' and forget about it.
Just because we die after, like, 75 years of living and are gone forever, it doesn't mean we can't make our life nice and worth living and maybe even make other people's lifes more pleasant.

Cause life is woth living anyway, even if what follows is nothingness.

The Common Dread:

Nihlism seems to deliver the message that we're a single drop in the ocean, and it's correct that on our own we can do nothing. Our lives in sigular are pointless and in the grand scheme of things mean nothing to anyone but ourselves. But that brings about two hopeful points against the 'depressing' fact of pointlessness:

1. Together - to put it in a cheesy metaphorical sense - those drops can create a wave that will last a short amount of time, but is a damn lot more than the drop can do on its own. Revolutions, wars, musical legends...To the universe they mean nothing, but to the people who follow on and hear the legends, they can mean a lot.
How many people can say that Marilyn Monroe meant nothing? Hitler didn't leave a single scar on this planet? These people touched many people's lives and got a huge amount of support regardless of who they are. They may not live on in some eternal life in religion, but they can live on through memory and what they leave behind.

And 2. You should live life to bring joys to yourself and the ones you love, and there's no need to abide by the rules of some great entity. I'm not sure about those whose immediate reaction was 'this is depressing', but to me this is ridiculously uplifting and freeing.

I love the way you put everything

I just don't agree with it - because, while you are alive, whether its once or several times in different forms, you have so many chances for success and other physical and emotional needs that you can take of, while alive.
So many dreams and hopes that you can accomplish.
I know that these aren't really, tangible material things. But as humans, all we really have is dreams and hopes and ideas!
I just dont see giving up on life now for a destiny that isn't certain.
While your alive, you should care about whats going on now.

I just find this to be mass paranoia.

/My defense is all over the place...

Sink of Exotica.:

I just don't agree with it - because, while you are alive, whether its once or several times in different forms, you have so many chances for success and other physical and emotional needs that you can take of, while alive.
So many dreams and hopes that you can accomplish.
I know that these aren't really, tangible material things. But as humans, all we really have is dreams and hopes and ideas!
I just dont see giving up on life now for a destiny that isn't certain.
While your alive, you should care about whats going on now.

I just find this to be mass paranoia.

/My defense is all over the place...

As a nihilist, I acknowledge the world around me and all the people in it, along with their ideas and things. In the grand scheme of things, there is no point or purpose to it all. How the world works is we construct identities for ourselves and those we know. The way we think and act, our morals, our ideas, our opinions, even our way of life is entirely the result of the experiences that have been subjected onto our lives...

But I'm going off topic now. What I'm trying to say is that even though the world is without meaning, that does not stop us from giving it a meaning ourselves. Just because I don't believe in a greater reason for all this does not mean I would ever want to give up on life or anything of that sort. I give myself a reason to live, and relish in that. I find a way to make myself and those I care for happy, and through that, I am content. I am happy.

Nihilism is not about giving up, if anything, it's the polar opposite of that.

It's about finding happiness in the presence of oblivion, and because of that not many people really understand it. Most people can't handle the idea of meaningless or pointlessness. It's typically associated with depression or despair, but that is only one way of looking at it.

I don't need a destiny to make me happy.

^ Agreed. Just because life has no point, it doesn't make your life pointless. Give it a point other than to live a destiny set out by someone else.

Adam Gontier.:

I love the way you put everything

That truly made my day. Thank you

1. total rejection of social mores: the general rejection of established social conventions and beliefs, especially of morality and religion

2. belief that nothing is worthwhile: a belief that life is pointless and human values are worthless

3. disbelief in objective truth: the belief that there is no objective basis for truth

4. belief in destruction of authority: the belief that all established authority is corrupt and must be destroyed in order to rebuild a just society

This is exacly how I feel, and I feel this way because I believe that there is no such thing as "humanity" when it's basis lie in "human nature", and "human nature" as a excusable arguement only fuils my nihilism.

This topic is meaningless

(apologies if the above has already been stated)

I tend not to agree or disagree with philosophies - I only read about them because they make me think in ways I've never thought before. But, this is just an idea: What if the answer to Nihlism is religion? What if we are here to carry out the worship or teachings of a higher being?

I don't know, just a thought. I don't necessarily agree with this, because I am Agnostic, but what if? It makes some sense, no?

Edit: Or, you can think of it this way: Does it really matter how we interpret Nihlism? No, because nothing, in the end, means anything.

fuck... fail post

Faceless_time:

Nihilism, a philosophy about the meaning of life, it states that nothing has meaning because there is no afterlife, that we are just here and then we die, that nothing is important. Do you agree that life is meaningless or do you disagree?

That is kinda a 13 year old's interpretation of Nihilism. Nihilism states more that meaning is something humans ascribe to things in a poetic fashion. But from an empirical stand point, without bias, there is no meaning to anything. While the vast majority of Nihilists do not believe in an afterlife some do, the two ideas are not mutually exclusive.

I would agree from a stand point without human bias there is no meaning to anything. However I also do not believe in free will, I am what is called a "Hard Determinist" basically all of our decisions arise from either our genetics or environment, nothing is really a free choice. The reason we did not choose our other options in our past is because we could not. The choice was strictly illusion.

The reason I mention this is to make the point that meaning Arises from nature. Not the other way around. At least in my philosophy.

I guess I'm kind of Nihilistic, being that I don't really believe in life after death, but I do believe in karma and fate and things. I just think that the only thing that is affected if right now, and I don't believe in a "Heaven" or "Hell" or any type of afterlife for that matter. I don't plan on dying any time soon, but when I do I'll be contented with what I've done to make my mark.

BrokenHartBrokenSoul:

I guess I'm kind of Nihilistic, being that I don't really believe in life after death, but I do believe in karma and fate and things. I just think that the only thing that is affected if right now, and I don't believe in a "Heaven" or "Hell" or any type of afterlife for that matter. I don't plan on dying any time soon, but when I do I'll be contented with what I've done to make my mark.

You can't really be a nihilist if you believe in karma because karma implies some sort of scale of moral values. Nihlism specifically says that moral values are invalid because they're just humanity's invention.