Nihilism

Nope. Not me. I do reject all religious principles, but I have moral principles and I don't think that life is meaningless. 

 

Fuck all that.  I'm not going to dwell and exist in negativity -  if I live my life that way, I'll never be able to join the Great Ohm for the next time 'round...

 

i wish more people were aware of nihilism just for the fact that it is how most religious people define atheism and they're 2 different views that just share the rejection of religious beliefs

 

There's some beauty in that...what of the opposite?

 

I don't believe nihilism is entirely negative per se...

As for me, I seem to ride a fine line between spiritual and nihilism...I am a very spiritual person, I have certain 'beliefs' for lack of a better term, but I often have very nihilistic thoughts and outlooks...which I push to the side in favor of spirituality, but if my spiritual beliefs were to ever really fall away, I think my views would be quite nihilistic...

 

It's a lot of those who dare to lurk the philosophy forum too lol. Some people (I dunno how) are just fine not thinking about philosophy, morals and the like and never venture here just like idgaf about fashion lol.

 

I wrote an essay on nihilism a couple years ago and effectively argued that the sciences brings us to nihilism. I still find that to be accurate, we really have to doubt EVERYTHING until our system of asserting something as true takes its course, and even if it's considered true we have to wonder whether it'll be replaced in some time... for example for a long time Newtonian mechanics were the end all for physics until we started piecing together that things get a bit wonky when objects reach the speed of light. So it may be that science is the only meaningful thing we have and this whole conversation gets weird cause what I'm talking about is objective meaning and not subjective meaning... a related discipline to nihilism is absurdism and I agree with the absurdist in that I think meaning can be created subjectively, with relative ease.


TLDR: Scientific skepticism is the embodiment of nihilism (in my opinion).

 

Same here

 

Exactly.

 

Could we then argue that the difference between Absurdism and Nihilism is the level of capability, spirit, and/or imagination of the person in question?


Does the nihilist subconsciously depend on others giving meaning to his life and when that doesn't happen and he disagrees with religions and philosophies the world gives him, he says "well there is nothing and nothing matters because what I've seen meant nothing to me"



Is a Nihilist nothing more than a depressed, and/or uninspired and/or incapable Absurdist?

 

I might be a nihilist or I might be a depressed absurdist.


It doesn't matter. Labels are meaningless.

 

I don't think nihilism means being dark and gloomy. I'm an atheist, and an overall positive/happy person, but I don't think anything truly matters in a universal sense. Things matter to us personally, but will my existence stand out in history? Probably not, but who cares? It's not scary. It just means live the best and happiest life you can.


Biologically, the meaning of life is to reproduce, adding to our human population.


But honestly, I don't think there is a meaning to life other than the one you give it. Stating that life has meaning implies that there is a creator or supernatural force of some kind.

 

By definition, a nihilist would neither seek nor care about any ideas regarding the meaning of their own lives as nihilists don't see meaning in things in general, and further, don't need an ascribed "meaning" that is usually vague and hollow, like "god put me here to help people" in order to get through life.


To contend that our lives have meaning is a fairly vain act, as it implies that one's own existence is special or unique in some way.

 

We are unique, we are the product of our environment, experiences, etc which no two people have ever had the same. If I seek happiness, I look to the person who is happy and see what that person has done/learned/endured. If I want to be wealthy, I look to the wealth. If you have an attribute I want for myself, who better to ask and learn from than you?

I think we all believe we have meaning. Why would a Nihilist write their thoughts down and publish them for others if not because it had meaning? Just because we don't know if there is meaning or what it is, doesn't mean that therefore there is no meaning.

Just as you thought it was meaningful to respond.

Another question, even if there is no meaning, is a life of a person who thinks there is meaning better or worse than one who thinks there isn't?

Furthermore, when one says there is no meaning, is he talking about only himself, or is he saying objectively none of us could have meaning? Could it not be possible that reality is not only perception but projection? If you think there is no meaning, there isn't. If you think there is meaning, then there is.

To say, with certainty, that there is objectively no objective meaning, and any subjective meaning is objectively meaningless, is quite a bold assertion.

 

Maybe people dealing with nihilistic dread find writing to be therapeutic. I know that was the case for a number of philosophers. And I also know that there have been a number of philosophers (Emil Cioran, for instance) who had stopped writing altogether because they felt it had lost its usefulness. It no longer served any purpose for them.
And I think I nihilist would answer all of those questions by simply saying: isn't it obvious that there is no point to life? If our lives were meant for something then wouldn't we have gotten some idea of what it was by now? With all of our religions and philosophies, of our explorations into the subconscious, of our art; don't you think we would have some inkling as to why we're here?
In the thousands of years that humans have been playing this game of existential discovery the best we have come up with is a shoulder-shrug. Isn't that just a bit telling?