Board index › Topical Discussion › Politics, Philosophy, and Religion

Are you an Existential Nihilist?

Page 2 of 2 [ 25 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2

Previous topic | Next topic

Paracosm
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

User avatar

Joined: 5 Oct 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 31

07 Oct 2012, 7:30 pm

However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.

(Yes)



undefineable
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 13 May 2007
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 402
Location: UK

07 Oct 2012, 8:38 pm

tjr1243 wrote:
An existential nihilist is someone who perceives that life has no intrinsic meaning or value.


This is commonplace, thought of as a 'truism' in 'right-thinking' circles. So to ward off all things 'existential', witness:

tjr1243 wrote:
Usually, people say things like:

"Life is what you make it."
"Life may be meaningless, but you can add meaning to it."


I think the trick is to give up expecting guarantees of free agency and perfect outcomes, rather than giving up completely on the projects you quoted. They're clearly nonsense as statements of some kind of ultimate truth, but since we can be fairly sure of only living once as ourselves, what little agency and sense of meaning we manage to bring to our lives is sufficient, and may well secure the sanity of such sensitive souls as us :P :)



roronoa79
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 22 Jan 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,207
Location: Indiana

07 Oct 2012, 9:38 pm

Life has no inherent meaning; nothing holds any inherent, objective meaning. But, who cares?


_________________
Diagnoses: AS, Depression, General & Social Anxiety
I guess I just wasn't made for these times.
- Brian Wilson

Δυνατὰ δὲ οἱ προύχοντες πράσσουσι καὶ οἱ ἀσθενεῖς ξυγχωροῦσιν.
Those with power do what their power permits, and the weak can only acquiesce.
- Thucydides


ShamelessGit
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 9 Jul 2010
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 718
Location: Kansas

07 Oct 2012, 10:05 pm

I am an existential nihilist, and I like it. Nihilism says, "There is no reason to do anything," but it also says, "There is no reason not to do anything." I do what I want.

I think Nietzsche discusses this with Zarathustra and his uebermensch. My understanding is that an uebermensch is an existential nihilist who makes his own morals and acts accordingly. He is sort of like his own God (as a moral law giver and maker of purpose). There is a part of Nietzshe's work that I remember well where he describes the moment of enlightenment not as a feeling of elation, but as a feeling of despair and agony. That's because it doesn't feel good to come to terms with the fact that everything you think is valuable in life has no intrinsic meaning, and that there is no intrinsic meaning. Zarathustra is supposed to be the first uebermensch and he deals with the absurdity of being a living being in a universe where living beings have no value by being in a near-constant state of irony and merriment.

I've read a little bit of Hume too and I think he had a similar sort of experience while thinking about the basis of human knowledge, and he realized that there is almost no basis, but he had such a good temperament that his existential crises only lasted a few hours. After letting the topic go for a little while and coming back to it, he found it absurd and decided that he was going to be happy regardless of whether he could find any justification for anything or not.



Tensu
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Dec 2009
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,661
Location: Nixa, MO, USA

07 Oct 2012, 11:22 pm

Personally, I believe life has both meaning and value, we're just not 100% certain of what that meaning(s) and values(s) is/are.



ruveyn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Age: 87
Gender: Male
Posts: 31,502
Location: New Jersey

08 Oct 2012, 5:03 am

Tensu wrote:
Personally, I believe life has both meaning and value, we're just not 100% certain of what that meaning(s) and values(s) is/are.


Values are judgements about what should be, not assertions about what is. Therefore values are neither true nor false. They are opinions. Of a set of opinions all one can say is that they are taken as a collection consistent and possible or inconsistent and impossible.

ruveyn



graywyvern
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Aug 2010
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 666
Location: texas

08 Oct 2012, 11:31 am

"The desire for meaning creates the Void. People ask the meaning of Life, the meaning of the world. They don't ask the meaning of a pile of rocks.

You can live without meaning, without seeking meaning; and no metaphysical retribution ensues. Our alienation isn't teleological. It's simple as wearing shoes. When i came back to Dallas i was able to smell the pollution. Now i don't. Absence of meaning is like that. You never find it by trying to reason it out because meaning transcends rationality. How else can i say this? And yet the meaning i have found from leaving is not the meaning i must make here. What i can keep is the knowledge that meaning exists. I won't find a recipe for it. But i might acquire a nose for it.

--By meaning i don't mean faith. Faith is kind of like the knowledge that meaning is possible, the knowledge that makes meaning possible, but it's a wholly visceral knowledge; swimming which is so natural yet not a part of our genetic heritage--we develop our doubt and faith in tandem (always & everyone!) while meaning is what holds the whole network of relationships together. Harmony."


_________________
"I have always found that Angels have the vanity
to speak of themselves as the only wise; this they
do with a confident insolence sprouting from systematic
reasoning." --William Blake


TheKing
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 Dec 2010
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,100
Location: Merced, California

08 Oct 2012, 12:56 pm

tjr1243 wrote:
An existential nihilist is someone who perceives that life has no intrinsic meaning or value.

Are you an existential nihilist or do you have existential nihilist tendencies? If so, do you live as though life has no meaning, and does it negatively impact your life?

I, personally, have many existential nihilist thoughts/tendencies. i'm a bit ashamed to admit that the way I live my life is impacted somewhat by the perception (true or not) that life has no intrinsic meaning or value.

However, I haven't met many people who feel that life has no meaning yet are depressed by it. Usually, people say things like:

"Life is what you make it."
"Life may be meaningless, but you can add meaning to it."

I understand where these positive people are coming from but can't relate to it :(

Would be interested if anyone else has struggled with existential questions and despair, and whether it has carried over into your real life and impacted it negatively. Have you ever suffered from depression from these thoughts?


Yes, I am am Existential Nihilist, life has zero intrinsic meaning. I used to get depressed about it until I became an atheist and then later a Transhumanist, which gave me a clear cut goal to work towards and it's a big part of my personal identity. I hate when people ask about the meaning of life. It does not negatively affect my life, but very positively. I believe that there is no meaning except the meaning we give ourselves. Which I why I hate when people ask what the meaning of life is. There is no general meaning that can be applied to everyone, that's human arrogance almost at its finest(religions that believe it's followers are their gods chosen people takes the cake on that one) but life does in fact have a meaning, we choose our own meaning in life. We forge our own destiny, we blaze our own trail. The Meaning of Life is individually unique to each individual. As you can see, with my mindset on the matter, there is no negative for me as an Existentail Nihilist. I am a very big fan of the Absurd, the idea that humans constantly search for meaning but can't find it because it doesn't exist, the best way out is to accept the Absurd. The other options are suicide, which only adds to the Absurd. Or joining a religion to find meaning, which Camus called Intellectual Suicide.


_________________
WP Strident Atheist
If you believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, have accepted him as your lord and savior, and are 100% proud of it, put this in your sig.


TheKing
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 Dec 2010
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,100
Location: Merced, California

08 Oct 2012, 1:07 pm

ShamelessGit wrote:
I am an existential nihilist, and I like it. Nihilism says, "There is no reason to do anything," but it also says, "There is no reason not to do anything." I do what I want.

I think Nietzsche discusses this with Zarathustra and his uebermensch. My understanding is that an uebermensch is an existential nihilist who makes his own morals and acts accordingly. He is sort of like his own God (as a moral law giver and maker of purpose). There is a part of Nietzshe's work that I remember well where he describes the moment of enlightenment not as a feeling of elation, but as a feeling of despair and agony. That's because it doesn't feel good to come to terms with the fact that everything you think is valuable in life has no intrinsic meaning, and that there is no intrinsic meaning. Zarathustra is supposed to be the first uebermensch and he deals with the absurdity of being a living being in a universe where living beings have no value by being in a near-constant state of irony and merriment.

I've read a little bit of Hume too and I think he had a similar sort of experience while thinking about the basis of human knowledge, and he realized that there is almost no basis, but he had such a good temperament that his existential crises only lasted a few hours. After letting the topic go for a little while and coming back to it, he found it absurd and decided that he was going to be happy regardless of whether he could find any justification for anything or not.


I am a big Nietzche fan, Transhumanism is essentially an offshoot of Nietzche, our Posthuman is very much a more complete version of his Übermensch. While he wanted to breed the Übermensch through selective breeding of the best humanity has to offer, we believe in using science and technology to turn ourselves into the Übermensch, or the Posthuman. I love when Zarathustra says "God is dead." he doesn't mean a literal death, but a philosophical one. He realizes that once upon a time God was necessary for morals, but in today's expanding culture of globalization bronze age "morals" of sexism, racism, and homophobia can no longer apply as we start to work to unite as one species. Even 100 years ago this lesson was obvious to Nietzche and even more so today.


_________________
WP Strident Atheist
If you believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, have accepted him as your lord and savior, and are 100% proud of it, put this in your sig.