Thought on why people find Nihilism depressing

Post Reply New Topic

It is because of arrogance. They think all they do must mean something, must matter. It does not matter. Eventually, all you have done, any traces of your existence forgotten. The denial is due to arrogance. Why should you matter? You do not matter, nothing does. At all. People do not like that, due to arrogance, so they find it saddening, for deep down, it makes sense to them.

most religionists find nihilism a threat, not really "depressing".

they are probably right, it is a threat to their "good God judging deeds" mindset. but then again, you can't be sure if the nihilists are not the deluded ones themselves.

I don't appreciate you telling me what I do and do not think.

and that refers to...?

The first post speaking about how people who disagree with Nihilism or find it depressing are actually arrogant and know it is actually true.

That is telling me what my opinion is, saying that my opinion is that it is actually true. That is incorrect, however. I disagree with Nihilism. Just because there isn't any inherent purpose or reason doesn't mean nothing matters in some way, to humans.

People find nihilism depressing because people tend to need truths to function. Nihilism, by negating these truths, negates what these people need, and thus is problematic for them, thus leading to depression.

What is arrogance, does it have any objective meaning?
Why making a thread stating those who oppose nihilist as arrogants, if there is no meaningful value to do so?

That pretty much seems to be a subjective thought, which could sound ironic from a nihilist point of view ?


well, I never have known a nihilist in person, to see if they tend to be depressing individuals or sociopaths or whatever they could be, the philosophy seems depressing for some, for others it looks like an excuse for antisocial behaviour, so I suppose people who don't understand it, would assume that.

Surely if that isn't the case, some claiming to be nihilists (stated as pseudo-nihilists) would give that image.

One of the reasons I think existentialism makes more sense, even though they may have the same premises, is that at least I could live by a needed assumed "truth" to function, even knowing that that assumed truth is not accurate and relative and lacking of objective meaning, but it seems to work, as it can be argued that the nature of humanity demands to follow something out of necessity.

It's a strange topic. I think peope challenge nihilism not because of arrogance but because it is simply human nature. We humans are animals but we have developed beyond what IMO we should have and as a result we must think of ourselves as more than animals to continue with this confusing show we call life. We have developed a power of thought that whilst making us the most dominant species on the planet has also been a great burden that will, I believe, ultimately bring about our end. The things we hold dear such as emotions, love are just chemical signals, our nature tells us that they are more than that, it is a survival instinct just like those present in any other animal but because we are more advanced our instincts are in turn far more elaborate.

At times I certainly would agree that all human society is built on a fragile web of lies and that none of it really matters - truth, justice, religion etc are basically just fabrications that give us crumbs of comfort. On the other hand I know every time that I begin to feel that way my instincts will kick in and tell me not to let myself accept it. That is the human condition, we have been given the ability to think outside of our own existance, to know of our own mortality and if we did not have this intrinsic desire to try to justify our existance then there is a good chance we would simply have died out our wiped ourselves out by now.

I think we could live a happier life, for all that is worth, if there was something simpler than this 'construct' we call society. We are here so we may as well try to enjoy what we have to help pass the small blip in time we have. Yes we ultimately (may) mean nothing but it's a lot more interesting to actually do something in life rather than sit around and wait for the end.

Quite the contrary. Just the simple act of me typing this is having an impact on the universe, me killing some dust mite beneath my fingers, or changing the location of specific molecules and atoms in the air because of the air displaced by my fingers. It is impossible to exist and NOT have an impact. I suppose if you get your kicks out of being remembered by mere people, then sure, everybody will probably be forgotten eventually.

However if you think like I do, you realize you are made of stardust. The stuff that makes up your body is billions of years old, and was once in a star. Perhaps it will return to one. A series of chain reactions caused by your existance could, for all you know, have a gigantic impact on the universe.

that impact will not matter, for whatever it did, it has happened before, and will happen again. There are too many stars to count, and you becoming 1/1000000000th of a star will not matter. No matter what happens in space, it has so little permanent, large-scale impact, it does not matter.

If nothing matters, why are you posting on this board, Krem? What's the point of even expressing your opinion?

hehe good point

I always saw nihilism as the the rejection of objective reason, rather than personal reason.

The nihilist may care very much that he/she has a broken leg, but he/she knows that the universe does not care, that no amount of searching will find any data that proves that the broken leg matters in the same way you can search and find the broken leg it's self.

^^I disagree. I thing that nihilists believe that nothing matters, just as the religious believe that everything does.

I don't disagree! Even if you do.
I agree that the nihilist believes that objects and events can not have the property of mattering.

However, nihilists, on the whole, eat.
Not because they think eating matters in the universe at all, but eating "matters" to them, but only in the same way that running solitaire matters to a PC.
The property of mattering in this case does not have any kind of interdependent existence.

In short: you can still eat and post on wrong planet and be a complete nihilist with out being a hypocrite.

Why do you assume that people who don't subscibe to nihilism do so because it is depressing. They may have good philosophical reasons to reject nihilism.

I'm honestly astonished that they are people who self identify as nihilist. It must be a recent occurence. It has not historically really been a worked out philosophy with tenets and adherents like other philosophies. The term 'nihilism' has been used more to describe various aspects of other philosophies. It is an insult to be called a nihilist!

I find it funny that people are creating this dualism, with nihilism at one extreme and religion on the other, when there are so many religions with genuinely nihilistic aspects.