A cheery topic that on one seems to have touched upon.
Nihilism is a philosophy that covers many branches of philosophy which denies the possibility of any truth, absolute moral values, and intrinsic meanings to life. This may seem depressing for some, but for me it rather makes a lot of sense and here's why.
If one extreme end of existentialism claims that everything matters, and we are all one, then wouldn't it only make sense to say that anything we do IS pointless? How could the choice of whether or not for me to push you over in the snow for entertainment purposes with a chance hurting you possibly matter at all if you, me, the snow, and the very act of pushing is within, and IS the system?
In physics, there is a law that states every force has an equal and opposite reaction. Then wouldn't it make sense that all lifeFORCE would eventually and naturally die out to achieve a state of equilibrium? Or maybe life itself is only a temporary glitch in this great system, and in the end acted as an unwittingly participant that helped to facslitate this process of balancing, and the animals/plants we digest and the fossil fuels we burn and everything else we do are meant to take that concentrated energy, whether its a lump of coal or a dead bird, and spreading it evenly throughout the cosmos.
With this in mind, perhaps the the key to a happier life is to accept our meaninglessness and realize that through all of this we're all but one, and to ignore the boulder that is our lives like Sisyphus and fixate on the present. Carpe diem.
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Oneness, it is living dynamic force, life is expression of Oneness. Oneness is life energy which is part of life. When you feel it, you will believe it,when you believe it,you will see it...ONENESS
ReplyDeleteI propose that maybe death itself is the natural reaction of balance for us. I think life itself has meaning, maybe no real purpose, other than to learn and to teach others. To expand our minds and allow for all possible information to broaden out horizons.
ReplyDeleteWhen, in death, we are robbed of all of this; all our hard work for nothing. It all diminishes with age, the loss of memory and the ails of our dying body. Maybe this is the natural balance of life: loss. We spend out life gaining and building, when in the end, we loss it all.
So it's possible in death we become nihilists or die in a nihilistic manner, if you choose to call it that. There may be nothing on the other side of death, no higher power waiting to embrace us with open arms and that is how we end up; with absolutely nothing.
We know nothing about death. Death is only speculation. For us all we know is that bodies decay and disappear. We have no idea about what will happen to us when our body dies. So yeah, every idea regarding death is possible I guess, but it seems to me like the best thing to do is just forget about it and be alive.
ReplyDeleteIn life, I see no objective purpose. There is no transcendent being telling me that I should expand my mind. Nobody is owed anything; we are here, deal with it. The myth of Sisyphus is a metaphor for our own lives. We wake up, go to work/school, talk to people, eat, sleep, do it again. Our lives aren’t as tough as Sisyphus, but they aren’t much more meaningful. Sisyphus doesn’t learn to ignore the boulder; he learns to accept the boulder. He learns to ignore his past and future, and yes, live in the present. While in the past, humans had hunter and gatherer roles that gave life meaning, we now do tasks all day whose meaning is far more elusive. Many people begin to feel like Sisyphus. The message is to make meaning. Purpose is subjective. Because life is possibility. You can go through live in whatever way you want.
In the closing scene of I Heart Huckabees, Tommy and Albert are planning to chain themselves up to a tractor for a protest. Tommy asks Albert, “should I bring my own chains?” To which Albert responds, “we always do” (or something like that). This dialogue represents for me what I just wrote, life is what you make it. You can chain yourself down with negativity, obligations, etc. But they’re just going to bring you down.
@ Mitchell, that's pretty much the message I was trying to convey. Although I realized my boulder analogy was misworded, I meant to compare our lives to the task of rolling the boulder, rather than the boulder itself.
ReplyDeleteLife has no meaning and just is, and it is us that creates the unhappiness that's associated with meaninglessness and bring our own chains. Benard in I Heart Huckabees had a line that I think sums up this point of view very well, "Nothing's okay, so it's okay."
A nihilist knows that morality is a construct of personal perspective.Knowing that one constructs one's own morality doesn't mean one necessarily fails to form any morality at all just as knowing life has no basic value it doesn't mean that one is unable of forming meaning purpose and value.The nihilist knows that both his morality and purpose are his own and not something imposed on him by unreal forces outside his knowledge and control.
ReplyDeleteThe nihilist is presented with a mystery whether to sink into depth of nothingness or to rise it above by his own strength and courage. and i think the best are those, who succeed in taking purpose and morality out of the complicated confusion of existential knowing.
life is not a meaningless it has its own purpose and value. To me, it doesnt mean that you dont believe in nothing that actually it's nothing. you just have to deal this word nothing as if it were something for you. and try to make something out of nothing. but if you know that life is nothing then what are you living for? you are living for "nothing".
I just realized that I am still logged into Kim's profile, but this is actually Kristen. I do not want to type this all out again as I cannot copy and paste. Darn!
ReplyDeleteI agree that we need to add our own personal meaning to life. That is something which is harder said then done for some.
I think what also adds meaning to life is the theories studied in our ethics unit. Mill and Kant have one thing in common when they talk about the ethics of our actions and that is the basis of others. Mill says as long as it makes the general population happy, then it is right. Kant said as long as everyone will agree to do it, then it is right. What we value and believe is also (often) valuable to others, and I think that in some way adds value to our lives. The question the Mitchell proposed in the blog, about being the last person on earth was interesting. It was interesting because I think for a lot of people the meaning they support is that of others.
I always think of who i will hurt before I hiurt myself.
Studies say that religious people are generally happier than non-religious people. Nihilism sounds great in concept, but people seemingly still crave a sense of community whilst still retaining a sense of independence. A Goldden Mean must be sought.
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