The fact that things just keep getting weirder lends more credence to absurdism.
this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2024
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Wow it's really hard to pin down a definition of Nihilism. Anyway, I always saw Nihilism as a view that nothing is meaningful, that everything means nothing. But not that nothing matters. If you have no meaning to ascribe value to anything or anyone, you wouldn't find meaning in unnecessary harm or discomfort to others, in a harm reduction mindset.
Hurting other people makes me unhappy, therefore I choose to try and make other people happy, because that makes me happy and I enjoy being happy.
To me, the definition is "the belief that there is no intrinsic meaning to human existence." You then have two choices: despair that nothing matters (pessimistic nihilism), or recognize that we humans create our own meaning and strive to enjoy existence on those terms (optimistic nihilism). One way I heard it expressed recently was "The universe doesn't care. But people do."
Exactky. We can pick what we care about.
I prefer dadaism
Everything matters. Just because you cant see or feel dont foist it on those of us who can
Needs clarification - nothing intrinsically matters. But things do matter to people.
You're conflating subjective and objective. Just because things subjectively matter to you (they also subjectively matter to most nihilists as well) doesn't mean they objectively matter. That's where the distinction lies.
No, it does not. The universe does not exist for a reason, and neither do you. It just is. Trying to find a true meaning is futile.
Maybe to you halfblind darkness lovers. I live in a world of light where everything is apparent to any who want it to be. No faith needed to excuse the shadows that the light draws on the earth
The fact that there isn't meaning is liberating. It means I am free to do whatever I like, because the universe doesn't care. Even though, the universe is full of wonder and beauty, but it just is. It exists for no reason? I think that makes it even more wonderful
True…
mfw I realize that maybe absurdism is my coping mechanism
If you can get to the point that it's okay that nothing inherently matters, it will no longer need to be a coping mechanism.
Sartre says you can be angry and furious at the absurd, Camus says to laugh at it. The absurd is the gap between what we expect to happen, and what actually happens.
Many absurdists also believe in a mind-body split (see Nagel's "What is it like to be a bat?" essay, available for free in pdf format) or that consciousness may be something other than physical and that's where I tend to disagree with them. In general, the essays tend to be extremely interesting and worth reading even if you disagree. Philosophical literature is usually written so precisely and specifically that it's unlike other types of reading.
Yeah, mine as well.
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