Comments on Don't Feed the Animals: My Philosophy: Nihilism

Nice post. I (currently) share the same basic view...

2012-01-06T14:04:46.786-05:00

Nice post. I (currently) share the same basic views. Any assertion of 'meaning' is a THOUGHT. To uphold the belief requires continual re-thinking of that THOUGHT. So all we have been doing down the line is formulating thoughts and sticking to them, fighting over them, and so on. This appears like madness to me.

At least nihilism empties out those thoughts and strips them of their delusion. There is a step beyond nihilism though which is having no thought of either polarity. For example, "life has a purpose" contrasted with "life has no purpose". Both are thought formulations. Beyond both is a neitherness that transcends. It is my understanding that all life already exists within this 'neither' perspective. What meaning or purpose is there to a scent drifting in the breeze? It is only humans that require a verbal formulation of life's meaning and purpose. Cats don't care, trees don't philosophize. Our capacity for reflection and thought seems more like a curse. It leaves us stranded realizing that we are biological organisms heading to an inevitable cessation of functioning of 'ourselves'.

In the face of that we try to live happily in the hopes of at least enjoying our time before it's over. But we find that pursuing pleasure is often the very thing leading to pain. We cannot escape it, we end up unsatisfied and depressed that life is ultimately meaningless and in our small lives we cannot have what we want all the time. So we age and die unsatisfied never to exist again as ourselves. Even supposing there is some kind of reincarnation of consciousness into a new body, it would not matter at all because it is our lives now that cause us suffering in not getting what we want. What matters it in another life with a different set of unfulfilled desires?

That's where I am now - unsatisfied, just biding my time until this organism has had enough and "I" disappear forever. I was not, I am, I will not be.

Sweetly put, and I'm with you all the way, exc...

2011-11-06T11:41:49.428-05:00

Sweetly put, and I'm with you all the way, except for point number 1. I also see neither the proof of nor the necessity of the supernatural, but you can't say that means there is no supernatural. The supernatural may exist as some kind of "Russell's teapot" somewhere else unobservable.

Yes I know it's nit-picking. To me, most important is points 3 and 4, because they require my involvement. In particular, I am a happy humanist :-)

Atheist here. I still have a bit of a problem wi...

2011-10-18T17:32:13.799-04:00

Atheist here. I still have a bit of a problem with contrasting (3) with theist positions. Even if a higher being says there is a purpose etc, you still have to decide for yourself if you care and if that is a valid purpose. Similar to saying, just because there is a God doesn't mean I'll worship the guy.

I agree for the most part, but I think existential...

2011-10-18T14:10:21.835-04:00

I agree for the most part, but I think existentialism or Epicureanism might be a better fit for all that than nihilism. At least in the way I understand the terms.