Man has and always will try to assert himself over another individual in attempt to prove his philosophy wrong....and given the complex study of philosophy would the the belief of nihilism be the greatest thing to come, all would be nullified and thus ending such petty squabblings between the race that is humanity?
l am a Nihilist if l am not a beleiver in Jesus Christ. But then again, perhaps a nihilist is simply a bored Hedonist. In the absence of His truth:"Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die."
1 Cor 15:20-32 (NIV)
Quote by: Jesus of Nazareth
It's also possible to be good simply because you're really, really lazy. Making the world kiss your iron boot is just too much like work. It's easier to be nice to people.
Why? Why go through the trouble of being evil? It's not like you'll starve if you aren't. What do all these people want so badly that they're willing to hurt eachother to get it? You all need to relax and just chill, man. I guess that's kind of what the OP is suggesting.
The more you complain, the less I care about your problems.
That would be the "do no harm" version of "good". The cut your own throat to look after your neighbour version isn't very attractive to the bone idle. Perhaps this is the main reason why so few enact it.
The number one rule of any civilized society is diversity. How often we have made so many past mistakes .
Obviously an academic question. People do not choose the best philosophy, they choose what they feel is right. If everyone adopted any singular philosophy then the "petty squabblings" would be eliminated. Arguably I am a nihilist, although it would not occur to me to use that term. While I feel life has no inherent meaning, we still often impart life with meaning and philosophies come from that imparted meaning.
Nihlism is for people who cant be bothered with philosophy and are unwilling to accept the wisdom of those who are bothered with it. Its understandable because reaching a half decent philosophical viewpoint takes time and deliberation, and lots of people have diffrent interests they rather spend there time doing that. Since it is rejection of philsophy it is therefore the less useful philosophy (if you call it that) and is of hardly any pratical value.
Nihlism to Philsopohy, is what homopathy is to modern medicine.
I disagree strongly on all accounts. Maybe I misunderstand Nihilism, but I understand it, often means life has no subjective meaning or purpose. That is not an easy idea to accept for many people. Being an Nihilist certainly does not mean they can't be bothered. Someone who can't be bothered (and that would be the majority of the human race) simply adopts the mindset of others around them. And I only use the term "can't be bothered" because you do. I don't think people need to be bothered to philosophize. It s not something that interests most people to any significant degree.
My understanding of Nihlism is the rejection of any values. Essentially, nothing matters. You can see why this is diffrent from the rest of philosophy. I say 'cant be bothered' because it is a doctrine that doesnt require any work to 'unpack'. The usual job of philsopohy is to 'unpack' the best way to live, based on some starting values, nihlism doesnt unpack anything because it has no starting assumptions to work with. A philsopohy of Nihlism could fit in a paragraph, philosophies of peter singer, sam harris, kant require a book. Maybe 'cant be bothered' was not the best term, but you see how Nihlism requires very little work.
What most layman people do is, accept the morality of their culture/parents, obviously this isnt ideal, however, at least those adopted values are usually based on some philsophical assumptions. Nihlism is worst, because it doesnt offer any advice to the general public.
I think Nihilism is a big area really.
Nihilism ( /ˈnaɪ.ɨlɪzəm/ or /ˈniː.ɨlɪzəm/; from the Latin nihil, nothing) is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.[1] Moral nihilists assert that morality does not inherently exist, and that any established moral values are abstractly contrived. Nihilism can also take epistemological, metaphysical, or ontological forms, meaning respectively that, in some aspect, knowledge is not possible, or that contrary to popular belief, some aspect of reality does not exist as such.
Nihilism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I am unsure what you mean by unpack. I think Nihilism is a very good philosophical starting point. To recognize there is no perfect little inherent meaning or moral code. It certainly does not mean it needs to end there or as I said it is an easy thing to accept and I don't believe it requires no work at all.
I am a very active philosopher and I feel that I am deep down a Nihilist. I think that any meaning life has, any morality we follow is arbitrary and we need to know that. We can then build on that.
I think you assume Nihilists stop at the point where they say there is no intrinsic meaning/morality/reality etc. and I think in practice people like that do not really exist. Not ones who stop there.
My point was they have done no work, not that it is better or worse.
Song
Every man sings a song
Most sing the song of another
Sometimes a hero, sometimes a brother
To these men a song is a song
But not to the one to whom it belongs
There is no right, there is no wrong
Just the harmony and clash, song against song
Well, ya if thats the definition Im a nihlist too. I work on one assumption that suffering is bad, I know thats arbitary from a hyper-sceptic perspective, I figured a nihlist would'nt value arbitary distinctions, and therefore feel no need to reduce suffering. If your definition of Nilism is there is no 'objective' meaning to life, then okay, but the only people who think that are religious people.I am a very active philosopher and I feel that I am deep down a Nihilist. I think that any meaning life has, any morality we follow is arbitrary and we need to know that. We can then build on that.
Well there are many flavors of Nihilist. It would have been nice if the OP have been clearer.
As for me I feel that the best goal in life is sustainable happiness. Suffer is bad as it detracts from that, but the problem is often a lack of suffering on one things part creates suffering for another. I lived with chronic pain for about 40 years and I understand suffering well. Given the choice between being happy with suffering and simply not suffering I would take happy with suffering every time.
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