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A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning
21–30 of 261 posts
Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning
#22I've never had an issue valuing my life knowing that it has no eternally persistent meaning. A poor analogy, but I like to explain a finite life's meaning by asking if a movie is any less enjoyable knowing that it's going to end. Sure, eventually our existence is rendered meaningless but that doesn't make it meaningless for me, now. Call that an illusion if you want, but it's as concrete as anything you can prove. Be…
In a certian way of thinking, an externally persistent meaning is just an enforcement mechanism for slavery. When people talk about wanting to serve something bigger than themselves, they are implying that they aren't worth serving, that they can only achieve value by contributing to something, anything which is not like themselves. Is this personal devaulation necessary for a satisfying life?
Another attitude is to embrace existence as we come into it, to love ourselves as we are. We can still love other people and things that are not like us. Appreciation for the world can even be enhanced by beginning with embracing ourselves as we are because we're part of the world and it's part of us. When we make the world a better place, we make our world a better place. Selfish behavior is almost always short-sighted behavior. When we expand our perception of the universe, the difference between self and other is weaker than it might seem.
Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning
#23> Science taught me that it's all just atoms and the void, so there can't be any deeper point or purpose to the whole thing; the kind of meaning most people yearn for — Ultimate Meaning — simply doesn't exist. I don't think that is something science can teach you. Science can give you the scientific method, but answering the question "Is the scientific method the only valid means of knowledge?" is philosophy not scie…
Yes. Science based on methodological naturalism (where one only assumes naturalism). But I guess the success of the scientific method may add some support for metaphysical naturalism (where one actually believes that naturalism is true) too.
Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning
#24> Science taught me that it's all just atoms and the void, so there can't be any deeper point or purpose to the whole thing; the kind of meaning most people yearn for — Ultimate Meaning — simply doesn't exist. I don't think that is something science can teach you. Science can give you the scientific method, but answering the question "Is the scientific method the only valid means of knowledge?" is philosophy not scie…
Especially if you assume that the scientific method is always valid--that all true statements can be determined empirically--you can't make statements like "Ultimate Meaning doesn't/does exist". If Ultimate Meaning cannot be defined, it cannot be tested for or measured, so no statements about it can be true or false. The answer to meaning would not be false, but null (or maybe 42).
Just like 42, "atoms and the void" here is just a science-flavored attempt to answer a non-question.
Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning
#25I think, that meaning can be only defined in the case, when one is immortal. If I'm mortal, everything I do, good or bad, is meaningless for consciousness, because it will cease to exist and everything that will happen after death will have no effect on it. Any meaning, that's is defined while one is mortal is no more than illusion, in which people immerse themselves for whatever reason.
Let me explain that you are in fact immortal. First, you have to see that there is no reason for your brain and my brain to have different "souls" (whatever that may mean). It only appears to you that we are different beings because there is no strong neurological connection between our brains. But there is a connection (albeit very weak), in e.g. electromagnetic and gravity forces between our brains. The universe, of course, really doesn't care about all this. So you could say that we are both one being, and we are one with the universe. This means that we (and everybody else) will only die when the universe ceases to exist. Which is not likely to happen soon, so for all practical purposes, you are immortal.
Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning
#26 > "these men are nihilists, there's nothing to be afraid of"
Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning
#27I've never had an issue valuing my life knowing that it has no eternally persistent meaning. A poor analogy, but I like to explain a finite life's meaning by asking if a movie is any less enjoyable knowing that it's going to end. Sure, eventually our existence is rendered meaningless but that doesn't make it meaningless for me, now. Call that an illusion if you want, but it's as concrete as anything you can prove. Be…
Finding meaning in pleasure sounds like Hedonism to me.
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Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning
#28[deleted]
Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning
#29I think, that meaning can be only defined in the case, when one is immortal. If I'm mortal, everything I do, good or bad, is meaningless for consciousness, because it will cease to exist and everything that will happen after death will have no effect on it. Any meaning, that's is defined while one is mortal is no more than illusion, in which people immerse themselves for whatever reason.
Let me explain that you are in fact immortal. First, you have to see that there is no reason for your brain and my brain to have different "souls" (whatever that may mean). It only appears to you that we are different beings because there is no strong neurological connection between our brains. But there is a connection (albeit very weak), in e.g. electromagnetic and gravity forces between our brains. The universe, o…
Another implication of this line of reasoning is that since there are no inherent boundaries between anything, the universe itself is thus a living, conscious being.
Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning
#30> "these men are nihilists, there's nothing to be afraid of" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/quotes?item=qt0464761
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