Earlier quoted context omitted.
> He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz and helping others in his clinical work. It seems to me as though this "why to live" must transcend one's own life in order to have this effect. From this perspective, your epidemic of meaning might reflect a consensus world-view which is overly individuali…
No, I don’t think that’s correct. A person’s sense of meaning is often rooted in something social, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, many artists find meaning in creation. Not because the work product lives on or because other people appreciate it, but for the act itself.
Anticipatory Anxiety
21–30 of 32 posts
Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
> He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz and helping others in his clinical work. It seems to me as though this "why to live" must transcend one's own life in order to have this effect. From this perspective, your epidemic of meaning might reflect a consensus world-view which is overly individuali…
No, I don’t think that’s correct. A person’s sense of meaning is often rooted in something social, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, many artists find meaning in creation. Not because the work product lives on or because other people appreciate it, but for the act itself.
Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#23Last night I finished reading “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. A theme of the book is that a sense of meaninglessness is often a driver of depression, and that it is up to each of us to find our unique meaning of life in order to become fulfilled. He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz…
> He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz and helping others in his clinical work. It seems to me as though this "why to live" must transcend one's own life in order to have this effect. From this perspective, your epidemic of meaning might reflect a consensus world-view which is overly individuali…
Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
> He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz and helping others in his clinical work. It seems to me as though this "why to live" must transcend one's own life in order to have this effect. From this perspective, your epidemic of meaning might reflect a consensus world-view which is overly individuali…
No, I don’t think that’s correct. A person’s sense of meaning is often rooted in something social, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, many artists find meaning in creation. Not because the work product lives on or because other people appreciate it, but for the act itself.
Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#25The article focuses on over-parenting as a source of anxiety. I think it's interesting how much this view has in common with Freud. According to Freud, people repress thoughts, memories, and desires. This repression is necessary for people to live in a modern, civilized context. But repression also causes negative emotion, including anxiety. In Freud, parents are key to initiating their children into repression. Over…
Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#26Last night I finished reading “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. A theme of the book is that a sense of meaninglessness is often a driver of depression, and that it is up to each of us to find our unique meaning of life in order to become fulfilled. He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz…
This seems related to why AI/Superintelligence has made me so depressed in recent days. After reading the Aschenbrenner summary, I feel as if all "why's" are becoming irrelevant. I have all these projects, all these creative ambitions, but they seem silly if AI will be running/managing/curating/doing-everything for us in the future. And concerning 'anticipatory anxiety', the past year in AI makes me feel like the fut…
Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
This seems related to why AI/Superintelligence has made me so depressed in recent days. After reading the Aschenbrenner summary, I feel as if all "why's" are becoming irrelevant. I have all these projects, all these creative ambitions, but they seem silly if AI will be running/managing/curating/doing-everything for us in the future. And concerning 'anticipatory anxiety', the past year in AI makes me feel like the fut…
A big part of art is about expressing yourself. No matter how advanced AI gets, the ability to express yourself isn't going away.
I don’t see how this could go away because of AI. Art as a product is a different matter though.
Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#28Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#29The article focuses on over-parenting as a source of anxiety. I think it's interesting how much this view has in common with Freud. According to Freud, people repress thoughts, memories, and desires. This repression is necessary for people to live in a modern, civilized context. But repression also causes negative emotion, including anxiety. In Freud, parents are key to initiating their children into repression. Over…
Your post points out the similarities to freud. I agree it's similar. I also think they are both wrong. If this were true would you expect a child with a stay-at-home mom to have more anxiety/repression than kids with two working parents. Ten minutes Google search shows studies say the opposite or at worst that there is no effect.
What papers did you have in mind?
Also, i think the way this relates back to freud is in the concept of the superego. Which indeed causes anxiety. And it is learned from the parents ego.
Re: Anticipatory Anxiety
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nietzsche intended to say the radical opposite, from Ecce Homo : " My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it—all idealism is mendacity in the face of what is necessary—but love it " For him there were no transcendent values, ideologies, gods, what have you. Peo…
It’s almost as if Nietzsche was a nihilist :)
He viewed nihilism as one of the largely inevitable outcomes of the failing of transcendentals to provide meaning.
Thus he attempts to overcome modern ennui via the construction of a strictly immanent conception of the world.
Labeling him a “nihilist” is misleading. Owing to the conflation of nihilism with a dour, depressive outlook, many are surprised to find out that his writing is in fact consistently joyous.