The belief that life is meaningless, thus nothing else really matters. Philosophically meaningless. You may not need to attach any emotions to it, or conversely any thoughts that you are in trouble, for I think you can accept the fact that most humans are forgotten after death. The Second Law of Thermodynamics will eventually reduce humans, and then the universe to nothingness (Cosmic indifference).
It can also mean that there is almost nothing apart from survival that needs to be done, and no specific ruleset of life that needs to be abided by. Don't worry, nihilism is neutral by design as it lacks good or evil, so you wouldn't need to be a pessimist either.
It could be existentialism, or absurdism, but I truly don’t know which one is stronger, so you can say Nihilism is the "baseline" you can be mostly sure about.
Existential dread can also be a consequence of nihilism.
The universe does not care about what I do, or anything else! It is an indifferent entity, or rather a container! Non-judgment is the lack of value judgment! Thus, nihilism can be true!
A thought experiment where literally nothing matters. But the problem is that there are some things, like genocide of all objectively bad humans, that cannot be explained objectively if everything is meaningless. Feeling this when lacking motivation comes down to the fact we feel little joy when we are sad.
However, telling nihilists to change mindset will not work. He or she might want to rest when tired. The classic deflection is to tell them that they can do a hobby or make their own meaning, but really, it is highly unlikely it would ever work if forced by other if the person themselves already won't do it by himself. It deflects the legitimate claim that feelings of meaninglessness are totally real and valid by suggesting something else. No absurdism, no existentialism, sometimes you really don't want to rebel or build your own meaning, and that is more common with the absurd demands of society. If your entire reality is in the mind and you feel meaningless, nihilism is valid. If you see everything physically and meaning as an imposed concept meaning it is not objective, nihilism is valid too. It's fine to rest, or sleep (sometimes), you loved one.
Society defines good and bad, and there’s nothing more to it inherently; there are no absolute ethical values. Thus, humans can do whatever they want, though some say it’s provided that there’s no harm CAUSED to others. For instance, to illustrate the word caused, not donating to charity does not fit it because there’s no direct evil done to the homeless by the person not donating, unlike murder.
"The belief that life is meaningless. Philosophically meaningless. Don’t attach any emotions to it, or any thoughts that I am in trouble, for I think it’s better to accept that it’s just a fact, for most humans are forgotten after death. The Second Law of Thermodynamics will eventually reduce my physical state to nothingness." - someone following this
There’s no point to the energy consumption and creating consequences
of overcoming the biological and evolutionary, and societal will to
live.
If life truly has no meaning, then neither does it have NEGATIVE meaning
(because strictly speaking, NEGATIVITY has meaning otherwise you
wouldn’t feel anything wrong), so simply speaking, as true nihilism
means a value judgement is absent, the act of life itself can continue
to exist in peace. However, humans may not be logical, and have believed
in supreme deities for so long, so they may feel fear due to Darwinism...
However, the lack of value judgement may also nullify my argument too!
Hmm...
It has a clash with itself because nihilism’s definition is “the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.” However, nihilism itself is a principle, so if you claim to be purely a nihilist, you yourself think nihilism is a strong principle itself, which means you are not rejecting ALL moral principles, so you’re not truly a pure nihilist. Because it is a perspective or a "perspective on reality," skeptics argue cannot be objectively true. The idea that it is "true" is itself a value judgment that has meaning to you, making it self-defeating.
Rather than that, nothing matters; most things (but all) don't matter because the paradox already counterargued, or with math, if nothing really matters, nothing can be said to relatively matter more or less than any other, because 0/0 is undefined.
There’s a bit of both, but philosophically I have to admit that meaning itself is more likely to be copium for the human brain, yet socially, nihilism is more considered to be copium for an “unsuccessful life,” and they tell us to find meaning instead (while nihilism itself has nothing to do with successiveness anyway)
The supermajority of your embarrassments, problems, and past mistakes
don't matter (in a good way), as the universe and life will end
anyway!
Thus, it signals freedom to pursue what makes you feel good right
now, because the "big picture" isn't judging you within the pragmatic
possibilities of humanity.
If there is no inherent meaning provided at birth, you have the freedom to pursue
what makes you feel good right now.
Still not an excuse to do bad things though!
Nihilism is basically believing that life has no meaning.
Well, there is a problem with that. It’s not that it’s wrong, but that
it’s RIGHT and not many want to admit that life is meaningless due
to
1. Being perceived as mentally unstable
2. It’s scary to think that after life, often they are just forgotten,
and almost nothing can change this. I guess it’s because death is uncertain, and animals want
to live in both their thinking and their systems (like reflexes). And
that there’s a good thing at the end of school hours (not within the education system itself!): freedom. And after
secondary school,
even more freedom.
Additionally, basically, many people’s actions or goals come down to
reducing human suffering. Death is pretty much peak human suffering. However, living a life
that the person doesn’t want to still has a high level of suffering. And
that is why, rarely, if there is too much additional suffering, brains go
haywire.
And in the end, the point of being conscious is to decide on the body’s
own actions, eat, sleep, and so on. Physiology, but also the feeling of
being alive, could be a factor.
Because cosmically, there seems to be no source that humans/the universe will continue forever. From the beginning, the meaning of "meaning" itself was assigned by humans, not anything else. Thus, inherently from the beginning, there was no objective meaning. No shared meaning.
Universe will end so nothing is permanent (Likely true, nothing will remain of us)
Totally true facts are (mathematically) impossible outside of axioms and tautologies, for instance in formal logic. Scientific experiments can be repeated but statically it is never 100% even if there are 10000 identical observations. So there is not really a reliable meaning at all.
Logically correct is one thing. Psychologically beneficial things may not be logically correct. Logically correct things may trigger the human brain, like social taboos. You can know meaninglessness, and yet treat the concept of meaninglessness itself as utter garbage, and switch to Absurdism instead! Pragmatism of Absurdism or Stoicism of Nihilism. But nihilism is fine too. If you feel like the doomer generation I'm not forcing you to change at all.
Absurdism tells for rebellion. But some people would rather just live like the truth - Sisyphus seems way more novel, but painful if in reality. Existentialism calls for the confusing thing of "build meaning in meaninglessness". However, technically, one can live without expecting "meaning", or saying that stuff gives them "meaning", or external restrictions may be preventing them from doing stuff they want. Perhaps the meaning of life has no meaning at all beyond biological non-death itself!
It then helps with realizing reality.
People often are one-sided to get a point. You can't see inside
people.
The world has no understandable "order" at all - just mostly
chaos.
No absurdism
- this implies you are in conflict, which might be exhausting. Just
acknowledge the world for what the world is.
No existentialism - sometimes you really just
wanna sleep. In fact,
there is no deeper meaning of mankind. Just existing - though if you are
a nihilist, "finding own meaning" finds contradictory - there is just
what is physical. Of course this is not a ban on you doing stuff.
of thought]]
Category:Nihilism Category:[[School Category:Philosophy Category:Meaning