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Any Nihilists
Posted on: September 20, 2007 - 8:45pm
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Any Nihilists
I'm new to the forum and was wondering how many people here consider themselves nihilists or are interested in nihilism. I've contributed essays to nihilist publications and have always seen a strong connection between atheism and nihilism. Not every atheist is a nihilist but every nihlist is, in essence, an atheist.
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You wont find any here, too much moral superstition.
Many of us on this forum are metaphysical naturalist, so whatever beliefs we have about morals are not superstitious. You might thing that secular morals are impossible...but that's a different thing all together than superstitious.
Instead of calling yourself a nihilist, wouldn't it be more prudent to look at it from a point of view that nihilism took charge in your rational view the mometn you realized that since life has no purpose you h ave to give it meaning through your own achievments/personal goals/etc.
At which you cannot call yourself a nihilist, but instead have a nihilisticly rational manner of reason?
Belief needs questioning and criticism, not respect.
You failed to support your view in the other threads, so don't go flicking your bogies like it means something.
Wasn't going to revive a dead thread but i'll send you a pm of my response if you really care.
The powerful feed ideology to the masses like fast food while they dine on that most rarefied delicacy: impunity.
Instead of calling yourself a nihilist, wouldn't it be more prudent to look at it from a point of view that nihilism took charge in your rational view the mometn you realized that since life has no purpose you h ave to give it meaning through your own achievments/personal goals/etc.
First of all, nihilism tends to be a very subjective term. My definition of nihilism is a lack of belief in a purpose to the world, which includes no belief in a god, objective morality,etc. That doesn't mean that I don't believe in morality in a right vs. wrong sense, but that you can't be objective when it comes to morality. It's a gray area, like the rest of life. What I may believe to be immoral, you may not.
At which you cannot call yourself a nihilist, but instead have a nihilisticly rational manner of reason?
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So, nihilism in the Nietzsche-an sense of the word? There's no one objective morality so come up with your own? There's no set meaning of life, so you have to determine your own? Your life is a work of art?
In the "I stayed up until 4 am re-reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra for the tenth time" sense?
... okay so I haven't read it ten times, but I like a lot of the ideas he presents.
-Triften
So this is more a question of morality then.. Personally I address this connundrum by invoking an ethical approach based on reason and logical interpretations of how i want to be treated. Giving meaning to my life as well through self achievement, intellectual growth, and physical activity.
This of course can be different for you, but thats the most practical way to go about a nihilistic viewpoint for me.
Belief needs questioning and criticism, not respect.
I am a Sartrean Existentialist with a delicious overlay of Humean Sympathetics.
"Tis better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven." -Lucifer
There are no true nihilists. The 'nihilists' I've met are only pragmatists who haven't looked very deeply into pragmatism.
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I am curious to hear your take on Sartrean Existentialism, if you wouldn't mind explaining in detail of course.
I've heard many claim this title, only to find everyone had a different conclusion devoid of a common meaning.
that was a mouthful ahha
Belief needs questioning and criticism, not respect.
Personally, I'm not a Nihilist. I've studied Nietzsche and found it very lacking. When it comes to rational/practical/secular ethics, you do not have to look any further than Aristotle, or maybe the Stoics.
To them, ethics wasn't about right and wrong or about objective morality (and flawed offshoots like egoism and utilitarianism), it was simply about being a good person, and living a well balanced life. Aristotle's contribution is virtue ethics. The stoics believed in Emotional Objectivity. Combine the two and you get an ethical philosophy independent of belief.
BTW, Ayn Rand was an Aristotelian ethicist as well, one of the underlying themes of The Fountainhead was the superiority of Aristotelian virtue over Nietzschean nihilism.
The Neo-Con philosophy is founded on nihilism as well (re: The End of History and the Last Man by Fukuyama) and look how great things are going for them.
Nihilism? Not for me
I'm not really sure what you would like. I am a follower/friend of Xavier Monasterio. Dr. Monasterio was one of Sartre's disciples. In fact, he was significantly injured when Sartre's apartment was bombed in the '60's.
So, my understanding is going to follow the understanding of this particular disciple. What specifically would you like to hear about?
"Tis better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven." -Lucifer
"And this is the great noontide: it is when man stands at the middle of his course between animal and Superman and celebrates his journey to the evening as his highest hope: for it is the journey to a new morning. Then man, going under, will bless himself; for he will be going over to Superman; and the sun of his knowledge will stand at noontide.
'All gods are dead, now we want the Superman to Live!' - let this be our last will one day at the great noontide!" -Nietzsche
"Every true faith is infallible -- It performs what the believing person hopes to find in it. But it does not offer the least support for the establishing of an objective truth. Here the ways of men divide. If you want to achieve peace of mind and happiness, have faith. If you want to be a disciple of truth, then search." - Nietzsche
The only nihilists I know are these guys:
A better translation of Nietzsche's Übermensch, is "overman" instead of "superman". The "overman" is one who overcomes the nihilism left once you've unshackled yourself from xian dogma or, killed the gods in your life.
A nihilist would be no better than a dog or cat. Reacting to an instance, rather than making a decision. Decisions require weighing possible outcomes, a dog or cat doesn't weigh the outcome of biting you. They simply bite, then react to what comes next.
I'm a "Golden Rule" guy, considering it starts from self-interest, in what would I want done to me. That rules out murder, rape or being beaten immediately.
The paper read yesterday, the earth exploded, nobody noticed the passing of this hapless planet.
The problem with Ayn Rand was her putting herself up as a model of rationality, while at the same time having a totally backward view on homosexuality.
When you read further into nietzsche's works it's easily seen that he wasn't pushing nihilism, but rather philisophically nihilistic thoughts to show that one could get out of dogmatic thinking.
Then he brought it all together with his concept of the overman who gave his life meaning through achievement and developed self worth (unless i'm completely misreading him)
Belief needs questioning and criticism, not respect.