Do you believe, or even accept Nihilism? (1 Viewer)

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After watching a video about yume nikki, I'm keeping on thinking about this question, personally, although I didn't like how nihilists applied the philosophy that "nothings has any meaning, and life doesn't have any meaning" into real life, in a sense, I did see this conclusion was from a reasonable deduction. However, I started to think like this: As when we try to see through the essence of the things that we are experiencing, as long as we have the knowledge, we can always see that there is a basic logic, or a "principle" that either directly or indirectly dictates the phenomena of a thing happening, (For example, we know that the reason why most humans are born with things like kindness or courage despite each having to the different extent or the reason why we are also almost all born selfish is because that we as biological beings are dictated by the desire to live or to reserve our gene pool). Does this mean that in general, as life is a part of the world, serves a huge meaning but just that we humans are too small to realize that?

 

[Drdusk]

Well I didn’t even know what nihilism was until now and having searched it up it says that it’s a rejection of all religious and moral principles.

Even though I’m an atheist there are many religions that do give good moral teachings. Treating others fairly, being a good person, being honest and truthful etc etc.

So while I may not be religious I think it’s great to draw wisdom through some of the good teachings religions give us even if the basic principles such as the existence of a god is something I highly disagree with.

As for purpose. I do agree that there is no objective meaning to life. You live you die and be forgotten a hundred years from now unless you’re famous of sorts. Purpose and meaning is what you make it to be. If that’s to lead a good/honest life than great! If it’s to help others and those in need also great! At least your memory will live in those that you helped.

 

[[ ]]

Well I didn’t even know what nihilism was until now and having searched it up it says that it’s a rejection of all religious and moral principles.

Even though I’m an atheist there are many religions that do give good moral teachings. Treating others fairly, being a good person, being honest and truthful etc etc.

So while I may not be religious I think it’s great to draw wisdom through some of the good teachings religions give us even if the basic principles such as the existence of a god is something I highly disagree with.

As for purpose. I do agree that there is no objective meaning to life. You live you die and be forgotten a hundred years from now unless your famous of sorts. Purpose and meaning is what you make it to be. If that’s to lead a good/honest life than great! If it’s to help others and those in need also great! At least your memory will live in those that you helped.

Well.. Nihilism is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, expressing some form of negation towards life or towards fundamental concepts such as knowledge, existence, and the meaning of life, so not really completely about religion and stuffs like that. I think that there are two things that I don't accept in Nihilism, that is 1. on a scale like Nihilism that tries to explain everything (like literally), as I have said, I believe that in every phenomena if you continually to seek the root reason about it, it is highly possible that there is always this kind of "principle" that dictated the happening of the phenomena, hence dictated the creation of everything (whether it is directly or indirectly) related to it, giving it an objective "meaning"

2. Even though that whether this or Nihilism both or either one of them might be the truth, I think that the scale of Nihilism is too big for us human to decide whether it is the ultimate answer, that Nihilism itself tries to make itself like, by believing this and apply this to our real life is meaningless for us humans, especially those who aren't philosophers or scientists to seek, as it does not create any subjective value for us humans despite that it might have objective "values", as the scale is too big and it basically doesn't matter to us if it is the truth or not. If people decided to apply the philosophy of Nihilism completely into the practical real life, the act of applying the philosophy itself is objectively, as according to the logic of Nihilism is "meaningless" and serves no subjective benefit (or subjective value) to us in the real life.

 

[[ ]]

Well I didn’t even know what nihilism was until now and having searched it up it says that it’s a rejection of all religious and moral principles.

Even though I’m an atheist there are many religions that do give good moral teachings. Treating others fairly, being a good person, being honest and truthful etc etc.

So while I may not be religious I think it’s great to draw wisdom through some of the good teachings religions give us even if the basic principles such as the existence of a god is something I highly disagree with.

As for purpose. I do agree that there is no objective meaning to life. You live you die and be forgotten a hundred years from now unless you’re famous of sorts. Purpose and meaning is what you make it to be. If that’s to lead a good/honest life than great! If it’s to help others and those in need also great! At least your memory will live in those that you helped.

Hahah I hope I'm not confusing

 

[thetestdude]

I'm mostly against this sort of belief/ideology. I've (unfortunately) had friends call themselves nihilists. I say unfortunately because a statement like this should not be randomly/carelessly made by someone. Yet it is, which is why I strongly believe these people overlook the bigger picture.

I am not against the "rejecting religious principles" aspect as I understand everyone has different religious beliefs/disbelief/perspectives. I am against the "rejecting moral principles" and "life has no meaning" parts.

Calling yourself a nihilist is not something to be taken lightly. It's not like saying "1 + 1 = 2" (a mere fact that everyone agrees with and is considered a very simple equation). When you're nihilistic, you reject the fundamental aspects of life. It's that deep.

Let's look at some moral principles (from: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-morals.html)

• Always tell the truth
• Do not destroy property
• Have courage
• Keep your promises
• Do not cheat
• Treat others as you want to be treated
• Do not judge
• Be dependable
• Be forgiving
• Have integrity
• Take responsibility for your actions
• Have patience
• Be loyal
• Have respect for yourself and others
• Be tolerant of differences
• Seek justice
• Have humility
• Be generous

If one does not accept any of these, then survival in one's life will become extremely hard. Think about it. When you judge, don't keep your promises, lie, are unforgiving, you will be labelled as judgemental, liar and cruel respectively. Thus, people will start to hate you and you will lose their love, appreciation and trust. This is why I'm against nihilism from a moral perspective.

There is another reason why I am against nihilism. This one is more law-related.

If we look at these moral principles:

• Do not destroy property
• Take responsibility for your actions
• Be tolerant of differences
• Seek justice

When you destroy someone else's property just because you believe life is meaningless, you will have to accept the legal consequences. Similarly, when you fail to acknowledge differences in your society (such as culture, race, language, age, gender etc.) and display hostile behaviour, you will also most likely have to face legal consequences. People are not forced to suffer as a result of your actions just because you're a nihilist, and that's why the law exists.

That's what I personally think of nihilism.

 

[cosmo 2]

 

[[ ]]

I'm mostly against this sort of belief/ideology. I've (unfortunately) had friends call themselves nihilists. I say unfortunately because a statement like this should not be randomly/carelessly made by someone. Yet it is, which is why I strongly believe these people overlook the bigger picture.

I am not against the "rejecting religious principles" aspect as I understand everyone has different religious beliefs/disbelief/perspectives. I am against the "rejecting moral principles" and "life has no meaning" parts.

Calling yourself a nihilist is not something to be taken lightly. It's not like saying "1 + 1 = 2" (a mere fact that everyone agrees with and is considered a very simple equation). When you're nihilistic, you reject the fundamental aspects of life. It's that deep.

Let's look at some moral principles (from: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-morals.html)

• Always tell the truth
• Do not destroy property
• Have courage
• Keep your promises
• Do not cheat
• Treat others as you want to be treated
• Do not judge
• Be dependable
• Be forgiving
• Have integrity
• Take responsibility for your actions
• Have patience
• Be loyal
• Have respect for yourself and others
• Be tolerant of differences
• Seek justice
• Have humility
• Be generous

If one does not accept any of these, then survival in one's life will become extremely hard. Think about it. When you judge, don't keep your promises, lie, are unforgiving, you will be labelled as judgemental, liar and cruel respectively. Thus, people will start to hate you and you will lose their love, appreciation and trust. This is why I'm against nihilism from a moral perspective.

There is another reason why I am against nihilism. This one is more law-related.

If we look at these moral principles:

• Do not destroy property
• Take responsibility for your actions
• Be tolerant of differences
• Seek justice

When you destroy someone else's property just because you believe life is meaningless, you will have to accept the legal consequences. Similarly, when you fail to acknowledge differences in your society (such as culture, race, language, age, gender etc.) and display hostile behaviour, you will also most likely have to face legal consequences. People are not forced to suffer as a result of your actions just because you're a nihilist, and that's why the law exists.

That's what I personally think of nihilism.

I think that's quite similar to what I think, as the scale of Nihilism is too big for us to care about and serves no value for us as humans and the human society. If we as humans, tries to use the "value" that Nihilists are titling to into our real life, then the word "value", becomes meaningless, that's certainly not a healthy mindset to go through life or to sustain the human society. Furthermore, I believe that saying that life or everything has definitely no meaning at all, even in the Nihilists definition, is somewhat arrogant. Even if the universe or life truly serves no meaning at all, why should we humans care about that? It only brings down the morality and ethics that we humans created and tried to sustain for the tens or thousands of years.

 

[thetestdude]

I think that's quite similar to what I think, as the scale of Nihilism is too big for us to care about and serves no value for us as humans and the human society. If we as humans, tries to use the "value" that Nihilists are titling to into our real life, then the word "value", becomes meaningless, that's certainly not a healthy mindset to go through life or to sustain the human society. Furthermore, I believe that saying that life or everything has definitely no meaning at all, even in the Nihilists definition. Even if the universe or life truly serves no meaning at all, why should we humans care about that? It only brings down the morality and ethics that we humans created and tried to sustain for the tens or thousands of years.

Exactly

 

[[ ]]

Exactly

Objective "value" on the scale of the whole universe serves no value on the scale of human and human society, whether if that kind of thing really exists or not.

 

[dan964]

On the objective level, Nihilism is the logical end of atheism, if you take atheism (and even agnosticism) to its logical ends. (or is a super reductionalist version of atheism, generally atheism is more nuanced I would think)

Obviously on the subjective level, we like to actually care and create our own purpose (or be given a purpose if we believe that there is a higher purpose), because nihilism is certainly not liveable or pragmatic, and doesn't fit with the human reality.

The other issue is that it doesn't provide any solid basis (in itself), for moral, ethical and cultural practices in general. (Of course this is where often evolution is appealed to, but it is one of the shortcomings of evolutionary theory IMHO, which while it may have some explanatory power, it also has some problematic logical problems, particularly that it doesn't provide a justification for the establishing of a standard/law, mainly because evolution is still occurring, meaning that morals are evolving. Basically, it may explain the origins/source of morality but not its justification. "is" doesn't not imply "ought").

It also understandably undermines the concept of 'value' and 'important' because in the end of the day, nothing matters (except perhaps that which extends the lifetime of the human race which too is meaningless in a nihilistic worldview). It trivialises (and certainly cannot explain its origins) information in general. Why do we care so much about art, history, pleasure, relationships, work, when in the end?

But it is certainly not a liveable end.
Its basic summary is the same as the guy in Ecclesiastes who surveyed the world as if there was no God, his conclusion: "it was all meaningless" under the sun because everything dies.

 

[dan964]

Objective "value" on the scale of the whole universe serves no value on the scale of human and human society, whether if that kind of thing really exists or not.

which is why nihilism is false, because it is not liveable/pragmatic.