Nihilism

[brokenpower]

Can someone please tell me the reason for people to be nihilistic or how you can be nihilistic since you believe that existance is pointless wouldn't you have killed yourself already/

 

[Hastein]

Can someone please tell me the reason for people to be nihilistic or how you can be nihilistic since you believe that existance is pointless wouldn't you have killed yourself already/

That the universe is pointless doesn't imply the one must kill themselves. Nihilism can many times be interpreted that way by the unwary. In some defenitions nihilism is simply the beleif that there is no absolute truth to anything or that there is no inherent value to anything we perceive except the object in itself.

Nihilism can actually be used as a tool to reach new own values. When all is stripped away, it becomes easier to approach and tackle personal or social problems. As existentialists say, a void cannot remain a void, it must be filled.

You seem to be under the assumption that nihilism ammounts to anarchy, mass murder, or coldness. Some of the bigger nihilists were actually authoritarians (like Hedeigger). Some loved fine art, culture, and even religion (Schopenhauer). It can certainly be these things, but it can be anything. If you beleive in nothing, you can do anything.

 

[Rappaccini]

Schopenhauer was fond of religion? I must really look that up.

 

[Hastein]

Here:

http://www.friesian.com/arthur.htm

 

[Arietta]

Nihilism has nothing to do with mental stability m'dear. For someone to take the stand that existence is pointless doesn't necessarily that they will be rash enough to murder or kill themselves; even the most apathetic are capable of emotions and desires, which are reason enough to stay alive even if existence itself is pointless.

 

[Mrs.Lucysnow]

I think this is an interesting site on the subject.

http://www.counterorder.com/nihilism.html

 

[one_raven]

If you believe nothing is important, nothing really matters, nothing has any true value (Like Kerouac said, "Everybody believes there's nothing to believe in.")...

Then you could easily find yourself indulging in whatever gives your mind/body pleasure for that moment, then moving on.

A Nihilist can very easily be a Hedonist.

Maybe it depends (partly, at least) on what you think about nothing mattering.
If you think that it is a good thing that nothing matters or a bad thing.

 

[Mrs.Lucysnow]

and what is wrong with being a hedonist? Check the counteroder link above and they will assert that nihilism is not a belief in nothing but beliefs that have no basis in fact (something to that affect anyway)

 

[one_raven]

and what is wrong with being a hedonist?

I didn't say anything WAS wrong with it.
That is an odd assumption.
Why would you think I was saying it is a bad thing?
As a matter of fact, there is a thread somewhere on this board, in which I argue FOR Hedonism.

 

[Mrs.Lucysnow]

all right, all right its just how it came across when I was reading it. point made point accepted.

 

[Hastein]

Counterorder is a good site on explaining the subject, but the author comes off sounding like a pathetic fatalist (he's also a closet moralist:www.holology.com). I have talked to Freydiis myself via e-mail, and he sounds more like he is trying to make an anarchist idealogy out of nihilism. If nothing matters, there no point to overthrowing all civilization. He contradicts himself intensely.

 

[Hastein]

As a matter of fact, there is a thread somewhere on this board, in which I argue FOR Hedonism.

Hedonism usually results in degeneracy of self and society. The universe requires suffering for change, thus hedonism is a bit off the mark. A certain balance is necessary.