"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened." (source)
"Man [has] always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much-the wheel, New York, wars and so on-while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man-for precisely the same reason." (source)
"In the beginning, the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry, and has been widely regarded as a bad idea." (source)
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9 comments:
a sweet touch of existantialism in that, i guess not having a purpose really sucks that much when i was reading the first one i was preparing my self for a mass suicide of all of humanity but i got the next best thing. they would just seize to exist :D
I am not sure I got your point correctly. So in order to make sure, are you trying to imply nihilism?! Or are you trying to imply existentialism?! Or maybe both?!
PS: Nihilism is the philosophy that has as one of its conclusions that life has no meaning or purpose
na it was the fact that (atleast) IMHO the answer to what the universe is offers a purpose to all humans one way or another and the abscence of that will cause them to be annihilated
tho i would have prefered it to be slightly more bloody ... hehehe
as for nihilism i never look into it much since i couldn't really relate to the premises, but i like how you explain terms all the time. thats nice
Well, I agree to Nihilism. I would be interested to hear what you have against it... What are the premises you said you reject?!
well from the little that i know the premise that it is useless to find a purpose for your life since life is purposeless by definition hence the best you can hope for is a pseudo purpose or an illusion/dillusion
and in a grander look of things there is no purpose.
in general i find it used more as an adjective than an encompassing philosophy.
and since am biased to existantialism i find it nihilistic in comparison :)
i enjoyed the second one a lot, no matter how much we know, it won't be everything.. im imagining being a dolphine and looking at man =D
explore.. never stop!
Tala, true. Knowledge is good, and even sometimes enjoyable. It would be great to continue exploring all the time.
No_Angel, I dont think existentialism and Nihilism are in contradiction.
I will take two quotes from wikipedia:
- "Existentialism can be seen as a philosophical movement that rejects the belief that life has an inherent meaning, but instead requires each individual to posit his or her own subjective values."
- "Nihilism argues that the world, especially past and current human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value."
So both, existentialism and nihilism agree that life has no objective meaning.
Existentialism goes one extra step and states that individuals have the responsibility to give life a subjective meaning.
Personally, I would say that individuals can give life subjective meaning (without being "required" to do so). You might call my position "Weak Existentialism"!!
Additionally, if you check wikipedia (or other sources too), you will find that the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who kind of established nihilism, was also a distinguished existentialist. So as I explained above, the two philosophies can meet!
:D i never said they are conflicting philosphies, and my usage of "you" and "your" was intentional to highlight the difference between them.
maybe if i said it simply as this it would have been better;
nihilism denys any subjective or objective purpose to humanity
existantialism doubts the objective purpose but atleast gives hope in stengthening the subjective part
objective in the sense of a higher entities opinion , and subjective in the intra humity opinion
so ya i agree with what u said
"nihilism denys any subjective or objective purpose to humanity" - I wouldn't really say so! Nihilism is denies the objective purpose, but says nothing about the subjective purpose. In Nihilism, the concept of "subjects" isn't defined to start with!
At least thats how I see it!
Also to avoid confusion, a "subject" is defined as a cognitive entity! :)
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