Perhaps I’m wrong, but your decision to care about the preference of existence over non-existence and moving on from there appears to be an example of (a). Or perhaps a component (b) did develop and maintain awareness of nihilism, but obviously that component couldn’t be bothered posting on LW, so I heard a reply from the part of you that is attached to your subjective preferences (and simply exists).
Well, my bit about existence and non-existence stemmed from a struggle with believing that things did or did not exist. I have never considered nihilism to be a relevant proposal: It doesn’t tell me how to act or what to do. It also doesn’t care if I act as if there is an objective value attached to something. So… what is the point in nihilism?
To me, nihilism seems like a trap for other philosophical arguments. If those arguments and moral ways lead them to a logical conclusion of nihilism, than they cannot escape. They are still clinging to whatever led them there but say they are nihilists. This is the death spiral: Believing that nothing matters but acting as if something does.
If I were to actually stop and throw away all objective morality, value, etc than I would except a realization that any belief in nihilism would have to go away too. At this point I my presuppositions about the world reset and… what? It is this behavior that is similar to my struggles with existence.
The easiest summation of my belief that existence is preferred over non-existence is that existence can be undone and non-existence is permanent. If you want more I can type it up. I don’t know how helpful it will be against nihilism, however.
Well, my bit about existence and non-existence stemmed from a struggle with believing that things did or did not exist. I have never considered nihilism to be a relevant proposal: It doesn’t tell me how to act or what to do. It also doesn’t care if I act as if there is an objective value attached to something. So… what is the point in nihilism?
To me, nihilism seems like a trap for other philosophical arguments. If those arguments and moral ways lead them to a logical conclusion of nihilism, than they cannot escape. They are still clinging to whatever led them there but say they are nihilists. This is the death spiral: Believing that nothing matters but acting as if something does.
If I were to actually stop and throw away all objective morality, value, etc than I would except a realization that any belief in nihilism would have to go away too. At this point I my presuppositions about the world reset and… what? It is this behavior that is similar to my struggles with existence.
The easiest summation of my belief that existence is preferred over non-existence is that existence can be undone and non-existence is permanent. If you want more I can type it up. I don’t know how helpful it will be against nihilism, however.