I found myself experiencing a sort of “emotional nihilism” after de-converting from Christianity...
To your questions:
I don’t know that I’m not, though I don’t really define myself that way. I don’t know if life or the universe has some ultimate/absolute/objective purpose (and I suspect it does not) or even what “purpose” really means… but I’m content enough with the novelty and intrigue of learning about everything at the moment that nihilism seems a bit bleak for a label to apply to myself. (Maybe on rainy days?)
I don’t know. I’d also be interested to hear a good refutation. I suppose one could say “you are free to create your own meaning” or something like that...and then you’d have personally thwarted nihilism. Meh.
I gotta believe a good chunk of the world still believes in meaning of some kind, if for no other reason than their adherence to religion. This is an economic reason for the survival of philosophy and ongoing speculation about meaning—Clergy are often are just philosophers with magical pre-suppositions & funny outfits.
And, practically speaking, it seems like purpose/meaning is a pretty good thing to stubbornly look for even when facing seemingly irrefutable odds.
Hm… maybe you could say the refutation of nihilism is the meaning you find in not giving up the search for meaning even though things seem meaningless?
I found myself experiencing a sort of “emotional nihilism” after de-converting from Christianity...
To your questions:
I don’t know that I’m not, though I don’t really define myself that way. I don’t know if life or the universe has some ultimate/absolute/objective purpose (and I suspect it does not) or even what “purpose” really means… but I’m content enough with the novelty and intrigue of learning about everything at the moment that nihilism seems a bit bleak for a label to apply to myself. (Maybe on rainy days?)
I don’t know. I’d also be interested to hear a good refutation. I suppose one could say “you are free to create your own meaning” or something like that...and then you’d have personally thwarted nihilism. Meh.
I gotta believe a good chunk of the world still believes in meaning of some kind, if for no other reason than their adherence to religion. This is an economic reason for the survival of philosophy and ongoing speculation about meaning—Clergy are often are just philosophers with magical pre-suppositions & funny outfits.
And, practically speaking, it seems like purpose/meaning is a pretty good thing to stubbornly look for even when facing seemingly irrefutable odds.
Hm… maybe you could say the refutation of nihilism is the meaning you find in not giving up the search for meaning even though things seem meaningless?
I know they love meta concepts around here...