The possibility that I'll find a better purpose than this one, which will probably be the self esteem that comes from achieving difficult things.What do you live for? — intrapersona
I live for the experience of being alive - the drama, the sadness and the happiness, because one cannot be without the other. Being alive is more interesting than being dead.Happiness is an extension of the human experience much like my right pinky toe is too. Claiming happiness is a purpose for life is absurd. You might here a great many people claim "The very sole purpose of my existence is to experience happiness" but this makes as much sense as to say "the very sole purpose of my existence is to experience my right pinky toe". — intrapersona
Well, it's pretty useless posting 'why should I be happy' on an internet forum. It's completely up to you. That's all there is to it. — Wayfarer
Indeed this seems to be a reasonable position, however it also seems to offer quite little in the way of prescriptive action. So we're left with a kind of dizzying uncertainty - do I walk my dog, do I ask that girl out, do I contemplate the nature of the divine, do I kill myself, do I watch the clock tick endlessly, do I study thermodynamics, do I vote for this guy or that guy, do I get a spray tan, do I make a smoothie, do I take a nap, do I read Hegel, do I do I do I do I do I ...
At some point in time your biological needs take over and you are forced into action, reluctancy be damned. — darthbarracuda
Do we live for something? Does the divine give us fulfillment? Can we revolt against the absurd? All of these thoughts seem inspiring, yet oddly distant or esoteric, as if it's always the other people who have it all figured out, and we're just playing catch-up. Don't agree with So-and-So? Then read Such-and-Such, fuck So-and-So, Such-and-Such has all the answers. And on it goes.
Obviously many will disagree with me when I say this, but I don't see very many good reasons to accept that even a single person "has it all figured out." Not the egotistical pop-scientists, not the religious nuts, not the academic philosophers (who have made neuroticism a discipline), not the stoner kid down the street, not the heroic explorer or patriot, not the spiritual gurus, not you, me, or anyone else here. Hell, God Almighty probably doesn't even know what the fuck is going on.
Now this doctrine of uncertainty is ironically a rather "certain" doctrine - indeed if taken literally it would lead to a contradiction: I am positively sure that nobody, including myself, knows anything substantial (a quite substantial claim!) But it seems to me that this belief in the uncertainty is more of a gut-reaction than a crisp theoretical position - yet surely gut-reactions have some credentials in cases like this. — darthbarracuda
So maybe, just maybe (notice the uncertainty?) a point of existence can be derived from a skeptical curiosity that the doctrine of uncertainty will be falsified in the future. Prove me wrong, Universe. Show me there is an overarching purpose. I'll stick around and eat some popcorn in the meantime, entertained by the whole absurdity and metaphysical uncertainty of it all.
And when I die, if there is no meaning to be found, I'll ask the Universe to guess what finger I'm holding up. — darthbarracuda
Does absolute none existence seem more appealing to you? — Punshhh
If you're alive, you have at least two choices, either to make the best of it, or to languish in one of various depressive states. — Punshhh
I basically go over what you are trying to get at in these threads. You may want to check them out and if you want to discuss any of the points, especially about the idea of instrumentality, feel free to make a comment. — schopenhauer1
So yeah I have come to a very similar conclusion. Essentially the ethic starts with antinatalism.. a questioning of why even bring new people into existence. Antinatalism not only solves the problem of future suffering, but it puts your own into perspective too. As the already-existing people experiencing existence, we must constantly be aware of the instrumentality of things. Do not flinch from it and move away to distraction. Rather, it is okay to bitch at the situation.. Be proud to be a Philosophical Pessimist.. Most people are going to tell you to be happy in the absurdity (Camus/Nietzschean style). This is an acceptance of the situation and take the good with the bad. I say it is okay to bitch at it. Philosophical Pessimism is a philosophy of consolation. There are innumerable amounts of harm, many quite nuanced and personalized for the individual. Instrumentality is the background harm out of all of them..it is the absurd angsty feeling.. It is the knowledge that we are going in day in and day out one day rolling into the next. It is the result of a self-aware animal contemplating its own situation. You will have wants and needs that will never be satisfied.. You will have contingent harms (as defined as circumstantial harms that are unwanted/unforeseen), and you will have to contend with the pendulum swing of your own willing nature which is survival through cultural upkeep on one hand (through all the various ways you keep yourself alive and well-adjusted in your cultural setting) and boredom on the other side which, if experienced for a measure of time, will lead to ideas of ennui (world-weariness) and instrumentality (things just do to do to do).. Inevitably, we must go from boredom to entertainment-seeking in our cultural settings. — schopenhauer1
The possibility that I'll find a better purpose than this one, which will probably be the self esteem that comes from achieving difficult things. — Ovaloid
— Ovaloid
I live for the experience of being alive - the drama, the sadness and the happiness, because one cannot be without the other. — Harry Hindu
Being alive is more interesting than being dead. — Harry Hindu
At the moment, I don't have the slightest inclination or reason not to live as long as I possibly can. It's no more in question for me, than say, as I noted in another thread, the question of "Why don't I make and always wear (in public) a hat that looks like a gigantic beach ball and that has five tiger gongs hanging off of it that I regularly strike." Most folks, including me, haven't the slightest inclination or reason to make and wear such a hat, or to even think about it in the first place. Well, that's just what the idea of there being a question whether I should continue to live is like for me. That it would even be an issue is absurd to me. — Terrapin Station
To be or not to be is never the question when virtue is its own reward and wonder the beginning of wisdom, while contentment comes at no cost. — wuliheron
What the hell does that even mean?
How could I even guage or calculate with approximation if it would be more appealing if I have no idea what it is like?
That is like asking which pocket you want to choose from, in the right... would you like this plastic banana that is electrified at 250v? or in the left... would you like this something a rather with a superduper wizz bang thingamajig.
"Please note this is not a pessimistic viewpoint but a realistic one. I am not saying the glass is half empty but saying what does it matter at all?"
This about finding purpose, nothing to do with depression.
More often than late I have found myself wondering "what I am even living for?". It seems after some many years of analysis of this question that all I can rationally say is that I live only because I am afraid to die, like any other animal on earth. — intrapersona
Ok, but I still don't see all of that addressing the great one word question... Why? — intrapersona
It's quite simple, an absence of anything, everything. There are no bananas or thingamajig, it's quite simple. In fact it couldn't be simpler. — Punshhh
I have given purpose a lot of thought and have concluded that the answer is for humanity to secure its long term survival with a healthy social culture, which manages the planetary resources sustainably and cares for and maintains the biosphere. Is that not a worthy purpose? — Punshhh
What puzzles me is why you are taking it to be, or else insisting on making it, a question of cold analysis. Ask yourself whether there is anything or anyone that you care about deeply. or even a little. Does any activity interest you? Do you have any creative or spiritual aspirations? Do any artworks or works of philosophy, or literature or works of music move you? Do you love any activities like dancing or walking in the wilderness or any sports? Does any religion or spiritual teaching speak to your imagination, intuitions or emotions?
If the answer is 'no' to all, or even to any, of these questions, then have you considered the possibility that it is your being unable to see past cold, dead analysis, at least in some connections, that is doing the damage to your state of mind, and perhaps ruining or at least diminishing what could be a productive and flourishing life? — John
We want to get caught up in something so that we do not actually see existence itself or contend with our own boredom. We also have hope that some future state will bring more pleasure than the present state. This provides the carrot and stick. — schopenhauer1
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