• Tom Storm
    9k
    So far, I don't see reason to think so. I think you were just really fortunate not to have had your spirit crushed early on. From what you've said so far, I surmise you can't take credit for being a happy nihilist.

    Not to focus on you in particular, but we could use you as a case study in how happy nihilists come about.
    baker

    I don't take credit for being a cheerful. I don't think we can take full credit for our emotional lives.

    Those who can't do this probably have some survival deficits.
    — Tom Storm
    Braggart.
    baker

    Not really. Most people in Australia seem to apprehend no meaning or purpose outside of their own experiences and appear content with what Joshs calls 'concrete experience'. However if one is afflicted by illness or hardship this may change things.

    I've never believed that everything must mean something or that we are part of an absolute purpose, or that there is an ultimate reality humans can understand. There's a hole in reality. We are adrift and we seem to invent stories to help ourselves cope. Some of those tales have a type of magic for a period of time, even centuries, and eventually those stories lose power. Right now we seem to be in a transitional period and are overwhelmed by pluralism. We don't seem to know who should be in charge any more, Some people want to go back to the Greeks, others want more scientistic approaches. Some want to reconcile the two. I'm not an academic, so I'm happy to watch from the sidelines. But I suspect we need fresh world views and models rather than romantic nostalgia projects.

    Only if one ties the value of those day to day events with some overarching or absolutist meaning of life, and rejects such an absolute, is one a nihilist about concrete experience.Joshs

    That seems right to me.
  • DifferentiatingEgg
    37
    Nihilism can cause ennui which can eventually lead to dissatisfaction with life ...
  • jkop
    885


    To expect life to be meaningless has its perks, because whenever life appears meaningless the expectation is satisfied, and whenever life appears meaningful you'll be surprised and enjoy the fact that you were wrong. An optimist who expects life to be meaningful does not enjoy being proved wrong. Therefore, I'd rather be the pessimist, but I wouldn't call it nihilism.

    Regarding nihilism, I don't think there is good reason to believe that life is meaningless everywhere and always.
  • Barkon
    140
    Other people's depression, maybe. To wonder at someone who believes in 'nil' in every context can toll or harm mind.
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