The date was May 21st, that was the day that I had a philosophical epiphany. I had come to the realization that I was a Nihilist. What’s even more ironic is that two days prior to this realization my ignorance of this very philosophy was abundant to say the least. It all started with a thread I created on a Philosophy forum titled the Nihilist Paradox. The gist of my thread was that if Nihilists believe in nothing then is it not contradictory that they uphold Nihilism? A friend of mine from the forums was quick to point out that this was a common misconception that people held about Nihilism which consequently would become a stereotype ascribed to all Nihilists. He stated that Nihilists (He was referring specifically to Existential Nihilists as he debated me & others in the thread.) do not believe in nothing but rather, believe that life has no objective meaning, purpose, or value. Needless to say that the thread gained much momentum and an intense discourse ensued. This ultimately led to my friend urging me and every other participant in the thread to do the appropriate research and to empower ourselves.
The first source I referenced was the website: www.nihil.org which is a website fully dedicated to the philosophy of Nihilism. Upon reading the site’s definition of Nihilism it was as if I had opened a door and a blinding light had greeted me on the other side. Nihilists were not people drowning in oceans of their own despair and agony while they bitterly contemplated the nothingness of life. On the contrary, Nihilists are people that believe that life does in fact have meaning but just as my friend said; it was not an objective one. Rather, the Nihilist believes that the meaning of life is one that the self creates through t...
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...er debating the very concept of it. Children were and continue to be active Nihilists and they were and continue to be blissfully ignorant of it. It was then that I knew that active Nihilism was my true path. It was then that I knew that exalting my freedom and liberating myself from my society was not some arduous endeavor but rather it was as easy as the child pursuing the sun down the sidewalk on their bicycle. I will continue pursuing the truth and the morals that define me until either I touch the sun or my legs give way in the desert and the sands bury me alongside Nietzsche and every being who attempted ascension towards the Ubermensch ideal. I have never felt more free or hungry to find truth. I may have put myself in a prison wandering my cell aimlessly for truth and identity until death but in the end it is a life sentence I am more than willing to serve.
In the book, Grendel by John Gardner, Grendel shows that existentialism is significant in his life. Many of his decisions are based on the thought of whether they have a meaning behind it or not. He tries to be nihilistic and think that the world has no meaning but he ends up being existentialist as he cares about how his choices will be perceived. There are different characters that have existentialism in their lives which allows them to function throughout their world. This book promotes existentialism because the different main characters take on their unique roles throughout the book and create their own meaning.
Philosophies such as nihilism, existentialism, and solipsism are explored throughout Grendel, a novel by John Gardner. Throughout the book, Grendel embarks on a journey of self-discovery, in which he tries to find himself through philosophy. Despite trying many different philosophies, Grendel is only met with dissatisfaction. However, the nihilistic philosophy that is introduced by the enigmatic dragon seemingly provides Grendel with a way out of his banal existence. Despite this, Grendel couldn’t fully commit to nihilistic beliefs therefore leading to the development of his scepticism philosophy. In the end, Grendel meets his death at Beowulfs’ hands, who disproves his scepticism and forces him to die an existentialist. The fact is that if Grendel had decided to
In philosophy “Nihilism” is a position of radical skepticism. It is the belief that all values are baseless and nothing is known. The word “Nihilism” itself conveys a sense of abolishing or destroying (IEP). Nietzsche’s work and writings are mostly associated with nihilism in general, and moral nihilism especially. Moral nihilism questions the reality and the foundation of moral values. Nietzsche supported his view on morality by many arguments and discussions on the true nature of our inner self. Through my paper on Moral Nihilism, I will explain 5 major arguments and then try to construct a deductive argument for each, relying on Nietzsche’s book II “Daybreak”.
?If you remain imprisoned in self denial then days, weeks, months, and years, will continue to be wasted.? In the play, 7 stories, Morris Panych exhibits this denial through each character differently. Man, is the only character who understands how meaningless life really is. All of the characters have lives devoid of real meaning or purpose, although they each have developed an absurd point or notion or focus to validate their own existence. In this play, the characters of Charlotte and Rodney, are avoiding the meaninglessness of their lives by having affairs, drinking, and pretending to kill each other to enhance excitement into their life.
It is “being what it is not and not being what it is.” (Being and Nothingness 28) Therefore, being for-itself is roughly being nihilistic, because for-itself is nothingness. It is the opposite of being in-itself, which is not self aware and is merely consciousness. The being for-itself is self aware and creates the meaning of the in-itself, but on its own exists as nothingness, because the for-itself cannot exist unless the in-itself also exists. In the simplest terms, it is the intrapersonal dimension of consciousness and
This is the same with other paths of life with existentialism questioning the authenticity of using things such as religion to fill such void leading to many nihilistic tendencies as well as alienation for oneself and the world around them. What is their left for some who comes to terms with these ideas perhaps suicide. Camus explores the effect of this dilemma which can be seen in his first novel A Happy Death where the two characters are have a conversation about what it is to love life with one of them proposing that for him” Loving life is not going for a swim. It's living in intoxication, intensity. Women, adventures and other countries.” To which the other responds by saying “To think the way you do, you have to be a man who lives either on a tremendous despair, or on a tremendous hope.” Representing that either that the character has embraced life’s meaninglessness and carried on by living life to its fullest or being so hopeful to the point where he’s blind to the cold truth of
Nihilists-People who believe traditional morals, ideas, etc. have no worth or value. They believe society 's political and social institutions are bad and it should be destroyed. They believed that anything and everything associated with the Tsar should be eliminated. An Example of a Russian nihilistic group is the peoples will who believed the only way to achieve freedom was to kill the czar.
Neitzche then began to lose control in his life. he began to drink, to go to parties and to go out all the time. But it became to intense for him and his illness could not stand it. After a few months of this he left his debauchery, renounced life, wandered into a corner and resumed his solitary seat he had held most of his life. Furthermore, he despised himself greatly. He went to the mountains and began to think about the events of the war. He asked questions like: what is the meaning of all this suffering? Where was the “eternal glory” of existence as preached by the prophets? He could find no answers and eventually came up with the theory “God is dead”, or Atheism.
During the mid- to late- 1800s in Russia, a radical phenomenon swept the nation. The idea that life was meaningless and that there was no "mind" or "soul" outside the physical world infected the minds of Russia's elite and Russia's poverty-stricken. This became known as Nihilism. According to Whitney Eggers on "Philosophies in Crime and Punishment," "Nihilists argued that there was a distinction between the weak and the strong, and that in fact the strong had a right to trample over the weak" (Eggers). Nihilism is commonly linked to utilitarianism, or the idea that moral decisions should be based on the rule of the greatest happiness for the largest number of people. Raskolnikov, the protagonist in Crime and Punishment, is a Nihilist, which is his main reason for committing the murders. As a Nihilist, Raskolnikov is a man who "approaches everything from a critical point of view...who does not bow down before any authorities, who does not accept a single principle on faith, no matter how much respect might surround that principle" (Cassedy, 1639).
To live in a world without sacred, shining moments is like breathing air without oxygen. It is these moments that fill us with hope and put meaning into our lives. In a modern sense, the world we once knew is now dull, without meaning or purpose. This idea is often regarded to as nihilism, which is the belief that “nothing really matters.” It is the lack of a firm grounding or belief system that guides our decisions. The authors of All Things Shining give indication that they dislike the idea of nihilism and believe that acts of heroism are the only sacred shining moments left in our secular age. The authors further suggest that their goals are to replace this complete absence of hope with new reason and abandon all despair, which will in-turn encourage others to pursue a meaningful life.
"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive...." Joseph Campbell made this comment on the search for meaning common to every man's life. His statement implies that what we seem bent on finding is that higher spark for which we would all be willing to live or die; we look for some key equation through which we might tie all of the experiences of our life and feel the satisfaction of action toward a goal, rather than the emptiness which sometimes consumes the activities of our existence. He states, however, that we will never find some great pure meaning behind everything, because there is none. What there is to be found, however, is the life itself. We seek to find meaning so that emptiness will not pervade our every thought, our every deed, with the coldness of reality as the unemotional eye chooses to see it. Without color, without joy, without future, reality untouched by hope is an icy thing to view; we have no desire to see it that way. We forget, however, that the higher meaning might be found in existence itself. The joy of life and the experience of living are what make up true meaning, as the swirl of atoms guided by chaotic chance in which we find our existence has no meaning outside itself.
... identity and answers profound life questions otherwise unobtainable. In only a short period of time, my perception of religion has changed vastly. I have been introduced to many other perspectives that have impacted my own beliefs. I hope that as I continue to study new religious ideas, my understanding and knowledge will grow as well.
There is a second sense of nihilism that appears as an outgrowth of the first
There are many different techniques and approaches to group counseling. The approach that I found to be the most interesting is the existential approach. “The existential perspective holds that we define ourselves by our choices” (Corey & Corey, 2014, p.114). This approach can be successful in therapy because it allows one to oversee one’s future. In this paper, I’m going to generally discuss the existential approach to therapy and where it can be used.
The doc told me this would happen. I’d feel sick, nauseated with a headache. Couldn’t do anything about it. I woke in an alley-way and everything was spinning, I couldn’t focus on anything. I tripped, I stumbled out of there, like a deranged drunk and went out with one intent only. To save the future.