I was wondering what are the basics of it and do you really have to be anarchist?
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Nihilism
- Thread starter The Sum of Awe
- Start date
AfterGlow
Invisible Puffle
I don't think there are any "basics" as such , it's not a belief system, just the belief that ultimately there is no meaning behind existence, no number 42 that is the answer to all things. And that concepts like morality are romantic fictions that have no objective existence, instead they exist only in the minds of men.
dust1n
Zindīq
Nihilism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nihilism has many definitions and is thus used to describe arguably independent philosophical positions.
Moral nihilism
Moral nihilism, also known as ethical nihilism, is the meta-ethical view that morality does not exist as something inherent to objective reality; therefore no action is necessarily preferable to any other. For example, a moral nihilist would say that killing someone, for whatever reason, is not inherently right or wrong. Other nihilists may argue not that there is no morality at all, but that if it does exist, it is a human and thus artificial construction, wherein any and all meaning is relative for different possible outcomes. As an example, if someone kills someone else, such a nihilist might argue that killing is not inherently a bad thing, bad independently from our moral beliefs, only that because of the way morality is constructed as some rudimentary dichotomy, what is said to be a bad thing is given a higher negative weighting than what is called good: as a result, killing the individual was bad because it did not let the individual live, which was arbitrarily given a positive weighting. In this way a moral nihilist believes that all moral claims are false.
Existential nihilism
Existential nihilism is the belief that life has no intrinsic meaning or value. With respect to the universe, existential nihilism posits that a single human or even the entire human species is insignificant, without purpose and unlikely to change in the totality of existence. The meaninglessness of life is largely explored in the philosophical school of existentialism.
Epistemological nihilism
Nihilism of an epistemological form can be seen as an extreme form of skepticism in which all knowledge is denied.[50]
Metaphysical nihilism
Metaphysical nihilism is the philosophical theory that there might be no objects at all, i.e. that there is a possible world in which there are no objects at all; or at least that there might be no concrete objects at all, so even if every possible world contains some objects, there is at least one that contains only abstract objects.
An extreme form of metaphysical nihilism is commonly defined as the belief that existence itself does not exist.[51][52] One way of interpreting such a statement would be: It is impossible to distinguish 'existence' from 'non-existence' as there are no objective qualities, and thus a reality, that one state could possess in order to discern between the two. If one cannot discern existence from its negation, then the concept of existence has no meaning; or in other words, does not 'exist' in any meaningful way. 'Meaning' in this sense is used to argue that as existence has no higher state of reality, which is arguably its necessary and defining quality, existence itself means nothing. It could be argued that this belief, once combined with epistemological nihilism, leaves one with an all-encompassing nihilism in which nothing can be said to be real or true as such values do not exist. A similar position can be found in solipsism; however, in this viewpoint the solipsist affirms whereas the nihilist would deny the self. Both these positions are forms of anti-realism.[citation needed]
Mereological nihilism
Mereological nihilism (also called compositional nihilism) is the position that objects with proper parts do not exist (not only objects in space, but also objects existing in time do not have any temporal parts), and only basic building blocks without parts exist, and thus the world we see and experience full of objects with parts is a product of human misperception (i.e., if we could see clearly, we would not perceive compositive objects).
Political nihilism
Political nihilism, a branch of nihilism, follows the characteristic nihilist's rejection of non-rationalized or non-proven assertions. In this case the necessity of the most fundamental social and political structures, such as government, family, law and law enforcement. The Nihilist movement in 19th century Russia espoused a similar doctrine. Political nihilism is rather different from other forms of nihilism, and is actually more like a form of Utilitarianism, albeit an extreme and radical one.
A good firm basic summarization.
Nihilism has many definitions and is thus used to describe arguably independent philosophical positions.
Moral nihilism
Moral nihilism, also known as ethical nihilism, is the meta-ethical view that morality does not exist as something inherent to objective reality; therefore no action is necessarily preferable to any other. For example, a moral nihilist would say that killing someone, for whatever reason, is not inherently right or wrong. Other nihilists may argue not that there is no morality at all, but that if it does exist, it is a human and thus artificial construction, wherein any and all meaning is relative for different possible outcomes. As an example, if someone kills someone else, such a nihilist might argue that killing is not inherently a bad thing, bad independently from our moral beliefs, only that because of the way morality is constructed as some rudimentary dichotomy, what is said to be a bad thing is given a higher negative weighting than what is called good: as a result, killing the individual was bad because it did not let the individual live, which was arbitrarily given a positive weighting. In this way a moral nihilist believes that all moral claims are false.
Existential nihilism
Existential nihilism is the belief that life has no intrinsic meaning or value. With respect to the universe, existential nihilism posits that a single human or even the entire human species is insignificant, without purpose and unlikely to change in the totality of existence. The meaninglessness of life is largely explored in the philosophical school of existentialism.
Epistemological nihilism
Nihilism of an epistemological form can be seen as an extreme form of skepticism in which all knowledge is denied.[50]
Metaphysical nihilism
Metaphysical nihilism is the philosophical theory that there might be no objects at all, i.e. that there is a possible world in which there are no objects at all; or at least that there might be no concrete objects at all, so even if every possible world contains some objects, there is at least one that contains only abstract objects.
An extreme form of metaphysical nihilism is commonly defined as the belief that existence itself does not exist.[51][52] One way of interpreting such a statement would be: It is impossible to distinguish 'existence' from 'non-existence' as there are no objective qualities, and thus a reality, that one state could possess in order to discern between the two. If one cannot discern existence from its negation, then the concept of existence has no meaning; or in other words, does not 'exist' in any meaningful way. 'Meaning' in this sense is used to argue that as existence has no higher state of reality, which is arguably its necessary and defining quality, existence itself means nothing. It could be argued that this belief, once combined with epistemological nihilism, leaves one with an all-encompassing nihilism in which nothing can be said to be real or true as such values do not exist. A similar position can be found in solipsism; however, in this viewpoint the solipsist affirms whereas the nihilist would deny the self. Both these positions are forms of anti-realism.[citation needed]
Mereological nihilism
Mereological nihilism (also called compositional nihilism) is the position that objects with proper parts do not exist (not only objects in space, but also objects existing in time do not have any temporal parts), and only basic building blocks without parts exist, and thus the world we see and experience full of objects with parts is a product of human misperception (i.e., if we could see clearly, we would not perceive compositive objects).
Political nihilism
Political nihilism, a branch of nihilism, follows the characteristic nihilist's rejection of non-rationalized or non-proven assertions. In this case the necessity of the most fundamental social and political structures, such as government, family, law and law enforcement. The Nihilist movement in 19th century Russia espoused a similar doctrine. Political nihilism is rather different from other forms of nihilism, and is actually more like a form of Utilitarianism, albeit an extreme and radical one.
A good firm basic summarization.
Well I consider myself a nihilist and am not an anarchist.
Because I believe in nihilism I can allow others to have and practice there own belief.
In other words I see no reason to enforce nihilism on everyone which if you did kinda negates nihilism anyway.
If nothing has meaning how does nihilism get supreme meaning.
jaysing4
One of many.
You won't get nihilism by reading it, you gotta think about it on your own before others telling you what it means. When you read "Nothing exists not even existence itself" your thinking of it as a probability, but really it's an ultimate truth theirs no "forcing" it on anyone its the truth just like how it's true your human. Nihilism is probably the most hardest thing to explain, i don't even think you can, their are no words for it, just deep deep thought maybe if you get some lsd and do some research, youll probably get it. all i had to say, peace.
Hmm, I tend to agree a lot with Existential Nihilism. Any books on it?
nnmartin
Well-Known Member
I think that is more or less true.
What we find moral in one country or time period is certainly not the same in another.
Is there a basic level of morality anyway considering that humans are just animals with clothes?
Unless you consider Realism a mental illness... it's not.
Not a basic one, no. Each moral system is equally "correct" and "good". Yes, this means a Nazi's system and the Golden Rules are equal.
You're right on the mark of reality!
It doesn't matter what you or I desire, being that it isn't based on objective reality, rather on subjective emotion.
On the otherhand, you can look at it as you being the only reality thereof since you are the only one that agrees with yourself, you're a reality yourself, just a subjective one, and say that everything YOU desire is good and what you don't is bad, and it entirely blocks out other peoples' opinions.
JacobEzra.
Dr. Greenthumb
Nope. You just gotta know how to rock out
unk:[youtube]2WOx4U3sCuQ[/youtube]
Rancid- Nihilism - YouTube
Subjective emotions are a part of objective reality. When someone acts out based on their subjective emotions, does that event not occur objectively? Subjectivity just describes the personal experience of things. All those thoughts, emotions, etc still occur in objective reality however. The subjective/objective distinction isn't wholly separated. One isn't better or worse than the other. They're two sides to the same coin.
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It's funny. Me and you are totally different people, yet the same person.
Okay. Hunger Games was the worst movie ever. That's a subjective opinion, is part of an objective reality. It doesn't mean the Hunger Games was the worst movie ever.
Fair enough, but it also doesn't mean that the subjective doesn't matter or that it's inferior to the objective. They both exist in the same reality. Values, beliefs, and opinions are constructs actually existing within the brains of people that have a qualitative affect upon on the way they act and interact with other people and their environments. Some see mental constructs as alien to objective reality, but they actually arose directly out of it and interact with it constantly. Look how our opinions make a mark on this web page. Some people might read our words and, in turn, their minds may change in different directions or they may react with disagreement or indifference. These thoughts formulate in their brains regardless.
We both tend to believe in nothingness, but we have a different understanding of what exactly it entails. Whereas we might both conclude that nothing matters, I would say that means everything matters. Everything arose because of everything else. Some form and substance arises because of that which has no form or substance. Emptiness precedes existence precedes essence. Everything that we know, or think that we know, is dependent upon the greater amount of things that we don't know. I am very interested in believing in nothingness. This is a summation and I'm sure I'm not explaining what I mean well enough. Perhaps we could discuss it in detail some time.
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this post is reminder to reply after school.
What is "nihilism" to you?
Agreed. Subjectivity is a part of our reality, and we had to accept that.
But, just because it's a part of our reality, doesn't make it true. Dreams are part of our reality, but they are not true, they are real, but not in the objective sense. Objective sense being the absolute factual based on what's real.
Dreams are objective, but what they are is subjective.
Sorry if I'm hard to understand,
.Yes, and because they are subjective there is not really an objective, correct way to look at it, since we can all look at it from different, subjective views. To look at it correctly, we'd have to dig it out objectively, not with subjective understandings, which is incredibly hard to do since consciousness is based of 99% subjectivity, as consciousness is a subjective thing itself.
Well, it's a subjective thing to put value into something, value is inherently based on consciousness, which is highly subjective. Therefore putting meaning and value into something would be subjective itself.
Objectively, nothing has value therefore, and objectivity is the only thing we can use to measure absolute truths. Subjectivity is never true, but it can be useful, and I'm not saying we can't have subjectivity, that would be incredibly hard, if not impossible, to avoid in fact.