Evee
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- Jul 3, 2014
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Life.
That's absurd.
Life.
Premises:
1) There are both good and bad times in life, but both extremes are fleeting.
2) There is beauty in the highs and lows of life.
3) Appreciation of the beauty found in life's highs and lows leads to spiritual growth.
4) Existence is temporary.
5) The temporary nature of existence makes the present especially precious.
Discuss.
To be fair, this viewpoint of mine is somewhat influenced by a reading of Camus's The Stranger, and Camus was all about absurdism.That's absurd.
1 - This is subjective to the observer. Any answer is correct depending on the specific point of view.
2 - This is subjective to the observer. Any answer is correct depending on the specific point of view.
3 - This is subjective to the observer. Any answer is correct depending on the specific point of view.
4 - I think this is accurate.
5 - This is subjective to the observer. Any answer is correct depending on the specific point of view.
Philosophical questions tend to be subjective in nature. This is why they are never clearly answered, and it is why anyone's opinion is just as valid as the next one.
"What is meaning, purpose, ownership, responsibility, pride, honor, beauty, respect, right, wrong, morals etc?"
- It is whatever you want it to be. But if your society disagrees with you, then you're contextually wrong. There is no objective answer to questions about subjective concepts.
To be fair, this viewpoint of mine is somewhat influenced by a reading of Camus's The Stranger, and Camus was all about absurdism.
Maybe it's more logical to assume I'm going to get reincarnated as a turtle or end up in a magic sky palace where nobody has to eat any vegetables. But I'm pretty convinced death is final, and moreover, that a belief in the finality of death produces the healthiest attitude towards life. Life is an absurd mess, but it's the only thing that is. I'd argue that something is better than nothing.
Everybody talks about whether or not God is true or not, or whether Christianity is true or not, but nobody talks about death. To me, being an atheist and not thinking about death and what it means is kind of a cop-out. It's hypocritical, IMO, to condemn someone for thinking that Jesus got them a place in heaven when you believe that you're going to get reincarnated as Richard Branson's son or whatever. It's essentially the same thing.
What if the something we have is a trap?
Or.. what if the material world is evil or corrupt? Even being absurd about life is binding.
Set by whom? If there is no God, how can it be a trap? It's just purposeless. It isn't good or bad. It just is. All that remains to us is what we decide to do with it.
If the material world is evil, then what is good?
Do you know the myth of Sisyphus? Camus wrote a book about it.
There is no punishment more terrible than purposeless work without hope.
"It is good to be a cynic—it is better to be a contented cat — and it is best not to exist at all. Universal suicide is the most logical thing in the world—we reject it only because of our primitive cowardice and childish fear of the dark. If we were sensible we would seek death—the same blissful blank which we enjoyed before we existed." -H. P. Lovecraft
Premises:
1) There are both good and bad times in life, but both extremes are fleeting.
2) There is beauty in the highs and lows of life.
3) Appreciation of the beauty found in life's highs and lows leads to spiritual growth.
4) Existence is temporary.
5) The temporary nature of existence makes the present especially precious.
Discuss.
1) There are both good and bad times in life, but both extremes are fleeting.
I think this is basically true, I was about to disagree because I thought of the many who (to my standards) have just all-around terrible lives, but realised that to them that is the average, and that good and bad are relative. So I guess you're right.
2) There is beauty in the highs and lows of life.
Definitely, but I'm not sure about the lows. This is all very nebulous but I'd have to say that some lows are plain useless, and hold no beauty, eg. Crushing depression due to loss, this holds no beauty in my opinion.
3) Appreciation of the beauty found in life's highs and lows leads to spiritual growth.
I don't know about spiritual growth, because I pay no mind to it, and I also have no idea what you define as "spiritual". However, I think a good point can be made for reflection of these highs and lows leading to intellectual growth though.
4) Existence is temporary.
If we're talking our existence as people, the answer is axiomatically yes, but "existence" itself is too difficult to talk about without specification, I mean, there's entire schools of philosophy that define it differently to the others.
5) The temporary nature of existence makes the present especially precious.
If we're talking about our own personal existence, then yes, especially because it seems to be a near universal rule that value is inversely proportionate to prevalence or the infinite. If we see the Universe as near infinite in capacity and time, it lends to the idea that our existence is but a blink, and is therefore precious.
Alright, but the premise was actually presented as objective claims, not as personal opinions or thoughts. I think my response fit the premise nicely.This looks like a complete cop-out. After all, this was based upon your opinion, not what is true for all people; which would be nothing by the way.
However your argument of contextualism is definitely reasonable.
Alright, but the premise was actually presented as objective claims, not as personal opinions or thoughts. I think my response fit the premise nicely.
And, as I implied later on, if we are merely looking for subjective opinions, then there is no real point to the discussion as no conclusion is available. My opinion is independent of yours, and yours is independent of mine. Your opinion means something to you, but nothing to me. And vice versa. So what's the point of this if we are not looking for truth?
I am an empirist, but I am also fascinated with the world in a way I cannot explain in objective terms. I call understanding this world and growing in compassion spirituality, and I don't need to bow a knee to some random diety to know this.The title is "Do you agree with me?", which is why I assumed it to be a subjective exploration or survey of people's opinions rather than an attempt at achieving any kind of objectivity. Well, "truth" is a discussion for a different day, for one thing I doubt one could answer or respond to any of these premises in a way that could be labelled "truth" or "objective". Truth is a difficult concept in itself, and simply creating a dichotomy where the subjective means nothing and the objective is truth is a obtuse oversimplification
Premises:
1) There are both good and bad times in life, but both extremes are fleeting.
2) There is beauty in the highs and lows of life.
3) Appreciation of the beauty found in life's highs and lows leads to spiritual growth.
4) Existence is temporary.
5) The temporary nature of existence makes the present especially precious.
Discuss.
Punishment by whom? Punishment for what?
What's logical about seeking death? What are the logical reasons for preferring life over death? Why should nothing be better than something?
What is so great about non-existence that people are so eager to rush towards it? It's just nothing. When it's over, you likely won't feel anything. It will all just stop.
Because in non-existence there is no wish unfulfilled.
In oblivion there is peace once and for all.