[NT] Nihilism

[Mole]

Why has homo sapiens become so successful? Or we might ask, what niche does homo sapiens fill? What does homo sapiens have other animals don't?

Well, it's obvious homo sapiens is inter-subjective. In other words I can know what you are thinking and you can know what I am thinking - setting up an inter-subjective loop.

And an inter-subjective loop is simply meaning. So we are a meaning creating animal. In fact we are a large, a very large, meaning creating animal, about 7 billion of us. So taken as a whole, homo sapiens is the largest animal on the planet.

Normally of course we think of the Blue Whale as the largest animal that has every lived and is alive today, but the enormous Blue Whale is a minnow compared to homo sapiens.

And being such a large animal we are connecting our various parts, such as the inner and outer of our psyche; and we are connecting ourselves across time and space 24/7 across the entire planet, just as we do on Central.

 

[WhoCares]

I had a close encounter with nihilism in practice the other day. It made me more depressed and misanthropic than ever. I literally despaired of the cockroaches on the planet known as humans. It was a simple display of meaningless destruction.

I had placed some rubbish on the curb to be collected by my council and within hours my carefully boxed and neat arrangement on the verge looked like it had been attacked by a herd of elephants. Person's unknown had tossed this rubbish in all directions. Scattering it onto a driveway, breaking the breakables and pulling plugs off the ends of electrical cords and tossing them about the street. There was no reason for such a thing, everything in my pile was clearly junk of zero value so no-one was picking over the goods in the hope of finding treasure. The more I looked at the mess the more I realised there was no thought behind this, someone had literally just gone to town in a mindless rage then walked on. Knowing such an individual exists in close proximity to me made me pray for death to come soon. Better that than meet this person in the flesh.

Nihilism is knowing random shit happens and there really is no reason behind it. It's scary as all get-out.

 

[Mole]

Nihilism, Racism, Quantum Mechanics and Genetics

Nihilism is knowing random shit happens and there really is no reason behind it. It's scary as all get-out.

Nihilism is a Nineteen Century philosophy invalidated by Quantum Mechanics in the Twentieth Century.

So although Quantum Mechanics shows that the level of the quanta, that is at the atomic level, that things happen randomly and there is no reason behind it and it is scary as all get out.

Quantum Mechanics also tells us that at the macroscopic level, the level we live on, that things are exquisitely predictable with statistics.

And interestingly Quantum Mechanics exactly mirrors genetics. For Twentieth Century genetics completely invalidates the Nineteenth Century theory of racism.

So it would seem that although we live in the Twenty First Century, our minds are in the Nineteenth Century, at least as far as nihilism and race go.

 

[A_priori]

Nihilism is a Nineteen Century philosophy invalidated by Quantum Mechanics in the Twentieth Century.

So although Quantum Mechanics shows that the level of the quanta, that is at the atomic level, that things happen randomly and there is no reason behind it and it is scary as all get out.

Quantum Mechanics also tells us that at the macroscopic level, the level we live on, that things are equisitely predictable with statistics.

And interestingly Quantum Mechanics exactly mirrors genetics. For Twentieth Century genetics completely invalidates the Nineteenth Century theory of racism.

So it would seem that although we live in the Twenty First Century, our minds are in the Nineteenth Century, at least as far as nihilism and race go.

Lol holy hell

 

[Mole]

Lol holy hell

Yes, A-priori, we drive forward looking in the rear vision mirror at nihilism and race, while quantum mechanics and genetics are rushing towards us through the windshield.

 

[Fluffywolf]

Life is what you make of it. That in and of itself is beautiful in my mind.

 

[WhoCares]

Nihilism is a Nineteen Century philosophy invalidated by Quantum Mechanics in the Twentieth Century.

So although Quantum Mechanics shows that the level of the quanta, that is at the atomic level, that things happen randomly and there is no reason behind it and it is scary as all get out.

Quantum Mechanics also tells us that at the macroscopic level, the level we live on, that things are exquisitely predictable with statistics.

And interestingly Quantum Mechanics exactly mirrors genetics. For Twentieth Century genetics completely invalidates the Nineteenth Century theory of racism.

So it would seem that although we live in the Twenty First Century, our minds are in the Nineteenth Century, at least as far as nihilism and race go.

I know I'm officially an INTJ and should dig that stuff but actually I have no idea what you are trying to say. Does it really matter if we call it nihilism or quantum mechanics or whether or not it is actually predictable with some branch of mathematics? Nihilism comes down to how one is perceiving their world and generally a world which is perceived as random, unpredictable and and utterly without meaning engenders feelings of despair.

 

[A_priori]

Why has homo sapiens become so successful? Or we might ask, what niche does homo sapiens fill? What does homo sapiens have other animals don't?

Well, it's obvious homo sapiens is inter-subjective. In other words I can know what you are thinking and you can know what I am thinking - setting up an inter-subjective loop.

And an inter-subjective loop is simply meaning. So we are a meaning creating animal. In fact we are a large, a very large, meaning creating animal, about 7 billion of us. So taken as a whole, homo sapiens is the largest animal on the planet.

Normally of course we think of the Blue Whale as the largest animal that has every lived and is alive today, but the enormous Blue Whale is a minnow compared to homo sapiens.

And being such a large animal we are connecting our various parts, such as the inner and outer of our psyche; and we are connecting ourselves across time and space 24/7 across the entire planet, just as we do on Central.

Okay not to negate the fact that you might be intellectual according to some sort of measure, but lets just consider you were actually trying to argue a point where what you were saying was based on science. Can you actually prove that we as humans have anymore worth than any other being?

I don't know I guess what gets me in the grand scheme of things is that you post stuff on here using all your quantum, technical jargon when I don't think you have said anyhing really in the direction of scince or objectivity. Everything you write is based on your collective knowlage or collective experience and is just as bias as the last persons post ect.. Who really knows if anything in this world holds a certain significance or meaning?

In order to know this answer you would have to have some sort of higher power to conform your beliefs, which you do not nor does anyone on here. So, what I am ultimately trying to get at here is that I don't think it's going to matter how many posts or how methodical you try and portray yourself. The fact still remains that Nihilism is just as valid of a philosophical view pont as your own, no matter what century it derived from.

 

[A_priori]

Yes, A-priori, we drive forward looking in the rear vision mirror at nihilism and race, while quantum mechanics and genetics are rushing towards us through the windshield.

Oh and btw, if you mean we as in me as well you can scratch my off that list.

 

[murkrow]

If we are meaning creating animals, our heaven is replete with meaning and our hell has nil meaning, is meaningless, ruled by nihilism.

You're fun.

Do you really want to debate or just see who can think up the most ridiculous statements?

 

[Mycroft]

I think Victor's just saying that one of Nihilism's central theses -- that the world and the universe are inherently chaotic -- has been shown not to be the case at the macro level, which is the level at which we exist and go about our day-to-day lives.

I think that would make good fuel for debate. I don't understand why Victor's simple statements are met with such unjustified derision.

 

[murkrow]

the argument against nihilism by restating a point it denies: that we have a real intersubjectivity

I'm out of here.

 

[Mole]

I know I'm officially an INTJ and should dig that stuff but actually I have no idea what you are trying to say. Does it really matter if we call it nihilism or quantum mechanics or whether or not it is actually predictable with some branch of mathematics? Nihilism comes down to how one is perceiving their world and generally a world which is perceived as random, unpredictable and and utterly without meaning engenders feelings of despair.

Sure, we can feel despair at an illusion. We can perceive the world as random, unpredictable and utterly without meaning or we can question our perception and ask does our perception correspond with reality?

And as we are meaning creating animals who have created the exquisite and deep meaning of quantum mechanics, it may be we are misperceiving the world as meaningless. And we might well look elsewhere, rather than nihilism, to find the cause of our despair.

For instance, we might look to child rearing practices, or the social relations under which we live, to find the cause of our despair.

 

[Mole]

Togetherness

I don't understand why Victor's simple statements are met with such unjustified derision.

And of course I wonder myself. And I wonder if the derision is justified.

And I think it is justified in the sense I don't belong.

And this is threatening for those who come here, quite justifiably, for a sense of belonging.

Although perhaps I do serve a purpose in that in being derisory I inadvertantly emphasis how worthy are those who belong. After all, those who belong need someone who doesn't belong to define themselves and to feel warm and cosy. And the world's made rosy, warm and cosy, by togetherness.

 

[Mole]

Do you really want to debate or just see who can think up the most ridiculous statements?

I don't want to debate, rather I hope to inspire a creative response.

 

[Mole]

Oh and btw, if you mean we as in me as well you can scratch my off that list.

Oh I see, you are a literate individual and not part of the etribe in the global village.

 

[Mole]

Who really knows if anything in this world holds a certain significance or meaning?

In order to know this answer you would have to have some sort of higher power to conform your beliefs, which you do not nor does anyone on here. So, what I am ultimately trying to get at here is that I don't think it's going to matter how many posts or how methodical you try and portray yourself. The fact still remains that Nihilism is just as valid of a philosophical view point as your own, no matter what century it derived from.

Fortunately the Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries gave us a method for determining which meanings are true and which meanings are false.

The method is based on evidence and reason and it has given us our social world of equality and freedom, and it has given us our scientific world of fact.

 

[A_priori]

Oh I see, you are a literate individual and not part of the etribe in the global village.

No just not part of your belief system.

 

[A_priori]

Fortunately the Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries gave us a method for determining which meanings are true and which meanings are false.

The method is based on evidence and reason and it has given us our social world of equality and freedom, and it has given us our scientific world of fact.

Which method is that again? By all means please do elaborate on the evidence part?

 

[Mole]

The Scientific Method

Which method is that again? By all means please do elaborate on the evidence part?

The West is based on four pillars - Ancient Greek philosophy, Judaism, Christianity and the Enlightenment. And it was the Enlightenment that gave us the scientific method of evidence and reason.

Until the Enlightenment we had authority and faith. And the Enlightenment put authority and faith to the test of evidence and reason.

And evidence and reason have given us science and technology, modern medicine, universal literacy, electronic media, modern economics, liberal democracy, and much of what we take for granted around us.

The Enlightenment also gave us the values of freedom and equality.

And so the Enlightenment led to the abolition of institutional slavery for the first time in history by the House of Commons in 1833.

And the Enlightenment gave us the emancipation of women for the first time in history in Australia and New Zealand in 1904.

And the Enlightenment gave us the ending of institutional child abuse for the first time in history in Ireland in 2009 with the Judicial Ryan Commission.

And as you read Australia is following Ireland's example with a National Royal Commission into institutional child abuse.

So to answer your question, the evidence is scientific evidence to which reason is applied. And this method is called the scientific method.