Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Confused about nihilism ...
After today's discussion I am still a bit confused about Nihilism. According to Nihilism one cannot believe in anything, but if you are a nihilist aren't you believing in Nihilism itself ?Therefore, I find it hard to believe that true nihilists exist and I believe that true Nihilism is unattainable. I was curious to see if anyone had any substantial examples, or had any other opinions on this.
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I also find it hard to believe that anyone can truly be a nihilist as well; just as Nietzsche's argument against language contradicts itself, so does the idea of nihilism. However, nihilism as a belief that everything has no meaning and all of everything should be destroyed, which seems to me like creation going in a giant circle. To clarify: the predominant theory of the origin of the universe is the Big Bang; that everything was at the same time nothing, no space, no temperature, no difference, and that all at once everything came into difference. Would the universe not be completing the circle by once again entering into a state of no difference, and ultimately a state of nothingness? Is this the same idea of nothingness the "nihilists" propose? Now obviously this is just speculation on a grand scale, but Nietzsche is mentioned at the end of the Pratt article as saying that through this destruction of nihilism, there is a potential for rebirth. The parallels this has with the origins of the universe is kind of freaky, which leads me to wonder if nihilism has a potential to be, even though we don't know how to conceive of it.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I disagree with the statement that argues that people cannot be Nihilists without contradicting themselves...the term is definitely not meant to be taken that literally. Those who refer to themselves as Nihilists don't technically "believe" in Nihilism, because the whole point of their doctrine is that they reject all morals and beliefs. Nihilists are rejecters and not believers; therefore they are not trying to put a "meaning behind the absence of meaning," as the Nihilistic Paradox suggests. Nihilism isn't a belief, rather just a term used to collectively describe the people who don't believe in anything. If someone were to refer to himself as a Nihilist, he is simply just using that word to articulate his views to others.
ReplyDelete-Maureen Paglia
I think that the overall sentiment of Maureen's response is very interesting and it made me wonder more about the term nihilism rather than the actual people it refers to. Lucas pointed out in class that he thought Nihilism was impossible since Pratt uses "would believe" rather than "believes." Maureen states that nihilism isn't a belief at all, but rather a term to describe people. I find these two remarks interesting and it makes me wonder if simply calling these people Nihilists or their belief Nihilism is an outsider labeling them, rather than their own prerogative. Perhaps we label them as Nihilists because we need to refer to a group of people who reject conventionality, not as a response to someone who has rejected nearly everything within society who calls themselves a nihilist.
ReplyDeleteWith this thought then, it breeds the question of who calls them nihilists? Are people themselves placing this label on them (I personally think they wouldn't) or is that society attempting to label them so as to understand them? And does understanding this then clear up the debate of understanding nihilism?
-Amanda Eliades
I think we got too much caught up in trying to proving nihilism cannot be a real concept that we did not even get a chance to understand its implications. While people mabe cannot be one hundred percent "nihilistic" (as we argue above), people surely have nihilistic notions at points in their lives. I think the common variable is tragedy, as Camus shows through his stories regarding war. We go to school, act respectfully, start a family, work long hours, and follow the laws of society all because we find meaning or some sort of value in this life. Yet, even if we work harder than anyone else or follow all of the rules, one action can take it all away from us. A death of a loved one can make anyone question the true meaning of their life. The grand-scale tragedies like war send waves of nihilism through a society as one cannot understand what it all means if we are killing each other and cannot fulfill our dreams we have in our minds. Nihilism may not be a real thing, but it is definitely a real feeling.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem we spent too long worrying if nihilism was a coherent concept, but I would say that it is definitely a real thing (but not merely a real feeling). We experience nihilism, we can recognize it, and we are constantly struggling against it. Namely, we are struggling against not caring about anything, about giving into cynicism, about doubting all genuine human interactions.
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