100 of RBG's former law clerks show up to honor her.

Billy Ocean

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Jan 7, 2017
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I am firmly of the mindset that our lives are meaningless. We’re born, we endure, we die. That’s it.

I can go further into why this makes it imperative that we make the most of the life we have (because that’s all there is) and accepting the meaninglessness of it all is what liberates us to do just that.

But I don’t have time.
I think this is existentialism achtually


Although nihilism and existentialism are distinct philosophies, they are often confused with one another as both are rooted in the human experience of anguish and confusion stemming from the apparent meaninglessness of a world in which humans are compelled to find or create meaning.[52] A primary cause of confusion is that Friedrich Nietzsche was an important philosopher in both fields. Existentialist philosophers often stress the importance of Angst as signifying the absolute lack of any objective ground for action, a move that is often reduced to moral or existential nihilism. A pervasive theme in existentialist philosophy, however, is to persist through encounters with the absurd, as seen in Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus ("One must imagine Sisyphus happy")[53] and it is only very rarely that existentialist philosophers dismiss morality or one's self-created meaning: Kierkegaard regained a sort of morality in the religious (although he wouldn't agree that it was ethical; the religious suspends the ethical), and Sartre's final words in Being and Nothingnessare: "All these questions, which refer us to a pure and not an accessory (or impure) reflection, can find their reply only on the ethical plane. We shall devote to them a future work."[44]
 

Duffy LaCoronilla

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Apr 27, 2016
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I think this is existentialism achtually


Although nihilism and existentialism are distinct philosophies, they are often confused with one another as both are rooted in the human experience of anguish and confusion stemming from the apparent meaninglessness of a world in which humans are compelled to find or create meaning.[52] A primary cause of confusion is that Friedrich Nietzsche was an important philosopher in both fields. Existentialist philosophers often stress the importance of Angst as signifying the absolute lack of any objective ground for action, a move that is often reduced to moral or existential nihilism. A pervasive theme in existentialist philosophy, however, is to persist through encounters with the absurd, as seen in Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus ("One must imagine Sisyphus happy")[53] and it is only very rarely that existentialist philosophers dismiss morality or one's self-created meaning: Kierkegaard regained a sort of morality in the religious (although he wouldn't agree that it was ethical; the religious suspends the ethical), and Sartre's final words in Being and Nothingnessare: "All these questions, which refer us to a pure and not an accessory (or impure) reflection, can find their reply only on the ethical plane. We shall devote to them a future work."[44]
Sure, whatever. Doesn't matter really.
 
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PRCD

Tom Curren status
Feb 25, 2020
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I disagree.

You've turned me into your straw man.

Didn't you see my cool bench I made?

Would a nihilist do something like that?

I say no.
I say it depends on what the nihilist's preferences were.
Like good Dr Frankl I believe we make our own meaning.

Creating one's own meaning is another way of saying that it's unknowable for everyone and can only be personally known through experience or personal fiat. This seems like a minor variation on nihilism: you declare something has meaning or you experience something meaningful. Big deal. You should be skeptical of any philosophies invented in the 1940s. Solzhenitsyn went through a different type of gulag and concluded the USSR was as bad as it was because everyone forgot God. This seems to be a conclusion from suffering that has much more historical referent.

At a practical level, I try to contribute to the society with meaningful work.
What is meaningful?
Nihilism is pretty hard to disprove unless you just want to argue on consequentialist grounds
Christians believe the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. As a Christian, I would attempt to disprove on nihilism on the basis of the existence of God. To be clear, I have been drinking.
 
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