Thursday, October 9, 2014
Nihilism - happiness/freedom
In class on Wednesday we talked about Nihilism and the characteristics of it. We discussed the four types of Nihilism but existential nihilism stood out the most to me. After learning that existential nihilism is the rejection of an intrinsic meaning or value to life, I was wondering how this belief affects happiness and freedom. I think we were able to discuss this question for a few minutes towards the end of class but I am still unclear as to how specifically happiness and freedom are affected.
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I feel that it is very difficult to obtain happiness if you are a nihilist. Nihilists are extreme pessimists. I believe that if you are constantly expressing negativity about any meaning or value in life, then there is no possible way to acquire happiness. In order to be happy, you must appreciate experiences and be content with your life, and it doesn't sound like nihilists fall into this category. Happiness comes from meaningful parts of life, and because nihilists reject these, it seems as though they reject happiness as well.
ReplyDeleteGoing along with Molly’s comment, I believe that nihilists will find it very difficult to reach happiness due to their belief that life itself has no value. Because as previously discussed, happiness is thought to be determined by looking at one’s life collectively, it seems impossible for a nihilist to find happiness if they reject all meaning to life in general. Because happiness is determined by a culmination of our activities, if all of these activities are thought to be meaningless can happiness be achieved at all by a nihilist?
ReplyDeleteIt seems that Nihilists pretty much have absolutely nothing. Like literally nothing. They don’t even believe in themselves. How can they believe in happiness? Can Nihilism even support a concept such as looking back on one’s own life (Aristotelean) to evaluate the status of the individual? Could they even comprehend something with feeling or emotion? Nihilists are the epitome of “can’t even.”
ReplyDeleteI wonder if a Nihilist can achieve happiness without even trying to or meaning to. For example, if a Nihilist wants total destruction because they think that the concept is "beautiful," wouldn't destroying make that person happy? i.e. if you want something, perceive its beauty, and actually GET it, are you not made happy?
ReplyDeleteMoral nihilism completely opposes the idea that happiness is a moral good since they argue that there is no such thing as good or bad moral behavior. But I don’t necessarily think that they wouldn't consider happiness as something they wouldn’t want to achieve. If nihilists have a certain vision of how the world ought to be, then they would most likely derive some form of pleasure and satisfaction if that world came to fruition. Moral nihilists would argue that we should not label happiness as a moral good and we should not strive to achieve it. Rather, it should be something that simply exists. But then, the overall definition of nihilism is the belief in nothing, which I think is ultimately impossible. So if all nihilists follow this definition, then how could happiness exist at all? Perhaps it just doesn't exist as something as concrete as we tend to make it. Or do nihilists simply deny their feelings of happiness and choose to observe the feeling as it comes?
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