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Originally Posted by dissention
My first response in this thread had nothing to do with you or any point you were making. It had to do with my personal beliefs. I don't necessarily put stock into everything that a true existential nihilist believes, but I believe quite a lot of it.
Existential Nihilism
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/n/ni...ial%20Nihilism
While nihilism is often discussed in terms of extreme skepticism and relativism, for most of the 20th century it has been associated with the belief that life is meaningless. Existential nihilism begins with the notion that the world is without meaning or purpose. Given this circumstance, existence itself--all action, suffering, and feeling--is ultimately senseless and empty.
In the twentieth century, it's the atheistic existentialist movement, popularized in France in the 1940s and 50s, that is responsible for the currency of existential nihilism in the popular consciousness. Jean-Paul Sartre's (1905-1980) defining preposition for the movement, "existence precedes essence," rules out any ground or foundation for establishing an essential self or a human nature. When we abandon illusions, life is revealed as nothing; and for the existentialists, nothingness is the source of not only absolute freedom but also existential horror and emotional anguish. Nothingness reveals each individual as an isolated being "thrown" into an alien and unresponsive universe, barred forever from knowing why yet required to invent meaning. |
I read that thing. Did it address the question of the future being preordained? Somewhat. But even though it said that existence is nothing, it still seemed to also address that even nihilism, and the belief in it, will affect things, people, the world. That it has implications on cilivilisation. But overall, I'm not sure I'd look to that
particular theory of existence to answer whether I believe the future is preordained, or not. It seems, to me, to speak to something else.
But you did just say it had more to do with your personal beliefs than the question at hand.
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It has been over a century now since Nietzsche explored nihilism and its implications for civilization. As he predicted, nihilism's impact on the culture and values of the 20th century has been pervasive, its apocalyptic tenor spawning a mood of gloom and a good deal of anxiety, anger, and terror. Interestingly, Nietzsche himself, a radical skeptic preoccupied with language, knowledge, and truth, anticipated many of the themes of postmodernity. It's helpful to note, then, that he believed we could--at a terrible price--eventually work through nihilism. If we survived the process of destroying all interpretations of the world, we could then perhaps discover the correct course for humankind:"