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I am a nihilist in so far as I believe "that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Moral nihilists assert that morality does not inherently exist, and that any established moral values are abstractly contrived." - Whatever value life has, is contrived by thinking living beings. Absent an observer to give life or morals value, there cannot be value.
This, however, does not prevent me from contriving my own morals and assigning value to life. My nihilism does not contradict my ethical hedonism ("Ethical hedonism is the idea that all people have the right to do everything in their power to achieve the greatest amount of pleasure possible to them, assuming that their actions do not infringe on the equal rights of others." - also wiki).
I am also lucky enough to have the genetic disposition of being generally happy "at rest" - so, I am happy without having to try too hard. I am also very lucky in being able to glean happiness from my life.. so, in general, I am a pretty happy nihilist
This, however, does not prevent me from contriving my own morals and assigning value to life. My nihilism does not contradict my ethical hedonism ("Ethical hedonism is the idea that all people have the right to do everything in their power to achieve the greatest amount of pleasure possible to them, assuming that their actions do not infringe on the equal rights of others." - also wiki).
Ethical hedonism? Interesting definition... I think I will adopt this philosophy too...
I think I'm kind of a nihilist... But I don't think that prevents me from "finding happiness"... Although I'm aware that any happiness is only temporary... But can be replaced by another happiness later...
I am a nihilist in so far as I believe "that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Moral nihilists assert that morality does not inherently exist, and that any established moral values are abstractly contrived." - Whatever value life has, is contrived by thinking living beings. Absent an observer to give life or morals value, there cannot be value.
This, however, does not prevent me from contriving my own morals and assigning value to life. My nihilism does not contradict my ethical hedonism ("Ethical hedonism is the idea that all people have the right to do everything in their power to achieve the greatest amount of pleasure possible to them, assuming that their actions do not infringe on the equal rights of others." - also wiki).
I am also lucky enough to have the genetic disposition of being generally happy "at rest" - so, I am happy without having to try too hard. I am also very lucky in being able to glean happiness from my life.. so, in general, I am a pretty happy nihilist
I could high five you for this. I profoundly agree. I do not think that there is an absolute Truth when it comes to morality, when it comes to good and evil. These are vitally important social constructs that humans probably had to come up with...but they aren't absolute or self evident.
I also do not think that happiness of any sort is only temporary. I carry a merrily burning little bonfire of happiness inside. Externalities do not bring me down, at least not for very long. Unhappiness, for me, is a temporary condition. As temporary as a fleeting head cold or toothache, and as curable.
This is why I came to this subforum. I was thinking today, how important to me is my philosophy of happiness. I know people who are baseline unhappy and seek happiness from externalities. They do not seem to fare so well...
I also do not think that happiness of any sort is only temporary. I carry a merrily burning little bonfire of happiness inside. Externalities do not bring me down, at least not for very long. Unhappiness, for me, is a temporary condition. As temporary as a fleeting head cold or toothache, and as curable.
Both happiness and unhappiness are temporary
One will never be happy all the time, or unhappy all the time.
As a nihilist, I know life has no meaning or purpose. The meaning of life is just staying alive, if you want to.
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To the thread title: I don't consider myself a nihilist, for I see values as being rooted in our ability to feel emotional disturbance / degradation. I'll explain it via this example:
Someone with intent of malice inflicted upon me a physical disability (permanent or not). This person did so in a spirit of spite, contempt, or conscious willful indifference toward me. If such acts or the sentiment accompanying them did not tend to cause in others (or me) non-trivial emotional disturbances, then I would find it very difficult to justify forbidding such acts against others and/or me. Furthermore, physical injury need not be present - mere emotional disturbance is enough. One can substitute racial and sexual harassment in my above example and the point still applies despite the act's lack of physicality.
As for our purpose: I distinguish between humanity as a whole and individual humans. Be careful not to confuse the two lest you commit The Fallacy of Composition or it's opposite The Fallacy of Division (assuming the whole and its parts have the same properties). In this case, I say the human species has no purpose, for essentially humanity simply strives to survive for the sake of surviving. For individual humans, there is a purpose. Without going into details, I say that if humans do have a purpose, it's to prevent or mitigate against pain, suffering, and degradation.
Don't mistake me. There's nothing wrong with pleasure so long as the pleasure itself (or the means of securing it) does not cause grief, harm, or degradation of other's essential dignity. It's just that I consider pleasure important to the extent that, absent that pleasure, suffering, harm and degradation result, especially to others (I consider morality cannot exist if only one person is affected by an act, but that's another topic).
For individual humans, there is a purpose. Without going into details, I say that if humans do have a purpose, it's to prevent or mitigate against pain, suffering, and degradation.
Sigmund Freud once wrote: "what decides the purpose of life is simply the programme of the pleasure principle".
To Freud, both "seeking of pleasure" and "avoiding of pain" are part of the same principle, that he called "pleasure principle".
Doesn't nihilism essentially mean that you can do whatever you want, whenever you, to whom or whatever you want because morality, ethics and meaning don't exist? I am not a nihilist because no matter where I go or what I do, I can't put the notion of 'right' and 'wrong' out of my mind. I can't see a report about a murder, rape or molestion and shake the notion that this is 'evil' and people who do these things are 'evil'. I can't look at Houlocaust pictures and pictures from the eastern front of ww2 and not conclude that this was 'evil'. I can't look at ISIS beheadings as meaningless, they are 'evil' to me. That is why I personally can not be a nihilist. Nihilism, to me, is one step away from psychopathy.
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