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Western philosophy is too focused on Rationalism. There I said. Rationality works well for the context we are currently in. As a beast of a particular environment with a particular set of initial conditions on a planet in a particular point of the universe. I side more with both Nietzche and Kirkagaard on this and say that developing a purpose that is born of one's will and transcends rationality is important for us. Specifically as metaphysical animals that are more concerned with following a cosmic order, than whether or not that cosmic order is right or wrong. Put those two together alongside some psychological digging and a healthy dose of skepticism leads to one answer - transcendence. There is the spiritual kind, one of which I doubt you're interested since your an atheist (me too), and then theres the physical kind. Trascending our natural borders - aka Transhumanism. This is where the healthy dose of skepticism comes in, but we inherently tend towards an irrational mythical sense of wholeness instead of a rational one. So I suggest making that mythical irrationality so inherent to us as material as possible aka Transhumanism. I suggest reading - The Metaphysical Animal, and going into modern genres such as cyberpunk if what I say interests you.
Hide your intelligence 😂 it helps. Play dumb. And even now they know you're intelligent 😂. Ask stupid questions that you know the answers but pretend not to have an idea about 😂😂.... Learn it when people consider normal their guard drops
I love pondering, but some people keep asking unanswerable questions without any insight, any idea I bring up they dismiss with another question. I have nothing against this, because it's a good way to discover things, but if you don't bring anything to the table it can feel like you're holding a dialogue with yourself and feel trapped in the conversation. Asking questions is good for figuring out why people think things, but not for creating ideas. I'm not accusing you of these things, but am merely trying to see things from their perspective. Though I'm privileged as I have friends which don't mind some pondering from time to time. Sorry for my English
@@PixlyPenguin too many people talk. not enough people listen. Homo homini lupus est. Talk, feel, or not. none of this actually changes anything but who you are on the inside. It isnt a superpower but it is? Many people are too stupid to do anything more than follow along with the reader or thinker. Not enough can say they found Tolstoy, or Nietzsche, Sartre, or Dostoevsky's philosophy alone in their own head and therefore were only spurned along with vigor by these writer's works. To have come to these concepts and without them already creating my own mental map I personally feel like I can aim even further with suppositions and could even write a book but why? You are all just me and I am just you, we are getting more and more tired as time goes by, none of you listen to me let alone to yourselves, we are in this place because of our own hubris, and the key to the way out is guarded by you and me and this hubris that clogs the zeitgeist. We are our own leviathan and we cannot help but give birth to another dream of our individuality and personal value that creates an unimaginable demotivation to our collective awareness. Then, we drown, again and again in this hubris and eventually lose focus on this reality through war, individuality, hate, differences, and the general destruction of anything that resembles who we were yesterday. cheers.
Now with 12 years of varying degrees of despair, I see no solution, it does not get easier, you just get more used to it. It is like peaking behind the curtain and not being able to forget, a sort of Cognitohazard. Some blissful days it is so far in the background of your mind it might as well not be there or your perception of it is somewhat shifted it even feels liberating and on other days you just want to sleep so not to be aware of your thoughts. At early stages I constantly wanted to talk about it, but nowadays not so much anymore: there are two outcomes, either people won't understand and it frustrates you or worse, people understand and now you've ruined their "blissful ignorance", you've spread your misery. Whatever thoughts plague you, you have to stem the tide yourself.
Oh, how much I can relate to this… It started in high-school when I was first introduced to philosophy - but I was young, life continued and so did the expectations and goals I have set for me. Once I have reached most of them, or understood that majority actually comes from outside (society) and not from my internal wishes, the despair came creeping back… And now I think it is there to stay, but as Camus likes to say - I want to stare at it and still find ways to lead a meaningful life - one worth living.
@@Milica006 For me German philosophy is always helpful. Especially Schopenhauer and Spengler, sometimes also Nietzsche. There is also the concept of: "Drang nach dem Absoluten"/"Drive towards the Absolute" and a phrase "einmal vor unerbittlichem stehen"/"to stand once before the relentless/unyielding". To think things through wherever the outcome might lead to. To see and take life as it is. I also finished Spenglers "Man and technics" today and absolutly loved the final quote: "Only dreamers believe that there is a way out. Optimism is cowardice. We are born into this time and must bravely follow the path to the destined end. There is no other way. Our duty is to hold on to the lost position, without hope, without rescue, like that Roman soldier whose bones were found in front of a door in Pompeii, who, during the eruption of Vesuvius, died at his post because they forgot to relieve him. That is greatness. That is what it means to be a thoroughbred. The honorable end is the one thing that can not be taken from a man.”
@@0ld_Scratchnicely put! I have a long journey ahead of me in regards to reading philosophy, at least that gives me great pleasure. Assurance that I am not alone in my misery, that this is perfectly human. I feel like I am talking to great minds, and it gives me comfort!
this is the objective meaning of life that’s intuitive, and fulfilling not just hedonistic, ego centric, making you individualistic which arguably has destroyed the modern world thanks to liberalism which is why families are broken, hook up culture creating single mothers, divorce and cheating rampant where it breeds 90% of criminals, mentally ill, suicidal, substance dependants etc costing the rest of the community and the deterioration continues. Liberal secularism only benefits porn addicts like yourself that cope and pretend they’re happy until a calamity struck them and they’re left alone with their thoughts to contemplate if any of it is worth it when they’ll just become dust Every religion says that we’re created in the image of God, but what if it wasn’t a physical image because he’s beyond our comprehension but rather with values ? Good Values such as mercy, love, justice, compassion etc. So the purpose of life is to actually mirror those values, because the purpose of life is to find your creator, get to know him and build a relationship with him by worshipping him, reflecting those values. But worship doesn’t just mean praying. Charity, feeding a stray animal, eating healthy, gym to take care of your health, spending time with your family, even working to make money for your family, for a good cause etc can all be considered acts of worship. Which makes you achieve fulfilment, just as the body needs nutrients to survive so does the soul. Your soul is like a rose, every time you do good deeds you it’s like water that flourishes and cleanses your soul making you feel refreshed, and doing sins is rebelling against the divine/purpose which will be ripping the petals off making you feel worse and suffer feeling guilt/shame/depression becoming dead inside. Which is why religious people are less suicidal/anxious/depressed so there’s a huge spiritual link also considering every child is born believing in God/Creator/HigherPower but not in some monkey/human type but in a spiritual non physical entity which is proven by studies by Cognitive scientists like Justin Barrett, Paul Bloom, Olivera Petrovich you can look up as well
What’s worse is achieving it. I have achieved what I dreamed; all of my goals. Earn more money than 90% of the population. Own my home. Multiple cars. Have kids. I was married. It’s all hallow. Because once you have it it doesn’t mean what you think it will. Not that I don’t appreciate them or don’t love it, but it’s never what you think. And that hurts. Knowing I dreamed about what I have now- to know it all meant nothing. And there’s nothing left. The unhappiness I felt wasn’t in what I didn’t have how you feel now won’t be solved but achieving anything it never goes away
this is the objective meaning of life that’s intuitive, and fulfilling not just hedonistic, ego centric, making you individualistic which arguably has destroyed the modern world thanks to liberalism which is why families are broken, hook up culture creating single mothers, divorce and cheating rampant where it breeds 90% of criminals, mentally ill, suicidal, substance dependants etc costing the rest of the community and the deterioration continues. Liberal secularism only benefits porn addicts like yourself that cope and pretend they’re happy until a calamity struck them and they’re left alone with their thoughts to contemplate if any of it is worth it when they’ll just become dust Every religion says that we’re created in the image of God, but what if it wasn’t a physical image because he’s beyond our comprehension but rather with values ? Good Values such as mercy, love, justice, compassion etc. So the purpose of life is to actually mirror those values, because the purpose of life is to find your creator, get to know him and build a relationship with him by worshipping him, reflecting those values. But worship doesn’t just mean praying. Charity, feeding a stray animal, eating healthy, gym to take care of your health, spending time with your family, even working to make money for your family, for a good cause etc can all be considered acts of worship. Which makes you achieve fulfilment, just as the body needs nutrients to survive so does the soul. Your soul is like a rose, every time you do good deeds you it’s like water that flourishes and cleanses your soul making you feel refreshed, and doing sins is rebelling against the divine/purpose which will be ripping the petals off making you feel worse and suffer feeling guilt/shame/depression becoming dead inside. Which is why religious people are less suicidal/anxious/depressed so there’s a huge spiritual link also considering every child is born believing in God/Creator/HigherPower but not in some monkey/human type but in a spiritual non physical entity which is proven by studies by Cognitive scientists like Justin Barrett, Paul Bloom, Olivera Petrovich you can look up as well
@TIFFANYDlAS you meant to say hollow, but you used the word hallow. Hard to claim a Freudian slip with text, but I found that interesting. We're all dealing with a lack of meaning. Time to create your own. Best wishes to you.
I think that the way out of the "pit of despair" is an intimately personal one, that we have to find each on our own. We need to educate ourselves about our deepest personal ideas while being brutally honest. Only when we know comprehensively what we hold to be our core values, fears, desires and what our rational and irrational beliefs are, can we start to craft the mental structure that is needed to hold the weight of our consistent happiness. It will likely be an intimately adapted mix of hedonism, selective ignorance and forced self-help in the form of involuntary socializing, therapy etc. As soon as our values, fears or beliefs change, the structure will need to be adapted, in other words our structure requires continuous maintenance. I think finding in your heart the discipline and stamina to see such an effort through is a very hard sell when approaching someone in the pit of despair, especially if you have to sell it to yourself in that position.
I disagree that an existential crisis presupposes a condition of luxury. If you are starving and searching for food you can also undergo an existential crisis; indeed you are MORE likely to suffer an existential crisis. It's called giving up searching for the food because what's the point you are probably going to just die anyway. It happened very frequently in concentration camps and it happens very frequently in refugee detention. I've seen many people give up in this way - including people who are depressed or people with spinal injuries or people with cancer. Existential crises are central to the human experience and are not the preserve of the privileged. Only the privileged get to write about it though.
Excellent point! I suppose it is useful to know, however, that even the privileged who achieve all of their desires are still unsatisfied. It stops us from wasting our lives seeking fame, fortune, attention & all the other false promises society feeds us about how to achieve happiness.
26:44 Nihilism is very misunderstood by the great philosophers. Nihilism isn’t a state of mind, nor is it about lack of meaning. Rather, it’s a blank slate from which everything can build upon. E.g imagine you and only you exist. Even though it’s only you, there is also the nothing that surrounds. There is a permanent dichotomy that exists between everything that exists and that we can experience, versus everything that we cannot experience. Now let’s build upon this emptiness slate. Let’s add another person into this nothing. Everything you do is now relative to the other person and visa-versa. If they hit you, you get hurt, and visa-versa. All of a sudden, we’ve got game theory. Which forms the foundations of moral systems. Every action in the past informs and moulds the future. So everything is relative to what happened in the past. This is a bases for information theory. Information has an entropy… the effects ripple out. So two core concepts of Nihilism: the nothing always exists no matter how much we explore into that nothing; and every thing is relative to everything else… we can’t escape the actions of any other object in the universe.
The nothingness that we all exist within is not just empty, but contains all the things we haven’t explored and all the things we don’t understand. There is both a physical and abstract component. It’s like a veil (or fog-of-war). As we explore the physical world, we see and know more, the vail shifts, but is never removed. The veil always exist and always hides more stuff. We have can have assumptions and hypotheses of what’s beyond, but these are only validated when we seek and find the answers. When we do find solid answers, the veil shifts. This is why both religion and science exist, and why both are useful, they pose questions for us to seek answers to. The problems occur when we see questions, assumptions, and hypotheses as truth. This is a problem because we stop expanding the veil and increase our understanding of the universe. Because of this, objective truths do exist, and everything without evidence is merely an assumption to be tested with answers hidden behind the veil waiting to be explored.
@@nejsnek1410 hmm… I have seen it a long time ago, but I don’t remember anything specific from that show informing my interpretation of Nihilism. I’ve also watched Optimistic Nihilism by Kurzgesagt, which I think was more influential.
@@br3nto the final episode of neon genesis depicts an empty world and how adding other people to the world creates a form of relativism but loses some individual information about everyone (they call it an AT field) due to human's suboptimal of communication skills.
I was trying to write notes from your video. It made me notice how each choice of word in your script is so appropriate and thoughtful. You really find the best way to convey the idea in a very unambiguous and impactful way. It shows the clarity of your thoughts. Really appreciate your work! Truly grateful to have discovered your channel!
Oh, cool. Didn't expect to watch a video on Tolstoy's existential crisis, how to get out of one and the irrationality of the human condition today but, it's a welcome surprise. Keep up the good work!👍
Hunger breeds satisfaction, and yet fulfillment is hallow. Rather ironic, we as humans can never be happy so . . . make an immortal desire to keep on living; something that impossible to obtain yet keeps you going.
this is the objective meaning of life that’s intuitive, and fulfilling not just hedonistic, ego centric, making you individualistic which arguably has destroyed the modern world thanks to liberalism which is why families are broken, hook up culture creating single mothers, divorce and cheating rampant where it breeds 90% of criminals, mentally ill, suicidal, substance dependants etc costing the rest of the community and the deterioration continues. Liberal secularism only benefits porn addicts like yourself that cope and pretend they’re happy until a calamity struck them and they’re left alone with their thoughts to contemplate if any of it is worth it when they’ll just become dust Every religion says that we’re created in the image of God, but what if it wasn’t a physical image because he’s beyond our comprehension but rather with values ? Good Values such as mercy, love, justice, compassion etc. So the purpose of life is to actually mirror those values, because the purpose of life is to find your creator, get to know him and build a relationship with him by worshipping him, reflecting those values. But worship doesn’t just mean praying. Charity, feeding a stray animal, eating healthy, gym to take care of your health, spending time with your family, even working to make money for your family, for a good cause etc can all be considered acts of worship. Which makes you achieve fulfilment, just as the body needs nutrients to survive so does the soul. Your soul is like a rose, every time you do good deeds you it’s like water that flourishes and cleanses your soul making you feel refreshed, and doing sins is rebelling against the divine/purpose which will be ripping the petals off making you feel worse and suffer feeling guilt/shame/depression becoming dead inside. Which is why religious people are less suicidal/anxious/depressed so there’s a huge spiritual link also considering every child is born believing in God/Creator/HigherPower but not in some monkey/human type but in a spiritual non physical entity which is proven by studies by Cognitive scientists like Justin Barrett, Paul Bloom, Olivera Petrovich you can look up as well
i had plenty of happy moments in my life. The Idea of an Everlasting State of Happiness is ridicoulus and stupid. You need a measurement. If you would be happy all the time, you wouldnt even know because it would be the norm. You need both to get an idea of scale. Youre just an edgy depressed loner of the 21st century, doesnt mean you have to act as if your way of life is the norm. Saying that Happyness is impossible to obtain is more of a sign that you are literally ill with depression, or just another edgy human being on the internet acting like a 12 year old who recently got into black metal.
@@TheBlackfall234 Here is my full thesis of the only rational understanding about suffering if y'all have the reading comprehension and attention span Usually people when talking about suffering have 2 assumptions. let’s start with the first that Life is all about happiness, IF life is all about pleasure then why does pain exist? Maybe because the purpose of life is to test us instead through the suffering? Example: The death of a child as unfortunate as may be can be a test for the parents, for example: the parents are so upset they can either get closer to God, become more empathetic and selfless, or lose all hope, start becoming an alcoholic ruining their lives and those around them further So there's a lot of variables he’s not taking into consideration In Islamic belief, children who pass away are believed to go to Paradise, So, from this perspective, if a child enters eternal paradise from a very short life, it is merciful rather than from an atheist perspective where there is just lights out and there's no hope. Secondly why suffering is necessary to exist is There would be no free will if there was only Good events happening and you couldn’t choose to do bad, You would be forced to be Good, Everyday would look like an episode of the Teletubbies Pain is basically a reminder of our limitations, it can help us grow, give us knowledge and appreciation for those less fortunate. if someone lives in a state of complete happiness and bliss, they will see themselves as nearly godlike, such as the Elites like bill gates who have no sympathy for us middle and lower class. Pain, therefore, acts as a humbling force. It highlights the presence of a greater reality beyond ourselves, where a higher power uses the balance of pain and pleasure as a test. Embrace the suffering, gain wisdom and become humble or multiply the suffering from your victim complex. With God the Mountain doesn’t get Smaller, it only gets easier to climb. Islam has strict rules, but think about with these strict rules would your life be better off or worse off? No alcohol, hook up culture creating broken homes, interest from banks keeping people in poverty flourishes society greatly. The purpose of life is to be tested in Islam Every single action you do will be accounted towards in the next life, not an atom of good or bad goes unnoticed, that even animals will testify if they’ve been treated unjustly. You think the rich, handsome influencer religious leader gets a life of ease and goes to heaven just for that? No, His wealth is a test for him to share and not be greedy, his good looks is a test to commit in healthy relationships and his status to not be arrogant, but rather have humility, We can look at how many celebrities have drug addictions and end up taking their own lives. This is proof that the luxuries of the world fail to provide true fulfilment. Chasing the world is like chasing your shadow, so close yet always out of our reach. But if you chase after God, the world will chase after you, but you’ll be content and not even want the world, achieving true liberation especially in Islam as suffering cleanses your sins. So Even your suffering has meaning. It’s a perfect belief system, both practically and spiritually fulfilling
Having not wanted to be on earth for well over half my life, nothing has brought me so much joy as making my environment better. This can be brightening someone’s day, watering my plants, or creating art I think is beautiful. There is so much pain on this earth… if you find can joy in lessening it, even in some small way, then you will never feel despair. At least in my opinion :)
Listening to your analysis of these existential concepts has me in a trance. I could listen to you for hours 🙏 Even though I’m passively listening to you, I feel just as engaged and heard in my silence. It’s fascinating and I appreciate you and this channel. Keep it up 🤗💜 You are amazing!
In existence, there is potential. In nonexistence, there is none. If our happiness is as temporary as we are, so is our suffering. I will take life in all its facets over the prospect of having never existed at all.
I think one aspect to consider is that rationality is just one tool and it's a flawed tool. We tend to think it is neutral and that it can predict the future but it is all but: It has a huge negative bias and it's pretty bad at predicting the future Sadly this means we ought to switch between instinct and thought and even accept the uncomfortableness of uncertainty (about most things), and even entertaining this probably is too much for many people as is letting go of control and influence, even over our own lives, but: We never had control, control was an illusion No, that we have no influence, but we are more a character that reacts and adapts (our biggest strength as humans) to reality rather than the creators of our reality. Basically, we need to take a huge bite of humble pie, be more comfortable with saying: "I don't know" and "this is as far as I know"
I don't understand the feeling of despair. Even at the worst depths of decades of battling clinical depression, I never felt despair. There's something optimistic at my core that always fends it off.
@@jeangoncalves3691 I imagine it depends on what you're despairing of, but in general a complete loss of hope and will with regard to whatever the matter is, the ultimate being loss of hope and will for living, often resulting in suicide. A much lesser form might be your football team being behind by 50 points with only 1 minute left in the game. You'd despair of your team winning.
Tolstoy's observation of the simple faith of the peasants and their sufferings brings it all home for me. Their faith was based on hope for a better existence; not necessarily richer (as some may equate "better"). The fact that their current existence involved backbreaking labour and success also depended on elements well beyond their control (weather) gave them pause to appreciate their purpose in the grand scheme of life. Existence was its own reward. Anything beyond mere existence was gravy. Only the indolent who had managed to rise about the plane of mere existence; those whose food and lifestyle were the rewards of others work, could afford to spend their time in such unproductive musings, and appeared to be no happier for it. As humans do, when rising above mere existence, their natural creativity and curiosity goad them into 'thinking beyond their means'. It's why they create more questions then answers. Such musings are only for those who have much or those who are content with nothing (e.g. Marx). Those who must work for existence learn to find purpose and pleasure in simpler things. Happiness is fickle. Contentment changes. Peace is is the greatest reward.
@@bananaachips We don't really know, anymore than a dog, cat or dandelion knows. We only have our beliefs. Otherwise, we're just part of a pattern. A wolf neither knows nor cares why he exists. He's just which neither knows nor cares why it exists. Humans seem the only species troubled by such concerns. They are also the only species which has developed techniques and machinery to do the work of obtaining their daily bread, which afford them the leisure to ponder such things, which are truly unessential to exisitence. Maybe the purpose of existence is merely to exist.
Thank you. I have recently found your channel and I never tire of being amazed at how good you are at explanations difficult at firtst sight topics. Amazing Thank you from Russian guy who lives in the USA
Here's some _unsolicited advice_ Acknowledge that Nihilism exists in the positive AND negative. That was the whole point of "Everything Everywhere All at Once". I chose the positive end because when nothing (vanity wise) matters, everything (cosmically) matters.
To answer your questions in the end... I've come to think of nihilism as the end of a path of development in the spirals of development cycles. It will always appear at 9 before we start all over with vigor at a new level at 1 again. It is a very powerful mirror, one that calls for us to integrate what we've learned and let go, to walk into a new path, a new void without knowing where it leads, that's what it is to me. The mirror only shows us what has transpired behind us here. We are called in this moment to change our point of view in hopes of finding light. Of the 3 crisis conditions you propose, to which I agree are valid conditions for an existential crisis, they would be in 3 different spirals a person would experience those states of being. My essays often focus on what triggers us looking into this void in the first place, why we logically WANT to resonate with it (let's be honest, it does feed pride), and how we pull ourselves through it while accepting its lesson, integrating it, and growing from it.
I'm now the opposite however miserable life may be it brings me joy to live in it given a thousand reasons to be unhappy i can still find a single reason to be happy in each day that's my saving garce so long as i wake up every day that too is one of the good things added to my day..
Thank you so much for this summary! This came at a very tumultuous time in my life and this was juat what i needed to help course correct right now. Amazing how humans of the past mirror our lives hundreds and thousands of years across time.
I've read the Confession at least 5 times since learning about it from Jordan Peterson. Genuinely one of my most favorite reads of all-time due to his brutal honesty and earnest efforts to find meaning and God. Great video.
I consider myself a nihilist, but coming from a Christian background where I always felt the weight of the world on my shoulders, there's actually something freeing to no longer having any inherent meaning. I am finally at peace.
Psychologically, we ponder questions like what is the meaning of life? Only when the world enforces its will upon us and makes us feel helpless. If we will to power and change this world according to our will, we will be happy.
We didn't choose to participate in these world neither we created this world so it was imposed on us so we can't change the world according to our will
We emerge through the will to power of God's people and you can control them somehow they have trancdental power, how can one be happy? To know existence is a totality of trancdental power of God's people.
The biggest problem with religious beliefs in an intelligent person is that once the beliefs are questioned in a scientific manner, the power of beliefs disappears.
@@unsolicitedadvice9198 you're a natural. Also, as a sound guy, I'm grateful you spent the time to dial in your sound. Very professional. Bad audio drives me up a wall.
I’ve officially struggled with nihilism since I was about 18 years old & broke free from religion. The more I learned about the world & humanity , the more everything seemed like a pointless cosmic joke. Thanks for the video bc it addressed many questions & thoughts I hv struggled with 🙌🏼
I bene going through it for over a decade but never actually realized it could be something so relatable. and not just that the solutions that I halfway been getting that have been also expanded on by others as well
Nihilism is the stage in which an individual metamorphoses from the innocent ignorance to the Will of Power and transcends from the "constant becoming without being". Through an amalgamated thought of Nihilism and Theism, i became cognizant that they go parallel to each other. As the normativity of the life is generally bestowed by a deity preconditioning our being to specifically sculpt our 'being'. Many arguments could be called, such as the 'irrational' resort to divinity in cases of crises, the being of Nihilism itself as comprehensible for being that *is*, despite representing nothingness. The constant echoes of our will are our preconditioned lack in juxtaposition to the infinite; encapsulating salvation from an all-powerful *being* that specifically created humanity for this exact teleology. Like a light that by its mere existence created darkness around it. Albeit under the given context, it is deliberate. Darkness upon darkness, a path to light, shall be given through darkness. Which i think illustrates Kierkegaard's points of religion and commitment. As the divinity himself might not be as elusive nor deistic we might think, and actively influences the primordial darkness he created. Specially, despite religion being arguably the way out, when used the wrong way, it leads to a bottomIess abyss of despair, in such cases of Christianity where religion fails to bring a philosophical transcendalist approach instead, brings a layman's approach to laymen's lives, with too vague of a prescription and description to the inherent lack of, what i like to call, 'stage 2' normativity, which encompasses the detailed normativity of the dualism of the infinite and finite, instead of the presupposed 'teaser' instinct inside of us.
I'd say Tolstoy's analysis of the causes and the common responses to nihilism are spot on and feel intuitive. His efforts to find or develop a new path seem more like a brilliant mind trying to resist the simpler but potentially devastating reality of the situation. Nietzsche's efforts are just as brilliant and seem just as labored. I think our biology and evolution justify the simple and devastating analysis that Tolstoy began with. The "ought" comes from the fact that humanity "is" a reproducing organism. That's what we are and therefore we prefer things that support our reproduction. Clearly those preferences have been shifted and contorted in different ways through the imperfect evolutionary process but that is their origin. So it makes sense that our minds tell us that all sorts of things will make us perpetually happy, just for that to fade and a new objective to be put in it's place. This process ultimately motivated us to reproduce (or serves that biological machinery), our original "is" and "ought". Eternal meaning is a deception in service of that.
Seems like nihilism and absurdism are merely steps many have to take to find what they truly believe... Not ends in themselves, but means to an end. That step between belief systems. (Admittedly, it can be hard to find solid ground after taking that initial step, but most eventually find their way, whatever they choose.)
This. I also understand nihilism as the necessary step on the path of spirtual evolution. You have to go up from the bottom (and overcome fear and doubt) to start to ascend.
@@alena-qu9vjhard agree with everything above! The sentiment of starting from the bottom (nihilism, absurdism) holds extremely true, especially in the modern age. It almost begs the need to breakaway and become "leftfield". I wonder if a systematic German named Heidegger is more and more needed in this day and age 😅. But that could also be my bias of wanting structure. The great thing about philosophy is it can be a matter of perspective/life experience.
@@Parallaxdnb Yours is rather „masculine“ approach. Me, as a woman, prefer more emotional path over the logic. A spiritual seeker’s way is more binding, they are bound to live what they realize as true meaning in their own lives, while philosophers, specially those of the modern times, just think and theorize more often. For me it is difficult to accept the gap between their theories and personal lifes (see Nietzsche for instance) and I find it detrimental for the path to real meaning. One should live what one preaches ☺
I would also add here a quote from Jordan Peterson's book "12 Rules for Life" "When existence reveals itself as existentially intolerable, thinking collapses in on itself" It really reinforces your opinion that you can't simply get an ought from an is, at least not if you are an atheist. One can also think of it this way: An existential crisis is a fundamentally subjective problem, and therefore cannot be explained by reason alone. Sure, you can recognize the problem by rational thinking, but SOLVING it is quite a different task. I myself believe in the solution proposed by Nietzsche: To overcome a callous and amoral world, one has to define values to oneself. Loved your video btw. please make more content about literary geniuses
Why Solve nihilism? Perhaps see it as a way to grow or even something to believe in. If you are nihilistic then it may give you a reason to never fear things that others may?
This is with the thought that Nihilism must be solved for. Let me put it this way, if Nihilism is the extreme of an existential crisis and most people have an existential crisis, then it is a feature of the brain more than a flaw of the soul. It is, for a better term, "thought puberty," much like how we feel shame for our bodies when we reach a certain age. So, why force a correction in a mind designed to find the flaws in the first place? We are a story telling and story believing creature and stories do not stay happy and positive. There are moments of darkness, of doubt, of strife. In other words, if we are programmed to understand lessons through stories, wouldn't we also be "programmed" to live a life through a story method? Not in a linear aspect, of course, but in one that has its own ups and downs, its own demons and its own angels. In fact, to say that we must hide the darkness is what manifests it more. From personal experience facing terrible things like CSA and being sold as a sex slave, it manifested in ways that I could not understand until I brought those things out into the light to examine them and think about them. Not as a separate entity from me, but as part of me. Sure, I still use the positive disassociation techniques to remove some of the negative tendrils around my heart, but I still must objectively look at it and understand it is a part of me. And then it is the acceptance that not only that I have no meaning, but I am also evil by nature. A man whose lineage has strong roots in CSA and child abuse carries that through to his own life and his own blood. With these in mind, one still must endure the fact that one is evil and one does not matter because at the end of our lives... No one will remember. Not even the people we love, who forget the total human we were for only the positives of what they remember, the angel of what we were against the demons that we carried along the way. No, nihilism is merely a feature - like toaster settings on a vintage toaster. It is showing the mind has grown with the body and understands, even if it burns one side of the soul to a scorched piece of charred bread.
@@doompoison2365 No spreadsheets, no characters, no games, nothing at all. If you wish to clarify your statement, then please do so or I will simply dismiss this as an empty attempt to troll.
@@normanclatcher Now see, this is exactly the remark that takes time and consideration, high value in the face of the subject. Bravo indeed! Not that it matters, of course because nothing or no one matters, as with all things nihilist
Another great content! Would be dangerously close to perfection if you consider labeling the paintings with the title and painter's name, my memory fails somtimes:)
When you were talking about how an existential crisis is a luxury issue, Mark 10:25-27 sparked to mind; 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’
I was raised christian and loved that way unconsciously for decades until I worked myself free and started living my life for myself and those around me instead of some divine being as I no longer believe he exists. I admit I've dealt with nihilistic thought ever since, as a christian you don't even consider it, so I was ill prepared. I've done a ton of research into grappling with the phenomenon, along with a lot of internal considerations and while I still sometimes struggle with it I've reached a sort of equilibrium, an "it is what it is' kind of thinking. I don't seek eternal life or meaning, these are impossible goals, I instead live life as it comes, day to day while it lasts. I've always liked the Red Dwarf quote about what the meaning of was: to have lived a good life. That's what I try to do now. It may be overly simplistic but it works for me. I don't really see it as ignoring nihilism so much as not dwelling on things I can't do anything about.
I suppose that’s a good approach so long as it works for you. It’s so interesting to read the perspectives of people raised with unquestioning Christianity compared to those of us raised in a more or less agnostic environment who came to Christianity as an educated adult having already struggled with nihilism. I am beginning to think that keeping children in a protective, fundamentalist Christian bubble is almost counter productive to what those Christians are trying to achieve. Allowing children to muddle through this world & see its empty promises for what they are at an early age is more likely to bring to about a solid faith.
@chikaka2012 I would argue that the world doesn't offer ANY promises, empty or otherwise. It's about perception. Relying on a religion allows one to ignore thoughts of nihilism. You can let yourself dwell on nihilism, take on religion, or move past it and focus on the one life you do have. I realize they may be other options on the table, and other people handle it different ways. I guess I view my way of life as a sober approach to reality as I see it. Sometimes it sucks, other times it doesn't. I'll just make the best of what the universe gives me.
Ok, so since you asked, I will answer. The most important skill I obtained in this life so far is ability to observe my mind. Whenever any unpleasant experience arises, I am able to observe it. What I learned from observing my mind - and from listening to spiritual teachers - is that unpleasant experiences such as existential crisis are not arising because we lack something, but because we inserted in our minds something unnecessary. It appears to me that existential crisis acctually is a deep desire for something, which a person having said crisis had learned at a young age is unobtainable. We just need to understand what that desire is.
13:10 I deeply felt that, after some time spent researching every book and essay to find meaning, I kind of just gave up and thought, 'Well, this sucks, but I will do a Camus move and just keep moving in rebellion, hoping someone else finds the answer.' It may not be the right thing to do, but hey, anything is better than ending it without knowing if there was a better answer.
If I would try to research books on quantum mechanics I doubt I would find meaning of it, probably because I am not educated / wise enough. Could it be that the same is valid for researchings books and essays on meaning of existence? Could it be that to problem is in our understanding, our ability, our preparedness to comprehend? Just asking...
@@alena-qu9vj Honestly, the problem might be that I don't even know what exactly I'm looking for. What is meaning? How does one get it? Through understanding multiple schools of thought and philosophy? By becoming obsessed with a task? Or is it as simple as just living for the ones you care about? My focus at the beginning was on pure philosophy, from the Greeks to modern authors, then psychology, from the most basic aspects to the wildest theories of modern-day authors, then poetry, and, lastly, a desperate attempt in classic books and art. Am I wrong for looking there? Am I wrong for reading all the works of Shakespeare and of the supposed greatest minds in history on the subject expecting them to change at least slightly my worldview after giving them days of though and analysis? Where or how do you find meaning? As you said if the best couldn't get to a satisfying answer who am I to say my understanding and analytical skills could get to something they didn't
@@Wulk The simple truth is THERE IS NO UNIVERSAL "OBJECTIVE" MEANING. And even if it were, every one of us is just a subject, and as such only can perceive, understand and interpret the meaning SUBJECTIVELY. Researching on meaning "out there" you only can find subjective interpetations of Shakespeare or other so called greatest minds. Which you may or may not resonate with - according to your very own and subjective perspective, based on your very own specific state of spiritual development. The only place where you should look for meaning is "in there", this is an exclusively personal job which nobody can do for you. Nobody says it is an easy task, but it is the primary reason why we are here, and overcoming obstacles and difficulties is part of the job.
@@Wulk And PS Analytical thinking is not the best tool in looking for the meaning of existence - in fact it is rather detrimental. Thats why I generally find artists, mystics and other "not-primary-thinking" people more succesfull in finding (their) meaning.
@@alena-qu9vj Heh, that is exactly what Nietzsche said to do. That's his argument on "you lack the will force to create your own meaning" and that reason is not the tool to rely on to find happiness or meaning. However, I don't have it in me, and maybe I do have a weak will. But I'd rather keep moving forward by inertia than accept that there is no point in anything and that the solution is to gaslight myself into believing a false truth that I made up or worse that someone else made up to justify my existence. To me, that is worse than philosophical suicide
Tolstoy started searching for God when he no longer found pleasure in anything because God(the quality of Love) is the only thing of substance that exists! That's my humble opinion.
God is, by definition, not a thing of substance, and the substance of love is oxytocin. If anything, Tolstoy started searching for a comforting delusion and found it in the most accessible, most acceptable form in Russia.
i have been dealing with Nihilism since I was 9 years old it helped me dealing with my pain for awhile but i eventually came above it you have to go through it once to transcend to value the bad so that you can charish the good pain makes us realise that before it was the happy days hence pain is good but getting attached to it isn't
Does anyone believe that being consistently happy in this life is possible? That seems highly delusional. Even as a child I didn’t think this a possibility and I had a reasonably happy childhood. Life brings many forms of grief including the death of loved ones. To expect someone to be happy all the time, including oneself, is cruel & soulless. But sometimes the most exquisite & beautiful moments are linked to loss & pain. It’s the fleeting nature of true joy that makes it so precious. It’s the opportunity to bring those moments to others that makes this life worthwhile.
the escape of existential despair, is not running away from meaningless through believing in religion or avoiding the problem through hedonism. The way out is through. I think there is an objective meaning in the form of an action, and that's trying to figure out what is going on. Say, "I don't know" but then figure it out or at least try. The way out is by dedicating your life to the progression of humanity so that one day we can have the puzzle pieces to solve the puzzle.
I feel that nihilism doesn’t get off of the ground due to our incomplete knowledge and curiosity. Whether it’s “meaning” or just a matter of luck that we have the never-ending task of discovering how the universe works (or existence?), we do have that. This is why “Nietzsche” reliving the same life eternally is so powerful in my opinion, it’s because doing so with no knowledge of it happening doesn’t permit nihilism, but if we did know it, nihilism would be permitted.
I think much of the effort to respond to or "defeat" nihilism and the often resultant existential crisis ultimately circles back to an attempt to avoid the hard conclusions of reason, which many find intolerable. "We can't accept nihilism because it makes us sad" is essentially what I always hear, and when I point out that the way a thing makes you feel doesn't affect its truth value people find ever more elaborate ways to tell me "No, but you don't understand. It makes people REALLY sad" I'm sorry. We all need to learn to deal with disappointment, and then make the best of what we have. We get a breif moment in the sunlight, and then we're gone, and then we're forgotten. None of it will matter forever, but what we do does matter right now. So what will you do? Do you want to mope about how you probably can't dance on clouds forever? Lay in a puddle of filth because what's the point in showering if you'll just get dirty again? Or, do you want to go out there and make life for yourself and those around you as good as it can be here and now? I know what I've chosen.
Found this channel today ... i dont know if this is confirmation bias ... but its as though im talking to that friend i always wish i had ... to talk to about things like this... without getting the side eye😅
how good is Tolstoy 'Confession'! Chapter 4 brings me to Louis Malle's Le feu follet/ i haven't read the book itself/, when Alain defies his old friend's cliche assertion 'Life is good' with a simple, quiet 'Good for what?' or when in Fellini's 'La dolce vita' Marcello tells Maddalena that her problem/apathy, let's call it/ stems from 'having too much money', to which she bitterly responds that Marcello's psycho-philosophical problem stems from 'not having enough of money'. thanks for tolstoy anyway.
Happiness is I think a unique mental state which is energetic and motivating rather then the absence or relieve of desiring. For example, if I eat sunflower seeds, then this doesn’t satisfy my hunger at all. But I am still happy which motivates me to continue eating sunflower seeds.
"…even though it makes the prospect of permanent satisfaction seem pretty much impossible." Well, duh? That just seems like an unrealistic goal from the start. Eventually you'll tire of whatever was pleasing you. 🤷♂
It would be fairly accurate to call myself a nihilist. The way I deal with it is if there's no point, purpose, or meaning to anything then that applies to thinking about it. So my solution is similar to Tolstoy's first method, simply "ignoring the elephant in the room". Though I don't try to be ignorant of it as he suggests, I am aware of the issue. When my attention is drawn to the elephant I logically deduce that looking at the elephant is itself pointless, so I look away. I ignore it and just continue about my life. That is, unless my interest is piqued by it as it is in this moment, and when my interest wanes I go back to ignoring it. There's no point in filling myself with existential dread because there's no point in anything, so I might as well do what makes me feel happy and fulfilled.
Nihilism... Here's my experience in a nutshell. I worked in IT at a few banks, and despised myself for, in my view, making the world worse by contributing to gross financial inequity. Horrific depression followed, apathy towards myself and the world. Then an opportunity to work for an NGO whose mission I valued opened up and I jumped at the chance until I was fired...long crappy story. More nihilism towards the world and myself... then many years of painful addictions and absolute idleness. Nihilistic towards my life, and the human race. I have weirdly managed to find some anathema to Nihilism by focusing on my unencumbered criticism of humanity, both on individual and collective levels. Uh, sobering up seems for me to have been necessary for me to combat excess nihilism as well - pursuing only pleasure leads not to meaning, as many know. There is a sort of liberation that comes from feeling no meaningful connections to others or society at large, as with myself. Being unconnected, perhaps, frees one to more fully pursue their own sorts of meaning. Being unentwined with the expectations and desires of society, friends, family, or peers, for me at least, has made it possible to confront nihilism head on - like an Earthbender! Only so late in my life have I learned that I cannot find societal-level meaning, but so much individual-level meaning. Yup. I am SUPER fun at parties... in theory... :) Great channel. Good day, Good sir.
@@ronantheronin3521 Entitled? Nope. But an exploitative system that serves only a very few at the expense of many is not one I have been willing to contribute to.
The problem of existential meaninglessness is something that I have thought about for a long time. I'm a Christian, but then I thought that atheism (or more specific materialism) could be true. But the problem with this form of atheism is that the existence of true meaning is impossible. You could live by your own constructed meaning, but this constructed meaning is nothing else than self-delusion. I concluded that if living the life an atheist, even if atheism is true, is fundamentally meaningless, why should I change my believe, that would be exactly as meaningless? Paradoxically in a meaningless world, there is no meaning even in being right. Now I don't think atheism is true anymore (not because of this reasoning, but because of experiencing gods influence in this world and me personally) and this existential despair doesn't apply to me anymore. For my atheist friends, I want to help you, but I couldn’t solve the problem ether. But have hope, the problem seems to be inherent to the worldview and I have found enough hints, that the atheist worldview may be not as true as it sometimes seems.
This makes me wonder if self-actualization is actually desirable at all. If all of our physiological, social, intellectual, and spiritual needs are met, how can one be motivated to do anything? I imagine that one factor of the problem might be dopamine. You get a release of dopamine for everything from winning a soccer match and even for simple achievements like making the bed in the morning. If you have nothing to overcome, not even little trivial things, then you’re not getting much dopamine, ergo you feel little to no pleasure in the activities you once enjoyed.
Feeling of meaniglesness in life is not something really tht big of a deal,at the end of the day thats the radical truth but our minds are tend to lean into an anthropocentric model of reality which is inevitable as thats the way we are...its just the way we are,a part of experience itself.
Nihilism in a nutshell > reject „Everloving Sugar Daddy in Heaven” because PROGRESS > *meaninglessness, despair and existential crisis joined the chat* > Oh shit surprise pikachu face.jpg > try to fill the infinite void with temporary shit > task failed.exe > create manmade gods that suit your needs, agendas and pov > task failed.exe > start crying and bitching about it > „life bad, absurdism, God is dead, Sisyphus…” > beat around the philosophical bush, never approach the core of the subject > go crazy go stupid.mp3 > have self delete thoughts > Chat is this real ?
Yup, its ultimately a God problem. Nihilism is only possible because of the preconceived idea that humans exist without meaning when the truth is the opposite. If people are willing to accept God's existence into their lives. They would come to find peace because they come to understand what they are, who they are and what their place in this world means. That understanding of your meaning will then act as unshakible foundation that nobody can disturb because to deny that meaning would mean rendering your very existence as worthless, which leads to nihilism. There were times where i dealt with nihilistic thoughts when i was younger but fortunately for me was raised as a christian and when i came to understand that every life that God brings into this world exists with a purpose. It made me realise that all human life holds inherent meaning that transcends our own views. To exist at all meant having meaning. I stopped thinking of myself as someone who is worthless, even when others think less of me, i won't think less of myself or them because all of us exist with purpose and meaning, its only a matter of finding it.
Before you'd go on, nihilism upholds no value that requires we accept nihilism. We may reject it without the same without of reason for accepting it. If you catch my apples! There's stuff, and bilogical necessity forged in an evolutionary relation to Creation, that infers purpose. Obvs.
I like this video a lot, here is my takeaway and contribution: An existential crisis can be fueled by the pursuit of knowledge. Often logic can seem like the way to escape every problem, but this just isn't the case. You can't think your way out of everything, unfortunately. Find a (non human) higher power to look to for guidance. For example, mine is Flora and Fauna. Remember that you are probably more simple than you think you are. Your ego can get in the way of your human pursuits.
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thank you for another great review of classic literature 🌸❄⚡
Western philosophy is too focused on Rationalism. There I said. Rationality works well for the context we are currently in. As a beast of a particular environment with a particular set of initial conditions on a planet in a particular point of the universe. I side more with both Nietzche and Kirkagaard on this and say that developing a purpose that is born of one's will and transcends rationality is important for us. Specifically as metaphysical animals that are more concerned with following a cosmic order, than whether or not that cosmic order is right or wrong. Put those two together alongside some psychological digging and a healthy dose of skepticism leads to one answer - transcendence. There is the spiritual kind, one of which I doubt you're interested since your an atheist (me too), and then theres the physical kind. Trascending our natural borders - aka Transhumanism. This is where the healthy dose of skepticism comes in, but we inherently tend towards an irrational mythical sense of wholeness instead of a rational one. So I suggest making that mythical irrationality so inherent to us as material as possible aka Transhumanism. I suggest reading - The Metaphysical Animal, and going into modern genres such as cyberpunk if what I say interests you.
People have started to isolate me after watching your channel, just for the sake that I bring philosophy into everything!! Never stop this channel
😅 hard to find friends to ponder with, agreed!
@@PlantNews yessir
Hide your intelligence 😂 it helps. Play dumb. And even now they know you're intelligent 😂. Ask stupid questions that you know the answers but pretend not to have an idea about 😂😂.... Learn it when people consider normal their guard drops
I love pondering, but some people keep asking unanswerable questions without any insight, any idea I bring up they dismiss with another question. I have nothing against this, because it's a good way to discover things, but if you don't bring anything to the table it can feel like you're holding a dialogue with yourself and feel trapped in the conversation. Asking questions is good for figuring out why people think things, but not for creating ideas. I'm not accusing you of these things, but am merely trying to see things from their perspective. Though I'm privileged as I have friends which don't mind some pondering from time to time.
Sorry for my English
@@PixlyPenguin too many people talk. not enough people listen. Homo homini lupus est.
Talk, feel, or not. none of this actually changes anything but who you are on the inside. It isnt a superpower but it is? Many people are too stupid to do anything more than follow along with the reader or thinker. Not enough can say they found Tolstoy, or Nietzsche, Sartre, or Dostoevsky's philosophy alone in their own head and therefore were only spurned along with vigor by these writer's works. To have come to these concepts and without them already creating my own mental map I personally feel like I can aim even further with suppositions and could even write a book but why?
You are all just me and I am just you, we are getting more and more tired as time goes by, none of you listen to me let alone to yourselves, we are in this place because of our own hubris, and the key to the way out is guarded by you and me and this hubris that clogs the zeitgeist.
We are our own leviathan and we cannot help but give birth to another dream of our individuality and personal value that creates an unimaginable demotivation to our collective awareness.
Then, we drown, again and again in this hubris and eventually lose focus on this reality through war, individuality, hate, differences, and the general destruction of anything that resembles who we were yesterday.
cheers.
Now with 12 years of varying degrees of despair, I see no solution, it does not get easier, you just get more used to it.
It is like peaking behind the curtain and not being able to forget, a sort of Cognitohazard.
Some blissful days it is so far in the background of your mind it might as well not be there or your perception of it is somewhat shifted it even feels liberating and on other days you just want to sleep so not to be aware of your thoughts.
At early stages I constantly wanted to talk about it, but nowadays not so much anymore: there are two outcomes, either people won't understand and it frustrates you or worse, people understand and now you've ruined their "blissful ignorance", you've spread your misery.
Whatever thoughts plague you, you have to stem the tide yourself.
Oh, how much I can relate to this… It started in high-school when I was first introduced to philosophy - but I was young, life continued and so did the expectations and goals I have set for me. Once I have reached most of them, or understood that majority actually comes from outside (society) and not from my internal wishes, the despair came creeping back… And now I think it is there to stay, but as Camus likes to say - I want to stare at it and still find ways to lead a meaningful life - one worth living.
lol that actually got a chuckle out of me. You were understood.
@@Milica006 For me German philosophy is always helpful. Especially Schopenhauer and Spengler, sometimes also Nietzsche. There is also the concept of: "Drang nach dem Absoluten"/"Drive towards the Absolute" and a phrase "einmal vor unerbittlichem stehen"/"to stand once before the relentless/unyielding". To think things through wherever the outcome might lead to. To see and take life as it is. I also finished Spenglers "Man and technics" today and absolutly loved the final quote:
"Only dreamers believe that there is a way out. Optimism is cowardice. We are born into this time and must bravely follow the path to the destined end. There is no other way. Our duty is to hold on to the lost position, without hope, without rescue, like that Roman soldier whose bones were found in front of a door in Pompeii, who, during the eruption of Vesuvius, died at his post because they forgot to relieve him. That is greatness. That is what it means to be a thoroughbred. The honorable end is the one thing that can not be taken from a man.”
@@0ld_Scratchnicely put! I have a long journey ahead of me in regards to reading philosophy, at least that gives me great pleasure. Assurance that I am not alone in my misery, that this is perfectly human. I feel like I am talking to great minds, and it gives me comfort!
@@Milica006 You live and you learn. At least there is that.
I have been on a massive binge of every single video you've uploaded, I've needed more content like this. Thank you 🙏
Ah thank you! I hope you like this one
Seconded 🙌
I was there around a month ago, lovely isn’t it?
@@unsolicitedadvice9198this is one of the best on nihilism
this is the objective meaning of life that’s intuitive, and fulfilling not just hedonistic, ego centric, making you individualistic which arguably has destroyed the modern world thanks to liberalism which is why families are broken, hook up culture creating single mothers, divorce and cheating rampant where it breeds 90% of criminals, mentally ill, suicidal, substance dependants etc costing the rest of the community and the deterioration continues.
Liberal secularism only benefits porn addicts like yourself that cope and pretend they’re happy until a calamity struck them and they’re left alone with their thoughts to contemplate if any of it is worth it when they’ll just become dust
Every religion says that we’re created in the image of God, but what if it wasn’t a physical image because he’s beyond our comprehension but rather with values ?
Good Values such as mercy, love, justice, compassion etc.
So the purpose of life is to actually mirror those values, because the purpose of life is to find your creator, get to know him and build a relationship with him by worshipping him, reflecting those values.
But worship doesn’t just mean praying.
Charity, feeding a stray animal, eating healthy, gym to take care of your health, spending time with your family, even working to make money for your family, for a good cause etc can all be considered acts of worship.
Which makes you achieve fulfilment, just as the body needs nutrients to survive so does the soul.
Your soul is like a rose, every time you do good deeds you it’s like water that flourishes and cleanses your soul making you feel refreshed, and doing sins is rebelling against the divine/purpose which will be ripping the petals off making you feel worse and suffer feeling guilt/shame/depression becoming dead inside.
Which is why religious people are less suicidal/anxious/depressed so there’s a huge spiritual link also considering every child is born believing in God/Creator/HigherPower but not in some monkey/human type but in a spiritual non physical entity which is proven by studies by Cognitive scientists like Justin Barrett, Paul Bloom, Olivera Petrovich you can look up as well
WAKE UP BABE!! new existential crisis trigger just dropped
I would say "enjoy" but I am not sure that is the right word
@@unsolicitedadvice9198yeah it's not the right word
@@CosmicNihilist embrace?
@@unsolicitedadvice9198 Learning doesn't always need to be enjoyable, just useful
@@nostalji75Recive?
Tolstoy sounds like a depressed rock star overloaded with the too good life and infinite opportunities.
i suppose thats what those hugely talented writers were...rockstars of the past
@@PlumpClump so true.
He was a rockstar.
Books before records🤷♂️
NYC trust fund kid equivalent who could actually write
I have achieved nothing and still feel the despair and void ypu talk about every second of the day.
That’s an obvious given. The best feelings in life comes from achieving goals and seeing progress and growth
@@josecat436 esence of will to power
What’s worse is achieving it. I have achieved what I dreamed; all of my goals. Earn more money than 90% of the population. Own my home. Multiple cars. Have kids. I was married. It’s all hallow. Because once you have it it doesn’t mean what you think it will. Not that I don’t appreciate them or don’t love it, but it’s never what you think. And that hurts. Knowing I dreamed about what I have now- to know it all meant nothing. And there’s nothing left. The unhappiness I felt wasn’t in what I didn’t have how you feel now won’t be solved but achieving anything it never goes away
this is the objective meaning of life that’s intuitive, and fulfilling not just hedonistic, ego centric, making you individualistic which arguably has destroyed the modern world thanks to liberalism which is why families are broken, hook up culture creating single mothers, divorce and cheating rampant where it breeds 90% of criminals, mentally ill, suicidal, substance dependants etc costing the rest of the community and the deterioration continues.
Liberal secularism only benefits porn addicts like yourself that cope and pretend they’re happy until a calamity struck them and they’re left alone with their thoughts to contemplate if any of it is worth it when they’ll just become dust
Every religion says that we’re created in the image of God, but what if it wasn’t a physical image because he’s beyond our comprehension but rather with values ?
Good Values such as mercy, love, justice, compassion etc.
So the purpose of life is to actually mirror those values, because the purpose of life is to find your creator, get to know him and build a relationship with him by worshipping him, reflecting those values.
But worship doesn’t just mean praying.
Charity, feeding a stray animal, eating healthy, gym to take care of your health, spending time with your family, even working to make money for your family, for a good cause etc can all be considered acts of worship.
Which makes you achieve fulfilment, just as the body needs nutrients to survive so does the soul.
Your soul is like a rose, every time you do good deeds you it’s like water that flourishes and cleanses your soul making you feel refreshed, and doing sins is rebelling against the divine/purpose which will be ripping the petals off making you feel worse and suffer feeling guilt/shame/depression becoming dead inside.
Which is why religious people are less suicidal/anxious/depressed so there’s a huge spiritual link also considering every child is born believing in God/Creator/HigherPower but not in some monkey/human type but in a spiritual non physical entity which is proven by studies by Cognitive scientists like Justin Barrett, Paul Bloom, Olivera Petrovich you can look up as well
@TIFFANYDlAS you meant to say hollow, but you used the word hallow. Hard to claim a Freudian slip with text, but I found that interesting. We're all dealing with a lack of meaning. Time to create your own. Best wishes to you.
I think that the way out of the "pit of despair" is an intimately personal one, that we have to find each on our own. We need to educate ourselves about our deepest personal ideas while being brutally honest. Only when we know comprehensively what we hold to be our core values, fears, desires and what our rational and irrational beliefs are, can we start to craft the mental structure that is needed to hold the weight of our consistent happiness. It will likely be an intimately adapted mix of hedonism, selective ignorance and forced self-help in the form of involuntary socializing, therapy etc. As soon as our values, fears or beliefs change, the structure will need to be adapted, in other words our structure requires continuous maintenance. I think finding in your heart the discipline and stamina to see such an effort through is a very hard sell when approaching someone in the pit of despair, especially if you have to sell it to yourself in that position.
I disagree that an existential crisis presupposes a condition of luxury. If you are starving and searching for food you can also undergo an existential crisis; indeed you are MORE likely to suffer an existential crisis. It's called giving up searching for the food because what's the point you are probably going to just die anyway. It happened very frequently in concentration camps and it happens very frequently in refugee detention. I've seen many people give up in this way - including people who are depressed or people with spinal injuries or people with cancer. Existential crises are central to the human experience and are not the preserve of the privileged. Only the privileged get to write about it though.
Excellent point! I suppose it is useful to know, however, that even the privileged who achieve all of their desires are still unsatisfied. It stops us from wasting our lives seeking fame, fortune, attention & all the other false promises society feeds us about how to achieve happiness.
26:44 Nihilism is very misunderstood by the great philosophers. Nihilism isn’t a state of mind, nor is it about lack of meaning. Rather, it’s a blank slate from which everything can build upon. E.g imagine you and only you exist. Even though it’s only you, there is also the nothing that surrounds. There is a permanent dichotomy that exists between everything that exists and that we can experience, versus everything that we cannot experience. Now let’s build upon this emptiness slate. Let’s add another person into this nothing. Everything you do is now relative to the other person and visa-versa. If they hit you, you get hurt, and visa-versa. All of a sudden, we’ve got game theory. Which forms the foundations of moral systems. Every action in the past informs and moulds the future. So everything is relative to what happened in the past. This is a bases for information theory. Information has an entropy… the effects ripple out. So two core concepts of Nihilism: the nothing always exists no matter how much we explore into that nothing; and every thing is relative to everything else… we can’t escape the actions of any other object in the universe.
Ah-ha!! _That's_ a brilliant explanation!
The nothingness that we all exist within is not just empty, but contains all the things we haven’t explored and all the things we don’t understand. There is both a physical and abstract component. It’s like a veil (or fog-of-war). As we explore the physical world, we see and know more, the vail shifts, but is never removed. The veil always exist and always hides more stuff. We have can have assumptions and hypotheses of what’s beyond, but these are only validated when we seek and find the answers. When we do find solid answers, the veil shifts. This is why both religion and science exist, and why both are useful, they pose questions for us to seek answers to. The problems occur when we see questions, assumptions, and hypotheses as truth. This is a problem because we stop expanding the veil and increase our understanding of the universe. Because of this, objective truths do exist, and everything without evidence is merely an assumption to be tested with answers hidden behind the veil waiting to be explored.
someone has watched neon genesis evangelion
@@nejsnek1410 hmm… I have seen it a long time ago, but I don’t remember anything specific from that show informing my interpretation of Nihilism. I’ve also watched Optimistic Nihilism by Kurzgesagt, which I think was more influential.
@@br3nto the final episode of neon genesis depicts an empty world and how adding other people to the world creates a form of relativism but loses some individual information about everyone (they call it an AT field) due to human's suboptimal of communication skills.
I was trying to write notes from your video. It made me notice how each choice of word in your script is so appropriate and thoughtful. You really find the best way to convey the idea in a very unambiguous and impactful way. It shows the clarity of your thoughts. Really appreciate your work! Truly grateful to have discovered your channel!
Oh, cool. Didn't expect to watch a video on Tolstoy's existential crisis, how to get out of one and the irrationality of the human condition today but, it's a welcome surprise. Keep up the good work!👍
Hunger breeds satisfaction, and yet fulfillment is hallow.
Rather ironic, we as humans can never be happy so . . . make an immortal desire to keep on living; something that impossible to obtain yet keeps you going.
this is the objective meaning of life that’s intuitive, and fulfilling not just hedonistic, ego centric, making you individualistic which arguably has destroyed the modern world thanks to liberalism which is why families are broken, hook up culture creating single mothers, divorce and cheating rampant where it breeds 90% of criminals, mentally ill, suicidal, substance dependants etc costing the rest of the community and the deterioration continues.
Liberal secularism only benefits porn addicts like yourself that cope and pretend they’re happy until a calamity struck them and they’re left alone with their thoughts to contemplate if any of it is worth it when they’ll just become dust
Every religion says that we’re created in the image of God, but what if it wasn’t a physical image because he’s beyond our comprehension but rather with values ?
Good Values such as mercy, love, justice, compassion etc.
So the purpose of life is to actually mirror those values, because the purpose of life is to find your creator, get to know him and build a relationship with him by worshipping him, reflecting those values.
But worship doesn’t just mean praying.
Charity, feeding a stray animal, eating healthy, gym to take care of your health, spending time with your family, even working to make money for your family, for a good cause etc can all be considered acts of worship.
Which makes you achieve fulfilment, just as the body needs nutrients to survive so does the soul.
Your soul is like a rose, every time you do good deeds you it’s like water that flourishes and cleanses your soul making you feel refreshed, and doing sins is rebelling against the divine/purpose which will be ripping the petals off making you feel worse and suffer feeling guilt/shame/depression becoming dead inside.
Which is why religious people are less suicidal/anxious/depressed so there’s a huge spiritual link also considering every child is born believing in God/Creator/HigherPower but not in some monkey/human type but in a spiritual non physical entity which is proven by studies by Cognitive scientists like Justin Barrett, Paul Bloom, Olivera Petrovich you can look up as well
i had plenty of happy moments in my life. The Idea of an Everlasting State of Happiness is ridicoulus and stupid. You need a measurement. If you would be happy all the time, you wouldnt even know because it would be the norm. You need both to get an idea of scale.
Youre just an edgy depressed loner of the 21st century, doesnt mean you have to act as if your way of life is the norm.
Saying that Happyness is impossible to obtain is more of a sign that you are literally ill with depression, or just another edgy human being on the internet acting like a 12 year old who recently got into black metal.
@@TheBlackfall234 replace the word happiness with content and I think it’ll make more sense what he meant
@@GodPilledZen No, its still depressed nonsense. Of course people can be content.
@@TheBlackfall234 Here is my full thesis of the only rational understanding about suffering if y'all have the reading comprehension and attention span
Usually people when talking about suffering have 2 assumptions.
let’s start with the first that Life is all about happiness,
IF life is all about pleasure then why does pain exist? Maybe because the purpose of life is to test us instead through the suffering?
Example: The death of a child as unfortunate as may be can be a test for the parents,
for example: the parents are so upset they can either get closer to God, become more empathetic and selfless, or lose all hope,
start becoming an alcoholic ruining their lives and those around them further
So there's a lot of variables he’s not taking into consideration
In Islamic belief, children who pass away are believed to go to Paradise,
So, from this perspective, if a child enters eternal paradise from a very short life, it is merciful rather than from an atheist perspective where there is just lights out and there's no hope.
Secondly why suffering is necessary to exist is
There would be no free will if there was only Good events happening and you couldn’t choose to do bad,
You would be forced to be Good, Everyday would look like an episode of the Teletubbies
Pain is basically a reminder of our limitations, it can help us grow, give us knowledge and appreciation for those less fortunate.
if someone lives in a state of complete happiness and bliss, they will see themselves as nearly godlike, such as the Elites like bill gates who have no sympathy for us middle and lower class. Pain, therefore, acts as a humbling force.
It highlights the presence of a greater reality beyond ourselves, where a higher power uses the balance of pain and pleasure as a test.
Embrace the suffering, gain wisdom and become humble or multiply the suffering from your victim complex. With God the Mountain doesn’t get Smaller, it only gets easier to climb.
Islam has strict rules, but think about with these strict rules would your life be better off or worse off?
No alcohol, hook up culture creating broken homes, interest from banks keeping people in poverty flourishes society greatly.
The purpose of life is to be tested in Islam
Every single action you do will be accounted towards in the next life, not an atom of good or bad goes unnoticed, that even animals will testify if they’ve been treated unjustly.
You think the rich, handsome influencer religious leader gets a life of ease and goes to heaven just for that?
No, His wealth is a test for him to share and not be greedy, his good looks is a test to commit in healthy relationships and his status to not be arrogant, but rather have humility,
We can look at how many celebrities have drug addictions and end up taking their own lives.
This is proof that the luxuries of the world fail to provide true fulfilment.
Chasing the world is like chasing your shadow, so close yet always out of our reach. But if you chase after God, the world will chase after you,
but you’ll be content and not even want the world, achieving true liberation especially in Islam as suffering cleanses your sins. So Even your suffering has meaning. It’s a perfect belief system, both practically and spiritually fulfilling
TLDR: You will never be completely content for long periods of time and what goes up must come down. The downfall is obviously the worst part
Having not wanted to be on earth for well over half my life, nothing has brought me so much joy as making my environment better. This can be brightening someone’s day, watering my plants, or creating art I think is beautiful. There is so much pain on this earth… if you find can joy in lessening it, even in some small way, then you will never feel despair. At least in my opinion :)
Bro single handedly solved nihilism by applying faith in love 😤👌
Listening to your analysis of these existential concepts has me in a trance. I could listen to you for hours 🙏 Even though I’m passively listening to you, I feel just as engaged and heard in my silence. It’s fascinating and I appreciate you and this channel. Keep it up 🤗💜 You are amazing!
Give this beautiful man the well-deserved recognition.
Great work as always ❤️
In existence, there is potential. In nonexistence, there is none. If our happiness is as temporary as we are, so is our suffering. I will take life in all its facets over the prospect of having never existed at all.
My physics professor once said that there is no such thing as lost potential.
When days bleed into months, which bleed into years temporary feels forever...
I think one aspect to consider is that rationality is just one tool and it's a flawed tool.
We tend to think it is neutral and that it can predict the future but it is all but: It has a huge negative bias and it's pretty bad at predicting the future
Sadly this means we ought to switch between instinct and thought and even accept the uncomfortableness of uncertainty (about most things), and even entertaining this probably is too much for many people as is letting go of control and influence, even over our own lives, but: We never had control, control was an illusion
No, that we have no influence, but we are more a character that reacts and adapts (our biggest strength as humans) to reality rather than the creators of our reality.
Basically, we need to take a huge bite of humble pie, be more comfortable with saying: "I don't know" and "this is as far as I know"
It's important to remember that there are hills and valleys in life, often it just takes waiting it out.
❤
Waiting out to die in the end?
Ironically, that's one of the paths mentioned in the video about how people react to existential crises.
This might be the best video about nihilism on CZcams. I love your work - keep it going!
I don't understand the feeling of despair. Even at the worst depths of decades of battling clinical depression, I never felt despair. There's something optimistic at my core that always fends it off.
I hope you don't lose that
perhaps self preservation
What is your definition of despair?
@@jeangoncalves3691 I imagine it depends on what you're despairing of, but in general a complete loss of hope and will with regard to whatever the matter is, the ultimate being loss of hope and will for living, often resulting in suicide.
A much lesser form might be your football team being behind by 50 points with only 1 minute left in the game. You'd despair of your team winning.
Perhaps learn about it if you want to understand it?
This is truly a great channel. You inspired me to read books that I never thought I read like crime and punishment and the death of ivan illiach.
Ah thank you! I am glad you are enjoying the videos
Tolstoy's observation of the simple faith of the peasants and their sufferings brings it all home for me. Their faith was based on hope for a better existence; not necessarily richer (as some may equate "better"). The fact that their current existence involved backbreaking labour and success also depended on elements well beyond their control (weather) gave them pause to appreciate their purpose in the grand scheme of life. Existence was its own reward. Anything beyond mere existence was gravy. Only the indolent who had managed to rise about the plane of mere existence; those whose food and lifestyle were the rewards of others work, could afford to spend their time in such unproductive musings, and appeared to be no happier for it. As humans do, when rising above mere existence, their natural creativity and curiosity goad them into 'thinking beyond their means'. It's why they create more questions then answers. Such musings are only for those who have much or those who are content with nothing (e.g. Marx). Those who must work for existence learn to find purpose and pleasure in simpler things. Happiness is fickle. Contentment changes. Peace is is the greatest reward.
why should we keep on existing? i still have that question
@@bananaachipsI choose to keep existing to spite Marx.
@@bananaachips We don't really know, anymore than a dog, cat or dandelion knows. We only have our beliefs. Otherwise, we're just part of a pattern. A wolf neither knows nor cares why he exists. He's just which neither knows nor cares why it exists. Humans seem the only species troubled by such concerns. They are also the only species which has developed techniques and machinery to do the work of obtaining their daily bread, which afford them the leisure to ponder such things, which are truly unessential to exisitence. Maybe the purpose of existence is merely to exist.
Thank you.
I have recently found your channel and I never tire of being amazed at how good you are at explanations difficult at firtst sight topics.
Amazing
Thank you from Russian guy who lives in the USA
Here's some _unsolicited advice_
Acknowledge that Nihilism exists in the positive AND negative. That was the whole point of "Everything Everywhere All at Once". I chose the positive end because when nothing (vanity wise) matters, everything (cosmically) matters.
Hey!! _Finally,_ another who recognizes the existentialist dread, brutality and desparing, grainy, _straining beauty_ in Leyland Kirby's works!!
@@normanclatcher What a marvelous musician that has demonstrated these same themes as the movie I was talking about in the OC.
Love your content, thank you for doing a piece on Nihilism. It's a topic I actually ponder and write essays about quite often.
To answer your questions in the end... I've come to think of nihilism as the end of a path of development in the spirals of development cycles. It will always appear at 9 before we start all over with vigor at a new level at 1 again. It is a very powerful mirror, one that calls for us to integrate what we've learned and let go, to walk into a new path, a new void without knowing where it leads, that's what it is to me. The mirror only shows us what has transpired behind us here. We are called in this moment to change our point of view in hopes of finding light. Of the 3 crisis conditions you propose, to which I agree are valid conditions for an existential crisis, they would be in 3 different spirals a person would experience those states of being. My essays often focus on what triggers us looking into this void in the first place, why we logically WANT to resonate with it (let's be honest, it does feed pride), and how we pull ourselves through it while accepting its lesson, integrating it, and growing from it.
I'm now the opposite however miserable life may be
it brings me joy to live in it
given a thousand reasons to be unhappy i can still find a single reason to be happy in each day
that's my saving garce
so long as i wake up every day that too is one of the good things added to my day..
13:37 I can FEEL the quote. So immersive man.Great job.
Thank you!
You had been saving me in philosophy classes with these vids 😭 i support your vids wish the best of luck!
If you’re living through a real existential crisis you have no time to worry about any existential crisis.
Thank you so much for this summary! This came at a very tumultuous time in my life and this was juat what i needed to help course correct right now. Amazing how humans of the past mirror our lives hundreds and thousands of years across time.
I've read the Confession at least 5 times since learning about it from Jordan Peterson. Genuinely one of my most favorite reads of all-time due to his brutal honesty and earnest efforts to find meaning and God. Great video.
I consider myself a nihilist, but coming from a Christian background where I always felt the weight of the world on my shoulders, there's actually something freeing to no longer having any inherent meaning. I am finally at peace.
100 percent positive you have not found peace.
@@irelandishsac13 you can't speak for me
This is such a underrated channel
i love this guy
Psychologically, we ponder questions like what is the meaning of life? Only when the world enforces its will upon us and makes us feel helpless. If we will to power and change this world according to our will, we will be happy.
We didn't choose to participate in these world neither we created this world so it was imposed on us so we can't change the world according to our will
We emerge through the will to power of God's people and you can control them somehow they have trancdental power, how can one be happy? To know existence is a totality of trancdental power of God's people.
The biggest problem with religious beliefs in an intelligent person is that once the beliefs are questioned in a scientific manner, the power of beliefs disappears.
Rolling up on a quarter million subs! Good work, well earned. Keep it up. I loved your interview with Alex.
Thank you! To be honest I have been blown away with how many people seem to be enjoying these
@@unsolicitedadvice9198 you're a natural. Also, as a sound guy, I'm grateful you spent the time to dial in your sound. Very professional. Bad audio drives me up a wall.
My favourite reviewer and intellectual. You never miss bro. 🎉
Im digitally detoxing while binging on your channel with no guilt whatsoever :) Thank you!
I’ve officially struggled with nihilism since I was about 18 years old & broke free from religion. The more I learned about the world & humanity , the more everything seemed like a pointless cosmic joke. Thanks for the video bc it addressed many questions & thoughts I hv struggled with 🙌🏼
I bene going through it for over a decade but never actually realized it could be something so relatable. and not just that the solutions that I halfway been getting that have been also expanded on by others as well
Can’t place a finger on it but there’s something about the way you explain these philosophies that make em so much more enjoyable
Nihilism is the stage in which an individual metamorphoses from the innocent ignorance to the Will of Power and transcends from the "constant becoming without being".
Through an amalgamated thought of Nihilism and Theism, i became cognizant that they go parallel to each other.
As the normativity of the life is generally bestowed by a deity preconditioning our being to specifically sculpt our 'being'.
Many arguments could be called, such as the 'irrational' resort to divinity in cases of crises, the being of Nihilism itself as comprehensible for being that *is*, despite representing nothingness.
The constant echoes of our will are our preconditioned lack in juxtaposition to the infinite; encapsulating salvation from an all-powerful *being* that specifically created humanity for this exact teleology.
Like a light that by its mere existence created darkness around it. Albeit under the given context, it is deliberate.
Darkness upon darkness, a path to light, shall be given through darkness.
Which i think illustrates Kierkegaard's points of religion and commitment.
As the divinity himself might not be as elusive nor deistic we might think, and actively influences the primordial darkness he created.
Specially, despite religion being arguably the way out, when used the wrong way, it leads to a bottomIess abyss of despair, in such cases of Christianity where religion fails to bring a philosophical transcendalist approach instead, brings a layman's approach to laymen's lives, with too vague of a prescription and description to the inherent lack of, what i like to call, 'stage 2' normativity, which encompasses the detailed normativity of the dualism of the infinite and finite, instead of the presupposed 'teaser' instinct inside of us.
Whatever sings you to sleep. I'll stick with beer, stockpiling bullets and homicidal ideation.
i’m pretty much rugged enough to not do what tolstoy did, but instead…
“eyy yo, existential crisis. wazzup, long time no see bruh!”
Tolstoy’s Confession is a retelling of “Ecclesiastes” that material things and worldly success never satisfy the soul
Nothing new under the sun
I'd say Tolstoy's analysis of the causes and the common responses to nihilism are spot on and feel intuitive. His efforts to find or develop a new path seem more like a brilliant mind trying to resist the simpler but potentially devastating reality of the situation. Nietzsche's efforts are just as brilliant and seem just as labored. I think our biology and evolution justify the simple and devastating analysis that Tolstoy began with. The "ought" comes from the fact that humanity "is" a reproducing organism. That's what we are and therefore we prefer things that support our reproduction. Clearly those preferences have been shifted and contorted in different ways through the imperfect evolutionary process but that is their origin. So it makes sense that our minds tell us that all sorts of things will make us perpetually happy, just for that to fade and a new objective to be put in it's place. This process ultimately motivated us to reproduce (or serves that biological machinery), our original "is" and "ought". Eternal meaning is a deception in service of that.
Should we put an end to it, after realizing it?
Seems like nihilism and absurdism are merely steps many have to take to find what they truly believe... Not ends in themselves, but means to an end. That step between belief systems. (Admittedly, it can be hard to find solid ground after taking that initial step, but most eventually find their way, whatever they choose.)
This.
I also understand nihilism as the necessary step on the path of spirtual evolution. You have to go up from the bottom (and overcome fear and doubt) to start to ascend.
@@alena-qu9vjhard agree with everything above! The sentiment of starting from the bottom (nihilism, absurdism) holds extremely true, especially in the modern age.
It almost begs the need to breakaway and become "leftfield". I wonder if a systematic German named Heidegger is more and more needed in this day and age 😅. But that could also be my bias of wanting structure. The great thing about philosophy is it can be a matter of perspective/life experience.
@@Parallaxdnb Yours is rather „masculine“ approach. Me, as a woman, prefer more emotional path over the logic. A spiritual seeker’s way is more binding, they are bound to live what they realize as true meaning in their own lives, while philosophers, specially those of the modern times, just think and theorize more often. For me it is difficult to accept the gap between their theories and personal lifes (see Nietzsche for instance) and I find it detrimental for the path to real meaning. One should live what one preaches ☺
I would also add here a quote from Jordan Peterson's book "12 Rules for Life"
"When existence reveals itself as existentially intolerable, thinking collapses in on itself"
It really reinforces your opinion that you can't simply get an ought from an is, at least not if you are an atheist.
One can also think of it this way: An existential crisis is a fundamentally subjective problem, and therefore cannot be explained by reason alone. Sure, you can recognize the problem by rational thinking, but SOLVING it is quite a different task. I myself believe in the solution proposed by Nietzsche: To overcome a callous and amoral world, one has to define values to oneself.
Loved your video btw. please make more content about literary geniuses
👌🏾
Good luck with forming your own values. And not saying the next day that they are totally meaningless.
Amazing video, as always truly.
Why Solve nihilism? Perhaps see it as a way to grow or even something to believe in.
If you are nihilistic then it may give you a reason to never fear things that others may?
Best thing about this channel is book suggestions and that was an excellent one. Great read!
This is with the thought that Nihilism must be solved for. Let me put it this way, if Nihilism is the extreme of an existential crisis and most people have an existential crisis, then it is a feature of the brain more than a flaw of the soul. It is, for a better term, "thought puberty," much like how we feel shame for our bodies when we reach a certain age.
So, why force a correction in a mind designed to find the flaws in the first place? We are a story telling and story believing creature and stories do not stay happy and positive. There are moments of darkness, of doubt, of strife.
In other words, if we are programmed to understand lessons through stories, wouldn't we also be "programmed" to live a life through a story method? Not in a linear aspect, of course, but in one that has its own ups and downs, its own demons and its own angels.
In fact, to say that we must hide the darkness is what manifests it more. From personal experience facing terrible things like CSA and being sold as a sex slave, it manifested in ways that I could not understand until I brought those things out into the light to examine them and think about them.
Not as a separate entity from me, but as part of me. Sure, I still use the positive disassociation techniques to remove some of the negative tendrils around my heart, but I still must objectively look at it and understand it is a part of me.
And then it is the acceptance that not only that I have no meaning, but I am also evil by nature. A man whose lineage has strong roots in CSA and child abuse carries that through to his own life and his own blood. With these in mind, one still must endure the fact that one is evil and one does not matter because at the end of our lives... No one will remember.
Not even the people we love, who forget the total human we were for only the positives of what they remember, the angel of what we were against the demons that we carried along the way.
No, nihilism is merely a feature - like toaster settings on a vintage toaster. It is showing the mind has grown with the body and understands, even if it burns one side of the soul to a scorched piece of charred bread.
Is it like, taking the experiences you've had and logging them into the spreadsheet that is your character?
@@doompoison2365 No spreadsheets, no characters, no games, nothing at all. If you wish to clarify your statement, then please do so or I will simply dismiss this as an empty attempt to troll.
@@MatthewEaton"all is an empty attempt to troll," for this is nihilism.
@@normanclatcher Now see, this is exactly the remark that takes time and consideration, high value in the face of the subject. Bravo indeed!
Not that it matters, of course because nothing or no one matters, as with all things nihilist
@@MatthewEaton The weak man looks into the void and despairs.
The stoic simply shrugs, and goes about his business.
Another great content! Would be dangerously close to perfection if you consider labeling the paintings with the title and painter's name, my memory fails somtimes:)
When you were talking about how an existential crisis is a luxury issue, Mark 10:25-27 sparked to mind; 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’
You make really interesting content. Thank you for uploading ❤
I like your channel so much, it gives me vibes about philosophy ✨
Ah thank you! I hope you like this one
Existence precedes essence. Ah to live in an existential agony.
I was raised christian and loved that way unconsciously for decades until I worked myself free and started living my life for myself and those around me instead of some divine being as I no longer believe he exists. I admit I've dealt with nihilistic thought ever since, as a christian you don't even consider it, so I was ill prepared. I've done a ton of research into grappling with the phenomenon, along with a lot of internal considerations and while I still sometimes struggle with it I've reached a sort of equilibrium, an "it is what it is' kind of thinking. I don't seek eternal life or meaning, these are impossible goals, I instead live life as it comes, day to day while it lasts. I've always liked the Red Dwarf quote about what the meaning of was: to have lived a good life. That's what I try to do now. It may be overly simplistic but it works for me. I don't really see it as ignoring nihilism so much as not dwelling on things I can't do anything about.
I suppose that’s a good approach so long as it works for you. It’s so interesting to read the perspectives of people raised with unquestioning Christianity compared to those of us raised in a more or less agnostic environment who came to Christianity as an educated adult having already struggled with nihilism. I am beginning to think that keeping children in a protective, fundamentalist Christian bubble is almost counter productive to what those Christians are trying to achieve. Allowing children to muddle through this world & see its empty promises for what they are at an early age is more likely to bring to about a solid faith.
@chikaka2012 I would argue that the world doesn't offer ANY promises, empty or otherwise. It's about perception. Relying on a religion allows one to ignore thoughts of nihilism. You can let yourself dwell on nihilism, take on religion, or move past it and focus on the one life you do have. I realize they may be other options on the table, and other people handle it different ways. I guess I view my way of life as a sober approach to reality as I see it. Sometimes it sucks, other times it doesn't. I'll just make the best of what the universe gives me.
Ok, so since you asked, I will answer.
The most important skill I obtained in this life so far is ability to observe my mind. Whenever any unpleasant experience arises, I am able to observe it. What I learned from observing my mind - and from listening to spiritual teachers - is that unpleasant experiences such as existential crisis are not arising because we lack something, but because we inserted in our minds something unnecessary. It appears to me that existential crisis acctually is a deep desire for something, which a person having said crisis had learned at a young age is unobtainable. We just need to understand what that desire is.
Absolute banger
Needed this as well
13:10 I deeply felt that, after some time spent researching every book and essay to find meaning, I kind of just gave up and thought, 'Well, this sucks, but I will do a Camus move and just keep moving in rebellion, hoping someone else finds the answer.' It may not be the right thing to do, but hey, anything is better than ending it without knowing if there was a better answer.
If I would try to research books on quantum mechanics I doubt I would find meaning of it, probably because I am not educated / wise enough. Could it be that the same is valid for researchings books and essays on meaning of existence? Could it be that to problem is in our understanding, our ability, our preparedness to comprehend? Just asking...
@@alena-qu9vj Honestly, the problem might be that I don't even know what exactly I'm looking for. What is meaning? How does one get it? Through understanding multiple schools of thought and philosophy? By becoming obsessed with a task? Or is it as simple as just living for the ones you care about? My focus at the beginning was on pure philosophy, from the Greeks to modern authors, then psychology, from the most basic aspects to the wildest theories of modern-day authors, then poetry, and, lastly, a desperate attempt in classic books and art. Am I wrong for looking there? Am I wrong for reading all the works of Shakespeare and of the supposed greatest minds in history on the subject expecting them to change at least slightly my worldview after giving them days of though and analysis? Where or how do you find meaning? As you said if the best couldn't get to a satisfying answer who am I to say my understanding and analytical skills could get to something they didn't
@@Wulk The simple truth is THERE IS NO UNIVERSAL "OBJECTIVE" MEANING. And even if it were, every one of us is just a subject, and as such only can perceive, understand and interpret the meaning SUBJECTIVELY. Researching on meaning "out there" you only can find subjective interpetations of Shakespeare or other so called greatest minds. Which you may or may not resonate with - according to your very own and subjective perspective, based on your very own specific state of spiritual development. The only place where you should look for meaning is "in there", this is an exclusively personal job which nobody can do for you.
Nobody says it is an easy task, but it is the primary reason why we are here, and overcoming obstacles and difficulties is part of the job.
@@Wulk And PS
Analytical thinking is not the best tool in looking for the meaning of existence - in fact it is rather detrimental. Thats why I generally find artists, mystics and other "not-primary-thinking" people more succesfull in finding (their) meaning.
@@alena-qu9vj Heh, that is exactly what Nietzsche said to do. That's his argument on "you lack the will force to create your own meaning" and that reason is not the tool to rely on to find happiness or meaning. However, I don't have it in me, and maybe I do have a weak will. But I'd rather keep moving forward by inertia than accept that there is no point in anything and that the solution is to gaslight myself into believing a false truth that I made up or worse that someone else made up to justify my existence. To me, that is worse than philosophical suicide
Tolstoy started searching for God when he no longer found pleasure in anything because God(the quality of Love) is the only thing of substance that exists! That's my humble opinion.
God is, by definition, not a thing of substance, and the substance of love is oxytocin.
If anything, Tolstoy started searching for a comforting delusion and found it in the most accessible, most acceptable form in Russia.
i have been dealing with Nihilism since I was 9 years old
it helped me dealing with my pain for awhile but i eventually came above it
you have to go through it once to transcend to value the bad so that you can charish the good
pain makes us realise that before it was the happy days hence pain is good but getting attached to it isn't
5:03 I have called this, "the trajedy of a dream fulfilled", which is a thought that came to me the first time I watch Soul.
Does anyone believe that being consistently happy in this life is possible? That seems highly delusional. Even as a child I didn’t think this a possibility and I had a reasonably happy childhood. Life brings many forms of grief including the death of loved ones. To expect someone to be happy all the time, including oneself, is cruel & soulless. But sometimes the most exquisite & beautiful moments are linked to loss & pain. It’s the fleeting nature of true joy that makes it so precious. It’s the opportunity to bring those moments to others that makes this life worthwhile.
the escape of existential despair, is not running away from meaningless through believing in religion or avoiding the problem through hedonism. The way out is through. I think there is an objective meaning in the form of an action, and that's trying to figure out what is going on. Say, "I don't know" but then figure it out or at least try. The way out is by dedicating your life to the progression of humanity so that one day we can have the puzzle pieces to solve the puzzle.
Isn’t it more terrifying that life goes on forever? I think God is terrified of his own existence…
Happy to see Joe dropping this as I read Will To Power
As a nihilist, I feel less destroyed now than when I was a Christian.
Anyway, it is clear that the problem as well as solution is within you yourself, not in some abstract "nihilims" or "Christianity".
Both
Some Nihilistic humor is okay but its a slippery slope to depression 😅 And it can in worse cases cause some extreme narcissistic behavior.
I feel that nihilism doesn’t get off of the ground due to our incomplete knowledge and curiosity. Whether it’s “meaning” or just a matter of luck that we have the never-ending task of discovering how the universe works (or existence?), we do have that. This is why “Nietzsche” reliving the same life eternally is so powerful in my opinion, it’s because doing so with no knowledge of it happening doesn’t permit nihilism, but if we did know it, nihilism would be permitted.
Nothing hurt me more than faith in God and hope in people. Lol
^Preach
The worst about about Betrayal is, it never comes from a Stranger.
Dissident dialogue between Alex O’Connor and John Vervaeke is a good partner video to this one.
I think much of the effort to respond to or "defeat" nihilism and the often resultant existential crisis ultimately circles back to an attempt to avoid the hard conclusions of reason, which many find intolerable. "We can't accept nihilism because it makes us sad" is essentially what I always hear, and when I point out that the way a thing makes you feel doesn't affect its truth value people find ever more elaborate ways to tell me "No, but you don't understand. It makes people REALLY sad" I'm sorry. We all need to learn to deal with disappointment, and then make the best of what we have.
We get a breif moment in the sunlight, and then we're gone, and then we're forgotten. None of it will matter forever, but what we do does matter right now. So what will you do? Do you want to mope about how you probably can't dance on clouds forever? Lay in a puddle of filth because what's the point in showering if you'll just get dirty again? Or, do you want to go out there and make life for yourself and those around you as good as it can be here and now? I know what I've chosen.
Mark this video as another reason why I'm gonna fight nihilism among the civilization of man in the future
Found this channel today ... i dont know if this is confirmation bias ... but its as though im talking to that friend i always wish i had ... to talk to about things like this... without getting the side eye😅
Thank you for the ansolicited advice .... kea leaboha from south africa.
how good is Tolstoy 'Confession'! Chapter 4 brings me to Louis Malle's Le feu follet/ i haven't read the book itself/, when Alain defies his old friend's cliche assertion 'Life is good' with a simple, quiet 'Good for what?'
or when in Fellini's 'La dolce vita' Marcello tells Maddalena that her problem/apathy, let's call it/ stems from 'having too much money', to which she bitterly responds that Marcello's psycho-philosophical problem stems from 'not having enough of money'.
thanks for tolstoy anyway.
All I have achieved ran through my fingers like sand, and now became the sand I'm sinking in.
Happiness is I think a unique mental state which is energetic and motivating rather then the absence or relieve of desiring.
For example, if I eat sunflower seeds, then this doesn’t satisfy my hunger at all.
But I am still happy which motivates me to continue eating sunflower seeds.
My feet are on the ground, my eyes on the stars.
"…even though it makes the prospect of permanent satisfaction seem pretty much impossible."
Well, duh? That just seems like an unrealistic goal from the start. Eventually you'll tire of whatever was pleasing you. 🤷♂
I have watched every single video you have dropped
I be waiting for them like new episodes of a series 😂😂
"Reason's got nothing to do with it." -Mr. Gibbs
I had to look up the word 'Nihilism'. There are a lot of people like that around.
Welcome to the _real_ fight of our lives-- whether _meaning itself_ exists.
Really need a video talking about how you can communicate so well using all those fancy words.
It would be fairly accurate to call myself a nihilist. The way I deal with it is if there's no point, purpose, or meaning to anything then that applies to thinking about it. So my solution is similar to Tolstoy's first method, simply "ignoring the elephant in the room". Though I don't try to be ignorant of it as he suggests, I am aware of the issue. When my attention is drawn to the elephant I logically deduce that looking at the elephant is itself pointless, so I look away. I ignore it and just continue about my life. That is, unless my interest is piqued by it as it is in this moment, and when my interest wanes I go back to ignoring it. There's no point in filling myself with existential dread because there's no point in anything, so I might as well do what makes me feel happy and fulfilled.
I’m slowly becoming a Hollow like in Dark Souls
Nihilism... Here's my experience in a nutshell. I worked in IT at a few banks, and despised myself for, in my view, making the world worse by contributing to gross financial inequity. Horrific depression followed, apathy towards myself and the world. Then an opportunity to work for an NGO whose mission I valued opened up and I jumped at the chance until I was fired...long crappy story. More nihilism towards the world and myself... then many years of painful addictions and absolute idleness. Nihilistic towards my life, and the human race.
I have weirdly managed to find some anathema to Nihilism by focusing on my unencumbered criticism of humanity, both on individual and collective levels. Uh, sobering up seems for me to have been necessary for me to combat excess nihilism as well - pursuing only pleasure leads not to meaning, as many know.
There is a sort of liberation that comes from feeling no meaningful connections to others or society at large, as with myself. Being unconnected, perhaps, frees one to more fully pursue their own sorts of meaning. Being unentwined with the expectations and desires of society, friends, family, or peers, for me at least, has made it possible to confront nihilism head on - like an Earthbender! Only so late in my life have I learned that I cannot find societal-level meaning, but so much individual-level meaning.
Yup. I am SUPER fun at parties... in theory... :)
Great channel. Good day, Good sir.
Inequity isn't a problem. No one is entitled to be the same or have the same amount of money.
@@ronantheronin3521 Entitled? Nope. But an exploitative system that serves only a very few at the expense of many is not one I have been willing to contribute to.
It sounds like depression is like a protracted existential crisis with the will/desires filed off.
Depression is the existential crisis without the moments of temporary gratification or the ability to imagine yourself satisfied.
The problem of existential meaninglessness is something that I have thought about for a long time. I'm a Christian, but then I thought that atheism (or more specific materialism) could be true. But the problem with this form of atheism is that the existence of true meaning is impossible. You could live by your own constructed meaning, but this constructed meaning is nothing else than self-delusion. I concluded that if living the life an atheist, even if atheism is true, is fundamentally meaningless, why should I change my believe, that would be exactly as meaningless? Paradoxically in a meaningless world, there is no meaning even in being right. Now I don't think atheism is true anymore (not because of this reasoning, but because of experiencing gods influence in this world and me personally) and this existential despair doesn't apply to me anymore. For my atheist friends, I want to help you, but I couldn’t solve the problem ether. But have hope, the problem seems to be inherent to the worldview and I have found enough hints, that the atheist worldview may be not as true as it sometimes seems.
This makes me wonder if self-actualization is actually desirable at all. If all of our physiological, social, intellectual, and spiritual needs are met, how can one be motivated to do anything? I imagine that one factor of the problem might be dopamine. You get a release of dopamine for everything from winning a soccer match and even for simple achievements like making the bed in the morning. If you have nothing to overcome, not even little trivial things, then you’re not getting much dopamine, ergo you feel little to no pleasure in the activities you once enjoyed.
Thanks yoy for your video man
Feeling of meaniglesness in life is not something really tht big of a deal,at the end of the day thats the radical truth but our minds are tend to lean into an anthropocentric model of reality which is inevitable as thats the way we are...its just the way we are,a part of experience itself.
Nihilism in a nutshell
> reject „Everloving Sugar Daddy in Heaven” because PROGRESS
> *meaninglessness, despair and existential crisis joined the chat*
> Oh shit surprise pikachu face.jpg
> try to fill the infinite void with temporary shit
> task failed.exe
> create manmade gods that suit your needs, agendas and pov
> task failed.exe
> start crying and bitching about it
> „life bad, absurdism, God is dead, Sisyphus…”
> beat around the philosophical bush, never approach the core of the subject
> go crazy go stupid.mp3
> have self delete thoughts
> Chat is this real ?
Yup, its ultimately a God problem. Nihilism is only possible because of the preconceived idea that humans exist without meaning when the truth is the opposite.
If people are willing to accept God's existence into their lives. They would come to find peace because they come to understand what they are, who they are and what their place in this world means. That understanding of your meaning will then act as unshakible foundation that nobody can disturb because to deny that meaning would mean rendering your very existence as worthless, which leads to nihilism.
There were times where i dealt with nihilistic thoughts when i was younger but fortunately for me was raised as a christian and when i came to understand that every life that God brings into this world exists with a purpose.
It made me realise that all human life holds inherent meaning that transcends our own views. To exist at all meant having meaning. I stopped thinking of myself as someone who is worthless, even when others think less of me, i won't think less of myself or them because all of us exist with purpose and meaning, its only a matter of finding it.
@@justiceiria869 Straight to the point 👌 God bless you my brother, I’m glad you found solace in his unfathomable love.
>be me
>find myself
>existential dread
>don't be me
>find yourself anyway, anon.
I think im in love w this man
The void Tolstoy speaks of sounds a bit like the 'God-shaped hole' C.S. Lewis often mentioned.
Annoying, but possible.
Before you'd go on, nihilism upholds no value that requires we accept nihilism. We may reject it without the same without of reason for accepting it. If you catch my apples! There's stuff, and bilogical necessity forged in an evolutionary relation to Creation, that infers purpose. Obvs.
I like this video a lot, here is my takeaway and contribution:
An existential crisis can be fueled by the pursuit of knowledge. Often logic can seem like the way to escape every problem, but this just isn't the case. You can't think your way out of everything, unfortunately.
Find a (non human) higher power to look to for guidance. For example, mine is Flora and Fauna.
Remember that you are probably more simple than you think you are. Your ego can get in the way of your human pursuits.