I
took philosophy. I took a lot of
philosophy. I’m fucked up now.
I
used to think the world was a fairly simple place. People.
Books. My mind. The world.
Truth. Simple.
But
I’ve learned that the world is really complicated. Nothing is ever what it seems. Multiple ways of looking at everything. More perspectives we can ever dream of and
not one of them is necessarily “right”.
The world is not simple and “truth” may be more a fiction than anything else.
I
learned that the world is absurd. I live
in a world that has no big significance and yet I cannot help give it
significance. The absurd. It’s irrational and I can’t do a damn thing
about it. I have my subjectivity and
consciousness, but they seem more like consolation prizes.
I
spend my time thinking way too much about too many things. I didn’t before. Life was easier. Now I question even who I am at times.
I
was excited about philosophy at first. I
was learning to think. Maybe for the
first time. But the deeper I got the
more classes I took, the more wrapped up I got.
I
should have taken the blue pill and woke up in my bed believing whatever I
wanted to believe. Walking away. Instead I took the red pill and there is
nothing left to believe.
Sounds like SOMEONE took existentialism!
ReplyDeleteWell then consider yourself enlightened. Live a better life. You can be happier understanding that everything IS absurd! Existence itself is absurd. The universe. Energy. Life. Love. None of it is proven to be real yet we experience it everyday. They say space and time started out of quantum fluctuations of energy. Whatever that means.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Best and worst thing I've ever done in my life.
ReplyDeleteI think I know what you are speaking of author. I have now taken a hefty amount of Philosophy classes myself and I have embraced my new found view of the world. I feel that I live much more authentically compared to many others but I try to stay humble because humility is one of the biggest values to me personally. EMBRACE IT! You are seeing the world for what it is! (whatever that means)
ReplyDeleteDear Anon who took too much Philosophy,
ReplyDeleteWhile I’ve only taken one philosophy class I can understand where you are coming from. The class makes you think in different ways than you use to; suddenly your beliefs are shaken and you’re no longer blissfully ignorant of all that philosophy has to share with the world. Bummer, isn’t it? Did you have beliefs on certain topics before these classes? Or are you so quick to change your opinion and beliefs because a professor gives reasons to? As children we are trained to take everything and anything someone with a higher level of education says as fact, when instead we should question it all. Philosophy also gives reasons to have beliefs too, don’t forget! Even Putnam seems to have the attitude of “eh, stop thinking about it, Buddy, and enjoy life as it is. It doesn’t matter in the run of things.” So maybe make up your own mind, believe what you want to believe because of reasons you have that are personal and meaningful to you. In the scheme of things, none of it actually matters so you might as well stop thinking so much about it. And that blue pill? It’s called Prozac, and in my opinion, it does wonders for an anxious mind.
Best of luck with your over-active mind,
Wannabe-Dr. H. Quinzel
I hear what you are all saying. You seem to think I'm better off anyway. You seem to think that you are better off. Who cares? There is no big point to life. I'd be much happier living in ignorance. I'd be be better off in ignorance. I'd be better off believing that there was a bigger significance. But I can't believe that anymore.
ReplyDeleteAgh well see now that just sounds depressing. I understand that one phase of this "philosophy disease" or whatever you want to call it is coming to the realization that we're so terribly insignificant, nothing really matters. But what matters is the present time. It matters to feel happy or sad, love or hate, pleasure or pain. It matters because we're experiencing it, and to us, it's real. It might not have an ultimate purpose, but who cares? Embrace it anyway. And knowing that things are absurd, you find much more to laugh about. Nietzsche said, “We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.” So no, you don't need Prozac and you don't need to feel regretful about taking philosophy. You can be happy, even happier, and more carefree, than those who live in ignorance. Because once you realize that you are in control of what meaning there is in the world, it becomes a lot easier to live happily.
DeleteRead this story.
And read this one too.
^those are direct links by the way.
DeleteI know where you are coming from, but the absurd? Really, absurdism. Of all the possible philosphies that made your list of things that fucked your world up absurdism made the list. Absurdism is a joke. Let's use truth and meaning to dig ourself into a big hole then throw away the shovel and ladder and say well shit I'm stuck. Truth and meaning got you into the damn hole in the first place, use them to get yourself out. What a stupid and logically flawed philosophy.
ReplyDeleteReally you're kicking it down just like that? What is so logically flawed about it? How is absurdism founded on truth and meaning? You're just using language to make it appear as a logically flawed philosophy. But you'll have to do better than that. Or at least expand on your argument.
DeleteUgh I'm not going to go the neth degree but briefly absurdism says that there is no meaning in the world. How the fuck did I just say that? I used meaning so meaning exsists. Absurdism also uses how tiny we are compared to the universe. How how do you know that? We know it through truth and meaning. We believe and use truth and meaning. We can't not use them so why bother thinking in an impossible fashion.
DeleteBefore you go into some bull shit nonsense about semantic, just stop and ask yourself how are you even arguing with me if there is no meaning in the world?
Absurdism says there's no meaning in the WORLD. The meaning your talking about and using is resolutely human. Humans, being living beings, are always giving meaning. But YOUR MEANING isn't just something that exists out there in the universe. The english languages isn't IN THE WORLD, it is in our minds. Meaning exists only in us.
DeleteYou clearly don't understand, or didn't read, Camus.
Thank you crietzsche.
DeleteCrierzsche, you should be careful with the subjectivity train it leads to bad places. Such as if truth, meaning, knowledge,value or whatever boil down to the individual then you can't argue with me. Because whatever is true to you is right and whatever is true to me is right. There's no arguing because were both right. If you do argue with me then you are saying that I am wrong, but I can't be wrong because subjectively I am right. If you stay with subjectivity then you cannot deny my subjective truth.
DeleteTo drive this home, I say absurdism is false. If you argue with me then you admitting that truth, meaning, whatever is not just subjective. If they are not subjective then absurdism is still false.
this is just bad logic. if absurdism leads to subjectivity and subjectivity leads to no argument then we should reject absurdism? for one, your conclusion does not logically follow your premises. and, two, there's also something inherently wrong with your argument here in that you're MAKING AN ARGUMENT.
Deletean argument has meaning because we as humans have given it meaning. as long as ANY individual continues to live and think and speak in a human language then they have accepted a social meaning that they can't just change or make personal on a whim; if you did you couldn't use it.
so it seems like there ARE, in fact, some meanings that we must inherently accept not merely as subjective. this includes logic — you simply can't use it and not follow its rules.
when i say we all create our own meaning i'm not saying we live in a vacuum free of all externalities. and i'm definitely not saying 'that truth is subjectivity = we make up whatever the hell we want'. we live in societies, we have histories, languages, and other things we all share. there is going to be some shared understandings that we will all base our meanings and truths on.
while i can't make someone believe something that they just don't believe, if someone, like you, is going to argue me using the same grounds for argumentation that i am, then i can tear it apart using those grounds all i want. in the end though, it's still your choice to believe me or not. such is the nature of subjectivity.
i would also just like to highlight that this still leaves in tact the most important part of subjectivity, that is, your personal meaning. what your life means to you is entirely up to you. this, i think, is the real point that this subjective truth/absurdism is making. how can i possibly deny the meaning you've ascribed to your life? i can try to persuade you otherwise, but any changes in your beliefs are by your choice and yours alone.
Deletecan even you, in your seeming thirst for universal meaning, deny this?
7:46 — The point is that 'truth and meaning' are only ever 'truth and meaning' to us humans. Can you possibly deny that without a god? And since us humans could never possibly come to one solid universal truth and meaning for everything (not even science) then truth and meaning really boil down to the individual.
ReplyDeleteOur 'truth and meaning' haven't got us stuck anywhere. Science will be fine without the universal and will continue to give us objective explanations (that are still only meaningful to us). So really the only thing flawed here is your shallow understanding.
OP — There may be no point to your or humanity's existence in the long run. The universe may be indifferent and at some point in time all our meaning will be wiped from it. But that's in the future and you are not in the future, you never will be. You're living in the present and and therefore you are living a meaningful existence for yourself and plenty of other people. As long as you and those around you are alive you'll be creating meaning.
I say you're looking for meaning in the wrong place. Why do you want the universe to care so much? Is the universe what's really important to you? Or is it your life and the lives of the people you care about? Is that not enough meaning? Well, the world is a blank slate, take what meaning you want from it, paint it on there and maybe you'll help other people find their meaning in life. Only when you're dead will your meaning stop, until then, stop living like your dead.
Crietzsche, you're holding onto meaning tightly. Why is meaning so meaningful to you?
ReplyDeleteTo the person arguing against absurdism, your language games are tiresome and pointless.
OP if my language games are tiresome and pointless then so are yours. Your entire post and everything you wrote and are going to write is equally tiresome and pointless, to you at least.
DeleteYou sound like the skeptical little kid who doesn't get it. You're arguing just to argue. I think a lot of philosophy can be dangerous. In your case, you've proved that a little bit of philosophy can be dangerous.
Deletemy point is that meaning is given by humans naturally. every thought you have is meaningful in that it literally means something to you. there's nothing you can do to escape it — no absurdist would disagree. even to reject that is a meaningful choice you made that is quite simply a contradiction. to experience something and to think about the experience is to create meaning. the absurdist realizes this is the only meaning there is and chooses to consciously create their own meaning regardless of the fact that it may have no real ground in the rest of the world. the only other option would be to lie to yourself.
DeleteResorting to petty insults followed by the argument of "you just don't it" certainly is solid logic and reason.
DeleteMeaning doesn't matter. I think- I am all that is meaningful. I have my own universe of my own eyes and ears, anything else is just hearsay. But then again, I don't really know for sure.
ReplyDelete