/lit/ - Literature

By killing yourself. They last thing this world needs is more nihilists.

enjoy yourself: if life has meaning. you have a role, which you may not like, and responsibilities that need to be fulfilled or avoided or ignored. If life is meaningless, you get to assign meaning to things, life, events, people. It's power and freedom all rolled into one. It's a blank page. Go wild.

>>3750173
Excuse me Sir, but, well, you seem quite well informed. Could you perhaps, if you have the time - I understand a man of your omnipotence must be terribly busy -, explain what it is, exactly, this world 'needs'? And while you're doing that could you possibly suck my dick.

>>3750168
>I have nothing to look forward to.

then make something to look forward to.

What do you want?

Money - get a job and work your way up
Sex - go hire some prostitutes
A small hut in the mountains - save up and move there

Could always kill yourself

>>3750168
Find meaning.

Have something to do, someone/something to love, and something to look forward to.

Mine are: reading/movies, my family, the new star trek flick

Logically, life has no meaning. All of your accomplishments will mean nothing once you pass away, and they will eventually be forgotten. But I believe that it is our duty to give our lives meaning, this can be done by doing something you love, or other things like going to school and getting a career as a doctor or some shit idk, its your life mane. The idea that life has no meaning gives you the freedom to do whatever you want with your life.

>>3750315
I fuckin hate, hate, hate this nihilist bullshit.

You, sir, are dead wrong.

>>3750329
Am I? Tell me how I am wrong, I'm always willing to learn more, especially if I am wrong.

Inform me please

move to toronto

I find that there is no intrinsic meaning. You can construct your own meaning. The /adv/ board will be better suited for you.

By realizing that even joy is not perennial. Though ultimate joy resides in knowing that and not being turned by every blow of the wind.

>>3750168
Try eating healthy and exercising a bit... one's outlook on life improves dramatically when one gets out of the basement. Try taking care of yourself before moaning about meaninglessness.

>>3750168
underage>>>/b&/

>>3750168
Disregard all others.
Just accept it, stop trying to find joy and go on until life is easy,
Dedicate yourself to something that is not connected to personal gratification. Like give yourself to scholarly pursuits or aesthetic contemplation and stop asking yourself if it is making you happy.

It wont, but hopefully you will find something bigger than yourself. If not, it does not matter because life is meaningless

>>3750168
"Life has no meaning" and "I have nothing to look forward to" are two different outlooks. The former is rooted in a fundamental question of one's existence as an individual. The latter simply suggests that you are unmotivated or depressed.

>>3750183
But this is false. No one has a role. We are just here wasting time and consuming resources and at best finding ways to get more resources (which is a silly thing to do for people that don't enjoy life).

>>3750193
Not op.

I have all that life still meaningless. Nothing worldly will give it meaning.

>>3750313

But that doesn't make it meaningful, at best makes it not boring or tedious. But not meaningful.

I always find confusing how people really don't understand the problem of meaning. You cannot create meaning, and you cannot find meaning where there is not.

>>3750425
You cannot construct meaning where there is not.
Constructing meaning is what the paranoid schizofrenic does by connecting unrelated facts (like the color of the car parked in front of his house and some article on the news and the weather) to come up with some big government conspiracy.

That's constructed meaning.

Authentic meaning is always given. That's why Heidegger says that we receive language, we do not create language.

>>3750329
I hear a lot of people say that, and yet I have not seen a single refutation of >>3750315

>>3750483
He still hasn't told me how I'm wrong

Just follow this chart.

>>3750329
Yet this isn't nihilism. He just perceives the lack of meaning of life and creates one himself.

There is no inherent meaning. That don't mmean you should be a sucky little baby. WAH WAH

stop craving meaning

why the fuck do fags like op want "MEANING" and "PURPOSE" and shit?

you yourself are the beginning middle and end... deal with it

and stop friggin clinging to le transient world like a little baby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgMbUj-FqBg

>>3750463
But that's a good thing: it's what everything else is doing, but since no one has a role, you can pick whatever role you want, even change it at will, and it won't make a single bit of difference.. It's like vandalizing (or painting the Sistine chapel ceiling) in a house that's going to be demolished anyway. Don't have to worry about people saying you destroyed anything or ripped off Leonardo, or were the greatest painter that ever lived. You're free of the tyranny of conscience, the shackles of expectation. You can at last be what you are.

>>3750168
This is where you decide on a profession or a trade or an art or a skill and start pursuing it. Or if you've already done that and aren't fulfilled by it, try another one. Keep on trying until you find something that lights you up.

>>3750463
... except for those who are trying to create or provide or facilitate more resources; try being one of those instead of just a consumer.

>>3750608
You are free it's true. But I feel that this exhilarating experience, this tendency to be an iconoclast is an infantile attitude. It's the feeling of freedom teenagers get once they move out of their parents apartment only to realize that the only difference now is that they have to wash their own underwear.

>>3750512
This chart helped me a bit. Well, I mean, a lot of changes happened since I read the authors it suggested to me.
>Took a break from University (was doing horrible)
>Started making reading a habit
>Started making writing a habit
>Started doing some exercise
>Got a job

Nothing major and even though these could be perceived as changes for the worse, they're still changes.

>>3750168
Meaning only exists when it is inferred; it is impossible for anything to have meaning as an inherent trait. If life has no meaning for you, it is because you have chosen not to perceive any meaning.

>>3750624
No the don't too. In the end all their efforts will amount to nothing. As emperor adrian said in his death bed "I have been everything for nothing".

Let's put aside that I have a well payed job.

Why should I strive to produce stuff when the life of the consumer is immensely more convenient?
I don't get people that think that you have to have a worse life than the one you have to enjoy it. Like those who say "if you had some real difficulties you would not have existential problems".

So why should I screw myself up?

>>3750634
But this is blatantly not true.

>>3750315
>Logically, life has no meaning.
Firstly, you don't know that. You can't be certain of that.
> All of your accomplishments will mean nothing once you pass away, and they will eventually be forgotten.
Is this an argument for the illogicality of life? (also, everything you do matters and have consequences, your actions leaves ripples and traces in existence and the universe. Kinda like the butterfly effect. )
>But I believe that it is our duty to give our lives meaning,
Now this is interesting. Who and what gave us this duty to give meaning? Because of we have this duty then we suddenly have meaning.
>The idea that life has no meaning gives you the freedom to do whatever you want with your life.
This is a bit scary though because with no meaning theres nothing to stop you from hurting and killing people?

>>3750682
*Because if

>>3750654
It is unarguably true.

Interesting talk about meaning and why zombies are so popular in this day and age.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSwAbQD-gZU

>>3750690
Meaning is a property that emerges from communal meaning. So YOU, singularly, never chose to give it. This is a big point for example of the whole argument against private language by wittgenstein.

Secondly:

>>3750479

>>3750479
Of course we can, and we do it on a daily basis. The difference between paranoid schizophrenics and us "normal" people is that the meaning they create leads to a dysfunctional mode of being that hurts them rather then helping them.

>>3750682
Not that guy but:
>Firstly, you don't know that. You can't be certain of that.

We are pretty certain of that. Unless you have a religious faith there is no rational reason to think that there is a meaning.

>Is this an argument for the illogicality of life? (also, everything you do matters and have consequences, your actions leaves ripples and traces in existence and the universe. Kinda like the butterfly effect. )

Unless there is something recording the differences, then no action makes any difference. In the end the sum is always zero. Nothing you do will change that. Nothing you do makes any difference unless there is a god observing (so deism won't work).

Read some absurdist stuff and stop being a little nihilist bitch.

>>3750706
Give me an example.

>>3750706
No it does not matter. Even if the the person lives a normal life you still consider a nutjob somebody that believes in some illuminati/reptilian conspiracy.

There is something wrong in what he is doing. What he is doing wrong is that he is giving meaning to details that are meaningless.

Since this is a silly thread I have a question for everybody. Does anyone else have a tumblr where you write stories in your book's universe?

I do it to promote the books I've written in that universe and cross promote with other artists.

If other people do this for the writing we could follow each other to critique our writing or work on collab pieces.

Do you think it a good idea to have a thread every once in a while devote to following each others shitty writing/lit tumblr?

>>3750713

I tried that and it didn't help

>>3750629
If you decide that your decisions are infantile, this is true certainly. You might, if you dislike the idea of infantile behavior, want to abstain from it, in your freedom.

>>3750700
You have not disproved me. You have only created a distinction between communal meaning and non-communal meaning. The fact remains that all meaning must be inferred by a sentient mind in order to exist. You don't have to be schizophrenic to construct a meaning for your life.

>>3750700


This is silly. Constructing meaning is something we all do all the time.
because the meaning of anything, especially any event or circumstance, is often a question of personal perspective, of subjective relevance, not of any inherent validity. A paranoid is imapaired, and is reading personal significance into irrelevant things, like some people do with horoscopes or "bad luck" signs. You can say that something is meaningless to you, and meaningful to someone else and know exactly what you're saying. the letter "s" needs to always means a certain sound to make it meaningful, but the word "superior" doesn't.
>>3750463

>>3750836
if you want to say that nothing has any meaning because nothing is objective, or absolute, or eternal, then you're drawing your own lines around it, giving it your own personal meaning, doing what i said you were free to do to begin with, and refuting yourself. Just because in playing baseball i deide that rock is third base and they agree doesn't mean it can't be first base to the next team that feels like using it. >>3750634 in your case, you can ignore (or be unaware) of the fact that this rock means third base without affecting its meaning to anyone else. Your life may have no meaning to you, but to the advertiser you're a consumer, and to your nephews you mean extra christmas presents. The meanings aren't always inherent, but they may be significant.
>>3750650
See? there's meaning. consider the lilies of the field, after all.

>>3750463 and i'm really not clear why you'd say this was false. It strikes me as obvious that if life has no objective meaning, and you have no predetermined role in it, than you are free to choose whatever role you can make work for yourself, and attach whatever meaning you like.

>>3750832
What I'm saying is that non-communal meaning does not exist. You don't give meaning, you receive meaning. Others, or the big Other, regulates the meaning.

>>3750836
I still disagree. We receive meaning. Either from an Event or from a structure. We don't create it. We don't decide what words mean. When you read the word "word" you understand its meaning whether you want it or not. Even neologisms that are invented by a person have always to go through the approval of the community first. A neologism is not a really meaningful word until people don't start to use it.

So please show me an instance of creation of meaning.

>>3750382
>move to toronto

Too many smelly curry Indians. It's strong curry.

>>3750837
Two points:

1) One of the classic problems of meaning is that it opens an infinite regression. Because when someone asks you what is the meaning of X, you don't show the meaning but you give another word X1. Then the same question can be asked again: what is the meaning of X1. So it happens with existential meaning.

2) If you are on a desert island and you call yourself a president you are not really a president. If you come up with reason why the cars parked in front of my house are colored {red, red. white, blue} you haven't given any meaning to that, because we know that the event has no meaning.

Wittgenstein again says something very smart: if you invent a game and you are both the only player and the referee, than there is no game.

why does it matter whether life has meaning or not? why dont you just enjoy the ride?

>>3750877
>Indians
>no bro-tier

>>3750329
What's the meaning of life then?

>>3750917
Like I said too many smelly curry Indiana. Plus the gay community sucks compared to Montreal.

>>3750906
Maybe the ride is not to everyone's taste.

>>3750168
I came to the realization that all we can do is be amused with our futility and enjoy the rush as we plummet to our inevitable doom.

>>3750865
We receive sense data. Not meaning. We then assign the meaning to the sense data in our minds. All meaning is created. When someone speaks a word, he is merely arranging sense data in such a way that I am likely to perceive the same meaning he sees.

>>3750930
then take the wheel and the alter the course

>>3750906

The problem is I don't really enjoy anything

>>3750951
have you tried everything?

>>3750937
This is a lockean view of meaning that has been heavily criticized.

For example one problem that springs to mind immediately form your example is: a person sends a phoneme your way and you decode it.

If you are the maker of meaning then you have no guarantee that what you understand is what he meant.

>>3750940
You can't change everything. You can't change most things. It's an illusion that we can take control of most things. I find this kind of humanism silly.

>>3750962
you CAN change everything when it comes to your own life

>>3750968
Nah, I can't get any younger.

>"you have nothing to lose bro! if you're suicidal then you should sell all your shit, go couchsurfing, do everything you ever wanted and [other activities white people have in their bucket list]"

This will never stop being the most inane advice you can give another human being. Protip: when a mentally ill and suicidal person realises they have nothing to lose and can do anything they want, they don't hop on a plane and fly to india or take out a loan and start a business or ask out that girl they like. They get a gun and shoot some people or they build a bomb and set it off in public.

>>3750168
>I'm 17, what do I do now?!
You'll be fine, OP.

>>3750961
True. There is no guarantee that the intended meaning will be perceived. I try to construct my communications in such a way that my meaning is likely to be inferred from them, but there is always a chance that the data will be interpreted differently by the other party. Your example illustrates my assertion that meaning is not inherent in objects or phenomena.

>>3750991
>I try to construct my communications in such a way that my meaning is likely to be inferred from them
You're failing.

>>3750961
>no guarantee that what you understand is what he meant.

Indeed. But how is that a criticism?
That's just a description of one of the implications of that view.

>>3750168
Aesthetics.
Get involved in something that interests you; love, your job, a hobby.
Go get 'em tiger.

>>3750989
DON'T FUCK ANYONE OR YOU'LL DIE.

>>3750470
>You cannot create meaning, and you cannot find meaning where there is not.

Oh how profound. Let me prove you wrong with the absolutely pedestrian act of doing precisely what you say is impossible every second of my life.

>>3751002
It is a criticism because we know that communication succeeds thus it has to be a poor explanation.

In fact how meaning gets transmitted was find out that is based on the fact that language user share a common structure. The meaning is guaranteed and given by the structure, not by the subject. It's not the language user that creates the meaning, but is the structure that permits the meaning to exist. And the structure is not invented by a single subject, but emerges from the interaction between them.

>>3750997
Should I draw you a picture?

>nothing to look forward to

I'm NEET scum for life and every night before I fall asleep I look forward to making myself a delicious breakfast and fresh coffee. Today I looked forward towards browsing 4chan. I look forward to walks. Life is delicious when lived right, it needs no goal, purpose, meaning or fancy decorating.

>>3751018
I think you are deluding yourself. Just because you enjoy life does not mean that it has no meaning.

Please show me how your life is meaningful.

>>3750168
Get very drunk and savour the hangover. Then have a huge breakfast and a pot of coffee. When you feel the hangover shit coming on you get a bottle of beer and read Bukowski on the shitter whilst drinking. After that you take a bath and admire your gut.

The thing that ruins the most lives in the first world is great expectations.

>>3750168
You find no joy in life. Ok. There are many people like us.

But -- why the hell do you want to come to terms with life being meaningless?

After all, where's the connection between finding a meaning and enjoying life?

I for myself couldn't care less about a meaning, as long as I could enjoy life.

And, as far as I am concerned, if you can't even contruct a nice life in your head, which is worth living, then - well, what do you expect as a response?

Your life is fucked for eternity then...deal with it or don't.

>>3751020
Communication succeeds because the child is capable of assigning meaning to sensory input when it learns a language;
its mother's voice, the sounds, the movement of her lips, etc. - The context in which that word is recorded is analyzed, categorized and assigned a meaning.

The structure you speak of is simply the fact that your mother learned it from her mother, who learned it from her mother.
And meaning can be reassigned or modified, and so language develops over time.

The meaning emerges from the analysis of the state of the world by the subject itself.

Nothing about what you're saying disproves or even disagrees with the idea that the subject assigns meaning autonomously.

>>3751036
maybe the absense of pain?

As socrates said, the food tastes good when you are hungry.

>>3751025
Before I do that, explain to me the difference between living a meaningful life, and delusionally experiencing that you are living a meaningful life.

Meaning is by its very nature created in and by the mind. It does not exist as some sort of pseudo-abstract real thing; it is created and experienced within the computer that is your mind. If an illusion is not flawed in the qualities you can perceive directly or indirectly, it IS real.

>>3751044
You know very little of philosophy of language.
Your post goes contrary to most of our knowledge today. For example Chomsky found a universal grammatical structure of all languages. So your explanation that it goes from mother to son is false.

You think in a very Lockean way which, again is highly problematic and surpassed.

Again meaning does not depend on you. If I say "shit" while you are eating you will envision a turd whether you want it or not. Language is not completely at your command, is something that surpasses the subject. You don't decide what words are meaningful, the dictionary does. When you play scrabble and you make up a word like "rostukal" you cannot say "well I just gave meaning to that" people will tell you "that's not a word".

Don't be in denial. Individual subjects don't create meaning. Read Heidegger and Wittgenstein and Quine to understand why your idea does not work.

>>3750837
Wittgenstein should learn solitaire. he certainly didn't understand games. at least not competitive ones. he's wrong about the president thing too; in any place where a role is defined and you choose to take that role and are not opposed or prevented from assuming the perquisites of that role, then that role is yours, de facto. I am king of the pumpkin monkeys. in your face wittgenstein

>>3751102
There is a huge part where wittgenstein explains the concept of following a rule. You should read it.

On the second part: Would you present yourself as king of the pumpkin monkey? Will you put it in your resume? Will you expect to be called your highness? (I met the prince of Denmark once and he expected to be called your highness even if I'm not one of his subjects, just out of respect)

>>3751080
I'm a different guy.
I still honestly can't see how a pre-existing structure would somehow determine that we can't assimilate languages and assign meaning to words ourselves. Of course there is a fundamental structure of language - we are all biologically human; our brains have roughly the same blueprints.
In an almost Kantian way, the fundamental tools for our cognition must (usually*) the same - we are the same type of animal.
* On average. Biological deviation does occur.

The concrete details of your language are still inherited verbally and, meaning is still assigned autonomously.

If you say "shit" to a pygmy who has never heard a word of English, he or she will have no idea what that means.

I can't see how that assignment of meaning somehow should hinge on having "language at our command" - you could teach your child that "butterscotch" meant feces, and that would remain true for that child until he/she was told otherwise by another person. And even then, she might not believe them.
The concept of language, the act of language, is inherent but the specifics of language is still something that is decided upon internally.
Others may make you remap your meaning assignments, should you accept their proposition to do so. You could also theoretically deny them that authority over you. It happens within you.

Let me make it my thought experiment, then: the meaning of the word butterscotch was = "shit" for my little girl until the age of 7, and she created that meaning because i loudly said "Butterscotch", then pointed at a 10-foot tall billboard of a colossal turd, then made a wafting gesture in front of my nose. And the only reason why she doesn't agree with me anymore is because a whole bunch of strangers made a fuss about it after an incident at her school.

>To clarify, I may very well actually read up on these things, but I'm starved for stimulating conversation. That's why i butted in to begin with.

>>3751136
nah. the king of the pumpkin monkeys is a title that regards no honorific. if i were applying for a job involving governing pumpkin monkeys, i think it would be an excellent thing to have on my resume. and a game is a rule-governed activity where there is an objective and whether or not the objective is achieved is controlled by the rule. Solitaire is an example where i am the only player and the referee, and it is clearly a game. So is super mario brothers.

>>3750512

>Herr Nietzsche, the Ubermench himself

lop tel

>>3751189
Yeah that's absolutely the worst part of the flowchart.

It could use a solid tuneup.

>>3751159
The fact is that calling yourself the king of the pumpkin monkeys is akin of calling yourself emperor of france. Naturally since there is no french empire nobody will object to that. But good luck passing that idea forward.

Again if you are really convinced that you are the king of the pumpkin monkeys next time you meet someone new and they ask you "what do you do" tell them that. I can tell you, it won't go well. And that's because you are not the king of the pumpkin monkeys.

I'm sorry but I don't feel to get into the solitary thing. If you are sincerely curious about that read the philosophical investigations.
I'll just give you the brief wittgestein answer: you are not the only player even in solitary. Multiple people play solitary and share the same rules as you do. You never met me, and yet when you say solitary I know what you mean. There is a shared set of rules among numerous players.

>chasing meaning
>not just enjoying life instead of whining about it
>feeling the need to shitpost on /lit/ about it

>>3751157
I don't necessarily disagree with you.

My point is that the subject does not chose the meaning. You don't decide one day decide that "loksak" means "milk" and that is so, you created meaning. You did not create meaning because when you ask for a gallon of loksak, the expression will be meaningless.

As you see in your exaples it's always someone telling you the meaning. It's the dad telling to the girl and then the friends telling to the girl.
Language is not a private thing, it's always something that happens among many people. You don't impose it, but you inherit it.

The reason why I stressed the pre-existing structure is because the brand of Lockean empiricism of the other anon see the relationship between world and reality as if the brain choses how to interpret the data it receives. What I claim instead, is that the language offers itself the interpretative frame (the key to break the code) through which to be interpreted.

How does this connect back to the question of the meaning of life? In the same way that I don't believe that the single individual subject decides how to interpret the world.
The single subject receives a series of frame works through which he interprets the world, and that they are not autonomously invented you can see by the fact that they are shared.

The fact that I can say to the previous anon "You think like John Locke" or the fact that someone could tell me "you have an holistic conception of language".

I don't invent meaning. I have a series of frame works that I received in my life time. Maybe one could say that I can chose among this multiple framworks. But even there: how much freedom do you even have on what you believe? For example I'm an atheist and no amount of will and desire to become a christian will ever make me one.

>>3751200

If I enjoyed life I don't think I would care about meaning

>>3750168

There's only one thing that can fill that void in your life OP and that's a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Begin by reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to learn the story of how Christ died for your sins. Then, read Corinthians, Ephesians, Galations, and Thessalonians to help you live your life according to God. Ecclesiastes will give you all the philosophy you need: life has no meaning but to enjoy the fruits of your labor and give glory to God. That's really all there is.

You are retarded OP, human happiness doesn't come from vague metaphysical ideas, the concept of life being meaningless is meaningless by itself, and completely irrelevant.
Just get some antidepressants.

>>3751233
The question of meaning is important when life is not enjoyable. For some life just can't be enjoyed.

>>3751224
then change your mindset

>>3751246
The question is worthless and you won't gain anything from it.
What do you mean by "meaning" of life? What answer could satisfy you and how?
The only people who make a fuss about this are depressed loners with too much time in their hands.

>>3751259
It's actually very important. The meaning of life is the same as a telos, a goal, to existence. Is the very basic question of metaphysics "why something rather than nothing".
It's important because it determines not only your attitude towards yourself but also towards others. From how you answer the question of the meaning of life plenty of consequences follow

Most people are too busy, too ignorant or too stupid to pose this problem and in fact they often do fuck up because they live an unexamined life.

>>3751233
Exactly. Health is more important than "thinking the 'right' ideas."

>>3751324
Why so? I prefer thinking the right ideas to health. I find the obsession with well-being misguided.

>>3751338
Thinking the right ideas..lel.

>>3751344
That's an uncharitable reading. Because you stress on the rightness of the ideas, while the stress of the sentence was to point out the possibility of something more important than health.

>>3750168
To quote Rorty quoting Bloomberg, "One day we stopped wishing for immortality and instead started wishing for a better life for our great great grandchildren."

Why not question the idea of it being meaningless? You're too accepting of naturalism and philosophical implications made by ignorants (scientists).

>>3751357
>20th century and beyond
>not a naturalist/physicalist/atheist/moral nihlist

top lel

>>3751194
granted, but at some point there was just one person. and if i add to the game of solitaire the rule that you must have a pumpkin on your head to play it (call it pumpkin monkey solitaire) then again i am the only one. The point about the pumpkin monkey thing and the solitaire thing, is that adding collaborators to the set deosn't validate it, and having only one person in it doesn't invalidate it. If it's personal, it doesn't need confirmation. and anything as vaguely abstarct as "the meaning of life" might be so subjective that anything but subjective, personal, individual confirmation may not even be hypotheticlly possible. for one thing, a lot of the people who would have to agree with you to validate the title or the game, are either 1) dead, 2)not born yet or 3)hypothetical, in that they may never exist or have existed, and their number is pretty close to infinite.

That's one of the problems with really vague ideas like purpose or meaning of big general things. There are way too many players and too many perspectives for any but the most general rules. best to deal with it from a subjective individual perspective, And remeber you heard this from the king of the pumpkin monkeys.

>>3751354
The burden of children is worse than that of a meaningless universe.

>>3751357
I thoroughly questioned it. The only way to refuse it is through either refusing modernity (which is impossible without a societal collapse) or affirming a telos in nature, which is silly.

Besides that I'm not a naturalist.

>>3751357
Politics is changing society from "being saved and suffering" to "alleviating suffering is just as important."

>>3750168

Man, whenever a thread is made on the technical aspects of the art of writing, about the tools of fiction and artifacts of verbal style, hardly anyone on /lit/ contributes. Now, if a thread is made on any philosophical-cliché topic, on any problem of teen angst, a lot of people flock in it to give personal opinions.

Sorry, /lit/, but most of you will never produce something of value in the field of literature. Most of you guys are more concerned with ideas than with how to express these ideas; you spend more time reading philosophy than learning how to build characters, how to manipulate language, how to structure stories and build the other pillars of fiction.

It's pathetic.

>>3751398
It's sounds like your philosophy on the general aptitude of man is rather silly.

>>3751386
The result of this political change is a generation of people that consider Disney movies the highest human artistic achievement and are concerned exclusively with cupcakes and microbrewed beers.

A generation of people that obsess over their health, work 80 hours a week and they make children because is the expected thing to do.

Nice...

>>3751398
i wish it were pathetic, pathos is something that might be entertaining to read. but this is just exercise: it's recess and running around flexing our muscles where it doesnt really matter. recess is always more popular than class.

>>3751404
>a generation of people that consider Disney movies the highest human artistic achievement

Not everyone is as perverted as you.

>>3751404
i agree, it is pretty nice. the previous generations seem to have been a lot worse. looks like a positive trend,,,

>>3751411
Dunno, I'd rather not work 80 hours a week, enjoy my free time and have a good aesthetics.
But if you are content with petty anti-intellectualism and purposeless tasks suit yourself.

>>3751421
hey, i spend eighty hours a week battling anti intellectualism and employing myself in purposeful tasks!

>>3751398
THIS ISN'T PHILOSOPHY

YOU STUPID TEENS ARE TOO DUMB TO UNDERSTAND IT AND THINK YOU ARE SMART BECAUSE OF FUCKING SHIT YOU LEARN OFF OF WIKIPEDIA

NIHILISM ISN'T A PHILOSOPHY BTW, IT'S MORE OF A ANTI-PHILOSOPHY OR LACK OF PHILOSOPHY OR WHATEVER SHIT DREAMED UP BY DUMBASSES THAT ARE PISSED BECAUSE THEY ARE A IDIOTS

>TELOS

YOU LEARNED THAT WORD FROM WIKIPEDIA YOU STUPID KID? STOP MISUSING IT

YOU DUMB KIDS ARE THE KIND OF PEOPLE WHO'D LIST "EINSTEIN" AS THEIR FAVOURITE PHILOSOPHER

I SAW THAT ON SOME STUPID FUCKING "PHILOSOPHY" FORUM

GET A LOAD OF THAT

CAMUS ISN'T A PHILOSOPHER
HE'S EVEN DUMBER THAN NIETZSCHE AND SCHOPENHAUER

NOW THAT TAKES SKILL TO BE THAT DUMB

WHAT YA GONNA DO? THROW SOME OF YOUR STUPID DINKY LITTLE EASTERN PARABLES AT ME? FUCK YOU CHINKS

>>3751453
>>3751457
you're right: it's not philosophy. it's bullshitting on an image board. Which is what it's supposed to be. If we were philosophers we'd been in Athens in barrels or somewhere. did you come here hoping to find philosophy?

CAMUS ISN'T A PHILOSOPHER
HE'S EVEN DUMBER THAN NIETZSCHE AND SCHOPENHAUER

NOW THAT TAKES SKILL TO BE THAT DUMB

WHAT YA GONNA DO? THROW SOME OF YOUR STUPID DINKY LITTLE EASTERN PARABLES AT ME? FUCK YOU CHINKS

>>3751472
>. If we were philosophers we'd been in Athens in barrels or somewhere
THAT SHOWS HOW IGNORANT YOU KIDS ARE ON PHILOSOPHY.
YEAH YOU'RE STUPID LITTLE DIOGENES, OF COURSE YOU DUMB KIDS WOULD THINK HE IS OH SO COOL AND BADASS
SUCH A "GENIUS" SUCH A "PHILOSOPHER"

YOU KIDS SURE THE PEAK OF "CLASSICISM" LE DIOGENES FACE

>>3751444
What do you do?

I work 35 hours a week, I own my apartment and I spend the rest of my time reading philosophy, literature, going to galleries, concerts and writing. Life is meaningless so I have no pressure to have a family, or children or I care about any kind of status.

>>3751467
who cares? this isn't a philosophy board. when we start talking about auto mechanics, don't get your hopes too high about fixing your torque converter either. The topic is about whether life has meaning and if it doesn't what should we do and feel? this is a pretty kindergarten idea from a philosophy standpoint. I doubt Spinoza or Russell or Erasmus would even join in the conversation.

>>3751494
Great example of the Dunning–Kruger effect, an arrogant idiot thinking he is smart and has everything figured out.

>Life is meaningless so I have no pressure to have a family, or children or I care about any kind of status.

Ha, you need to be a stupid pathetic little "nihilist" to not care about having a family, children, or caring about "status"? You're 20 something and thinking and acting like a 12 year old.

Your life is meaningless that's for sure.

>Life is meaningless so I have no pressure to have a family, or children or I care about any kind of status

if life were meaningful, you'd still have no pressure to do those things.

I help the Amish market and advertise their products and services. And I teach two sections of Environmental Economics

>>3751496
You dumb arrogant kids think you got the answers for such a question? Laughable.

>>3751514
>Archie Bunker

That's how tired and old you are.

Are humans the most spectacular beings in the universe?

You cannot say life is objectively meaningless or meaningful.
Meaning is a personal (subjective) thing.

for a bunch of people who pride themselves on reading a lot of philosophy you guys sure aren't picking it up all that well.

/thread

>>3751514
sure we have answers, and since we're bullshitting on an image board we know it doesn't matter if they're right or not. If there were a simple, straightforward answer, or an easy way to find one, we'd just post a link to the Wikipedia article. that's why its fun. This is the literate equivalent of "who's hotter? Raquel Welch or Bridgette Bardot?" and if you think i'm a kid, i remember when that was an interesting question...

>>3751453

And philosophy it's not science, but only a form of literature (and one of the most boring forms of literature).

Before anyone starts to read and write works of philosophy it should first learn all the course of math and study the scientific method, and only then work with philosophy.

It's like Witgenstein said after reading Plato: it gives the feeling of being just a big waste of time.

Philosophy is literature, nothing more. Dont get so angry if people dont get the meaning of some philosophycal idea.

>>3751508
Why should I want a family? Or why should I care about status?

>>3751509
Yes it's true. You can get the same conclusion from different premises.
But I don't believe that life is meaningless because of the consequences of believing that. I believe that life is meaningless because it is meaningless, and then I follow the consequences whatever they might be.

>>3751527
How come being so "in the know" on philosophy has still left you annoyed at the petty things? It seems to me that a truly enlightened fellow would understand the overall struggle better and look at others with understanding, not callousness. Maybe you're not as enlightened as you speak. I'd bet on that.

>“Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

This quote is for you two. I mean holy shit this board spews out some of the dumbest shit I have ever read.

fuck this thread

OP, may I humbly suggest staying inside and on 4chan asking other internet denizens for the answers to your problems?

Eventually you'll find a solution.

Under no circumstances try to create something new or interesting for yourself outside. Don't go into nature. Don't talk to new people. And definitely don't make yourself do anything that might make you feel the slightest bit uncomfortable.

>>3751533
>>3751535
Idiots.

>>3751551
wait a minute. which two? I'm the king of the pumpkin monkeys.

>>3751544
>I believe that life is meaningless because it is meaningless
Oh wise one blah blah you're a fucking dumb cunt.

The posts from the Brits really stick out like an ugly sore thumb.

>>3751565
yes maybe I'm dumb.
But my desire to understand is sincere. I have explained in multiple posts why I believe that there is no meaning. If you have something to object to that please do.

>>3751557
aww is that nice? I don't think we've said anything very controversial. or worthy of so much spleen. There seems to be a lot of ruffled feathers and umbrage around here. do you guys throw that stuff here because you can't in real life, or are you really that socially maladapted? every time i read a post like this i picture old Everett True, spats, umbrella and all.

Exactly. Life being meaningless is the most beautiful thing it could ever be! It's your own tabula rasa! Make it what you will.

The only real answer is to convert to Christianity. I suggest Eastern Orthodoxy, as well as this short book by Fr. Seraphim Rose on Nihilism. Perhaps it will provide some help to you.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/nihilism.html

>>3751575

>>3751575
Sawwy.

>>3751599

That's what I say every time I beat the shit out of someone

>>3751616
for me it's the spats that make it work

>>3750168
Life being meaningless is a BEAUTIFUL thing. It means you can make your own meanings up as you go, and are not restricted to any expectations or higher plans. You are free, and beautiful and should not despair even when it's after midnight.

>>3751634
It's like we're spirits and not human bodies at all!

Whee!!!

>>3750168
make the leap of faith, accept God, and pray that he gives you the strength to persevere in this thoroughly rotten world.

>>3751645
The contrary. We are bodies without spirits, i think.

>>3750650
Same guy here ... well, I was trying not to act like this is 4chan but ... if you're that committed to your viewpoint, and if you really have that little to get out of life then ... why don't you just take yourself completely out of the food chain and free up some resources for someone who's going to do something with them?

>>3751650
oh, brother

>>3751625
>>3751634
>>3751593
>>3751578
>>3751544
>>3751545
>>3751551
>>3751554
The meaning of life is participation.

Look at the world, see what you want to change, change it.

Don't beat up yourself for straying from your path. Life is what it is and sometimes nothing happens or you get side-tracked or you just take a break.

>>3751680
What an asshole. I don't want you changing shit.

THIS IS WAR

>>3751680
Take your platitudes somewhere else.

>>3751695
kill yourself you little depressing freak

>>3751686

OK, but now its time to wach Game of Thrones.

>>3751593
Seriously, to anyone concerned about the despair, alienation, and apparent meaninglessness of modern life, give Fr. Seraphim's book a read.

>>3751655
Why should I act for someone's else sake?
Anyway I wish that euthanasia was legal and painless for whomever requests it.

OP, was there ever a time, before you knew life was meaningless, when you did find joy in the world? If not, have you noticed that others, even those who were once depressed, are able to find joy in the world? The point is that, during the time you did find joy in the world, nothing was different. Life was still meaningless. You just didn't think about that fact -- maybe you hadn't ever considered it. But the point remains: you enjoyed yourself in a meaningless world.

>>3751705
why? His thought on reality are based on mysticism.

2013
believing in souls, angels, gods, spirits, reincarnation

I Shiggiddy diggidy doo

I'm not even a nihilist.

How do you know life is meaningless?
you only choose to believe life is meaningless because you have failed to find meaning in your own life
but others cannot find meaning for you otherwise it wouldn't really be your would it?

>>3751819
Because eventually life on earth will disappear and the universe will collapse and no matter how you lived, like saint or like a criminal, it would make no difference. You can spend your life torturing people or saving children and really does not matter because everything will disappear in oblivion. No matter what you do at the end the result is always one: nothingness.

>muh first existential crisis

Hey kid wanna /ss/?

>>3751849
Unless it doesn't.

>>3751849
>look at me i have an education in pop-sci from wikipedia i can look into the future
>universe collapse
>implying that is generally accepted by physicists
>implying we know how the universe will end or if it will lend or any of this futurist bullshit

>earth disappear
>what is transhumanism or spaceships or return of christ or whatever
>muh nihilistic eschatology

>implying there is such a thing as nothingness

the rest of what you said is just unfounded opinion by some chemically imbalanced teenager

go shoot up a school and fail at it, lanza

>>3751905
Yeah unless personal God exists. But that's a question of faith, not of reason. And faith is a grace, so it does not depend on me but on God if he exists. So either God does not exists, or God has a reason to make me believe that life is meaningless.

>>3751919
What is G-D?

>>3751911
You, sir, are truly a scholar. Your quip about Adam Lanza was particularly wise. Teach me the ways of dumbfuckery.

>>3751905
hey caesar why are you such a pretentious teenage tripcunt

pls rspondqqqqq

>>3751784
Souls, angels, and God are real things.

>>3751939
>be on /lit/
>believe yourself to be superior to others
>because they're pretentious!

>>3751849

how do you know that is the truth?
you believe it only because you want to

But it is foolish to be so distraught over the simple fact that life is finite
Even children realize it and continue to go on
What is the sense in causing yourself so much distress over what you perceive to be inevitable?

>>3751911
I have a master in philosophy.

I'm not sure if you are a teenager but I'm sure that you don't know much about philosophy if you take seriously transhumanism and technological advancement as a solution.

>>3751954
That was a self-reflective post.

>>3751962
You are foolish enough to get a degree in philosophy.

>>3751957
Similarly, if meaning is something one chooses to believe in, then it is meaningless.

>>3751849
so what.

Can I have all you stuff, your going to be gone in 60 years?

not being able to enjoy life, because you fear the end, is shiggy worthy.

>>3751973
>You are foolish enough to get a degree in philosophy.
A religious one with a superiority complex? That's rare!

>>3751962
post pics or GTFO

>>3751849
you value the end result way too much

>>3751973
so cheddars why is it that you are posting in both of the 15-year-old existentialism threads on /lit/ at the moment

perhaps you can sprinkle me with some wisdom mmrhr

>>3751980
The mighty Caesar believes in no G-D but Himself.

>>3751996
>15
Well, I'm at a loss for words.

>>3752006
i apologise chopper i may have overestimated slightly my projections are entirely based on astrology you see,

>>3752006
>15
>loss for words
Just open your mouth and insert teen dick.

>>3751991
I liek dis.

One piece of art I experienced gave me the peace of knowing that what we do alive doesn't affect us when dead.

>>3751962
Bullshit you do unless philosophy education has really gone down the hole. Stop kissing ass to your false-understanding of science. Either way, even people with bachelor degrees in philosophy that I have met have proven themselves not to be dumb fucks unlike you. It is obvious you are lying.

> but I'm sure that you don't know much about philosophy if you take seriously transhumanism and technological advancement as a solution.
Your first post isn't philosophy in any way and no serious philosopher of respect says such stupid shit or is a "nihilist" (cioran isn't a philsopher and even claimed himself not to be one, zapffe is a joke) and I spoke of transhumanism and technological advancement because you are coming from a scientific point (a bullshit one at that, just like transhumanism).

>>3751973
Fuck you for insulting philosophy and enjoy your 9-5 slavery.

>>3752012
>>3752015
Ah, you're saying I'm 15, not the thread. You're wrong.

>>3752021
No, I was saying you're a pedophile. You should be used to that by now.

I studied L Ron Hubbard philosophy and now have Tom Cruise-like powers!

>>3752021
actually chupacabra my implication was that the philosophy contained within was of the level typically associated with 15-year-olds

that said it would not surprise me if you were operating above your level theodore and i would certainly give you a gold star were i your teache

>>3750168
Cheer up brah. It's spring and Seattle is rocking. Save your tears for the rainy season.

>>3752040

why else would anybody live in Seattle if not for the rainy season?

>>3752029
k

>>3752038
This may or may not be because it is correct, and requires no further discussion. Only the pretentious go on to study other philosophers. Of course, there's also the Randroids.

>>3751849

So life would have meaning if only we were immortal?

>>3752063
now now gaogaigar i'm not qqquite sure what that had to do with my post could you be sniffing glue unless it would appear that i was quite incorrect i my estimations and predictions now now because i'm not grasping what you're driving at it certainly isn't a hole in one

>>3752088
What is a "gaogaigar"?

>>3751957
I'm not op and I'm not distraught because life is meaningless.
And I don't believe it because I want to. I just approached the problem of meaning of life with curiosity, studied a lot of philosophy and this is the conclusion I came to.
I don't know if that is the true but having weighted through the options it seems to me the most reasonable of conclusions.

If I find anything painful in my life it's being surrounded by the sort of anti-intellectualism you see in this thread. People that at the raise of any question which is slightly intellectual respond only with contempt and derision.

>>3752088
gah-gah-gah gah-gah-gah gao gai gar gah-gah-gah gahgahgahgah gao gai gar

What is your sin, Casear. This is an anonymous board. Spill it.

>>3752102
please get out

>>3752112
guitar's sin is beign a massi ve shitprophet

this shoudl be pretty clear

>>3752121
No, that is the reverse manifestation. The inner truth is much darker and juicier.

>>3752112
I don't understand.

>>3752130
lel

>>3752130
of course you don't understand you fucking choof

>>3752133
Caesar is only made more glorious by acknowledging His faults.

>>3751973
My family is rich, I don't really need to work.

>>3751978
I do enjoy life, especially the finer things of life like booze, prostitutes and cocaine.

But yeah, you can have all my stuff once I'm dead.

>>3751982
My ba thesis was on the relationship between language, subjectivity and truth in jacques lacan.

My MA was on the intersection between medical and political language in utopian theories.

>>3751991
Meaning is a question about the end result. When you say what is the meaning of this action, you mean what is the goal of this action, as in what is the end of this action.

>>3752019
I'm not op. And I'm not coming from a scientific point of view, but an existential one. In a previous post I said that I'm not even naturalist (but you could not know this I agree).

But I do believe that there is good ground to believe that life is meaningless.

>>3752142
Capital His faults? God's faults? That is a "joke."

>>3752141

i love naruto nice pictures man

>>3752145
There is no G-D but Caesar.

>>3752150
mate you are one cheeky cunt

>>3752154

can a guy not complement a man on his cool anime pictures

>>3752164
c h e e k i b r e e k i

>>3752172

wow man dont get so mad i just like those cool anime pictures. Im a fan of naruto and one peice

>>3752175
u r 1 cheeky fukin cunt m8 i sware on me fukin mujm i'll com rond 2 ur hose n then i'll fukin

>>3752178
better than having a cunt-y cheek

>>3752178

wow man i didnt mean to offend you. i just like anime i find it really cool. cool shows like one peice naruto and my little pony

>>3752183

woah man dont go overboard hes just having a rough day

>>3752184
I was literally born with a vagina on my face.

>>3752188
i was born with 5 urethras and none of them do anything at all

>>3752188
>tfw

>>3752203
Vageyenas don't count.