/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.6683255]

Why does reading philosophy induce depressing thoughts?
>be reading Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, etc.
>pages after pages
>contemplate about life
>massive introspection
>"life is all shit, why does it matter?"
Fuck it, /lit/.

[Anonymous No.6683285]

>>6683255
reading philosophy is supposed to be liberating. most philosophers are as happy as can be. ;)

[Anonymous No.6683294]

it doesn't. maybe you should get out more

[Anonymous No.6683311]

>>6683255
You've been duped by schopie!

Don't be a ducking bitch like that dunt

[Anonymous No.6683313]

>>6683255
Just take it with humour.

[Anonymous No.6683314]

Well no philosopher is 100% right about the entire world so hold out a little hope I guess

[Anonymous No.6683323]

I really don't identify with this.

Actually, the more I read philosophy (and the social sciences by extension) the more peace I have with certain notions and engaging in certain conflicts. It's almost my instinctive impulse now to fit things into a wider social, theoretical or historical context and that really removes the emotional connection with it, usually for the best.

The highs are not as high anymore but the lows are practically non-existing. I live life in a solid, consistent, unshaken 6.5 / 10.

[Anonymous No.6683325]

>>6683255
because in the end you have to imagine Sisyphus happy. xD

[Anonymous No.6683333]

>>6683325
camus is such a faggot
fuck him

[Anonymous No.6683340]

>>6683255
you're reading the wrong philosophy, dumbfuck

[Anonymous No.6683348]

>>6683255

I do get depressed but only because I don't get it and I feel stupid.

And sometimes there's something wrong in the philosophy but I'm not an expert so maybe it's right but I can't talk about it on /lit/ because people will just call me a pleb.

[Anonymous No.6683394]

>>6683348
I'd like to say something consoling, but all I can think of atm is that philosophy is not that important and most of the philosophers aren't even smart or confident to begin with. Just read one of Foucault's introductions, it's either the order of Things or The Order of Discourse. He goes on to say sorry for three pages or so that he couldn't find the appropriate words for what he wanted to say.

[Anonymous No.6683399]

>>6683255
You are doing it all wrong.

Please try again.

This time let yourself go and learn to think in a way that looking in becomes looking out.

Read Deleuze, read Spinoza, read Artaud.

[Anonymous No.6683412]

>>6683323
Same here. Philosophy is liberating. People like the OP seem to confirm that there is a wrong way of practicing philosophy, or at least a very poor way of it. If nothing else, people should take solace in the fact that there ARE pleasures in life, and if they're incapable of experiencing them then they're clinically depressed and/or they dug their own existential hole.

[Anonymous No.6683444]

>>6683394
>>6683348
These things only come about because the contemporary academy has neutralized philosophy and wiped it clean of the context in which it was written.

The philosopher finds himself enveloped within the state, within the city, constricted by structured, imposed thought. Plato only makes sense after Socrates is put to death by Athens.

Spinoza wrote the Ethics and the Tractatus in the midst of theologico-politico strife in the United Provinces.

Leibniz was the state philosopher par excellence, constructing a world of laws and of order and of monadic movement from within the governmental machine of the HRE.

Hegel and Spirit is Hegel and Prussia.

With Marx, the political stakes that the philosopher takes is made even more clear.

[Anonymous No.6683446]

A lot of western philosophy of an existential bent can lead to this because it has excellent analytical skills without having a praxis component to deal with what its own piercing analysis of life reveals.

In the east philosophy is not separated from praxis, you think on the problems of life and you practice meditation, tai chi, tantra, whatever, in order to transform the self and mind. In the west only some philosophies had a praxis component, like Stoicism and its practice has never truly been codified in a unbroken living tradition like in the east. Christianity is also another western system which has kept alive a system of thought and praxis, but of course this is not viable for someone who is not inclined towards theism. The only other thing left is the western psychological tradition, but for that you have to pay monies and its quality varies. It also tends not to focus on the spiritual and sees such things as tangential, even though there is a movement of transpersonal psychology.

[Anonymous No.6683521]

>>6683444
Yeah but you shouldn't over-socialize philosophy. philosophers usually write for other philosophers, even more so in modern times. Their concept are answers to problems posed by their predecessors' concepts, not an expression of a transcendent zeitgeist of that time.

[Anonymous No.6683540]

How can you go "life is shit, nothing matters" from reading Nietzsche?
His philosophy is full of shades of great optimism, I always feel hopeful when reading Zaratustra

[Anonymous No.6683576]

>>6683540
Yep, seems like OP fell into the common pitfall of misinterpreting Nietzsche. Despite being inspired by Schoppy, their outlook on life is totally different, e.g. Nietzsche is more playful, less full of resentment, and embraces the will-to-life when confronted by the eternal recurrence, rather than Schoppy's denial of the will.

[Anonymous No.6683609]

Resorting to a "life is shit" mentality is so lazy and pleb. You're life is shit? Then how come you're in this comfortable spot in the college library reading this shit? Why? Because your parents presumably bust their asses to help with your tuition, because people working jobs they probably despised manufactured the chair you're sitting on and the clothes you're wearing and built and continue to maintain the building sheltering you. Yes life is a struggle and no there is no purpose for your birth, but I very much doubt a lack of inherent purpose is what you're complaining about because if you were assigned a purpose it would be far more depression to have your options limited that way. I assume you're complaining because you have been given material rewards throughout your life without really achieving all that much, and despite having free time to read and listen to music and spend money online you're still lonely and incapable of communicating with people because of a mixture of self-loathing which occasionally gives way to a deluded perception of yourself as someone who will have their worth acknowledged some day in some grand way, and who instead of confronting life and navigating it in a way that is courageous and involves rejection and struggle, retreats instead to the womb-like chamber of your bedroom to deal only in theory and abstraction, attaching logic to ideas and beliefs you have about a world you are too cowardly to experience in any significant way.

[Anonymous No.6683616]

>>6683576
Nietzsche is just a glorified excuse to lie to oneself about the human condition. His writing is the desperate attempt of a madman to delude himself.

>life totally isnt shit, cause ur just one step towards the übermensch XD

sure thing, Freddy, sure thing.

[Anonymous No.6683618]

Reminder that life isn't shit. It's your image of life that is.

[Anonymous No.6683621]

>>6683616
This. He dodges the question as to whether pleasure is attainable and if so whether the price paid for its fleeting achievement is worthwhile. Nietzsche is the equivalent of an /r9k/ user posting walls of text about how to get mad pussy.

[Anonymous No.6683627]

>>6683255
Nietzsche is my go to philosopher when I feel like that. You fucked it up somehow OP.

[Anonymous No.6683629]

>>6683616
>>6683621
>Reading Nietzsche this badly.

Jesus fucking Christ.

[Anonymous No.6683630]

>>6683609
>You're life is shit
>Youre
>Materialist stuff relevant somehow
>word salad
>no purpose is literally better than a purpose
>muh Entfremdung
>denying the will to life is somehow deplorable
>posting a wall of text on lit puts you well into your own description

nice bait

[Anonymous No.6683648]

>>6683629
No point arguing with someone who drank the Neech-Aid

>Quoting Nietzsche basically word for word
>>>>shit interpretation

nice terrorisme intellectuel, cuckboi

I envy your ability to delude yourself tbh. I wish I could justify a life of hedonism while thinking it's somehow full of value to do so.

[Anonymous No.6683673]

>>6683540

Nietzsche: "I can make it on my own!"

That's an oversimplification, obviously, but it's why he can be depressing: the excessive fixation on the individual, the near-glorification of loneliness and solitude, etc.

As for Schopenhauer, this is more obvious: the idea that life = torment is depressing, even though he advocates compassion and selflessness.

[Anonymous No.6683683]

The problem is not philosophy, the problem is that you have your head in your ass.

The problem is that you aren't getting aware of being, you are getting selfconscious and doubting being.

[Anonymous No.6683685]

>>6683629

This is the most common interpretation for people anyway, and it's the interpretation that got nietzsche famous too.

You have to see how many bodybuilders and boxers and competitive people read Nietzsche and fill solace in it, even if it's behaviour is totally obsessive and depressing

[Anonymous No.6683698]

This is completely off topic but might as well ask this in sadcunts general because I don't want to create a new thread for this; I'm trying to remember an author.
He had this very lengthy book series, he constructed his very own world in it.
I think a boy and a girl were the protags.
He also provided his own illustrations. I think he made collages from newspapers or some shit like that.
He might have also been a pedo.
This is like 19th century.

I tried looking him up with all kinds of keywords, but all I found was the peter pan dude and Carrol.

pls help.

[Anonymous No.6683719]

>>6683255
>reading philosophy without ever having believed in a metaphysical realm of Ideas or atleast religious

You probably don't even get at what Nietzsche and Schoppy are raging on.

[Anonymous No.6683723]

>>6683325
>>6683333
But he's right. Happiness is something you can find by yourself, in isolation, just by thinking in such a way that makes it so. Happiness has no material ties, it's just a self imposed state of mind. If you think that this is wrong, and refuse to change your mind, then you are just hampering yourself.

[Anonymous No.6683745]

>>6683255
>>massive introspection
>>"life is all shit, why does it matter?"
No, your life is shit.

[Anonymous No.6683753]

Read some of Montaigne's Essays. He was cheerful, curious person who had a vast field of interests and basically just rambled happily off-topic for thousands of pages. His writing is like literary meditation if you have a good imagination.

[Anonymous No.6683765]

>>6683648
This self-satisfying moral superiority over what you call "delusion" is precisely why you can't find happiness in the way that he entails it. You simply do not understand the mental processes necessary, and so you react with smug indignation. This is what stops you from progressing towards achieving Übermensch status.

[Anonymous No.6683809]

>>6683609
10/10

[Anonymous No.6683814]

>>6683629
>implying they ever read him

Pretty obvious they haven't, m8

[Anonymous No.6683827]

Imagine how much better the world would be if people like OP and those who agree with him just killed themselves. Nobody has time for whiny, sullen faggots.

[Anonymous No.6683838]

Lol y'all need to read Plato first or some less edgy philosophers to balance your high school nihilism

[Anonymous No.6683901]

>>6683255
Cause you're looking at things logically, and logically everything is meaningless you die and that's it.

Doesn't mean you can't have fun while you're here though.

[Anonymous No.6683913]

>>6683827
faggot detected

[Anonymous No.6683920]

>>6683827

[Anonymous No.6683973]

>>6683285
Yeah, I'd always thought philosophers were brooding, gloomy types, which I somewhat am. At college, most of my philosophy professors have been jovial people, very friendly. It's almost shocking.

[Anonymous No.6683980]

>>6683973
The quality of your thinking is so low that not only are your preconceived notions retarded, the things which convince you your preconceived notions are wrong are retarded.

[Anonymous No.6684018]

>>6683980
Retweet

[Anonymous No.6684024]

>>6683973
yeah old timers know not to take themselves seriously.

>>6683980
yo your sass level is at a 9 you need to bring it down to at least a 3 to be civil here.

[Anonymous No.6684027]

Those two are famous pessimists, maybe you're naturally optimistic or something in between. I really liked Sxhopenhauer, to know that a great thinker had very similar views as me feels good. And it helps elaborate on thoughta

[Anonymous No.6684049]

>>6683255
Because obsessing over spooks is poisonous to the mind.

[Anonymous No.6684059]

>>6683609

I have an xbox one, a good pc, I can buy new vidya every 1-2 months, any book that I want, I have comforting, somewhat expensive clothes (without being ridiculous like those $100 shirts), I go to college, I have many musical instruments, and yet, the people who live under the bridge close to my house look happier than I do.
The whole "you have money and a roof, you shouod be happy" argument is bullshit, I live in a "3rd world country" (yet some people drive Maseratis) and I've seen very genuinely happy people living in houses with only 2 real walls, the rest is cardboard or aluminium.

[Anonymous No.6684064]

>>6684059
Where are you from?

[Anonymous No.6684081]

>>6684064

A lovely place called Mexico, where being depressed makes you even more depressed because most people are so fucking happy, and once people know of your condition, they see you as some sort of freak

[Anonymous No.6684136]

>>6684081
Well then free yourself from your mental constraints. You are unhappy because you are not fulfilling the objectives that have been imposed on you.

Three things must be done in this case:
1.Detach yourself from negative emotions that serve as barriers to reason.
2. Detach yourself from frivolous objectives with much clear thought.
3. Embrace the world around you as it is, and as it comes.
Asceticism is the key here. Think hard about which pleasures are truly worth partaking in, and which possessions are truly worth possessing. Then you will realise why those that possess so little can be so happy. You needn't give up anything material at this point, as long as you are aware of what has real value. Accept your place in nature and happiness will come to you.

[Anonymous No.6684168]

>>6684059
>the people who live under the bridge close to my house look happier than I do.

Petit-bourgeois scum please get over yourself and learn to really hate yourself rather than love yourself in sickly ways.

Read Marx, read Deleuze, read Foucualt, read poetry, write, pace around your room. Join the lefties at your local university. Mexico is in a prime place for insurrection in the Western Hemisphere.

[Anonymous No.6684171]

>>6684168
Or he could seek the thing that will actually make him happy and join (or rejoin) the Church.

[Anonymous No.6684182]

You just get closer and closer to circumscribing the world with words, so what

[Anonymous No.6684202]

>>6683255
schopenhaurer is a master fucking pessimist lol
nietzsche is essentially the dad who you will never impress

what did you expect?

[Anonymous No.6684206]

>>6684168

This is the best answer

[Anonymous No.6684207]

>>6683255
Stop reading pessimists if you don't like feeling the truth.

[Anonymous No.6684232]

"life is shit" is such a ridiculous thing to say
maybe you can say "my life is shit" but even then you're probably just having a poor mindset about the thing
unless you believe that everyone who is pleased with life is deluding themselves but that sounds unlikely

[Anonymous No.6684702]

>>6683698
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger

[Anonymous No.6684714]

>>6683255
You're not strong enough to be a free spirit.