Are you an Existential Nihilist?

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An existential nihilist is someone who perceives that life has no intrinsic meaning or value.

Are you an existential nihilist or do you have existential nihilist tendencies? If so, do you live as though life has no meaning, and does it negatively impact your life?

I, personally, have many existential nihilist thoughts/tendencies. i'm a bit ashamed to admit that the way I live my life is impacted somewhat by the perception (true or not) that life has no intrinsic meaning or value.

However, I haven't met many people who feel that life has no meaning yet are depressed by it. Usually, people say things like:

"Life is what you make it."
"Life may be meaningless, but you can add meaning to it."

I understand where these positive people are coming from but can't relate to it

Would be interested if anyone else has struggled with existential questions and despair, and whether it has carried over into your real life and impacted it negatively. Have you ever suffered from depression from these thoughts?

Yes.

I'm not a nihilist. I don't think I've ever been like it, the closest to it is all my serious depressions, but they didn't break me down either. There is no meaning to life, it is a stupid question. The only thing we can count on is evolution, because it's logical and it makes sense, and we have our biology which is programmed to do different things in life. Our brain makes this a hassle, that's just the consequence of being human.

Life has value, extreme amount of value. It is the only time we live, which is important because it is nothing else. The quotes you say are true, only actions can impact your life, without that you're pretty much on autopilot. Which doesn't need to be bad either, life has a lot of wonders which you can explore and experience. Nice things.

I have had a lot of existential questions and despair, but those have been mostly philosophical and somewhat extreme, outside the restriction of making life pointless.

Nihilism is a waiting room, not a destination.

I believe life has no meaning. I get depressed about a lot of things, as well as just because, but not that.

But how does one live as though life has no meaning? Is life having no meaning the same as life being meaningless? To me, 'life has no meaning' suggests a position that life in itself does not contain, and does not need to contain, meaning. Whereas 'life is meaningless' suggests life is lacking something that one expects to be there - that something is lost or amiss.

However, this is very hard to talk about, because meaninglessness is often meaningful. That is, it obviously means something to you that life is meaningless. If one is moved in any way - for good or bad - by the belief that life has no meaning, then that lack of meaning is meaningful.

What's more, I imagine some self examination on the matter would show that I have in fact imputed some meaning to life, and/or accepted others' meaning.

ETA: Ah, I didn't notice 'value' on my read through, and concentrated on 'meaning'. 'Value' is a different matter than 'meaning'. I'm not sure what would count as 'intrinsic' - that is, I don't know if anything can have value besides what we impute so to talk of 'intrinsic' value as opposed to imputed is perhaps (ha!) meaningless - but I do believe life has value.

Life must have value, or I wouldn't want more of it.

Unless someone can provide a solution for the "is ought" problem, then what is there to discuss?

Your life has exactly the meaning that you give it.

ruveyn

Quite a bit. We may not necessarily come to a world-shocking finding about life and whether or not it can have meaning, but a little discussion might help those - yourself included, as I understand it by your 'yes' above - who do get depressed over life having no meaning or value.

That is, we might find a way to talk amd think about it that affects a slight shift in someone's worldview, in how they see the issue, helping them feel better. I think that's a good and worthwhile thing.

Is life even something that can have meaning or value? Why does it depress some that it doesn't? What would it, well, mean if it did have meaning/value?

I lack the computational capacity necessary for substituting brutal honesty in favour of socially acceptable arguments, but I recognize the contextual validity of your statement.

If people mean something, even the slightest, then life has a meaning. And people, the individual, gives life its value. I think nihilism and many other world views are the same as giving up. If you however try, even though people around you give up on this challenge, you have the necessary foundation for actually achieving some answers to this question. And that is interesting, because life without meaning and life with meaning seem to divide at the point where the person either gives in and don't try, and where he tries. Trying, progressing, developing, are the most vital qualities a person has. There is no objective meaning to life, only the scientific breakthroughs of biology can provide anything to that question (in this day and age), but life has meaning and value via vitality. There may not be anything else.

I'm of the mind that the desire for meaning is on some level proof of meaning. For example, you can desire for Santa Clause to exist, and in some way Santa Clause does exist in the form of charitable behavior. Santa Clause of course doesn't exist in a physical sense, but what he represents does exist. If there's a desire, whether positive or negative, there's probably a reality behind that desire that can fulfill it. This is how I think things balance their selves out.

Definitely. I came to that conclusion when I was about fourteen, though the terminology was unknown to me then.



I am occasionally, but fortunately I'm also insane, so the cognitive dissonance is now the chiming of sweet, sweet music.



Life IS what you make it. It's all ultimately pointless, but it's much more pleasant to do things you enjoy while you're waiting to die than sit around in angst and misery. My novel was utterly pointless (and, ironically, somewhat existential) but I still intend to get it published, because that would make me happy. If it fails completely, I will be sad but I'll get over it because it doesn't matter. It's like enlightened pessimism.

That said, when you're depressed and people try to cheer you up - me, I want to slam their faces into the table to make them shut up, the stupid twazzocks. Advice like that is like being poor, visiting the bank and being told "you need to get some money." Well, yes... but I can figure that much out myself.



Yes, and as I say, I went insane. Best thing I ever did. Some might say that you can't choose to go insane. They are unambitious fools. It'll happen anyway, so nuts to that - do it now, and do it with style.
1. Accept that you're already insane, but in the wrong way.
2. Accept your feelings. Life's full of crap, you hate it. You hate other people. You probably hate yourself.
3. If other people are idiots and you're already down on yourself, you can stop caring about what other people think of you.
4. Rules are for the sane. Screw all that social stuff you're supposed to do. Skip class/work, spend all night playing games, eat crap. Do whatever you like.
5. There are consequences, of course. Own them. You might get in trouble. When people ask why you're acting this way, tell them the honest truth - it's all a waste of time, life is inherently meaningless and you're going crazy. This will work better than you expect - and if you get fired/expelled, so what? Own that. Move on.
5a. HOWEVER, if you're in a position where going too far will likely screw up your life completely (we need money for eats, etc) you may want to limit your insanity. The nice thing about choosing insanity is that you can go as far as you need or want to. There aren't many ways you need to go insane anyway:
- Stop caring about what other people think of you.
- Stop doing stuff you hate.
- Spend time doing stuff you enjoy doing.
- Live your dreams, however crazy they are.

What you may find is that this doesn't actually sound all that insane. Well done - you've realised the trick. Normal life, where we do stuff because we're supposed to - THAT'S insanity.

I see a lot of sense in what Thom_Fuleri wrote. I've described myself as a happy-go-lucky pessimist.

My own way through such things is to question my responses, and the questions themselves. Why should one feel anything about the matter - good or bad - if one truly, fully accepts life has no meaning? I would suppose those who feel good do so because they find it freeing. Whereas those who feel bad may do so in the same way a cartoon character suddenly drops after succesfully running some distance off of the cliff edge and then realising he's no longer on solid ground. There's meaning in your meaninglessness. Investigate that meaning.

I would posit that life doesn't quite have the meaning or value we directly give it. Rather, meaning and value arise from who and how and where and when we are, and the nexus of interactions therein. That is, meaning and value are inevitable and inescapable.

I remember a Cornell West video clip, where he was talking about the attachment to totality and harmony, and how people get depressed when they can't make it work. He questions the necessity of this and suggests we 'ride the dissonance'. I like that idea.

And a line from William James - "Dupery for dupery, what proof is there that dupery through hope is so much worse than dupery through fear?".

I've had people who tried to cheer me up too. And therapy. The problem with many principles in therapy (Cognitive Behavioral for example), is that underneath it all, there is this presupposition that life HAS meaning, that things are objectively positive and that a person can recover if they simply realize that. Much therapy has a shiny-happy sheen to it, even if it is something as simple as "Enjoy the present moment." Is the present moment necessarily something to be enjoyed? Is life itself a reason to be supremely excited or happy?

Your post makes a lot of sense.

Life can have meaning for those who construct a meaning to their lives.

We can be as moral or existentialist as we chose to be.

ruveyn

I am an existential nihilist. I suffer from severe depression caused by a variety of factors. I am a positive person.