I'm fairly new to grasping Nihilism. Can anyone explain to me what its difference is as opposed to Existentialism? Poetics - 19-03-’11 10:36

Im fairly new to grasping gay sex. Can anyone explain to me what its difference is as opposed to hetro sex? Poetics pt.2 - 19-03-’11 10:45

that's "sow" not "sew" my friend.... mixing up homophones weakens the clout of your words

(ANUS readers appreciate the word "homophone") your buddy - 19-03-’11 11:40

Let the sewing begin, starting with your "anus" Elisabeth II - 20-03-’11 12:08

Existentialism says that there is no proper way for anyone to behave. All values are created by you and so if you want to watch tv, then it is valuable because you say so. Nihilism (at least the mature version) says that what works in reality has value, and what continues to add to the depth and prufundity of life has meaning - religion, family, spirituality,art; not smoking pot and watching some fat ass on tv do tricks for money. In some sense you are still creating your own values, but not like in existentialism. Sartre is basically a leftist coming up with reasons why you can do whatever you want, because objectively life is meaningless. Nihilism agrees that life is objectively meaningless, in a moral kind of way, but does not infer from this that we can all do whatever we want ot that life is meaningless in a spiritual, or personal kind of way. If Nietzsche read Sartre and Camus (or Derrida or Foucalt) he would say that they were decadents. Brian - 20-03-’11 15:38

But of course you don't have to ponder the cosmos or contribute to the furthering of man all the time. Sometimes you just got to chill. Don't be a tool about everything. Norse (Email ) - 21-03-’11 06:14

When you don't care about the consequences of your actions as a society, you get trash like korn, Slipknot and ICP...

And closet fags like Prozak... Adrian Mccoy - 21-03-’11 11:01

I think I'll sleep in tomorrow and play video games all day again. Maybe I'll down some whiskey and catch a nice buzz, then if it's warm enough catch some zzz's in the sun. Have fun babysitting the planet, ANUS. Paul - 22-03-’11 13:23

Hey, a thug's gotsta take a break sometimes. Levy_Spearmen - 22-03-’11 20:42

"Nihilism (at least the mature version) says that what works in reality has value, and what continues to add to the depth and prufundity of life has meaning – religion, family, spirituality,art..."

Nihilism is, as is uncontroversial, the 'clensing of the doors of perception'... the realisation that reality viewed through emotion/value judgements (which are essentially the same things) is 'appearance' and not 'thing-in-itself', because emotions stem from parts of the brain which evolved for survival in ancient hominid environments and not objective truth. The idea is to place more emphasis on a rational/dispassionate grasp of reality. But we cannot live without emotions/subjective cares, so the idea is to work for those subjective ends which our (slightly more objective) rationality identifies as not working against the laws of nature. In other words ethics becomes more 'rational' and less 'emotional.

However, and i hate to break it to all the teenagers and undergraduates around here, there are many different views about what is *rationally* ethical. Left wingers would say they are using their rational brains more than right-wingers. This philosophy stuff is cursory and ultimately masturbatory. If you wanna make change, go out an do battle, doing philosophy isn't going to change anything... Because people have different opinions about what is 'rational'. Sorry. david (Email ) - 23-03-’11 20:00

Nihilism doesn't "say" that what works in reality has value. Nihilism says that all values are false. These two sentences are contradictory. Have the balls to reconigise that all values are ultimately meaningless (including your own). However nihilism might encourge you to work for those subjective ends YOU deem worthy after viewing reality more 'objectively' david (Email ) - 23-03-’11 20:04

Heard that, man. Norse (Email ) - 24-03-’11 11:21

All those ideologies are wishful thinking, nihilism is wishful thinking too, you just believe in some things or not because they are pleasent for you to do so, even if they bring bad consequences they are still pleasant.

So all we have is wishful thinking, not that we cannot achieve an objective reality or the "thing in itself" but certainly we can try to emulate the objective perception trough subjective perception, using art for example.

Ok, no one cares about art and art doesn't give any money, thats because you suck.

Kill yourself.

Thanks,

~A poor artist. Noobzak - 24-03-’11 16:30