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For me, it is hard to choose between Mill and the early Socrates of Plato. Early Plato delivered me from confidence in my beliefs. He taught me to doubt everything I believed. Mill was a brilliant moral and political philosopher as well as an excellent economist. His essays On Liberty and Utilitarianism put forward my favorite ideas in moral and political philosophy.
"Satan" is no longer politically correct. We prefer you call him "the morally-challenged mythological antagonist of the Christian faith." Thanks for your understanding.
The "is" and "ought" distinction makes this an auto include to anyones read list. Hume addressed many theological arguments, I am sure many skeptics have been influenced by Hume in some way.
Charles Peirce, The Fixation of Belief.
This needs to be on everyones read list. Forming beliefs sounds easy but trying to describe it in detail is a task. His take on how we keep or change beliefs is interesting. You can see methods Peirce describes that are used to fixate beliefs in many arguments on this site.
GenericName(3475) ............ preaches that the human has no basic rights,
no freedom of thought,
There is indeed freedom of thought , though I will admit to not thinking correctly which leads to eternal torture trying to think correctly . That said, one still has the "freedom" to think "incorrectly".
Oh my mistake; you certainly know a great deal more about the legal system of my home country and my relationship with my mother than I do. You're such a very smart person
If I could make you believe, I would. My guess is that only the fire of Hell will make you believe, and then it will be too late....but still, you love the pleasures of your sin so much that you will fly high in high fallutin style like a moth into the flames and is it not justice?
I would recommend reading "Justice" What's the right thing to do. by Michael Sandel. He is a professor at Harvard. The book covers several philosophers.
Rawls' Theory of Justice is a fantastic study. I have not read Sandel's Justice yet; do you recall if he focuses upon a particular era of philosophers or if the selection is fairly broad?
He presents modern day social issues with different moral philosophies. He never really tries to convince you of one thought over another, just what's seems wrong and right about each philosophers theories. As far as era goes. It's everywhere from Aristotle to modern day. His lectures can be found on YouTube.
If I could make you believe, I would. My guess is that only the fire of Hell will make you believe, and then it will be too late....but still, you love the pleasures of your sin so much that you will fly high in high fallutin style like a moth into the flames and is it not justice?
If Rawl's theory of justice excludes him from Hell by believing death is his final payday and he is then relieved from further execution of justice, his theory is from Hell designed to deceive you to pull you into it's fire.
Alfonse karr, the French philosopher;- ''The more things change, the more they stay the same''. As a species we think we've become more civilized and sophisticated, but here we are still slaughtering and torturing our perceived adversaries en mass as well letting our fellow human beings die from painful, lingering diseases and starvation without conscience, just as it was since the dawn of time. Karr's observation which he recorded in his proverb is ageless.
Have you ever read "The Better Angels Of Our Nature" by Steven Pinker? It gives a different view on violence since the dawn of civilization. It is a very long book, but I think you will find it interesting and in conflict with Alfonse Karr.
Frederich Nietzsche: "You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist." & "There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena." Nihilistic philosophy in general has been one of the more interesting and challenging perspectives I have encountered, and as the so-called "father of nihilism" Nietzsche is an obvious inclusion for me. I am also rather fond of his aphoristic approach.
Bertrand Russel “There is one great question. Can human beings know anything, and if so, what and how? This question is really the most essentially philosophical of all questions.” His philosophy is a bit more mathematically influenced than I typically like, but he raises some interesting points for consideration certainly.
John Rawls "The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance." For his utilitarian social contract theory and conception of the veil of ignorance, which I do not entirely agree with but which I find most intriguing.
I am just curious how you could call Rawls' social contract theory utilitarian. He rejects most utilitarian theories of justice explicitly in The Theory of Justice and claims his theory to be a replacement for utilitarianism. I guess you could call the difference principle a shade of utilitarianism but I just want to make sure he didn't change his position in his later works which I haven't read and perhaps you have.
Ah, no, that was rather unclear of me; apologies. To my knowledge Rawls himself never identified as a utilitarian philosopher himself, and he would probably abhor that that is the conclusion I drew from reading his works. However, I do find his critique of utilitarianism to be primarily a critique of the then common conception and implementation of utilitarianism... and his own alternative more a revised version of utilitarianism than an actually distinct concept.
After much carefull consideration and. Study on philosophy of the depest kind, i would have to conclude that no one understands the mystery of the universe better than myself. Thank you
I used to think Nietzsche had some good ideas too. Then I read some Stirner and realized Nietzsche's good ideas were, largely, bastardized versions of someone else's philosophy (e.g. Ubermensch, from the Einzige). If you like Nietzsche, I recommend Stirner.
Also, out of curiosity, what do you think is "fucked up" about Nietzsche's philosophy?
The whole master/slave morality. It's not really something I agree with (although I'm not sure if that was one of his philosophies changed by his sister.) I'll look into Stirner
I think the master/slave narrative is at least roughly in line with his argument. The way Stirner advances it makes a lot more sense to me, though. He argues that morality is a concept that exists outside the self to which the self has become enslaved (rather than the way Nietzsche phrases it, which rubs me wrong as well).
It amazes me that people pay and invest time to study these vain philosophies which are only good for death, which is no good at all....but then again, I used to read it quite a bit. As soon as I saw any flaw in the reasoning, I got bored with it and moved on to the next one. They're all nothing but self-flattering phonies and insecure people mimic them.
As soon as I saw any flaw in the reasoning, I got bored with it and moved on to the next one.
And yet... you believe the Bible ardently. I am not surprised you cannot comprehend ongoing philosophical exploration, since you have already taken the word of one publication as conclusive truth.
I studied all religions and philosophies diligently from the time I was a boy, a few years after I learned to read into my early twenties when I realized the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that makes sense. Thankfully, I have forgotten most of the hundreds of books I read on religions and philosophies. I was also into a form of "nihilism". I tried everything, studied all and practiced many religions. When I see the philosophy writings I used to read, it only takes a few lines before I say "wow, how could I ever have been intrigued by this confusion?"
The gospel is so simple a child can understand. The truth is simple. The truth is reality, Jesus Christ is the truth, He is a person you can know, not a religion to practice. Your religion keeps you in the dark because it is an attempt to justify your sin.
We deserve to die as sinners, everybody. We are all born under the death penalty, we did not deserve to be born as our parents did not deserve to live. We all deserve to die, we have all sinned and all fall short of the glory of God. Our sins separate us from God. You probably will not admit this fact before you wake up in Hell, and even then you will try to deny it. Your own dying should be proof enough, but who are you to care?
You have already explained your conception of nihilism to me, and I have already explained why it is a misconception borne out of youthful angst rather than a true understanding of the philosophy. You moved from one simple understanding to another, no more and no less. That you read and studied other things does not mean you actually grasped them, and that you clearly preference the Bible on the basis of its simplicity only underscores the probability that complex ideas are a bit beyond you. You are right, though, it is simple. Like Snow Wife and the Seven Dwarfs is simple. And I have already explained why mortality does not prove the existence of your God.
I'm not interested in nihilism. That stuff is an exercise in futility. You are hoping to make yourself go away into nothing, and it's a false hope. You are going to end up in Hell if you won't accept what God did for you to save you from Hell by taking your place in death to give you His place in His resurrection in eternal life. "Nihilism" is hopelessness, and you can keep it to yourself. I'm not the least bit interested in exploring the depths of your confusion. There is nothing to grasp in nihilism, it's belief in becoming nothing, it's a worthless religion that is going to take you to Hell. I was much deeper in your garbage religion than you are, I was only a little behind what the practitioners would have called a master. The truth is simple, your religion is mysterious and deep because it is never ending rabbit trails of uncertainty, confusion, and hope in what really is your own feelings....you feel like death is good to get you out of suffering, and you are being taken down into eternal suffering, boasting in your sin like a moth flying fast into the fire. You're only fooling yourself, and if anybody else follows your lead, you will pay extra in Hell for your part in bringing them down with you.
I read dozens of books in your religion and philosophy, looking for something solid, spending long hours contemplating the teachings after long hours reading the materials.....and I did this most every day for years in my youth. There is nothing new in your philosophy or in your religion, it's old rehashed stuff maybe with different authors or shuffling of wordings, but it's all the same stuff and it's a dead religion for the dead, and that's why you love it....you hope you are better than dead now, and you hope death is even better. It's insanity for fools who pretend to be wise.
It is you who is not grasping wisdom, it is you who is not grasping the truth. You puff up your head with confusion and uncertainty, hoping in non-existence as the proof of your futility. It would be funny if it's not so pitiful what you are making yourself into, and what you are getting for your works.
I guess I can agree with you there. You have death, no need to grasp for it. You are full if it, bursting at the seams with death, a dead man walking and talking and ready to be fully revealed in death in the Lake of Fire.
No need to grasp for what you already have. Enjoy yourself.
Calling yourself "Mr. Death" is just about the most honest representation of truth I have seen come out of you. You are not all that great, as your death is only for you and you are not Mr. Death for everybody else to respect you as such a person. All you have is death, but that does not make you special. What makes you special is that you are made in God's image and He loves you...but you don't care about that, you love death so much you name yourself "Mr. Death".
There's nothing good in nihilism. You suck that confusion in and breath it out like marijuana, it makes you nursed in dying and dying is all you have, losing everything......except that God in His mercy is giving you time in which you may be saved from Hell.
You just love defying God, you love your sin, you love the pleasures of your own sinful indulgences more than life and you wont' give it up for anything, will you? Your sin is taking you to Hell, you will see if you believe it or not.
Snow white and the seven dwarfs is a tale of magic, it's evil, people making themselves into gods to control things for their own self-exaltation. It's you who does not understand complicated concepts. You keep running those rabbit trails of confusion and trying to make yourself sound smart by twisting ideas and words around, elevating your own intellect to worship your own mind in it's vast unknowns thinking you have the right to exist outside of Hell. Nihilism is madness, it's evil, darkness, and it's taking you to Hell in your sin. It's doctrines of demons for fools to follow for their own destruction and you are full of it.
Correct. There is nothing good in nihilism because it negates the notion of good. That does not mean it is confusing, although you certainly are confused about what nihilism is. Dying is not all I have; for the time, I also have living and enjoy it greatly. I don't worship my mind or nihilism. I just think its probably more true, and you certainly have not raised a coherent counterargument beyond your allegations that it is confusing.
I don't love defying God anymore than I love defying the leprechauns. Your Bible is also a tale of magic, whereby the people turn themselves into slaves to their master in a desperate attempt to escape their mortality. Also, ROFLMAO... Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is evil. XD
It's a waste of time. You believe in meaninglessness, there is no need for me to waste time trying to understand how you believe there is no objective truth by which you can validate your belief in meaninglessness. It's just mumbo jumbo double talk pretending to be a display of intelligence when in reality is only a fools parade. Why are you putting on a show with it, who are you trying to impress?
Nihilism is the philosophical position which argues that Being, especially past and current human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. It asserts that there is no reasonable proof of the existence of a higher ruler or creator, that a "true morality" does not exist, and that objective secular ethics are impossible. Therefore life has, in a sense, no truth and no action is objectively preferable to any other.
This is stupidity on parade. If you want to believe life is meaningless and there is no objective truth, you sure cannot claim to be qualified to know if I know the truth. Nihilism is suicidal, it's the love of death, believing you escape reality in death and are forever exempt from punishment.
There is nothing complicated or difficult to understand in nihilism, and there is no point in reading volumes of philosophy to try to get a grip on something based on meaninglessness. It's mumbo jumbo of fools. You can have it. Sorry I can't say you are being intelligent with it.....you are only being a fool and you are going to wake up in Hell if you won't repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved from Hell.
You have described some forms of nihilism (though by no means all), namely the existential, epistemological, and moral. Your description is a basic regurgitation, though, and demonstrates no actual grasp of the concepts. As does your repeated conflation of nihilism with other philosophical positions, such as fatalism. Just declaring it "stupid mumbo jumbo" is not a counterargument.
The basic premise of nihilism is enough to know it is worthless. I was dumb enough to actually spend time reading some of the philosophical "greats", but they always said things that were irrational and illogical and I brushed those things aside as I plodded onward trying to find solid ground to stand on. There is no solid ground in your philosophy, it's based on believing nothing is solid and the only solid thing is nothing, which is not a thing at all. I could write a book on it myself, and use all kinds of contemplative doubletalk pretending that the journey of questioning is the only value in life.
You insult my intelligence with cheap shots, and I tell you the truth. You are killing yourself in a slow death, which is in reality much faster than want, and you are not getting yourself out of existence and you cannot deny that life means God is good because He is the giver of life. Denial of that statement of God's goodness is the impossible goal of nihilism, and the proof that you are wrong will be finding yourself in Hell with no way out if you will not repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who died for you to save you from Hell, and rose to be the justifier of all who believe on Him. Keep your death if you want it. Jesus took mine. Lose your life if you want to....Jesus gave me His, His life is eternal, I'll be in Heaven with Him if you are or are not forever trying to deny God's goodness in Hell.
stupid mumbo jumbo is the best summary of all of your philosophies. You toss around a lot of big words like tossed salad and those words have variations of expression, but they all boil down to the same thing...believing life has no objective value.
It's nothing my complications of confusion pretending to be displays of intelligence....it's the work of fools.
Who are you trying to impress with your display of "philosophy"?
The concepts of nihilism are nothing to grasp....it's belief in meaninglessness. Who are you trying to impress with it? Yourself? Who are you trying to impress?
Not trying to impress anyone. Certainly not you. And just because you grasp the conclusion does not mean you grasp the argument; you have more than adequately demonstrated that.
Answer these questions honestly if you can, which I doubt:
1)who are you trying to impress with your "philosophy". If nobody else, you have to be trying to impress yourself. You will probably deny this of course, because your philosophy is the art of denying the truth.....but can you honestly tell me who you are trying to impress with your "philosophy"? Do you think you have an audience for whom you must portray yourself as being more educated and intelligent than me? Or do you just feel like you have to keep impressing yourself in order to preserve your pride? What is it?
2) Why are you trying to impress me or other people with your "philosophy".
Not trying to impress anyone. It just happens to be my view. And, yeah, basically I'm bored. Why else would I keep responding to your vapid comments? XD
Ah, well then, that explains your belief in a God who demands people worship him to avoid burning in Hell for eternity. Because that's not vain at all.
I know you believe that you cannot understand what you think you said, but I'm not sure that you realize that what you said is not what you meant because what you said appeared to have meaning.
God wants us to worship Him by our own choice, and He deserves that honor as our Creator. The only time God will force anybody to make any show of worship to Him will be in Hell, when at the sound of the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess to the glory of God the Father that Jesus Christ is LORD. Then those who are in the torments of Hell can say whatever they feel like saying until the next time the name of Jesus sounds and they cannot stop their knees from bowing and their tongues from saying "Jesus Christ is LORD". God will get the honor he deserves from you if you like it or not. Me, I gladly say God is good and I thank Him for His mercy and I praise Him for His greatness as my Creator. He died for me to save me from Hell. You don't care. That's not my problem.
You're not thinking. I know you think you are thinking, but you have passed judgement on God and have stopped thinking. You are only going against yourself, only sealing your own fate in Hell, and refusing to consider what you are doing. That's your choice, and I don't know why you feel you need to keep explaining it to me. I can't help you if you won't be saved.
There is nothing complicated or difficult to understand in nihilism, and there is no point in reading volumes of philosophy to try to get a grip on something based on meaninglessness. It's mumbo jumbo of fools. You can have it. Sorry I can't say you are being intelligent with it.....you are only being a fool and you are going to wake up in Hell if you won't repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved from Hell.
Adding a bunch of big words does not make the basic concept of believing in meaninglessness any more intelligent.
There is nothing complicated or difficult to understand about Christianity, and there is no point in reading the Bible to try and get a grip on something based on meaninglessness. It's mumbo jumbo of fools. You can have it. Sorry I can't say you are being intelligent with it..... you are only being a fool and you are going to wake up in Voldemort's lair if you don't repent and believe on the Chosen One Harry Potter to be saved from Voldemort.
Adding a bunch of small words does not make the basic concept of believing in Christianity any more intelligent.
You can't understand what it is to know God, to be a Christian, if you won't believe the gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is for you. You don't want it, so you can't understand it. There is nothing to nihilism, atheist, because it's belief in nothing.
By your own words, such as accusing God of being "vain", you obviously refuse to understand God so your pretense of knowing what you are talking about it a lie by which you are fooling yourself.
Every time you accuse God of not caring, not being God, not being righteous, whatever the accusation, you show that you have no grasp of Christianity.
Christianity is the Kingdom of Heaven and you cannot understand it if you are not a citizen of Heaven. Jesus is the truth. Nihilism asserts there is no truth. Therefore, if you have any grasp of logic at all, you cannot know what Christianity is because you reject Jesus Christ.
You base yourself on meaninglessness, so you dictate for yourself that you must conclude any reference to truth as meaningless. That is why you can't understand Christianity. You worship meaninglessness, as if it will keep you out of Hell. See for yourself.
The ongoing philosophical exploration you are recommending is an exercise in futility. When you know the truth, it sets you free and you don't have to keep working on trying to get a philosophical grip on reality or what may or may not be real. All of this stuff about ungodly philosophies is nothing but self-flattering pseudo intellectual mumbo jumbo of people who don't really know what they are talking about but they say it very well while they pretend to have some kind of authoritative basis of logic or illogic or whatever.... It's really a sad joke.
You just go around in circles of denial. I'm not going to play your game. Jesus Christ is the truth, and you are on your way to Hell to pay for your sin as you are paying for it now in part while enjoying God's mercy in keeping you out of Hell.
Hey, you love death so keep it, enjoy it while you can and see if you don't end up in eternal death in Hell. Why is that so hard for you to understand?
