I feel old

[masta247]

That's not how people derailed threads when I was young

 

[Jokerman]

I'm really interested to know how you relate to Camus, just because of the themes he touched upon. I feel like you're a strong existentialism/absurdism critic.

I would now criticize the dead-end those philosophies reached, but at one time I held those viewpoints. Nietzsche and Camus were my intellectual heroes. I was a nihilist and always wore black. (I was involved in an accidental shooting of an Arab on the beach. Because it was noticed that I hadn't cried at my mother's funeral, I was accused of being cold-blooded and heartless, and condemned to death.) But then I pushed through the dead end of those life views. They were misguided. In fact, Camus retreated from his nihilism in The Plague. Sartre's subsequent combination of existentialism and Marxism also superseded the nihilism of Being and Nothingness. They were still both on the wrong path and negative in their outlook.

For me, the lesson of The Stranger is that if you cease to make all effort, fate takes advantage of this lowering of your spiritual guard by hitting you on the head. Camus himself continued to believe that life is maliciously absurd, and he died in his forties in a stupid car accident. In other words, fate hit him on the head.

Philosophically speaking, I've devoted myself to trying to create a positive existentialism, that declines to accept the premise of meaninglessness that's found in Sartre, Camus, Foucault, Derrida and other fashionable thinkers of the past 50 years. In other words, a non-pessimistic existentialism. I feel that their pessimism is based on certain assumptions that I no longer share. Once we understand its mechanisms, we can see that philosophical and literary pessimism is quite simply a mistake, a logical error that leaves something important out of account.

Being faced with nihilism is like finding your path blocked by a large chunk of concrete. Unless you can get your crowbar underneath it, it's virtually immovable. This is the problem with nihilism. It's hard to get underneath it. In order to understand the nature of freedom, we first need to look more carefully at the mechanisms of despair. But all that is a long topic, so I'll stop there. (Pittsey is sighing in relief.)

So by temperament, I am an existential nihilist. But by intellect, I am now an optimistic existentialist.

 

[Pittsey]

What are you stupid or something

Yes.

 

[Da_Funk]

Yes.

As am I. This conversation is way over my head and I was trying to bring it back down. FAIL

 

[Pittsey]

As am I. This conversation is way over my head and I was trying to bring it back down. FAIL

No. I think we succeeded. Let's hope Sofi doesn't see jokerman's post.

 

[Jokerman]

I'll delete it and replace it with coon jokes

 

[S O F I]

I would now criticize the dead-end those philosophies reached, but at one time I held those viewpoints. Nietzsche and Camus were my intellectual heroes. I was a nihilist and always wore black. (I was involved in an accidental shooting of an Arab on the beach. Because it was noticed that I hadn't cried at my mother's funeral, I was accused of being cold-blooded and heartless, and condemned to death.) But then I pushed through the dead end of those life views. They were misguided. In fact, Camus retreated from his nihilism in The Plague. Sartre's subsequent combination of existentialism and Marxism also superseded the nihilism of Being and Nothingness. They were still both on the wrong path and negative in their outlook.

For me, the lesson of The Stranger is that if you cease to make all effort, fate takes advantage of this lowering of your spiritual guard by hitting you on the head. Camus himself continued to believe that life is maliciously absurd, and he died in his forties in a stupid car accident. In other words, fate hit him on the head.

Philosophically speaking, I've devoted myself to trying to create a positive existentialism, that declines to accept the premise of meaninglessness that's found in Sartre, Camus, Foucault, Derrida and other fashionable thinkers of the past 50 years. In other words, a non-pessimistic existentialism. I feel that their pessimism is based on certain assumptions that I no longer share. Once we understand its mechanisms, we can see that philosophical and literary pessimism is quite simply a mistake, a logical error that leaves something important out of account.

Being faced with nihilism is like finding your path blocked by a large chunk of concrete. Unless you can get your crowbar underneath it, it's virtually immovable. This is the problem with nihilism. It's hard to get underneath it. In order to understand the nature of freedom, we first need to look more carefully at the mechanisms of despair. But all that is a long topic, so I'll stop there. (Pittsey is sighing in relief.)

So by temperament, I am an existential nihilist. But by intellect, I am now an optimistic existentialist.

yeah, the problem with those philosophies, to me anyway, is that they encourage hopelessness and sadness. basically, you resign yourself to the premise that life is meaningless and as the result, do nothing to give it meaning. but you don't have to decline the premise of meaninglessness if your efforts are focused on creating meaning and purpose in life. the two aren't mutually exclusive. to me, the allure of those philosophies has always been that we shouldn't accept what other people think life is about.

 

[Pittsey]

I'll delete it and replace it with coon jokes

Do you have anything inbetween the two?

yeah, the problem with those philosophies, to me anyway, is that they encourage hopelessness and sadness. basically, you resign yourself to the premise that life is meaningless and as the result, do nothing to give it meaning. but you don't have to decline the premise of meaninglessness if your efforts are focused on creating meaning and purpose in life. the two aren't mutually exclusive. to me, the allure of those philosophies has always been that we shouldn't accept what other people think life is about.

Nice outlook on life. I was more like Jokerman in my early 20s. Now I try to give my life meaning, or at least find some meaning or enjoyment within it.