Is Nihilism heartless-ness?

[Lovelife090994]

Is Nihilism heartless? It is hard to tackle but it seems Nihilism and it's practicioners seem to be without care to life, existence, empathy, faith, morality, life, death, and evil vs good or the ice versa. Why?

Whay is Nihilism? Is it dangerous? Personally, it would be my death if I ever became truly heartless and nihilist. No matter how crazy I am or mad, I care too much. I only bash out to keep people away so I can keep myself from anger and hurt, also it helps me cope but makes me go from warm to icy. I am not a fan of people but I don't hate them or see them as insignificant. Are Nihilists ever like that or religious?

Is Nihilism justified hatred and psycopathic thoughts? What is it?

[Gamma Male]

Nihilism encompasses a broad range of philosophical concepts and ideas.

I myself am an existential nihilist. I believe that life has no objective meaning or value.

I am not, however, an epistemological nihilist. I do believe that objective truth and objective reality exist.

I am also not a moral nihilist.


I could see how epistemological, and by extension moral nihilism could be seen as heartless. I don't personally believe the same to be true for existential nihilism, however. I find it to be empowering since it means we get to make our own choices in life and decide for ourselves what our purpose is. Even if those choices aren't free in a metaphysical sense, they're still our choices.

[Karkat]

Nihilism encompasses a broad range of philosophical concepts and ideas.

I myself am an existential nihilist. I believe that life has no objective meaning or value.

I am not, however, an epistemological nihilist. I do believe that objective truth and objective reality exist.

I am also not a moral nihilist.


I could see how epistemological, and by extension moral nihilism could be seen as heartless. I don't personally believe the same to be true for existential nihilism, however. I find it to be empowering since it means we get to make our own choices in life and decide for ourselves what our purpose is. Even if those choices aren't free in a metaphysical sense, they're still our choices.

I forgot about existential nihilism; it's really the only type I agree with that I'm aware of.

Nihilism has never been a philosophy I've been find of otherwise.

[Miserabilia]

Is Nihilism heartless? It is hard to tackle but it seems Nihilism and it's practicioners seem to be without care to life, existence, empathy, faith, morality, life, death, and evil vs good or the ice versa. Why?



Judging by your post I'm assuming you mean moral nihilism.
And yes, they are without care to evil vs good; that's moralism. A moral nihilist beleives there's no actual good or evil.

Also, what exactly do you mean with "heartless"? Could you elaborate? I'm guessin you're speaking of a metaphorical heart, as in emotionless?



Whay is Nihilism? Is it dangerous? Personally, it would be my death if I ever became truly heartless and nihilist. No matter how crazy I am or mad, I care too much. I only bash out to keep people away so I can keep myself from anger and hurt, also it helps me cope but makes me go from warm to icy. I am not a fan of people but I don't hate them or see them as insignificant. Are Nihilists ever like that or religious?


I honestly don't understand how the underlined part has anything to do with nihilism being dangerous. Could you elaborate how that figures?


Is Nihilism justified hatred and psycopathic thoughts? What is it?

Well, moral nihilism has nothing to do with hatred or psycopathic thoughts. It's simply the idea that the concepts good and bad don't inherently exist in the world, and are ideas made up by people.
It makes sense for religious people not to be moral nihilist; especialy if you bleive in some kind of afterlife reward or punishment, moral nihilism is no option, since you'd have to beleive that good and bad are what causes one to enter a certain afterlife.

[Bleid]

I am not a nihilist myself, since I have issues with it in all respects, however I do know about it because I try to spend my time examining the philosophies I disagree with to see if I am correct in my disagreement.

Nihilism is not heartless. To understand it, look at the root word, "nihil"

Nihil essentially means nothingness. The absence of something.
Then we add the "ism" suffix to indicate it's some sort of ideology.

Existential nihilism is when one believes that life is meaningless. There is no meaning or value to life. (Usually, but not required to be accompanied by the belief that humans make up their own meanings and values to life.)

Nothing about that is necessarily heartless or psychotic. It's a philosophical position. They're essentially looking at the world, and they see nothing objective about life's meaning or value. This doesn't necessarily mean they'll act in heartless ways, just that on paper they do not believe there is any objectivity to life's purpose and meaning.

Epistemological nihilism is when someone believes that there is no such thing as true knowledge. It's when someone believes that no one can know or does know anything whatsoever and there is no such thing as objective truth.

Nothing heartless or psychotic again, just a philosophical position that knowledge does not exist. Epistemological nihilism is also wrought with logical contradictions, but to those who hold the philosophy, it's not an issue because they would also believe that our knowledge of logic is nonexistent.

Moral nihilism is when someone believes that there is no such thing as good and evil. It's the belief that all of our moral principles are fabrications - they're made up and there's no such thing as a good and bad side to things.

This is the closest one that could get to heartless, but again, it's not that. This is again a philosophical position. It's simply that there's nothing real about our moral principles. Our ideas of right and wrong are made up.

[Lovelife090994]

I am not a nihilist myself, since I have issues with it in all respects, however I do know about it because I try to spend my time examining the philosophies I disagree with to see if I am correct in my disagreement.

Nihilism is not heartless. To understand it, look at the root word, "nihil"

Nihil essentially means nothingness. The absence of something.
Then we add the "ism" suffix to indicate it's some sort of ideology.

Existential nihilism is when one believes that life is meaningless. There is no meaning or value to life. (Usually, but not required to be accompanied by the belief that humans make up their own meanings and values to life.)

Nothing about that is necessarily heartless or psychotic. It's a philosophical position. They're essentially looking at the world, and they see nothing objective about life's meaning or value. This doesn't necessarily mean they'll act in heartless ways, just that on paper they do not believe there is any objectivity to life's purpose and meaning.

Epistemological nihilism is when someone believes that there is no such thing as true knowledge. It's when someone believes that no one can know or does know anything whatsoever and there is no such thing as objective truth.

Nothing heartless or psychotic again, just a philosophical position that knowledge does not exist. Epistemological nihilism is also wrought with logical contradictions, but to those who hold the philosophy, it's not an issue because they would also believe that our knowledge of logic is nonexistent.

Moral nihilism is when someone believes that there is no such thing as good and evil. It's the belief that all of our moral principles are fabrications - they're made up and there's no such thing as a good and bad side to things.

This is the closest one that could get to heartless, but again, it's not that. This is again a philosophical position. It's simply that there's nothing real about our moral principles. Our ideas of right and wrong are made up.

So it's a disregard to life, meaning, morality, right-and-wrong, and it means the people involved are heartless and okay with murder because to them nothing matters?

[Typhlosion]

So it's a disregard to life, meaning, morality, right-and-wrong, and it means the people involved are heartless and okay with murder because to them nothing matters?
It's not aboutagreeing or disagreeing with murder, but rather "being right or wrong about murder" is just a societal construct, and there is no way to objectively signify what's "right" or "wrong".

[Karkat]

So it's a disregard to life, meaning, morality, right-and-wrong, and it means the people involved are heartless and okay with murder because to them nothing matters?

...Not necessarily.

You can have someone who is an existential nihilist (because they do not believe in an afterlife, or god, etc. They do not hold the belief that life has any sort of external meaning, so they live their life for themselves, instead of in quaking terror of a higher power.) who would still very much care about their friends and family, their work buddies, themselves, animals.

They just don't believe that life has some grander purpose than to be lived, essentially.

The 'heartless' "I'm gonna be a mass-murderer because life doesn't matter! Whee!" picture you seem to be painting in your head is pretty much only reserved for cartoonishly evil political leaders, possibly some serial killers, and (in hand with that) fans of the show Dexter. (That last one was sarcastic, but I'll slip it in as a joke every now and then because why not.)

I mean sure, nihilism, like atheism, can make some people puffed-up dickheads who go around bragging about how everyone is beneath them for their great ideology blah blah

Yeah, ok, there are people like that in every group. So really, if nihilism isn't your piece of cake, it should be because you don't agree with its philosophy... Not because you think it makes people dangerous.

[Babs]

Nihilism encompasses a broad range of philosophical concepts and ideas.

I myself am an existential nihilist. I believe that life has no objective meaning or value.

I am not, however, an epistemological nihilist. I do believe that objective truth and objective reality exist.

I am also not a moral nihilist.


I could see how epistemological, and by extension moral nihilism could be seen as heartless. I don't personally believe the same to be true for existential nihilism, however. I find it to be empowering since it means we get to make our own choices in life and decide for ourselves what our purpose is. Even if those choices aren't free in a metaphysical sense, they're still our choices.

You said it pretty well.

I don't necessarily believe life has a set meaning, but rather you live it the best you can.
I think nihilism can be heartless, however it doesn't have to be.

[Lovelife090994]

...Not necessarily.

You can have someone who is an existential nihilist (because they do not believe in an afterlife, or god, etc. They do not hold the belief that life has any sort of external meaning, so they live their life for themselves, instead of in quaking terror of a higher power.) who would still very much care about their friends and family, their work buddies, themselves, animals.

They just don't believe that life has some grander purpose than to be lived, essentially.

The 'heartless' "I'm gonna be a mass-murderer because life doesn't matter! Whee!" picture you seem to be painting in your head is pretty much only reserved for cartoonishly evil political leaders, possibly some serial killers, and (in hand with that) fans of the show Dexter. (That last one was sarcastic, but I'll slip it in as a joke every now and then because why not.)

I mean sure, nihilism, like atheism, can make some people puffed-up dickheads who go around bragging about how everyone is beneath them for their great ideology blah blah

Yeah, ok, there are people like that in every group. So really, if nihilism isn't your piece of cake, it should be because you don't agree with its philosophy... Not because you think it makes people dangerous.

It's both for me. I don't agree with the ideology and the people scare me.

[Karkat]

It's both for me. I don't agree with the ideology and the people scare me.

Arguably, those with belief in an afterlife scare some as well.

[Bleid]

So it's a disregard to life, meaning, morality, right-and-wrong, and it means the people involved are heartless and okay with murder because to them nothing matters?

Alright, here's the thing:

We have to consider a very subtle distinction that's taking place here.

Existential/Epistemological/Moral Nihilism, in and of themselves, have nothing to do with heartlessness, murder, or anything of the sort.

These are philosophical positions one can take. They don't necessarily reflect the way the person themselves acts or feels about things.

We need to make sure to distinguish between nihilists, being people whom have these philosophical opinions, and people whom act callous and psychotic and heartless and whom also happen to be nihilists.

I'll explain using David Hume (not a nihilist) in a different context.

David Hume demonstrated throughout philosophical works what's known as the Problem of Induction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_induction). In short, he came to conclusions that are contradictory to the everyday person's intuition. One such conclusion being:

There is no rational reason to eat when we are hungry.
(Actually true if we look at it logically speaking)

I won't go into detail to demonstrate why that is the case, because that would be off topic.

However, David Hume fully admitted that he will of course, still eat food when he is hungry even though he firmly believes that there is no rational reason to do so.

A nihilist is specifically one whom believes that one (or more) of the parts of human life that we consider has meaning, actually does not. That's nihilism in a nutshell. Nothing more and nothing less.

The actual reasons as to why a given person believes this are irrelevant to the actual position itself. They are ancillary.

So instead of tagging heartlessness or psychosis onto the philosophical position, consider each individual person on their own merit and determine if they themselves are heartless.

There are plenty of philosophers whom hold to a nihilistic belief not out of heartlessness or anything personal about them but simply due to their academic conclusions on these matters.

Keep in mind, I am not a nihilist and I disagree completely with nihilism. I am not defending the nihilistic viewpoint. I am merely saying that there is a difference between someone having the philosophical position of nihilism and that same person being heartless/psychotic in addition to having that position.

[Lovelife090994]

Alright, here's the thing:

We have to consider a very subtle distinction that's taking place here.

Existential/Epistemological/Moral Nihilism, in and of themselves, have nothing to do with heartlessness, murder, or anything of the sort.

These are philosophical positions one can take. They don't necessarily reflect the way the person themselves acts or feels about things.

We need to make sure to distinguish between nihilists, being people whom have these philosophical opinions, and people whom act callous and psychotic and heartless and whom also happen to be nihilists.

I'll explain using David Hume (not a nihilist) in a different context.

David Hume demonstrated throughout philosophical works what's known as the Problem of Induction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_induction). In short, he came to conclusions that are contradictory to the everyday person's intuition. One such conclusion being:

There is no rational reason to eat when we are hungry.
(Actually true if we look at it logically speaking)

I won't go into detail to demonstrate why that is the case, because that would be off topic.

However, David Hume fully admitted that he will of course, still eat food when he is hungry even though he firmly believes that there is no rational reason to do so.

A nihilist is specifically one whom believes that one (or more) of the parts of human life that we consider has meaning, actually does not. That's nihilism in a nutshell. Nothing more and nothing less.

The actual reasons as to why a given person believes this are irrelevant to the actual position itself. They are ancillary.

So instead of tagging heartlessness or psychosis onto the philosophical position, consider each individual person on their own merit and determine if they themselves are heartless.

There are plenty of philosophers whom hold to a nihilistic belief not out of heartlessness or anything personal about them but simply due to their academic conclusions on these matters.

Keep in mind, I am not a nihilist and I disagree completely with nihilism. I am not defending the nihilistic viewpoint. I am merely saying that there is a difference between someone having the philosophical position of nihilism and that same person being heartless/psychotic in addition to having that position.

Thank you for typing that. I understand.

[Bleid]

Thank you for typing that. I understand.

Of course. Thank you, as well. It's an interesting and important topic because of the distinction we discussed.
I see where you were coming from when you made the thread. :)