Remember back in the 50s when they'd record like Elvis singing YOU AIN'T NOTHIN BUT A HOUND DOG and then they'd turn the record over and reverse it and it was all NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP and people were all like, "That is actually the voice of Satan coming from that song."
My first thoughts included, "Who the heck is Feyerabend?" and "There's an entry titled 'What the Hell is Water?' I want to see the context for this, but..."
Then I skimmed through their most recent post. They seem to be making an interesting point about needing multiple viewpoints to fully understand the world (or something cheesy-sounding like that). But that comes across as more of a side effect instead of their main purpose, and their tone is a little smug.
It's clear that they feel uncomfortable being both Buddhists and Continental Philosophers, so they constantly make these self-loathing adjustments to Buddhism and it's painful to watch.
Nihilism is an interesting (if potentially rather extreme) perspective, but ultimately a self-defeating and somewhat meaningless one, particularly if you mean it in the capital-N sense.
I guess my worldview can be pretty nihilistic, though I can start to feel sort of shitty when I get to thinking that way.
I try to remind myself that even when I don't see meaning in something, I can at least make an effort to help others that do. And even if it is all pointless in a very real way, at least there's no meaningful harm in being like this.
I tend to thing that there are very few if any things that are inherently meaningful. That does not mean that they are meaningless for us, or that one thing is as good as another. Only that facts themselves do not have any meaningfullness in them. If the sky is going to fall tomorrow, "so what?" is a completely legitimate question, because there is nothing that would require one to be concerned one way or other or to act in a certain way because of it. Which says nothing about whether one should or should not be concerned.
I agree that the investment of meaning is really a personal, subjective matter. The problem of nihilism for me is more of an issue of interpretation.
Also, this may or may not be apropos, but I think that it's worth noting (even if everyone here understands it already) that nihilism and pessimism are very different things.
Of course they are different. Pessimism/optimism relate more to the outcome rather than to what is important in the first place. It is perfectly possible to be an optimistic nihilist - I'd say that they are even quite common
I meant a more specialised use of the word "pessimism" there—specifically, as an umbrella term for philosophies that assert that the state of life or living is more negative than positive—but that actually explains the difference between the two pretty well anyway.
Pay attention to the person calling themselves "rustichealthy". The fact that he links to rense.com at least once (and completely non-ironically, too) should tell you a lot.
"This confrontation hinges on the question of mathematics and the problem of history. In order to do this, I will need to demonstrate that math has a relationship to history, that mathematical judgements today are historical. Instead of analyzing the possibility of making a mathematical judgement (as Kant does), I want to analyze what making such a judgement—and industrializing it, and deploying it, and monetizing it—entails"
"math cannot and should not be understood ahistorically today, even if it was correct to do such a thing in the past. This shall serve as a grand dividing line between two schools of thought: Those who consider today that symbolic logic, geometry, linear analysis, set theory, algorithms, information processing, etc., are outside of ontic history, that is, outside the history of instances, appearance, and existence; and those who recognize that such mathematization exists today at the very heart of the mode of production, and therefore not only drives history, but in some basic way is history itself"
"One cannot wish away the fact that the mode of production today is software, and that software is math. A simple syllogism reveals the conclusion: The mode of production today is math. Or if that is too strong, one might say: There is a special relation today between the mode of production and mathematics. For this reason, software is the thorn in the side of contemporary philosophy"
"Yes, perhaps there was a time when math was sufficiently outside human experience that it allowed a window into the absolute, or the realm of primary qualities, as Meillassoux would wish. But today calculation,math, programming, and rationalization are precisely coterminous with the human experience"
Oh ho ho ho, I am going to have to remember this one.
Not because it's right, because it's obviously very silly and wrong, but because it should be able to drive math geeks up a fucking wall, and lord knows some of them deserve it.
Comments
Look at it, it's the world's first "u mad?" macro.
Someone put that shit on Heapbooru.
Level with me.
Is this blog as vaguely annoying to people without philosophy backgrounds?
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
do people realize that there's more than one buddha.
i thought there was more than one buddha.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
how do you pronounce "Siddhartha Gautama", anyway?
I'd probably just call him Sid.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
BUDDHIST DICK-MEASURING
COME GET THE LENGTH OF YOUR ENLIGHTENMENT DICK!
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
☭ B̤̺͍̰͕̺̠̕u҉̖͙̝̮͕̲ͅm̟̼̦̠̹̙p͡s̹͖ ̻T́h̗̫͈̙̩r̮e̴̩̺̖̠̭̜ͅa̛̪̟͍̣͎͖̺d͉̦͠s͕̞͚̲͍ ̲̬̹̤Y̻̤̱o̭͠u̥͉̥̜͡ ̴̥̪D̳̲̳̤o̴͙̘͓̤̟̗͇n̰̗̞̼̳͙͖͢'҉͖t̳͓̣͍̗̰ ͉W̝̳͓̼͜a̗͉̳͖̘̮n͕ͅt͚̟͚ ̸̺T̜̖̖̺͎̱ͅo̭̪̰̼̥̜ ̼͍̟̝R̝̹̮̭ͅͅe̡̗͇a͍̘̤͉͘d̼̜ ⚢
☭ B̤̺͍̰͕̺̠̕u҉̖͙̝̮͕̲ͅm̟̼̦̠̹̙p͡s̹͖ ̻T́h̗̫͈̙̩r̮e̴̩̺̖̠̭̜ͅa̛̪̟͍̣͎͖̺d͉̦͠s͕̞͚̲͍ ̲̬̹̤Y̻̤̱o̭͠u̥͉̥̜͡ ̴̥̪D̳̲̳̤o̴͙̘͓̤̟̗͇n̰̗̞̼̳͙͖͢'҉͖t̳͓̣͍̗̰ ͉W̝̳͓̼͜a̗͉̳͖̘̮n͕ͅt͚̟͚ ̸̺T̜̖̖̺͎̱ͅo̭̪̰̼̥̜ ̼͍̟̝R̝̹̮̭ͅͅe̡̗͇a͍̘̤͉͘d̼̜ ⚢
I dunno.
I think most people have philosophical opinions of some kind, regardless of how well they can articulate them.
I guess if you defined the articulation itself as one's "intellectuality" then yes. But other than that I'm not sure.
I try to remind myself that even when I don't see meaning in something, I can at least make an effort to help others that do. And even if it is all pointless in a very real way, at least there's no meaningful harm in being like this.
Not because it's right, because it's obviously very silly and wrong, but because it should be able to drive math geeks up a fucking wall, and lord knows some of them deserve it.