Why does one exist? That's not my problem. One does exist. The thing to do is to take no notice but go at it on the run and to keep on going right on until you die.
-Simone de Beauvoir
Existential Nihilism
This is an interesting quote which I hear from time to time from different people. Because I like to often ask the question what the meaning of life. They answer in different forms. And above answer does not come from idiots. I would say that is the attitude of vast majority of atheists and many more. What does it mean?
Nihilism is that you do believe nothing has any meaning. Like it is a deterministic world. If everything is determined there is nothing, we can do about anything as there is no free will. Even if you think anything that would be pre-determined. Existential nihilism does mean that existence has no meaning. This does mean that telos of life is just an imagination which happened in the minds of humans due to the laws of nature.
When I read above quote my initial thought was. Well, that is dumb. That is dumbest quote I have ever read. There has to be a meaning in life. If we believe that it does not, we would be achieving nothing. There would not be a heaven or hell to salvage or punish us in our afterlives. When i question someone what is the meaning of life? What are you going to achieve at the end of the day. You would answer its nothing. Then I would ask then why live? Why eat. If you achieve nothing by the time you die, it doesn't matter living till that right? It is the absurdism at its core. Alabre Camus was a believer in absurdism.
I do not want to believe such a statement in blind faith. I am sure these people did realize these ideas only after thourouly investigating current opposite arguments. They surely did give a good fight in their minds with ideas before they did see the dragon scroll is empty. After all, that it's a relative truth when they talk about there is no meaning in life. What if the real meaning of life is to seek that truth yourself? What is the real meaning of life is to take yet another absurd journey towards nothingness or valuelessness of life?
Now think about the following quote from Aldous Huxley.
In summary, I see there are two kinds of people who answer the meaning of life, is nothing. One group of people are simply ignorent ones, who do not want to think about life. They are guided by their constant thirst to achieve their goals and cravings, and blinded to the absurdism of what they do.
Other group of people is are seekers/ philosophers who believe in existential Nihilism, at the end of their journey, seeking truth everywhere and found nothing. They found nothing existing outside their conciousness, and they have seen the dragron scroll themselves. They have tasted the emptiness, and walk free of the cravings and attachments. And there is a big gap, between these two groups. Majority, unfortunately are the former, and they blindly believe the latter. A good anology to understand this is by looking at the Allegory of the cave.
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