>We're just a bunch of highly-evolved primates living on a tiny rock in the blackness of space, spinning towards oblivion
>There are no absolute truths, no morality. Good and evil are social constructs. There is only the law of nature (the strong dominate the weak), except now the "strong" are the technocratic corporations and banking elite
>None of our choices make any real significance in the grand scheme of things. Free will is an illusion.
>What's the point buying into the opium of self-help and personal development when life is meaningless?
What's the point of anything?
Logan Butler
Adam Kelly
>babbys first philosophy
There's no point. Have fun!
Brody Parker
Even though "fun" is a hollow experience?
Eli Brown
Jesus Christ, you have so many contradictions in this it is laughable.
There's no absolute truths, but laws of nature exist. We have choices but free will isn't real.
I get it, you're a 15 year old who just started questioning things and you think you know everything because you've realized the vacuum of transcendental value in the world, and that all philosophy stops there.
But the realization of a lack of inherent meaning is a starting point, not the end all be all conclusion. You can take the route of Nietzsche, and act according to what you perceive as being valuable for its own sake, aka, that your self-appointed meaning will guide your development, in his preferences you would go down the path of self-improvement for its own sake.
You could also take the route of Camus and the absurd hero sisyphus, recognize the absurdity of your existence and choose to be happy as the ultimate form of protest against the indifference of our universe, and create art that represents the human condition.
These are just 2 brief summaries of some of the many thinkers that have gone far beyond the circlejerk of edgy teenagers that you have found yourself in.
And if you consider Nietzsche to be a nihilist, then I know for a fact that you have never read a single one of his books or essays
Gavin Williams
>Free will
That isn't 100% accurate.
Free will is an idealistic human concept that does not exist within reality.
When you actually think about the concept of free will, you'll come to understand that such a thing would be pointless. So long as anything exists as a primitive being with fundamental needs to take care of, it could never be considered to have true free will. Beings without such restrictions would no longer have reason to be bound to a material plane, and thus have no reason to exist in the first place, and no reason to interact with anything at all.
The closest thing that anything has to free will in this world, is the dirt beneath your feet.
When you really dig down, your real complaint is that there is no greater purpose granted to you. You will live a life that will eventually be forgotten, and die. You are afraid of death, of being no more, even if you do not realize that this is the true motivation behind your actions. Reality does not care about you, reality is just the sum of human perception.
It is the beauty of our existence that there is innately nothing that matters. It is US, the humans, that make things matter within our own world. It is why we are unique.
Brody Carter
>There's no absolute truths, but laws of nature exist.
Not a contradiction. "Truth" as a human value, of course. Nature is not bound by this.
>We have choices but free will isn't real.
We don't have choices obviously. That's what I was getting at. We have an illusion of agency.
Landon Stewart
Who gives a shit? Just do what makes you feel good or kill yourself if all your gonna do is bitch and whine about it
Josiah Gonzalez
Dumbass, humans are a part of nature, we are animals, if there were natural laws, they would apply to us to, but there aren't any.
And either provide a proof for a lack of free will, or don't act like that is a self-evident axiom
I don't feel like that really defeats the concept of a free will, after all, a being can decide to not meet its basic needs and instead choose to die. Also, it seems that it's already been established that nothing exists with purpose, so these "higher beings" that have no needs to meet, would already be deprived of a reason to exist, so I fail to see how that negates the possibility of free will.
I'm not implying free-will is definite, just that I don't feel that argument negates it.
Carson Thomas
>There is only the law of nature (the strong dominate the weak)
That's not a law, nature doesn't give a fuck. Weak and strong are empty concepts created a posterior to a relation of domination ("he's strong because he dominates", instead of the reverse). But complete domination is rare and most organisms, even humans, live without ever entering such a relationship. So there's not only no law, but generally no true strength or weakness.
As for the point of living, it's reproducing, as that is what makes life exist.
If that's not satisfying for you, well you're in luck : you can define yourself the point of your existence, and anything is possible.
Cameron Cox
You all seem to agree that one thing has value : scorning others.
Jack Long
Do as much good as you can, do as little harm as you can, and enjoy yourself as much as you can
Jacob Brooks
Hell yeah
Levi Perez
Just trying to get a kid to realize there's more to learn. Existentialism can be a life-affirming philosophy, but nihilism can never build anything, it leaves people bitter and content only in that they're smarter than everyone else who hasn't realized what they have.
I actually have no problem with people believing in moral objectivity, if they have a reason to not be shitty and do good, then it's all good with me
William Walker
>Dumbass, humans are a part of nature, we are animals, if there were natural laws, they would apply to us to, but there aren't any.
Natural laws = procreation, evolution, expiration etc. humans are bound by these rules, like any other living organism, but unlike animals we also ascribe a whole lot of meaning and interpretation to them.
>And either provide a proof for a lack of free will, or don't act like that is a self-evident axiom
people are the sum of their social conditioning, environment, family values and genetics. we live in a deterministic universe. you might think you have a choice between A or B, but your "will" has already been determined by antecedent causes.
Parker Butler
>natural laws
I did not equate natural laws to biological functions, when I said there were no natural laws, I was implying that nature does not hold to a set of principles that govern the "rightness" or "wrongness" of an action. Of course people are affected by biological functions, but we are free to choose how we react to the knowledge that they affect us
>antecedent causes
There is no logic to the universe, it is inherently absurd, and when I say that I'm not implying that trait is an actual characteristic of the universe (as it doesn't have any), but rather that our wanting for meaning and it's lack of meaning causes us to realize this disconnect with our perception of reality and what we want it to be.
Oliver Collins
Let's get back to the original question: what's the point of living in a meaningless universe?
Ayden Parker
What's the point of dying in a meaningless universe?
You've got more reason to live than die, I mean, your body motivates you to live, it's only you convincing yourself that the solution is dying.
Angel Martinez
Be of service to humanity. Bring joy and reduce suffering of the people around you. You can cultivate a meaningful life by taking on responsibility. Questions of meaning don't come up when you're leading a fulfilling life, because the feeling of meaningfulness is inherent to it.
As teenagers we think we're smart because we question this stuff while others don't, but actually, it's simply that others have moved past it, realizing that it's not an effective way of thinking if you'd like to be productive and experience positive emotions.
Honestly, if you're not going to kill yourself then this is worthless to think about. No one knows why things exist, but they do, and we might as well do some cool shit before being tossed into oblivion for the rest of eternity.
Andrew Lewis
>Be of service to humanity. Bring joy and reduce suffering of the people around you
become a doormat, basically?
no good deed goes unpunished, my friend.
Joseph Baker
Play talos principle. It will change your life. And try very hard to not get yourself spoilered.
Josiah Myers
When you do good to others, good will come back to you.
Being a taker and a value leech will drive others away from you and make you feel like shit. You'll have limited social connections which means limited access to jobs, mates, etc.
Is your current life as a value leech fulfilling? If not, consider the possibility that you're doing something fundamentally wrong.
Alexander Cook
Happy 16th birthday anons!
Please kill yourselves.
Nolan Watson
>When you do good to others, good will come back to you
No
Tyler Young
>life is meaningless
So? Why does it matter that nothing matters? Fuck you, I'm gonna go have some Nutella on toast.
Christian Phillips
Thread is the very definition of constantly searching but never coming to knowledge of truth. Stop worrying about the grand scheme of things and focus on getting through today. If life has no inherent meaning then it doesn't make sense to waste time searching for it or mourning the lack thereof. Make your own meaning and live by it