Logic and Fallacies. Belief in Nothing. Nihilism confuses people.
"How can you care about anything, or strive for anything, if you believe nothing means anything? " they ask. In return, nihilists point to the assumption of inherent meaning and question that assumption. Do we need existence to mean anything? After all, existence stays out there no matter what we think of it. Nihilists who aren't of the kiddie anarchist variety tend to draw a distinction between nihilism and fatalism. What is nihilism? As a nihilist, I recognize that meaning does not exist. In the same way, I accept that when I die, the most likely outcome will be a cessation of being. Even further, I recognize that there is no golden standard for life. A tree falling in a forest unobserved makes a sound. Many people "feel" marginalized when they think of this. Meaning is the human attempt to mold the world in our own image. This distanced mentality further affirms our tendency to find the world alienating to our consciousness.
Nihilism reverses this process. Twelve Virtues of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky. By Eliezer Yudkowsky The first virtue is curiosity.
A burning itch to know is higher than a solemn vow to pursue truth. To feel the burning itch of curiosity requires both that you be ignorant, and that you desire to relinquish your ignorance. If in your heart you believe you already know, or if in your heart you do not wish to know, then your questioning will be purposeless and your skills without direction. Curiosity seeks to annihilate itself; there is no curiosity that does not want an answer.
The second virtue is relinquishment. The third virtue is lightness. The fourth virtue is evenness. The fifth virtue is argument. The sixth virtue is empiricism. The seventh virtue is simplicity. The eighth virtue is humility. The ninth virtue is perfectionism. The tenth virtue is precision. The eleventh virtue is scholarship. Before these eleven virtues is a virtue which is nameless. Miyamoto Musashi wrote, in The Book of Five Rings: How can you improve your conception of rationality? Table of contents. (With last update date) Cover Foreword (August 13, 2009) Part 1.
Quantum theory and consciousness Preface to part 1 (April 12, 2000)
Rand, Ayn. SCHOPENHAUER'S 38 STRATAGEMS, OR 38 WAYS TO WIN AN ARGUMENT. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), was a brilliant German philosopher.
These 38 Stratagems are excerpts from "The Art of Controversy", first translated into English and published in 1896. Carry your opponent's proposition beyond its natural limits; exaggerate it. The more general your opponent's statement becomes, the more objections you can find against it. The more restricted and narrow his or her propositions remain, the easier they are to defend by him or her. Use different meanings of your opponent's words to refute his or her argument. (abstracted from the book:Numerical Lists You Never Knew or Once Knew and Probably Forget, by: John Boswell and Dan Starer) Philosophy since the Enlightenment, by Roger Jones.
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