Lately I’ve been playing with the idea that life is in fact meaningless. You’re born, you have a lot of experiences, and then you’re dead and gone. Unless you’re famous and leave something of artistic or historical merit behind, in 100 years, nobody has any idea that you once existed. There’s a certain liberation in this realization, if you don’t allow yourself to feel morbid about it.
I guess another way to put it is: Life is not such a big deal. Nothing much to worry about. Just enjoy and don’t get too worked up about the fact that it will end at some point, because life wasn’t meant to be a huge, complicated, intense affair. It was meant to be fairly simple and enjoyable, and then end.
To be clear, I really enjoy life and the experiences I have, and spend most of my time trying to contribute to and serve the folks around me (some of whom pay me for doing this). I’m highly motivated, work hard, don’t give up easily.
Is there a philosophy that describes my thinking here? Aside from “major numbnuts,” the chief. I’m not religious but I’m also not an atheist. I never studied philosophy, and wonder if there’s a school of philosophy that aligns with my thinking that I can learn more about. Is it humanism?
You’d need to flesh that out a bit if you want someone else to zero in on a likely target for you, tomas. Could be humanist. Could be existentialist. Absurdist, along Camus’ line, or Neo-Aristotelian.
What kind of reading do you want to do? What do you tend to prefer? There are some wonderful philosophical novels, a number of decent secondary sources, and a small number of primary sources by authors who knew the difference between a book and a hole in the ground. If you want to poke around, I could come up with a list of a dozen or so short pieces (hours or a day’s reading time).
[quote=“Jaboney”]You’d need to flesh that out a bit if you want someone else to zero in on a likely target for you, tomas. Could be humanist. Could be existentialist. Absurdist, along Camus’ line, or Neo-Aristotelian.
What kind of reading do you want to do? What do you tend to prefer? There are some wonderful philosophical novels, a number of decent secondary sources, and a small number of primary sources by authors who knew the difference between a book and a hole in the ground. If you want to poke around, I could come up with a list of a dozen or so short pieces (hours or a day’s reading time).[/quote]
Thanks, Jaboney. I’m not sure I can flesh it out. That’s why I wanted to look at a few different schools of though to find the one that matches mine.
I think it might be existential nihilism (a friend kindly pointed that out to me privately). I’ll do a bit of reading and get back to ya when I’ve got some free time.
You’re an existentialist, most people today would say neo-existentialist because it sounds more up-to-date and cooler- like you actually thought it out. You’re an existentialist because you’ve been influenced by many things in the post modern world to make you so. You’ve abandoned the secularism of western religion, realized that political doctrine in such things as democracy and socialism are hollow. Capitalism although it gives you a hard-on, just doesn’t come through in the end and ends up leaving a bad taste in your mouth. Identity through patriotism is for the weak minded, identity through a community was fine when most of your country was agricultural but in a suburban dominated environment that just doesn’t fly. Which leaves you to create identity through your family which is being dismantled and downsized or a sports team (equally absurd) a social cause (which is fine until all the dolphin die off) or a sexual identity (I’m a non-lesbian) So yeah, maybe you’re a numb nuts.
I know I’m a numb nuts, but I imagine I’m something else as well. Neo-existentialist, eh? A bit frou-frou for me. Makes me want to fart in a crowded room.
