When I was 17 or 18, I had to write an essay for Dutch class. The title was "in step, out of step". Personally, I was quite satisfied with the result,
but the teacher gave me my essay back with the remark "what is in step and what is out of step?" including a 6, which probably corresponds to a C according to the American system.
In a way, I felt offended because I had argued so beautifully that the essence of being was in fact not being. And to say the latter, I really thought was out of step.
Why am I here? We have seen numerous meaningful answers to that question, but some people, like I did in my essay at that time, respond: Yes good question. Makes no sense to be here indeed.
This is how you end up with people who find all the fuss that life brings with it just an unnecessary burden. The meaning of life for them is the conviction that you should keep yourself as far away from it as possible.
This attitude is of all ages. An old Latin proverb says: "Bene qui latuit bene vixit", which means "He who has hidden himself well, has lived well".
This statement is attributed to the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – AD 17/18) and has been adopted by many others. Philosophers as René Descartes (1596 - 1650) and Soren Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855), they have all made Ovid's motto their own.
The proverb probably goes back to the Greek philosopher Epicurus (341 - 270 BC), who, according to his own words, strove for 'living in secret'.
Epicurus was not interested in glory or wealth but spent his life in seclusion with a number of friends, enjoying the small things in life, without meddling in political affairs.
Something along the same lines we seefor instance, in quietism around 1650, the philosophy that the highest good is to withdraw from the present world by focusing on a spiritual life.
It was seen by critics as holding that man's highest perfection consists in a sort of psychical self-annihilation and a consequent absorption of the soul into the Divine Essence even during the present life.
Good enough to be qualified as heresy by Pope Innocent XI in the papal bull Coelestis Pastor of 1687.
I guess you will be familiar with the term "ascese" or "asceticism". This goes a step further than seclusion, because in asceticism, one abstains from all sensual and sensory pleasure.
Fasting and sexual abstinence are important features of such an attitude to life. We know all about that from traditions in the Roman Catholic Church.
There are also many more extreme aversions to the world, where a proclamation of self-destruction is part of the belief. I'll save you historical events.
You may, however, recall these mass suicides in our own time. A notorious example is The People's Temple led by Jim Jones. In 1978, he instructed his followers to commit mass suicide.
A last form of turning away from the world is nihilism, which states that life has no meaning or purpose. Although this form of turning away is less extreme, it can be very radical in terms of ideology.
According to existential nihilism, the human species is unimportant and without purpose. But this meaninglessness does open the way to creating subjective meaning that we can assign to life ourselves.
Life has meaning through the meaning that we ourselves give to it. We find this form of nihilism in various elaborations, in philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre and Camus.
The most extreme form of nihilism, cosmic nihilism, states that not only life has no meaning but also the subjective meaning that people themselves attribute to it.
This radical form of nihilism leads to the total meaninglessness of all human endeavor. In response to this Albert Camus wrote that man can still be happy by pursuing a purpose for meaning, whether or not he has thought of it himself.
And this nihilism was the source of inspiration for my essay more than 57 years ago and deep in my heart it still is the source of my inspiration.
Thank you for your attention.. the floor is yours.
Main Sources:
MacMillan The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition
TABLE OF CONTENT -----------------------------------------------------------------
1 - 100 Philosophers 9 May 2009 Start of
2 - 25+ Women Philosophers 10 May 2009 this blog
3 - 25 Adventures in Thinking 10 May 2009
4 - Modern Theories of Ethics 29 Oct 2009
5 - The Ideal State 24 Febr 2010 / 234
6 - The Mystery of the Brain 3 Sept 2010 / 266
7 - The Utopia of the Free Market 16 Febr 2012 / 383
8. - The Aftermath of Neo-liberalism 5 Sept 2012 / 413
9. - The Art Not to Be an Egoist 6 Nov 2012 / 426
10 - Non-Western Philosophy 29 May 2013 / 477
11 - Why Science is Right 2 Sept 2014 / 534
12 - A Philosopher looks at Atheism 1 Jan 2015 / 557
13 - EVIL, a philosophical investigation 17 Apr 2015 / 580
14 - Existentialism and Free Will 2 Sept 2015 / 586
15 - Spinoza 2 Sept 2016 / 615
16 - The Meaning of Life 13 Febr 2017 / 637
17 - In Search of my Self 6 Sept 2017 / 670
18 - The 20th Century Revisited 3 Apr 2018 / 706
19 - The Pessimist 11 Jan 2020 / 819
20 - The Optimist 9 Febr 2020 / 824
21 - Awakening from a Neoliberal Dream 8 Oct 2020 / 872
22 - A World Full of Patterns 1 Apr 2021 / 912
23 - The Concept of Freedom 8 Jan 2022 / 965
24 - Materialism 7 Sept 2022 / 1011
25 - Historical Materialism 5 Oct 2023 / 1088
26 - The Bonobo and the Atheist 9 Jan 2024 / 1102
27 - Artificial Intelligence 9 Feb 2024 / 1108
28 - Why Am I Here 6 Sept 2024 / 1139
The Discussion
[13:19] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Thank you
[13:18] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Thank you Herman
[13:19] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): nice one!
[13:19] herman Bergson: Thank you, Bejiita :-)
[13:19] Max Chatnoir: So when you are practicing nihilism, you are saying that since there isn't a prescribed meaning for your life, you can find your own?
[13:20] herman Bergson: Yes, you could say that, Max
[13:20] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): I for sure could never live like that
[13:21] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): but my goals is in general to well, be happy, make others happy and also to feel pleasure in different ways
[13:21] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): then im in my right state even i have no fixed target goal
[13:21] herman Bergson: In fact you have to create your own meaning of life.
[13:21] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aaa yes and my creations also
[13:21] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): speaking of that
[13:21] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): whatever makes me roll
[13:22] Max Chatnoir: And that meaning can change over time, can evolve
[13:22] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ah
[13:22] herman Bergson: And in essence, you even cant escape creating a meaning of life.....
[13:22] herman Bergson: It evolves in the way you evolve as a person, creating a meaning by all choices you make in life
[13:23] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i guess so
[13:23] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): sounds logical
[13:23] herman Bergson: It is like Sartre said: We are condemed to freedom....
[13:23] herman Bergson: We have to choose
[13:24] Max Chatnoir: So if we can change and choose individually, society can change
[13:24] herman Bergson: and thus in those choices create our existence
[13:24] herman Bergson: as it does through history< Max
[13:25] herman Bergson: The human world is created by the ploitical choices of the rulers
[13:26] herman Bergson: The material world, earth makes its own "choices" by natural disasters, floods, volcanic eruptions and so on
[13:26] herman Bergson: And we have to deal with that
[13:28] herman Bergson: You could say that we are the prisoners of the earth and of our own freedom :-)
[13:28] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): well i guess so
[13:29] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hm
[13:29] herman Bergson: And we have to make the best of it
[13:29] Max Chatnoir: So the curse of democracy is that we can choose bad rulers.
[13:30] Max Chatnoir: And then have to figure out how to get ourselves out of trouble.
[13:30] herman Bergson: Interesting staement, Max....I'd say ....yes :-)
[13:31] herman Bergson: Hitler was chosen democratically
[13:32] herman Bergson: Even Putin pretends to be elected
[13:32] Korel Laloix: This all sounds so pessimistic to me... "prisoners" of Earth. We are part of it and the beautiful miracle of life. Not sure I get the idea of being a prisoner of freedom. But my English is odd sometimes.
[13:32] Max Chatnoir: Freedom brings responsibility.
[13:33] herman Bergson: True, Korel, it sounds a bit pessimistic :-)
[13:33] Korel Laloix: And opportunity...
[13:33] Korel Laloix: Sorry, my first time here and throwing feathers.
[13:33] herman Bergson: But fortunately we also have discussed creating beauty as a meaning of life
[13:33] Korel Laloix: Oh, sorry, missed that.
[13:34] herman Bergson: And to be honest...I just wanted to be a little provocative :-))
[13:34] Korel Laloix: That works.. ha
[13:34] Max Chatnoir: And at 17!
[13:35] herman Bergson: Yes Max...in those dfays I read Sartre, Nietsche, Schopenhaurer and the like :-)
[13:35] herman Bergson: Nietzsche needs his Z
[13:36] herman Bergson: The Z of Zarathustra :-)
[13:36] Max Chatnoir: LOL
[13:36] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:38] herman Bergson: I notice that I gave you a lot to think about :-)
[13:39] Max Chatnoir: Yes, you did!
[13:39] Korel Laloix: It was different, thanks!
[13:39] herman Bergson: So go on thinking...:-)
[13:39] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i guess u did indeed
[13:39] Max Chatnoir: But you usually do.
[13:39] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): that is YOUR purpose Herman
[13:39] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:39] Korel Laloix: I thought once, it hurt!
[13:39] Max Chatnoir: But he chose it!
[13:39] herman Bergson: Indeed Max :-)
[13:39] herman Bergson: You never can escape yourself :-)
[13:40] Max Chatnoir: But we can learn and change.
[13:41] Stranger Nightfire: at least some Buddhists might question wherer we can not escae ourselves
[13:41] Korel Laloix: That is the fun part... keeping the people around you guessing.. ha
[13:41] herman Bergson: Every day and I hope a lot of your fellow countrymen will doso :-)
[13:41] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:41] Stranger Nightfire: or Hindus for that matter
[13:41] Max Chatnoir: I hope to live long enough to see the return of a functional democracy.
[13:42] herman Bergson: Ahhh yes Stranger....disappear in the universal consciousness....
[13:42] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aaah
[13:42] herman Bergson: or NIrvana....
[13:42] herman Bergson: In fact also a kind of rejecting existence
[13:43] herman Bergson: I am with you, Max!
[13:44] herman Bergson: Well.... thank you all again....
[13:45] herman Bergson: Unless you have that ultimate question or remark.......
[13:45] herman Bergson: Class dismissed :-)
[13:45] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): something to think but for sure
[13:45] herman Bergson: ut feel free tothink on :-)
[13:45] Korel Laloix: Thank you, that was actually more interesting than my two philosophy classes.. ha
[13:46] herman Bergson: Thank you Korel... It all came form Europe :-)
[13:46] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): thank you Herman very interesting lecture
[13:46] herman Bergson: from
[13:46] Korel Laloix: I won't hold that against it.. ha
[13:46] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): yes
[13:46] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:46] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): another good one
[13:46] herman Bergson: Thank you Korel :-)
[13:47] bergfrau Apfelbaum: thank you! Herman & class
[13:47] Max Chatnoir: Thanks, Herman!
[13:48] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:48] Guestboook van tipjar stand: bergfrau Apfelbaum donated L$100. Thank you very much, it is much appreciated!
[13:48] herman Bergson: Most spectacular moment of the week.....
[13:48] Max Chatnoir: Often is!
[13:49] herman Bergson: A man in a blue suit offending the whole Catholic world by ignoring the dress code
[13:50] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): he wore a red cap too
[13:50] bergfrau Apfelbaum: Dem Papst war es egal, was jemand trug. Er war kein oberflächlicher Mensch.
[13:50] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): with a certain 4 letter abbreviation on it I guess
[13:50] herman Bergson: That is not the point Bergie...I'd say
[13:50] bergfrau Apfelbaum: the Pope did not care what anyone wore.... he was not a superficial person
[13:51] herman Bergson: Besides...he was :-)
