more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 6843

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 2. Nihilism ]

Full Idea

If nihilism is the threat of the collapse of meaning, then my position is that one has to accept meaninglessness as an achievement, as an accomplishment that permits a transformed relation to everyday life.

Gist of Idea

Perceiving meaninglessness is an achievement, which can transform daily life

Source

Simon Critchley (Interview with Baggini and Stangroom [2001], p.193)

Book Ref

Baggini,J/Stangroom,J: 'New British Philosophy' [Routledge 2002], p.193

A Reaction

This sounds cheerfully upbeat and life-enhancing, but I don't quite see how it works. One could easily end up laughing at the most appalling tragedies, and that seems to me to be an inappropriate (Aristotelian word) way to respond to tragedy.

The 19 ideas with the same theme [human life seems pointless and absurd]:

7072 Jacobi was the first philosopher to talk of nihilism [Jacobi, by Critchley]
22090 For me time stands still, and I with it [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle]
24123 My eternal recurrence is opposed to feeling fragmented and imperfect [Nietzsche]
23214 For the strongest people, nihilism gives you wings! [Nietzsche]
20125 The ethical teacher exists to give purpose to what happens necessarily and without purpose [Nietzsche]
23717 Modern nihilism is now feeling tired of mankind [Nietzsche]
7198 Nihilism results from measuring the world by our categories which are purely invented [Nietzsche]
9782 Nietzsche urges that nihilism be active, and will nothing itself [Nietzsche, by Zizek]
7847 Initially nihilism was cosmic, but later Nietzsche saw it as a cultural matter [Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson]
18286 The greatest experience possible is contempt for your own happiness, reason and virtue [Nietzsche]
19622 The pointlessness of our motives and irrelevance of our gestures reveals our vacuity [Cioran]
19617 Evidence suggests that humans do not have a purpose [Cioran]
19612 The universe is dirty and fragile, as if a scandal in nothingness had produced its matter [Cioran]
9243 If we believe existence is absurd, this should dictate our conduct [Camus]
6708 Happiness and the absurd go together, each leading to the other [Camus]
23941 'Absurdity' is just the result of our wrong choices in life [Solomon]
3268 If a small brief life is absurd, then so is a long and large one [Nagel]
6688 Life is only absurd if you expected an explanation and none turns up [Graham]
6843 Perceiving meaninglessness is an achievement, which can transform daily life [Critchley]