more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 9302

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 4. Boredom ]

Full Idea

Boredom results from a lack of personal meaning, which is due to the fact that all objects and actions come to us fully encoded, while we (as descendants of Romanticism) insist on a personal meaning.

Gist of Idea

We are bored because everything comes to us fully encoded, and we want personal meaning

Source

Lars Svendsen (A Philosophy of Boredom [2005], Ch.2)

Book Ref

Svendsen,Lars: 'A Philosophy of Boredom' [Reaktion Books 2005], p.31

A Reaction

This idea justifies me categorising Boredom under Existentialism. This is an excellent idea, and perfectly captures the experience of most teenagers, for whom it is impossible to impose a personal meaning on such a vast cultural reality.

The 29 ideas with the same theme [there seems to be nothing worth doing]:

2912 Plato is boring [Nietzsche on Plato]
9299 We are bored by people to whom we ourselves are boring [Rochefoucauld]
21480 Boredom is only felt by those clever enough to need activity [Schopenhauer]
21469 Human life is a mistake, shown by boredom, which is direct awareness of the fact [Schopenhauer]
9305 The plebeians bore others; only the nobility bore themselves [Kierkegaard]
21910 Our destiny is the highest pitch of world-weariness [Kierkegaard]
9306 To ward off boredom at any cost is vulgar [Nietzsche]
14844 People do not experience boredom if they have never learned to work properly [Nietzsche]
20102 Flight from boredom leads to art [Nietzsche]
20177 Boredom always involves not being fully occupied [Russell]
20179 Happiness involves enduring boredom, and the young should be taught this [Russell]
20176 Boredom is an increasingly strong motivating power [Russell]
20178 Life is now more interesting, but boredom is more frightening [Russell]
20767 Culture is now dominated by boredom, so universal it is unnoticed [Heidegger, by Aho]
23823 Life needs risks to avoid sickly boredom [Weil]
19602 You are stuck in the past if you don't know boredom [Cioran]
19641 If you lack beliefs, boredom is your martyrdom [Cioran]
19640 No one is brave enough to say they don't want to do anything; we despise such a view [Cioran]
19644 History is the bloody rejection of boredom [Cioran]
23062 It is better to watch the hours pass, than trying to fill them [Cioran]
23069 Fear cures boredom, because it is stronger [Cioran]
9300 Boredom is serious, not just uncomfortable; it threatens our psychic survival [Frankfurt]
20290 Psychopaths may just be bored, because they cannot participate in normal emotional life [Singer]
20172 Boredom destroys our ability to evaluate [Kekes]
20173 Boredom is apathy and restlessness, yearning for something interesting [Kekes]
9298 We can be unaware that we are bored [Svendsen]
9301 Boredom is so radical that suicide could not overcome it; only never having existed would do it [Svendsen]
9302 We are bored because everything comes to us fully encoded, and we want personal meaning [Svendsen]
9310 The profoundest boredom is boredom with boredom [Svendsen]