What are /r/nihilism's favorite Products & Services?

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Nah, when you look at website like this: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ There's just so much death every single day that there really isn't any way to care about it all.

I think I understand where your assumptions are failing you here, but I also understand where you are coming from enough to understand that you will reject this understanding because it's not yet completely understood in neuroscience.

What I was getting at is that some beliefs (and for the purposes of how they work in the individual - nihilism is a belief) don't automatically insert themselves as the complete lens by which the world is viewed. Simply because they see that the emotive creates the reasoning (the justification) does not prove that there wasn't a lens that caused the emotion to create the reasoning. It simply demonstrates what is proven to already be there. This lens is not a known quantity in neuroscience because it is a metaphor for something that is surely physiological in a way we can't currently fathom. And so as I stated, nihilism isn't completely and totally inserted into the lens. It is often struggled against - and this is where suffering most often occurs in relation to nihilism. If you prefer, it's like looking at the world through two conflicting lenses.

The technology of neuroscience is insufficient in the present day to demonstrate one way or the other how the emotive lens is formed, but it's very clearly rooted in beliefs and conclusions be they rational or irrational.

Edit: I also will bother to provide a source.

I think you also think nihilism ISNT a belief - and you are right! However, it fills identical functions as beliefs do in the human brain.

Edit 6: Also, you frazzled me. Congratulations. That doesn't happen very often.

I strongly recommend John Marmysz' book Laughing at Nothing: Humor as a Response to Nihilism (2003). It is one of the best books on nihilism that I have read. From Amazon:

>Explores the concept of nihilism and argues that it need not imply despair, but can be responded to positively.

>Disputing the common misconception that nihilism is wholly negative and necessarily damaging to the human spirit, John Marmysz offers a clear and complete definition to argue that it is compatible, and indeed preferably responded to, with an attitude of good humor. He carefully scrutinizes the phenomenon of nihilism as it appears in the works, lives, and actions of key figures in the history of philosophy, literature, politics, and theology, including Nietzsche, Heidegger, Camus, and Mishima. While suggesting that there ultimately is no solution to the problem of nihilism, Marmysz proposes a way of utilizing the anxiety and despair that is associated with the problem as a spur toward liveliness, activity, and the celebration of life.

>"Marmysz is original, insightful, and displays a keen knowledge of the typologies of nihilism, craftily tracing, among other things, the historical, existential, and political uses and misuses of the word. This is one of the best books I have read." — Weaver Santaniello, author of Nietzsche and the Gods.

>"Engagingly written, well-organized, and succinctly argued, this book shows how humor can bring the threat of nihilism into new, less disabling perspectives and teach us how to find affirmative, hopeful lessons in its outlook." — Donald A. Crosby, author of A Religion of Nature.

Your in College and about to get an Engineering Degree... GOOD, hold on and get that Degree, that will give you security.

Buy "The Intelligent Investor" By Benjamin Graham. There are LOADS of power hungry, money grabbing dweebs that only care about their business and success. You just need to learn how to analyze and make proper investment in undervalued companies, considering you are in Engineering, no problem for you. This is Long term.

Short term i'd say save up some cash and do some cheap backpacking to satisfy the travel desire for now, will help motivate you to find something interesting you can do online for money.

Honestly you only want to be working under someone if you are really interested in the industry/job. or using it as a stepping stone

There is the feeling that you are protagonist of your life, but that is just a feeling that comes from the story you are telling yourself from a third person point of view. That feeling is an illusion. That's you thinking about experience, instead of you experiencing the source and the arising of thought clearly. The story is real, and the story does matter, but from the first-person point of view, the feeling of being the protagonist, the feeling of having a fixed center of experience, somewhere inside your head, behind your eyes, just vanishes when closely examined through meditation, or is altered if you take a dose of psychedelics. The sensory experience of self is actually the state of not having clearly seen the arising and passing of thought and emotion as transitory appearances in among the rest of consciousness. Most of the time, you're thinking without being fully aware that you are thinking, unconsciously identified with that stream of inner experience (the voice in your head is auditory thought, and your minds eye is visual thought, when you are unaware of thought as it arises, you feel identical to it). As a fact about the nature of conscious experience, you are not identical to anything you can notice, by virtue of the fact that you're noticing it. Check out Waking Up by Sam Harris and practice meditating to see for yourself that this protagonist-feeling is an illusion. Your mind is all you have, this is an amazing realization/liberation to have for yourself and its worth it!

>God bless all of you.

Poor choice of words. Check out The City of Dreadful Night by James Thomson: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1238/1238-h/1238-h.htm

Excerpt:

As whom his one intense thought overpowers, He answered coldly, Take a watch, erase The signs and figures of the circling hours, Detach the hands, remove the dial-face; The works proceed until run down; although 35 Bereft of purpose, void of use, still go.

Then turning to the right paced on again, And traversed squares and travelled streets whose glooms Seemed more and more familiar to my ken; And reached that sullen temple of the tombs; 40

And paused to murmur with the old despair, Hear Faith died, poisoned by this charnel air. I ceased to follow, for the knot of doubt Was severed sharply with a cruel knife: He circled thus forever tracing out 45

The series of the fraction left of Life; Perpetual recurrence in the scope Of but three terms, dead Faith, dead Love, dead Hope. (1)

There's a book called "Nothing & Everything" by Val N Tine. Look into it.

https://www.amazon.nl/Nothing-Everything-fearing-nihilism-embrace/dp/1521711917/ref=asc_df_1521711917/?tag=nlshogostdsp-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=597957277863&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3786939273980138889&hvpone=&hvptwo=&...

Nietzsche writes a great deal about Apollonian and Dionysian nihilism in the book that is usually translated The Gay Science, or something like The Science of Joy. I would say that Apollonian nihilism has some things in common with stoicism. Dionysian nihilism does not. I don't see nihilism as having anything to do with emotions. It is simply the belief in nothing; or a belief that prioritizes nothing; or a belief that nothing gives experience a special value. It's probably best to get a more precise definition from some introduction to nihilism written by an academic specialist. I guess that my feeling would be that the position of nihilism is that there is no way of living; or that no way of living is preferable to any other way of living. The meditations of Marcus Aurelius provide a thorough, solid approach to stoicism. For a contemporary nihilistic viewpoint, you might try the writings of U.G. Krishnamurti (that's U.G., not Jiddhu, who was U.G.'s teacher and has quite a different way of looking at things).https://www.amazon.com/Gay-Science-Prelude-Rhymes-Appendix/dp/0394719859/ref=sr_1_27?crid=3DQJN6ER9X7IE&keywords=nietzsche&qid=1657203576&s=books&sprefix=Nie%2Cstripbooks%2C106&sr=1-27

In The Savage God: A Study of Suicide by Al Alvarez, Alvarez recounts some remarkable examples, even when suicide was a capital offence!

Apart from the bizarre and tragic cases, Alvarez recounts Silvia Plath's which maybe like the picture was more a cry for help. She gassed herself, due to the late arrival of someone who would have no doubt saved her.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Savage-God-Study-Suicide/dp/0747559058

Both the (meaning)s used in the paragraph have different meanings, you're confused. Atleast read Beyond good and evil If you find reading boring, then just use the audiobook.

The idea that there is no self is basically nonduality. Some would call it “enlightenment.”

If you are interested in this stuff, check out Jed McKenna’s work.

http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/metaphysical

The abstract and the metaphysical refer to the same thing(outside of the scope of the physical). They do exist, they are real, but they are not real within the physical world, that does not make them inexistent though. Math can be understood as 'what is'(metaphysical) about certain aspects of reality and how they interact or it can be understood as OUR understanding of it. Both are referred to as math; I'm referring to the first meaning of the word math, and that is real. The concept of aggregation of things is not merely incredibly useful, but I would say also real, although it exists in a different domain other than the physical. It depends on what you mean by nature, as for me, the metaphysical domain is as part of nature and reality as the physical domain.

No, we are all indeed particles, but the aggregation of things that make a whole DO make things behave in different ways. A monkey does not behave in the same way as water; this is indisputably so.

Taking your train example, the thing is that the lego train a kid makes is a replica of a train, and the difference between a train and a lego train is that the lego train is not of the right materials. This only proves my point, take some iron here, some copper there and voila you have a train. It works, it runs, it has a function, it's not just some materials, but together they do make a whole. It's the same for example with a computer, adding things in the right order DO make a whole which is different to the bunch of individuals in an unordered fashion. This is not only intuitive, it's obvious and self-evident. Take another example: chemistry. You can have certain elements work in one way in a certain order, reverse the order and the same elements become something different, sometimes harmful. This is indisputably so, too. Talk to ANY chemist, teacher or student. This is a fact.

Your Honor, ladies and gentlemen of the Jury, I will only be presenting one piece of evidence. It's quite definitive and quite compelling.

World Population

1961 3,090,305,279

2019 7,714,576,923

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-year/

These are the world population numbers since I was alive. They tell a different story then the one you are telling. If you were correct, we would see something much different. And the people with the least resources are having the most children. Your thesis can't explain this.

All the vendors on this list are reputable and sell quality product. Each one has a clickable link that takes you to a specific strain from each vendor, but then you can look around their website for other offerings.

And for strain reviews or general questions/discussion I like this forum.

Pretend Poetry

Pretend Poetry: Warning: Contents not suitable for minors or intended for more sensitive readers https://www.amazon.com/dp/1693238594/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_0H94BTQY8T4HGCT8KNK8

You have to keep in mind that this experiment was repeated across a wide range of subjects. Unquestionably there'd be some faulty ones, but the number of subjects should overcome this. If you're still skeptical, other scientists repeated this experiment pertaining to the fundamental ideas, and the same results came through. I think the credibility of these results is excellent, it's just the way we interpret them that differs.

Also something interesting I found:

In other words, we do our thinking before we know what we are to think about (Jaynes, 2000: 39), we do not know what we are thinking before we’re thinking it and “[...] the actual process of thinking, so usually thought to be the very life of consciousness, is not conscious at all and that only its preparation, its materials, and its end result are consciously perceived” (Jaynes, 2000: 41).

^ I basically concur with this.

Also something else in the article:

Until Benjamin Libet’s ground-breaking experiment (1983) showed that any apparent act of volition normally begins subconsciously with studies showing that the brain subconsciously prepare actions before consciousness is informed (Nørretranders, 1998: 213-256), it was assumed was that we ourselves, consciously, decide when to move and what to move (pieces, arms, fingers, legs). In the wake of his experiment, Libet suggested that consciousness despite not being able to initiate actions could veto, abort or stop impulses from running to action where chess playing does not differ from any other kinds or types of actions.This implies that, contrary to popular and traditional beliefs, consciousness cannot trigger or initiate actions but can, if disciplined, “veto,” or abort, impulses leading to unwanted, awkward, unacceptable, unfortunate, embarrassing or immoral actions.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/why-chess-players-blunder

These pictures really aren't good at showing the scale. Get space engine it's free for old version and $25 on steam for current version. http://spaceengine.org and /r/spaceengine

Also use VR for the best experience.

> do you think it would help to memorise many different things to improve your hold on memories?

Yes. But it essentially requires being extremely mindful. Using things like mnemonics do work. But it requires constant effort, taking time to intentionally choose to remember something and then make an effort to mnemonically retain it.

But after listening to a lecturer, this guy, I decided to just accept that my memory system works differently. It causes me to live in the moment, I just don't care about "building memories". It's hard to miss something you never had. It makes it easy to forgive people since I don't remember the times they lost their temper on me or did something negative. Combined with a easy going approach to life where I assume the best of people, have a good network of friends and family, I don't really mind it.

> A cynical perspective; how do I and your friends and families know that your condition is real and not an easy way to avoid responsibility by forgetting important things?

I mark all the birthdays and anniversaries down in my google calendar and set them to automatically give me reminders on my phone. Same with appointments and plans with people. The most noticeable thing to others is I tell the same stories over and over again because I don't remember telling them. Which has caused me to make a habit of stopping myself when telling someone something and asking them, "Have I told you this yet?" And my close friends I tell them to feel free to interrupt me if I'm repeating myself and just tell me. Also if someone brings up a story from something we did together in the past I'll just nod along and pretend I know what they're talking about.

Well I’m grateful you reminded me to get on with the myth of Sisyphus bc it has been in the back of my queue for months. So, thank you! Laughing at Northing maybe up your aisle. I just reread 1984 & Brave New World as it seemed fitting with our times. I’ve delved into some fantasy but I don’t think it is as refined as Asimov and wouldn’t dare bore you with those 😂

Sorry you're suffering so much, but you really don't have to. The problems you write about are solvable. Fear can feel insurmountable but there are actually lots of useful techniques for overcoming it. You could benefit a lot from modern psyche's techniques for overcoming fear to help you to get past the paralysis.

A book like this would help you understand it better, Feel the Fear, Do it Anyway

In his book, The Republic, Plato used the allegory of the cave to indicate that the reality which we humans perceive to be real is only a projection. According to Plato, the real truth is hidden from humanity because we are stuck in a ‘cave’ “I want you to go on to picture the enlightenment or ignorance of our human condition somewhat as follows. Imagine an underground chamber like a cave […] In this chamber are men who have been prisoners there since they were children, their legs and necks being so fastened that they can only look straight ahead of them and cannot turn their heads.” (p.241)

These ‘prisoners’ would then only be able to look at a wall in front of them, upon which, as a result of a fire burning inside of the cave, and all sorts of things happening between the prisoners and the fire, all sorts of projections would form.

Despite of all kinds of things happening around them and despite of being fellow prisoners inside of this cave, the prisoners would, according to Plato, only be able to perceive these projections: “They are drawn from life, I replied. For, tell me, do you think our prisoners could see anything of themselves or their fellows except the shadows thrown by the fire on the wall of the cave opposite them?” (p.241)

You can cure your desire for self-preservation but it's something that needs to be worked at. A lot of people seem to think your survival instinct is what it is and the only way to overcome it is to become miserable enough.

But actually what you are doing is confronting fear. And there are lots of information, books, tools, and therapeutic techniques out there for overcoming fear. You could start with something like this, "Feel the fear and Do It Anyway".

I think it's important to know you do have power here. While most people see self-preservation as something innate that can't be changed or overcome, it is actually something that can be conquered with a plan and preparation and there are resources out there that make it easier.

What have you done to try to build up the courage?

If I were you I'd start with working on the exercises in a book about confronting fear. Try something like this to start: "Feel the fear and do it anyway." https://www.amazon.com/Feel-Fear-Do-Anyway/dp/0345487427

Fear can be conquered.

That can be overcome with a little knowledge, work and commitment. Catch 22 is, for most people, if you're able to put knowledge, work and commitment into something you wouldn't be suicidal in the first place. Unless you have some horrible, untreatable, chronic pain you have to deal with, in which case, there is more you can do than just throwing up your hands and blaming your "survival instinct" on your failures.

Start with a book like this and do the exercises: Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway

Welcome.

Also...

In the Dust of This Planet: Horror of Philosophy (Volume 1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/184694676X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_xq3gFbDXMWPK9

Good album that incorporates a lot from True Detective (S1).

https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-misanthrope/1409146361

Non-Ficition

The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143133144/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_lo3gFbAECTG27

Fiction

Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143107763/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_7o3gFb682GPBX

Read this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004W0I00Q/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

​

The assumptions in that article are specious at best.

I guess I can't really. You could check out the amazon reviews

It's a book that touches a lot of existential/nihilist issues and those things you wrote about, you'll find in there.

It's philosophy disguised as horror and horror disguised as philosophy. But realizing that you're not alone might help with the sanity thing. It helped me.

Plus the writing is better than the replies here on reddit. Must-read imho.

Nope, not of the top of my head. But I think the book <em>Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance</em> goes into some things around the matter, and hearing a talk about that book, I think inspired me to think about beauty. It's not explicitly about the nature of beauty, but yeah. I haven't read that book though, so don't take my word that reading it will be of use. I have heard its quite a good book nonetheless though.

"A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease." Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

"Q:

How can you do anything if you don't believe in anything. How can you get out of bed. It seems like a depressing and debilitating cosmology.

A:

I think that some people may find a godless, chaotic universe a hellish place in which to live. But there are others who would find an orderly, god ruled universe equally hellish. Not all people have the same needs. Nihilism suits mine. It is not depressing--it is freeing. I am able to do things because they make me happy, not because they are "good," not because god has instructed me to do so. As a result, I have spent my life learning about what makes me happy, and striving for that." Random quote online

https://books.google.com/books?id=lmzzmr2DvjEC&amp;dq=Laughing+at+Nothing:+Humor+as+a+Response+to+Nihilism+quotes&amp;source=gbs_navlinks_s

Zen Buddhism is another great source of happiness for me. Alan Watts' writings have helped me through a lot, though I wouldn't recommend reading more than two or three of his books - he ends up repeating himself in quite a few of them.

I'd also reccomend reading "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl. He has no relation to Zen (as far as I know), but if Alan Watts doesn't help, this will - I've found that, for most people, one or the other, or both, will be of effect. It all depends on perspective.

Read Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. We had it as required reading for English class my senior year of high school, but it isn't particularly difficult to read. It personally helped me out a lot.

I don't know if Ernest Becker ever called himself an existential nihilist, but The Denial of Death is widely regarded as a book full of existential nihilist themes.

Aww thanks. I definitely encounter people who have more formal training and I'm just blown away by their vocabulary and some of the concepts they present. I like to try to simplify difficult concepts into things that are more easily digested.

Philosophers are not known for being accessible in their writing. There's a ton of people out there like me who try to make philosophy more accessible.

I've listened to podcasts that delve into singular ideas. I find these particularly enlightening. I listened to Ayn Rand audiobooks (lol). I've bought used college textbooks for next to nothing, because once teachers stop using that edition nobody wants them. I've read 3 different people who analyzed Nietzsche's work because he's so unapproachable in writing style. I really love Nietzsche because he would mirror my own thoughts and sometimes take me to the next level and sometimes I feel I'd be at the next level of his thoughts.

I wish I remembered all the good podcast/audio stuff to recommend for ya. For more accessible books, Bernard Reginster's "The Affirmation of Life" was a really good analysis of Nietzsche. It's good because he would essentially take one concept Nietzsche presented and just really hammer it out in a more logical form before moving onto the next. Moral philosophy is most fascinating to me. I highly recommend Michael Sandel's Justice for a really great overview of positions with great examples and things to think about.

Right now I am reading a book called Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness. It's a bit of a lengthy read, but it has helped introduce me to the basics and history of quantum physics.

It's hard to describe exactly why it gives me impressions of nilhism. I guess, the way it explains how the universe itself is so vast and illogical, that that reality itself is subjective, that matter only exists as we observe it. Stuff like that.

EDIT: I know it's sort of unrelated to books, but the show Rick and Morty is a good tribute to Nihilism. It approaches it in a subtle way (sometimes abruptly), and hits some problems that many people like to avoid talking about. It gets progressively deeper on each episode.

Because of the continued expansion of the universe, eventually even matter itself will disorganize and molecular structures of any kind will not be possible. These machines you are referring to will devolve into nothing (refer to "Nihil Unbound"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ma%CA%BFarri

And this book (It's more about "philosophical pessimism" and rebellion against god within Islam, Christianity and Judaism and not directly about nihilism. But still a very interesting read):

http://www.amazon.com/Terror-God-Attar-Metaphysical-Revolt/dp/0745645275/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1454954603&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=navid+kermani