Nihilism and Meaning

'Nihilism’ is based on the Latin word for `nothing’: nihil.  Nihilism is used for a lot of positions in philosophy…  that there is nothing at all; that we know nothing at all; that there are no moral principles at all, and virtually any other position that could be framed with the word `nothing’.  But the most common use, and what we'll explore today, is nihilism as the view that nothing we do, nothing we create, nothing we love, has any meaning or value whatsoever.

What would Jesus do?

What’s to be done?. A blog for Christmas

Topoi provides an excellent expression of a view of philosophy that I share:

Is it wrong to wreck the earth?

Suppose we frame it like this. Those currently alive will somehow collectively decide between two options: (i) Make minimal changes to the way we live, and leave future generations a very polluted, warm, earth. Or (ii) make substantial changes to the way we live, at great cost to our own comfort levels, and leave a much less polluted, and less warmed up world to future generations. There is a tradeoff; we live better, they live worse; they live better, we live worse. Why is it clear that it’s better for us to sacrifice and leave them better off?

To Forgive and Forget