
„A nihilist is not one who believes in nothing, but one who does not believe in what exists.“
— Albert Camus, buch Der Mensch in der Revolte
Part 2: Metaphysical Rebellion
The Rebel (1951)
Quelle: Father and Sons (1862), Ch. 5.
„A nihilist is not one who believes in nothing, but one who does not believe in what exists.“
— Albert Camus, buch Der Mensch in der Revolte
Part 2: Metaphysical Rebellion
The Rebel (1951)
„There are some who will characterize my view as “nihilistic."“
— David Benatar South African philosopher 1966
Left unqualified, that characterization is false. My view of cosmic meaning is indeed nihilistic. I think that there is no cosmic meaning. If I am right about that, then calling me a nihilist about cosmic meaning is entirely appropriate. However, my view is not nihilistic about all meaning because I believe that there is meaning from some perspectives. Our lives can be meaningful, but only from the limited, terrestrial perspectives. There is a crucial perspective—the cosmic one—from which our lives are irredeemably meaningless. In thinking about meaning in life, two broad kinds of mistakes are made. There are those who think that the only relevant meaning is what is attainable. They ignore our cosmic meaninglessness or they find ways either to discount questions about cosmic meaning or to minimize the importance of cosmic meaninglessness. The other kind of mistake is to think that because we are cosmically insignificant, “nothing matters,” where the implication is that nothing matters from any perspective. If we lack cosmic meaning but have other kinds of meaning, then some things do matter, even though they only matter from some perspectives. It does make a difference, for example, whether or not one is adding to the vast amounts of harm on earth, even though that makes no difference to the rest of the cosmos.
p. 32
The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions (2017), Meaninglessness
— Pat Paulsen United States Marine 1927 - 1997
Unidentified press conference, 1968
Featured in Pat Paulsen for President (1968), part 2 of 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbP0ufyax5A&feature=relmfu, 07:20 ff (16:20 ff in full program)
Note: Despite the similarity, this would appear not to be a parody of Vice President Spiro Agnew's "nattering nabobs of negativism", which is from a September 11, 1970 speech.
Kontext: Many political experts have told me that nobody will vote for me because America is not ready for such decisive and dynamic leadership. They tell me these things, and I say nay to the negative nincompoops who never nourished the nihilistic nerve to name a novice to nail down the nomination.
— Ambrose Bierce American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist 1842 - 1914
Quelle: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
— Jordan Peterson Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology 1962
Drinking from the firehose with Howard Bloom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhlL7IjaZNI?t=29m55s
Other
— John Carroll Australian professor and author 1944
[describing the implications of Ehrenzweig’s theory] p. 95, note
Break-Out from the Crystal Palace (1974)
— Matka Tereza Roman Catholic saint of Albanian origin 1910 - 1997
Quoted in: Honor Books, W. B. Freeman (2004), God's Little Devotional Book for Girls, p. 205
2000s
— Jiddu Krishnamurti Indian spiritual philosopher 1895 - 1986
§ I
1910s, At the Feet of the Master (1911)
— Melina Marchetta, buch On the Jellicoe Road
Quelle: On the Jellicoe Road
— Vincent Van Gogh Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890) 1853 - 1890
Vincent then quotes 1 Kings 19:3-15, leaving out all but the beginning of verses 14 and 15
quote from his letter to Theo, from Amsterdam, 31 May 1877 letter 118 http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let118/letter.html
1870s
— Ernst Kaltenbrunner Austrian-born senior official of Nazi Germany executed for war crimes 1903 - 1946
To Emma, recorded by secret spy listening device WS-M/13 located in Kaltenbrunner's bedroom, 1/14/1935. Quoted in "Kröger's Revelation" - by Viktor Pelevin - 1991 - Page 277
— Nasreddin philosopher, Sufi and wise man from Turkey, remembered for his funny stories and anecdotes 1208 - 1284
Diane L. Wilcox, Classic Tales of Mulla Nasreddin, Retold by Houman Farzad (1989), , p. 26
— Martin Dempsey Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 1952
March 23rd, 2016 lecture at Trinity University, around 19 minutes into the lecture.
Kontext: Number 2: We are a paradigm of diversity, now I kind've touched on that already. I had my Israeli counterpart of all people, one day say to me, "hey, do you understand why you are who you are?". You mean me personally? "No, your country." I said, 'well I think so, but I'd love to hear it from your perspective.' And he said, "it's the dash". And I said, 'what are you talking about the dash?' And he said, "the dash, Irish-American; Jewish-American; Arab-American; Black.. African-American." And you know I thought about it, and I thanked him actually for the perspective because we are a diverse nation, and that's who we are. I mean, I don't know how many of you in the audience are actually native Americans; my guess is not many. Everybody else here is at some level, from some other part of the world. And we're very diverse, we embrace diversity, and we embrace it because: in my case I'll tell you when I had the Joint Chiefs around me; the Army; the Navy; the Air Force; the Marines; the Coast Guard. I would never have been able to have been an effective Chairmen if everyone had been of one view, or if everyone was of one culture. It just wouldn't have worked. We would have convinced ourselves that we had a single perfect answer, when in fact the world lend itself to single perfect answers. So look, I think in terms of assertions about America's role, we have to show the world what's possible when you embrace diverse thinking, diverse personalities, diverse groups, diverse ethnicities, diverse religions. And if we don't do it, there's very few that are going to be able to do it. So whether we accept that or not, as I said earlier, is really an individual and ultimately at some level a national choice. But my assertion is, if you're asking me our role one part of it is to continue to be that paradigm of diversity.