In a message dated 9/11/11 11:06:46 AM, [email protected] writes:
> Fine. But keep in mind it's called nihilism. It's essentially a give-up > approach, an abandonment of the quest for truth as good and truth as > always > true. > > I can't dispute that my epistemic positions brings with them a loss of many reassuring verities. As did the departure of the religious faith of my youth. But, curiously, it does not leave me with no convictions. It's not entirely unlike my surety that I find the taste of sour milk or the smell of rotten eggs to be repelling. Questions of "proof" don't enter into it. We can ask questions of "why" or "how", though. Why do certain great creators cause in me "aesthetic experiences"? Why did I, despite being brought up in the Boston Irish world of long ago which held bigoted views of Jews, blacks, and just about every similar "class", hate from the first moment what it seemed Hitler, American rednecks, and other "bad guys" were doing? I was a petty thief until I was fourteen; I got caught, and the shame I felt was a turning point in my life. How come I felt shame and got "saved"? Other kids simply got angry, and went on to become major criminals. My point is that, even when I could not show why or how, the feelings, appetites, affections, revulsions have been intense. Similarly, an unmooring thought like "words have associations but do not have meanings" does not at all make me feel nihilistic. A question like "Why are we here?" seems misguided to me. I don't think there is a "purpose" we are here, but that does not cause me to have none of those appetites and revulsions. And because I do have them I am actively driven every day. Those ongoing appetites and revulsions give my life all the "purpose" it needs.
