Hi Matt, > (Though it would be > surprising, given Steve's use of the term, if we were all of > the time perfectly non-nihilistic.)
My use of the term--that the first step toward nihilism is to buy into the religious or Platonic notion that the world is not sufficient unto itself and that the justification for this world must come from some other more true world of which this one is a mere shadow--comes from Nieztche. I agree that this religious impulse is pervasive in our culture, so it is likely that we all to some degree tend toward the nihilistic urge since it is concordant with the religious impulse. Nieztche's idea of the complete or radical nihilist is one who not devoid of a sense of any meaning but rather one who does not look to other worlds for justification. Instead the radical nihilist who has stared long enough into the abyss to deny all externally imposed meaning (and who is not a nihilist at all) _creates_ meaning. This idea is consistent with his idea of the role of the philosopher in society as the creator of values. I don't think that we are ever so free as to have all of our meanings made rather than found. Instead, the pragmatist blurs the found/made distinction to a degree where "found" meanings like those we sense in raising our children is no more real that the "made" meanings in our efforts to make the world better than we found it and our creative endeavors. Finding out that many of the things that gave our lives meaning that we once thought were found are actually made can't leave us wallowing in despair for lack of True meaning when we don't see anything deep and metaphysical about the found/made distinction. Best, Steve Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
