For someone who is not even certain that the universe really exists outside your own head, you seem to know an awful lot about 'things'. — Pseudonym
but why they are. — Thorongil
The more interesting and pressing question is whether the phantasmagoria of experience exhausts the category of the real. In other words, the more important question is not what objects are, but why they are. — Thorongil
Level one is good, that's where the real play is at >:OSpeaking as the aspirational hoi polloi, it seems to me that this vale of tears, or whatever it is, can only be understood - personally - as something like an educational toy. In this sense, though materialism may be false as a matter of ultimate judgement, nevertheless it is the 'correct' way to play the game - as if it were real. but perhaps I am still on level one. — unenlightened
Speaking as the aspirational hoi polloi, it seems to me that this vale of tears, or whatever it is, can only be understood - personally - as something like an educational toy. — unenlightened
A universe of things is by definition unnecessary, inasmuch as "things" are finite, contingent, and causally dependent on each other and "a universe" is just the sum total of such things. — Thorongil
I don't think nihilism is the end result of having no reason why objects are. I find existential philosophers arguments to be compelling -- even in a nihilistic universe, an absurd world, we still can find meaning in life. Even if some objective purpose is not knowable, we still can live a life of joy. Even if it were knowable, and there was a purpose, but we were to find it reprehensible we can live well. — Moliere
I find existential philosophers arguments to be compelling -- even in a nihilistic universe, an absurd world, we still can find meaning in life — Moliere
'Hell is other people'? — Wayfarer
I think it was fairly self-evident what I meant. In any case, the "why" question deals with the reason for there being objects of experience at all as opposed to the question of what they are ultimately composed of. — Thorongil
I don't think nihilism is the end result of having no reason why objects are. I find existential philosophers arguments to be compelling -- even in a nihilistic universe, an absurd world, we still can find meaning in life. — Moliere
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