Tom Caylor writes (quoting Bruno Marchal):
[TC]
> > > My whole argument is that without it our hope eventually runs out and
> > > we are left with despair, unless we lie to ourselves against the
> > > absence of hope.
[BM]
> > Here Stathis already give a genuine comment. You are just admitting
> > your argument is "wishful thinking".
[TC]
> I was being too poetic ;) By "despair" I meant nihilism, the belief
> that there ultimately is no meaning. I am arguing that the ultimate
> source of meaning has to be personal. I'm just saything that my
> argument is of the form, "If meaning is not ultimately based on the
> personal God, then there is no true meaning, because..."
I realised when I was about 12 or 13 years old that there could not be any
ultimate meaning. I was very pleased and excited with this discovery, and ran
around trying to explain it to people (mostly drawing blank looks, as I remember).
It seemed to me just another interesting fact about the world, like scientific and
historical facts. It inspired me to start reading philosophy, looking up words like
"nihilism" in the local library. It also encouraged me to question rules, laws and
moral edicts handed down with no justification other than tradition or authority,
where these were in conflict with my own developing value system. Overall, I
think the realisation that there was no ultimate meaning was one of the more
positive experiences in my life. But even if it hadn't been, and threw me into a
deep depression, does that have any bearing on whether or not it is true?
Stathis Papaioannou
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Received on Fri Dec 29 2006 - 06:05:07 PST