Optimistic Nihilism
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Optimistic Nihilism
One of the most refreshing ideas to come out of existentialism (perhaps the only one) is that we are free to interpret and reinterpret the meaning of our lives.
Sam Harris • Free Will
It’s only by facing our finitude that we can step into a truly authentic relationship with life.
Oliver Burkeman • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
Rising out the world, you and I,
a finite flame among the infinite darkness
of two nebulous chasms…
Born into a disenchanted world
of Cartesian rationalism, our minds
and spirits isolated from the universal,
a race of convulsionaries trudging
though the wastelands of a technocratic
nightmare, afraid of what we might become
if we rid ourselves of the empt... See more
a finite flame among the infinite darkness
of two nebulous chasms…
Born into a disenchanted world
of Cartesian rationalism, our minds
and spirits isolated from the universal,
a race of convulsionaries trudging
though the wastelands of a technocratic
nightmare, afraid of what we might become
if we rid ourselves of the empt... See more
On almost any meaningful timescale, as the contemporary philosopher Thomas Nagel has written, “we will all be dead any minute.”
Oliver Burkeman • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
The average human lifespan is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short. But that isn’t a reason for unremitting despair, or for living in an anxiety-fueled panic about making the most of your limited time. It’s a cause for relief. You get to give up on something that was always impossible—the quest to become the optimized, infinitely capable, emot
... See moreOliver Burkeman • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
The only real question about all this finitude is whether we’re willing to confront it or not. And this, for Heidegger, is the central challenge of human existence: since finitude defines our lives, he argues that living a truly authentic life—becoming fully human—means facing up to that fact. We must live out our lives, to whatever extent we can, ... See more