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| One of my ambigrams |
I wrote this several years ago and rediscovered it while cleaning out some old folders. I post it here as potentially useful to anyone who may be at the same point in his spiritual and philosophical development as I was at that time.
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The basic question to ask is “What really matters in life, and what does not?” Pursuant to this, an important secondary question is “Why do these particular things matter?” –– because a theory of why certain things matter can help us discover other things that matter (or don’t matter).
The possibility that nothing at all matters should be ruthlessly ignored –– even though it is indeed a possibility. That nothing matters (hereafter “nihilism”) is not only logically possible but even seems like a reasonable default position in the absence of sound arguments to the contrary. Nevertheless, it should be ignored as unworthy of our consideration.
Objection 1: But nihilism may in fact be true, and a philosophical principle that instructs to ignore something that may be true is a bad philosophical principle.
Reply to objection 1: This objection presupposes that it matters whether what we believe is true or false.
Objection 2: If nothing matters, then trying to figure out what matters is a waste of time.
Reply to objection 2: If nothing matters, then it doesn’t matter if I waste my time. Or, rather, there can be no such thing as “wasting” time. To waste something is to spend badly what might have been spent well, which presupposes that it matters how you spend it.
Objection 3: If nothing matters, that means you have no moral obligations and are free to do what you like and enjoy yourself.
Reply to objection 3: If nothing matters, freedom is of no value, because it doesn’t matter whether I choose one thing or another. Nor does it matter whether I do what I like or what I dislike, or whether I enjoy myself or am miserable.
Bottom line: If nothing matters, then it doesn’t matter that nothing matters.
The naturalness with which the above objections arise suggests some particularly deep or natural assumptions about what matters:
- It is better to believe truth than falsehood.
- Some ways of spending time are better than others.
- It is good to be free.
- It is good to enjoy oneself.
Examining these might be a good starting point.
5 comments:
I appreciate the clear thinking. I hadn't thought this clearly about it during a brief nihilistic period when I was 18. If I had read this it might have snapped me out of it, but who knows. I snapped out of it one way or another. I did not much enjoy being a nihilist!
I actually commented because on a second reading I just noticed your ambigram. Very nice! I've spent considerable time making palindromes but looking through your ambigram page, I enjoy those much more. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Sean. Any good palindromes to share?
I wish I saved them. The only one I can remember off the top of my head is—
To Hero, metal presser plate more hot.
I worked at a blacksmith shop when I wrote this one and it makes a little more sense in that context, but it's written like a bad newspaper headline and a little awkward. It's quite difficult to make a coherent palindrome!
The most impressive one I've ever read was—
A man, a plan, a canal. Panama!
Ok, it's been many years but I came up with a new one and I remember why I quit doing them—It's time consuming a usually ends up awkward like this...
Wedge™ kelp made brew. Organic as a sac in a grower bed. Ample keg dew!
Meaningful palindromes are extremely hard to create. I think the most impressive one of all is in Greek: Νίψον ἀνομήματα, μὴ μόναν ὄψιν -- "Wash your sins, not only your face" -- which was inscribed on the holy water stoup at the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, stylized in such a way that it is an ambigram as well as a palindrome.
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