Is Anything Real?

Sure, well,

Bitch!

Most of the time atleast.

Well for all practical purposes, I would have to say yes - at least when pertaining to everything and anything that relies on the foundations of comprehending modern day physics to this date. But yeah, for the most part, to say the least, They seem to be getting the jist of it from what I reckon.

Wikidbchofthewst said:

One thought that used to really fuck with me was: What would it be like if there was nothing? If there was no universe, no earth, no people, no us. What would there be? Would it be nothing but blackness? But isn't blackness/darkness SOMETHING? Would it be blank white like a clean sheet of paper? But isn't that still SOMETHING?

*Wikid is finally high*

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theres no such thing as nothing. nothing is the distance measured between 2 things

Brevity, You want to understand purpose? If things actually matter or not?
You like reading books via pdf? if you do I want to send you a pdf's of somethings to read later.

Right. Whatever floats your boat.

Thus spoke zarathustra
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4747144/Friedrich_Nietzsche_-_Thus_Spoke_Zarathustra_(Unabridged)
discussing multiple things, namely the death of the concept of god and how it pertains to the ideology of inherent purpose.
"the belief that nothing has any importance and that life lacks purpose. As Heidegger put the problem, "If God as the suprasensory ground and goal of all reality is dead, if the suprasensory world of the Ideas has suffered the loss of its obligatory and above it its vitalizing and upbuilding power, then nothing more remains to which man can cling and by which he can orient himself"

The rest of his accumulative works that hit on this subject are in here.

http://btjunkie.org/torrent/Will-to-Power-The-Philosophy-of-Friedrich-Nietzsche/443232e28ae7a90891cda534d6fdcedbfcd5ac66d0ca
It's Existential nihilism you're after when discussing purpose or meaning within inherent value.


Also, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev: Fathers and Sons - I only have this in paper copy, it's hard to find. Try scouring the internet for it. It's pretty interesting.

John Locke - On the Nature of Human Understanding
http://www.torrentdownloads.net/torrent/418843/Ebook+-+An+essay+concerning+human+understanding+-+by+John+Locke

Adam smith - utility and value - an economical explanation and outlook onto value. we as humans tend to 'intrinsically' misunderstand what value is. Discusses the apparent contradiction, or paradox, that although water is on the whole more useful, in terms of survival, than diamonds, diamonds command a higher price in the market. The economist Adam Smith is often considered to be the classic presenter of this paradox. Nicolaus Copernicus and John locke, hume tried to touch on this as well.

The Works of Adam Smith - Tomo 01 - Theory of Moral Sentiments

http://rapidshare.com/files/230732120/The_Works_of_Adam_Smith_-_Tomo_01.pdf

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The Works of Adam Smith - Tomo 02 - The Wealth of Nations - Volume 01

http://rapidshare.com/files/230737360/The_Works_of_Adam_Smith_-_Tomo_02.pdf

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The Works of Adam Smith - Tomo 03 - The Wealth of Nations - Volume 02

http://rapidshare.com/files/230745130/The_Works_of_Adam_Smith_-_Tomo_03.pdf

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The Works of Adam Smith - Tomo 04 - Essay on Philosophical Subjects

http://rapidshare.com/files/230752336/The_Works_of_Adam_Smith_-_Tomo_04.pdf

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The Works of Adam Smith - Tomo 05 - Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres

http://rapidshare.com/files/230756704/The_Works_of_Adam_Smith_-_Tomo_05.pdf

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The Works of Adam Smith - Tomo 06 - Lectures on Jurisprudence

http://rapidshare.com/files/230759581/The_Works_of_Adam_Smith_-_Tomo_06.pdf

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The Works of Adam Smith - Tomo 07 - The Correspondence of Adam Smith

http://rapidshare.com/files/230766529/The_Works_of_Adam_Smith_-_Tomo_07.pdf


Hope you find it interesting!

Jesus Christ people need to stop trying to get me to read and watch and listen to things pertaining to Existentialism....

Man i know your a stoner when a thread is created like this for when your stoned and you start thinking about this shit. i just met this dude at church that used to be a devilworshiper and he told me he never questioned there being a god because he was on the devils side for many reasons because of shit pertaining to his life. he would go to some weird ass gatherings like gothic shit and was scared shitless in a month into those shits for all sorts of reasons. months later the dude changed after meeting this chick at school who is a christian and he said he was sure if he would have not met her he would of have committed suicide and have spent his eternity in hell. he said his mom was always praying for him to change and he finally did right before his mother died.

Brevity said:

Jesus Christ people need to stop trying to get me to read and watch and listen to things pertaining to Existentialism....

Click to expand...

It's less on Existentialism and closer to nihilism, but rather focuses on an existentialists perspective onto a nihilistic mindset. Combo of the two, I get what you mean though, regardless - if you want to answer purpose and meaning and how value ACTUALLY pertains to us as what we are; read the fucking books. lol, jeeze.

No, I suppose I'm a Nihlist but I love life ya know, I come back to the question, "What really is the point to life???" I love asking people what they intend do in life, then they say they're going to become a lawyer, I say "Nice nice, what then?" Then they say they're going to get married and have kids, I say " Nice Nice, what then???" Then they stumble around and look at me like I'm crazy.

Brevity said:

No, I suppose I'm a Nihlist but I love life ya know, I come back to the question, "What really is the point to life???" I love asking people what they intend do in life, then they say they're going to become a lawyer, I say "Nice nice, what then?" Then they say they're going to get married and have kids, I say " Nice Nice, what then???" Then they stumble around and look at me like I'm crazy.

Click to expand...

Being Nihilistic doesn't mean you hate life. It's simply the denial of a 'real' existence unformed from context or the possibility of an objective basis for truth or value.

Essentially to be a horrible generic pig about it 'Life is what YOU make it' to it's very core. I think I'm very happy and upbeat in being nihilistic. There is no purpose - yet there is no purpose in me concluding that either, life is an empty canvas for our own meaning drive and value.

What's the point to life? My answer would probably be To live. I mean that in multiple ways, for multiple reasons.

Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose or intrinsic value.

Brevity said:

Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose or intrinsic value.

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Yes, I agree, and this does not bare fruit to negativity, pertaining to anything. Existential nihilism is that which I have presented.

It only has value we place on it, our purpose is what we make it. There is no more purpose for us than there is for anything else in the universe, why no more or no less than the whole universe in itself really.

These things only have a sense of 'value' because we make it such.

Indeed. I hate paradoxes.

Until the 20th century reality was everything humans could touch, smell, see and hear. Since the initial publication of the charged electromagnetic spectrum humans learned that what they can touch, smell, see and hear is less than one millionth of reality.

IMO everything we experience is real, but the way we experience it, everything is such a fraction of reality. So we question its existence entirely because we as humans are not built to see everything in our known universe. To truly experience what reality is our eyes would need to be able to see all forms of radiated light, our ears would pick up every frequency and so on.

Knowing that there are forms of light that the human eye can't see, and frequencies we can't hear, think of other sensations that we can't sense. Now that's a mind fuck. Imagine if we can feel unknown textures with our fingertips with some sort of gadget that we would not feel otherwise. What would they feel like? Apply this to tasting and smelling things that may be out there that our human senses can't pick up on with out some sort of amplification. Think about this after taking some LSD, and maybe the LSD will become the amplification tool needed to experience much more of reality then we can otherwise.

Reality must be such a beautiful thing, it's too bad we can only experience less than 1 millionth of what it really is. Well anyways smoke a fat one after reading this and think about what else can possibly be out there that we aren't experiencing.

OK, I got thru like the first paragraph and stopped. Dude, I've experienced so many things that aren't real you couldnt even imagine. Delve it Hallucinogens and come back and say the same thing and try not to laugh.

I agree with a lot of what he says, the thing is 'reality' in the sense he is discussing is the 'reality' you experience day by day, and the rest of it you don't experience at all. Like qualities or frequency to sound, there are some out of reach. Some we as an organism have no developed an evolutionary need for. White noise information. What YOU'RE tabbing on is altered meaning or contextual interference through induction of psychedelics. This in a sense is altering the filter you use on viewing and experiencing reality. He is not disputing the claims to such a reality, merely noting that which we cannot function towards or perceive within the one we exist in already.

Ummm. Yah. Right. Indeed. I agree of course with what he said I just couldnt help but laugh.