Nihilism comes in a variety of flavours. Anyone here find nihilist a good descriptor for their worldview?

I describe myself as a nihilist.

No.

No you don't, or no no one here does?

Nope not a nihilist.

Humans are meaning makers. Therefore, meaning exists.

No, I am not a nihilist. Unless you count mereological nihilism.

Life is too fun for me to embrace nihilism.

Boru

(August 11, 2023 at 2:46 pm)FrustratedFool Wrote: Nihilism comes in a variety of flavours.  Anyone here find nihilist a good descriptor for their worldview?

I describe myself as a nihilist.

Which flavor?

I think it likely God doesn't exist, the universe is indifferent and absurd, there is no free will, and moral realism is false.

(August 11, 2023 at 5:44 pm)FrustratedFool Wrote: I think it likely God doesn't exist, the universe is indifferent and absurd, there is no free will, and moral realism is false.

This is interesting. I'd never looked up the definition before. 

Here is the first paragraph from Wikipedia:

Quote:Nihilism (/ˈnaɪ(h)ɪlɪzəm, ˈniː-/; from Latin nihil 'nothing') is a family of views within philosophy that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence,[1][2] such as knowledge, morality, or meaning.[3][4] The term was popularized by Ivan Turgenev and more specifically by his character Bazarov in the novel Fathers and Sons.

There have been different nihilist positions, including that human values are baseless, that life is meaningless, that knowledge is impossible, or that some set of entities does not exist or is meaningless or pointless.[5][6]

Scholars of nihilism may regard it as merely a label that has been applied to various separate philosophies,[7] or as a distinct historical concept arising out of nominalism, skepticism, and philosophical pessimism, as well as possibly out of Christianity itself.[8] Contemporary understanding of the idea stems largely from the Nietzschean 'crisis of nihilism', from which derive the two central concepts: the destruction of higher values and the opposition to the affirmation of life.[9][5] Earlier forms of nihilism, however, may be more selective in negating specific hegemonies of social, moral, political and aesthetic thought.[10]

So it looks as though there's a fairly large menu of types. 

Like if we look at the first short list of things, we can think about how much we reject: "knowledge, morality, or meaning." 

Even if morality is made up and the universe is indifferent, maybe I still believe in knowledge. I can know that the universe is indifferent, or that the earth is round and 2+2=4. 

And morality, even if it's not an intrinsic aspect of the universe -- even if it would go away if all human customs when away -- still exists as a social construct. It's made by people, but the stuff people make is real. Granted, it might change, but the morality that exists in my place and time is real in that it guides and affects the lives of people, and ignoring it has consequences. 

As for meaning, it's common on this forum to say that meaning is real although it's something that people make. That is, my life has certain kinds of meaning for me because I give it that meaning. And while this is created, that doesn't mean it's just fantasy. 

I suppose it would make sense to measure how deep a person's nihilism goes. Is it good to follow social norms, even though they aren't permanent and universal? Is it stupid for me to think that my marriage is meaningful, just because the meaning is made up by the two of us? 

I'm open to the idea that in fact morality and meaning are a kind of veneer we put on top of things so that life is more pleasant. But I'm not sure that makes me a nihilist...?

That's pretty comprehensive nihilism. You include everything but knowledge (or the possibility of knowledge). Why not knowledge as well?