Nihilism
Nihilism is the view that life has no meaning at all. In Camus' novel L'Etranger, the narrator,
Meursault, has been accused of murder. The examining magistrate is outraged by Meursault's
assertion that he does not believe in God: “[The magistrate] told me that it was impossible, that all
men believed in God, even those who wouldn't face up to Him. That was his belief, and if he should
ever doubt it, his life would become meaningless.” The magistrate's view is not just that the
nonexistence of God would make his life meaningless, but that the mere belief in the nonexistence of
God by someone such as Meursault would render life meaningless. What would it take for someone's
life to be totally devoid of meaning?
At the most extreme, your life would be meaningless if you had no mental representations at all.
This state would require you to have no conscious beliefs and experience, and no prospect of having
any. Temporarily you might have no conscious experience because of deep sleep or a medical
condition that puts you into a coma, but in these cases you have the potential of having conscious
representations when you wake up. People who suffer extensive brain damage may enter a persistent
vegetative state from which recovery is impossible. At this point, life is meaningless for them,
although it may still have some meaning for people who care about them. For example, when the
parents of Terri Schiavo resisted her husband's decision to remove her feeding tube in 2005, she was
still important to them, despite her extensive brain damage, which an autopsy revealed was as serious
as doctors had advised. Nevertheless, given her apparent inability to form any representation of
anything, it seems to me that Terri Schiavo's life really had become meaningless.
Without such severe brain damage, your life would be lacking in meaning if nothing at all was
important to you, as seems to be the case with Camus' character Meursault, who asserts: “Nothing,
nothing mattered.” It is hard to imagine someone totally lacking in goals, as even severely depressed
people usually take minimal steps to feed themselves and protect themselves from harm. But
Meursault and severe depressives lack more ambitious goals, which chapter 6 described as brain
states that combine representations of situations with emotional valuations of them. Meursault says he
had no regrets about anything, suggesting a woeful incapacity to attach emotional significance to
important events, including both his arrest for murder and the death of his mother. Unlike the state of a
temporarily depressed person whose life will be enjoyable again when things improve, Meursault's
condition appears to be chronic. Perhaps it is fair to conclude that his life really is meaningless and
that he lost little by being executed. In modern popular culture, the character who comes closest to
having a meaningless life is probably George Costanza from the television show Seinfeld, although
even he did much better than Meursault at love, work, and play.
NihilismNihilism is the view that life has no meaning at all. In Camus' novel L'Etranger, the narrator,Meursault, has been accused of murder. The examining magistrate is outraged by Meursault'sassertion that he does not believe in God: “[The magistrate] told me that it was impossible, that allmen believed in God, even those who wouldn't face up to Him. That was his belief, and if he shouldever doubt it, his life would become meaningless.” The magistrate's view is not just that thenonexistence of God would make his life meaningless, but that the mere belief in the nonexistence ofGod by someone such as Meursault would render life meaningless. What would it take for someone'slife to be totally devoid of meaning?At the most extreme, your life would be meaningless if you had no mental representations at all.This state would require you to have no conscious beliefs and experience, and no prospect of havingany. Temporarily you might have no conscious experience because of deep sleep or a medicalcondition that puts you into a coma, but in these cases you have the potential of having consciousrepresentations when you wake up. People who suffer extensive brain damage may enter a persistentvegetative state from which recovery is impossible. At this point, life is meaningless for them,although it may still have some meaning for people who care about them. For example, when theparents of Terri Schiavo resisted her husband's decision to remove her feeding tube in 2005, she wasstill important to them, despite her extensive brain damage, which an autopsy revealed was as seriousas doctors had advised. Nevertheless, given her apparent inability to form any representation ofanything, it seems to me that Terri Schiavo's life really had become meaningless.Without such severe brain damage, your life would be lacking in meaning if nothing at all wasimportant to you, as seems to be the case with Camus' character Meursault, who asserts: “Nothing,nothing mattered.” It is hard to imagine someone totally lacking in goals, as even severely depressedpeople usually take minimal steps to feed themselves and protect themselves from harm. ButMeursault and severe depressives lack more ambitious goals, which chapter 6 described as brainstates that combine representations of situations with emotional valuations of them. Meursault says hehad no regrets about anything, suggesting a woeful incapacity to attach emotional significance toimportant events, including both his arrest for murder and the death of his mother. Unlike the state of atemporarily depressed person whose life will be enjoyable again when things improve, Meursault'scondition appears to be chronic. Perhaps it is fair to conclude that his life really is meaningless andthat he lost little by being executed. In modern popular culture, the character who comes closest tohaving a meaningless life is probably George Costanza from the television show Seinfeld, althougheven he did much better than Meursault at love, work, and play.
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