What is your philisophical view?

[crimsonblue]

Religion, morality, ethics, the meaning of life. All can be described by the view you hold towards life. The conflicts between differing views held by individuals and societies is the cause of much strife throughout human history. I include religious doctrinal beliefs because they too are an attempt at the explanation for the meaning of life.

That being said, what philosophy holds the most merit for you?


edit: you can comment on why you have that view, if you like.

[crimsonblue]

1. existential for me.

I've come to the conclusion that life is inherently without meaning, and is completely absurd.

[LostInAnomie]

2. I'm somewhere in between Existentialism and Nihilism.

Although, I was tempted to select solipsistic.

[jobycom]

3. I'm a pragmatic Platonist, sort of.

I think there is something that exists beyond us, and beyond this sensual world. It's not a being, it's not self-aware, and it doesn't control anything, but it is a natural order or system or way that things are and should be. We create metaphors such as God, Mother Nature, even science, to put a name to the questions that we feel but can't even ask, and to the answers to those questions. There is a right way and a wrong way to act, but not because God will punish us. The natural laws of the universe--the things we can observe like gravity and light, as well as more esoteric stuff like the betterment of the human race or all other life forms--work best when we behave a certain way, and fail when we behave wrongly. Failure means that things don't function smoothly, and we all suffer. Global warming, for instance.

I believe all religions point at these basic truths, and use metaphors to describe these truths, but too often the metaphors are taken literally, which isn't a problem, or are seen as a set of rigid laws that eventually work to create disharmony, which is a problem. Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Francis of Assissi, Ghandi, and many others have fought against these legalistic interpretations of religions and tried to get back to the basics of right and wrong. Many of them have become religious figures in their own right, and have become the unwitting source of the exact same legalistic constrictions they tried to fight. Jesus is the most tragic of these--he came to renounce the rules of the Pharisees and Saducces, only to have he future equivalents of those groups use his name to justify their actions.

It's better to believe nothing than to be a fundamentalist (of any religion or political creed), but it is of course best to try to understand the higher questions and act accordingly.

I also believe I ramble too much. :)

[crimsonblue]

4. as an existentialist-solipsist,

how can I be sure that you even exist? :P

[jobycom]

5. You can't be, which of course doesn't affect my beliefs one bit.

Although there do seem to be a lot of women who don't know I exist...

[unpossibles]

23. you can't. I however can never be a solipsist.

My imagination is far better than reality, and I'd never create a George Bush.

[Fox Mulder]

6. Existentialism.

[pokerfan]

7. Naturalistic

[stuntcat]

18. yeah

(also whatever there is, humans can't grasp it anyway.)

[Lethe]

8. Anarcho-Primitivism

too much to explain....

[crimsonblue]

9. we're just a nuclear war away from that...

:D

[crimsonblue]

10. also,

should you really be using a computer?

[Bucky]

11. That philosophy when you slap existentialists in the face and say "Bet you didn't choose THAT shit"

Except I'm the pacifist sub type of that philosophy, so I basically sit around doing nothing and waiting for something horrible to happen to existentialists so I can do my petty, passive aggressive "toldja so" routine without the guilt.

[crimsonblue]

12. that makes no sense....

you're crazy.

[bridgit]

13. Paganistic Malthusianism...

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

14. Without properly knowing I would assume Pragmatic

Given a set of goals, my main concern is "How can I best achieve them?"

[YankeyMCC]

15. Pragmatic Naturalistic Secular Humanist

We can only understand the universe through rational investigation (thought and experiment), there is something sacred about life and intelligence but that isn't the measure of morality, everything is connected at some level and this connection often leads to what some label as 'spiritual', although for all practical purposes we go through life as if we have free will because there is enough caos and unknowns in the makeup of the mind in reality we can only be who we are and act in certain ways as defined by our minds, physiology and experience, there is no evidence of gods or other supernatural/divine entities and in fact it really is irrelavent to how we should make decisions on ethics and actions, the universe is special and sacred but it doesn't care about us only we can give it meaning.

[Chan790]

16. Humanist...

although existentialist was a close second.

[hobbit709]

17. But the human crowd Doesnt mean shit to a tree

[stuntcat]

19. (..)

Since Humans are the ones driving other plant and animal species to extinction.. I respect the trees instead :)

[SidneyCarton]

20. Monotheistic Pragmatist?

[Phoonzang]

21. Solipsistic

The only thing I really know is that I exist. My other senses can be confused and fooled. For all I know, the world is simply a creation of my unconscious mind.

[Blue-Jay]

22. Say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.

[Forkboy]

24. Humanist

I blame Vonnegut.