Time and meaninglessness

@chad3006,

chad3006;125083 wrote:

I'm pretty convinced that the passage of time renders all things meaningless--some sooner than others.
So, perhaps some of you could give me a nudge one way or the other. Not that it matters, HA!

Is this a new branch of philosophy , prophetic nihilism. The teachings of chad , "dont bother it aint worth it in the long run." A little nudge might make you jump.

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@chad3006,

chad3006;125083 wrote:

I'm pretty convinced that the passage of time renders all things meaningless--some sooner than others.
So, perhaps some of you could give me a nudge one way or the other. Not that it matters, HA!

The passage of time renders all material things "meaningless" eventually; for material things are flux, illusion, becoming, change. So if you are a materialist the passage of time might make all things meaningless. If you are a platonic idealist or a rationalist, or some form of romantic naturalist then there are truths and ideals which are timeless and which the material world only imperfectly stives to approximate or to actualize.

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@chad3006,

chad3006;125083 wrote:

I'm pretty convinced that the passage of time renders all things meaningless--some sooner than others.
So, perhaps some of you could give me a nudge one way or the other. Not that it matters, HA!

"Meaningless" in what meaning of "meaningless"?

1 Reply

@kennethamy,

kennethamy;125114 wrote:

"Meaningless" in what meaning of "meaningless"?

X meaning certainly...

1 Reply

@Fil Albuquerque,

Fil. Albuquerque;125115 wrote:

X meaning certainly...

Oh, yes, I should have guessed.

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@chad3006,

chad3006;125083 wrote:

I'm pretty convinced that the passage of time renders all things meaningless--some sooner than others.
So, perhaps some of you could give me a nudge one way or the other. Not that it matters, HA!

You may feel personally justified in your conviction, but there is no truth or falsehood to your statement. The notion that time renders all things meaningless is a sentiment, not a fact. For example, I personally feel that the temporary and transitory nature of existence renders all things more meaningful, but that's just a sentiment of mine. Such a sentence is only meaningful as a statement of value, but not as a declarative proposition. This is not an attempt to change your mind, though. I just want the nature of your statement to be made clear.

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@chad3006,

Meaning, for me, is related to value or emotion. An organism needs, and this is the source of value/meaning. One of our human needs is arguably a sort of religious/symbolic need, a need for purpose. This need for purpose is often tied up with the notion of afterlife. If all ends in sleep, there is a certain (for some unbearable) lightness of being. But how often do humans dwell on their death? More often they are engaged in one of the many little purposes of life, like stuffing their mouth or making use of scented toilet paper.

1 Reply

@Reconstructo,

Reconstructo;125191 wrote:

More often they are engaged in one of the many little purposes of life, like stuffing their mouth or making use of scented toilet paper.

Or stuffing their mouths with scented toilet paper.

My mother says my grandmother would often say "Fifty years from now, who'll care?" I guess she was talking about me... I never met her.

Have you ever had that experience of going back home... to the city where you grew up and at some point realizing it really is gone... the past. It's strange when it comes suddenly.

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@Arjuna,

Arjuna;125235 wrote:

My mother says my grandmother would often say "Fifty years from now, who'll care?" I guess she was talking about me... I never met her.

Well said. We are a strange sort of species precisely because we look so far ahead and comprehend our ultimate futility.

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@chad3006,

chad3006;125083 wrote:

I'm pretty convinced that the passage of time renders all things meaningless--some sooner than others.
So, perhaps some of you could give me a nudge one way or the other. Not that it matters, HA!

On the contrary. The passage of time allows for action. The action of communication allows us to communicate meaning. Action allows us to create meaningful relationships, meaningful works of art, meaningful sceintific theories and so on. Without time all things would be meaningless.

1 Reply

@Deckard,

Deckard;125310 wrote:

On the contrary. The passage of time allows for action. The action of communication allows us to communicate meaning. Action allows us to create meaningful relationships, meaningful works of art, meaningful sceintific theories and so on. Without time all things would be meaningless.

This is a good point. Reminds me of Kojeve saying that man is time.

When a person says that time makes life meaningless I think what they really mean is that death makes life absurd. But that is just one possible perspective, and not one I can get behind without a certain amount of irony.

1 Reply

@Reconstructo,

Reconstructo;125313 wrote:

This is a good point. Reminds me of Kojeve saying that man is time.

When a person says that time makes life meaningless I think what they really mean is that death makes life absurd. But that is just one possible perspective, and not one I can get behind without a certain amount of irony.

I've also heard platitudinous people say that death gives life meaning. I can't swallow that one either without a big cup of irony.

1 Reply

@Deckard,

Deckard;125320 wrote:

I've also heard platitudinous people say that death gives life meaning. I can't swallow that one either without a big cup of irony.

It seems to me that irony is key here, and that's why comedians make excellent philosophers. I love Nietzsche most when he's tossing off one-liners. If only one could write the vortext...

Hegel criticized the irony of the Schlegels in his book on Aesthetics. I suppose he did so because he was a man on a mission, the type that always resents the non-committal joker/ironist.

What is the carrot of the asinine ironist? Is it his own future or in-progress greatness? Is the ironist pregnant with future-self, the self that will finally escape the anxiety of influence? Is this why Nietzche compared himself to a female elephant?

1 Reply

@Reconstructo,

Reconstructo;125566 wrote:

Is this why Nietzche compared himself to a female elephant?

No. In his later stages of syphilis he believed he was a female elephant. That sometimes happens with syphilitic patients.

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@chad3006,

Beckett said "nothing is funnier than unhappiness." Is despair amusing because it's ultimately facetious? If one conceives of man as desire (as I do, but not without an escape clause), then despair/"meaninglessness" is just a passing state and itself the expression of desire, perhaps the desire for mother's milk long since denied. Perhaps the desire to be seen as spiritual/deep/tragic in the high and sacred sense that connects to the knife and altar somehow.

1 Reply

@chad3006,

chad3006;125083 wrote:

I'm pretty convinced that the passage of time renders all things meaningless--some sooner than others.
So, perhaps some of you could give me a nudge one way or the other. Not that it matters, HA!

If indeed there comes a time when matter ceases to be aware of itself through being alive and aware, and having the ability to make judgments of value, then everything becomes meaningless...

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@Reconstructo,

Reconstructo;125577 wrote:

Beckett said "nothing is funnier than unhappiness." Is despair amusing because it's ultimately facetious? If one conceives of man as desire (as I do, but not without an escape clause), then despair/"meaninglessness" is just a passing state and itself the expression of desire, perhaps the desire for mother's milk long since denied. Perhaps the desire to be seen as spiritual/deep/tragic in the high and sacred sense that connects to the knife and altar somehow.

Whom is it that unhappiness is supposed to amuse? Beckett? I would not be surprised. But not his own unhappiness, I bet.

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@chad3006,

time - not the objective measurement of elapsed time, but your sense of existing in time - mainly exists by virtue of your awareness of it. Thought creates time. Become absorbed in something - something worthwhile, mind you - and time is of no importance any more.

1 Reply

@chad3006,

chad3006;125083 wrote:

I'm pretty convinced that the passage of time renders all things meaningless--some sooner than others.
So, perhaps some of you could give me a nudge one way or the other. Not that it matters, HA!

Sure, the passage of enough time will render all things meaningless. But I don't see where you are getting your implied conclusion from.

The passage of time will erode a rock into nothingness, but you wouldn't drop one on your foot would you?

1 Reply

Time and meaninglessness

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