@jknilinux,
jknilinux wrote:rhinogrey-
So we do good to feel joy, and to feel joy is our purpose. Do you think this is nihilistic?
I'm not sure. I try not to attach labels to anything to the exclusion of anything else, because that's when you get yourself into hot water.
But to call this impulse nihilistic seems slightly shortsighted. I think anyone who would place blind faith in the hands of a religion has to see
some inherent value in life, or their experience of life, or else why would they bother to seek this salvation? If there's no value to any of this, why would one take the effort to pursue a dogmatic ideal?
Forgive me if my understanding of nihilism isn't the most well-rounded, but those are my thoughts on the issue.
avatar6v7 wrote:If you have never done a good deed that has made you feel ****, then you have barely made a moral choice in your life. Sure good deeds will make you happy in the end, if they didn't there would be no justice in the world. But if you think that this is 'selfish' you are wrong. Selfishness ultimatly makes you unhappy, I can assure you.
Don't be so quick to assume the presence of selflessness in the human experience. Define 'selfish.' Go a little deeper into the issue. Not only do I see myself as a thread within the greater fabric of humanity, I have come to
experience myself in that way. The only way to experience humanity is through the Self, because there is no other gateway into experience. Perceiving mySelf as a thread of a larger cloth has helped me to harbor a general compassion for my fellow man, and my ethical development mirrors this sentiment. It is, however, only through my experience of mySelf and my Perspective that I can gain any insight into the human experience in general. Therefore, my conception of the Good can only be harbored through
my own experience of it. A morally pure act which "makes me feel ****" (I think I understand what you mean by that) still seeks to enhance my experience of the Good through mySelf.
Selfish? Maybe not, but it's a semantical triviality. Everything is through the Self, there is no other.