Bloom,Taylor, and Novak seem to think that Americans have unwittingly stumbled into nihilism, rather than actively choosing it. In our enthusiasm for equality, individual freedom, and self-fulfillment, we have fallen prey to a form of soft-relativism that has finally manifested itself as a lack of confidence in any sort of assertion about the rightness or wrongness of values. As cultural fragmentation has progressed, these writers feel, the ability of Americans to come together in order to exercise their collective, political will has been eroded.
- Laughing at Nothing
- Laughing at Nothing
“Human society is a trial: thus I teach it—a long trial; and what it tries to find is the commander.”
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Socrates:
Is this not the reason why I'm being prosecuted, because when people tell such stories about the gods I find it hard to accept them? And therefore, probably, people will say I am wrong.
Is this not the reason why I'm being prosecuted, because when people tell such stories about the gods I find it hard to accept them? And therefore, probably, people will say I am wrong.
I am eager for your wisdom, and give my mind to it, so that nothing you say shall fall to the ground.
Euthyphro:
But, Socrates, I do not know how to say what I mean. For whatever statement we advance, somehow or other it moves about and won't stay where we put it.
But, Socrates, I do not know how to say what I mean. For whatever statement we advance, somehow or other it moves about and won't stay where we put it.
Socrates:
But is everything that is right also holy? Or is all which is holy right, and not all which is right holy, but part of it holy and part something else?
Euthyphro:
I can't follow you, Socrates.
But is everything that is right also holy? Or is all which is holy right, and not all which is right holy, but part of it holy and part something else?
Euthyphro:
I can't follow you, Socrates.
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Since human nature is contradictory and conflictive in its very essence, therefore, any work that tries to explain human nature must have a room for paradox and nonsense. Such a work would inevitably contain some opposing concepts and contradictory statements…
A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
قد أرعَدوا وأبرَقوا، ومعَ هذين الأمرَينِ الفَشَل، ولَسنا نُرعِدُ حتى نُوقِع، ولا نَسيلُ حتى نُمطِر.
شُغِلَ مَنِ الجنّةُ والنارُ أمامَه! ساعٍ سريعٌ نجا، وطالِبٌ بطيءٌ رجا، ومُقَصِّرٌ في النارِ هَوَى. اليَمينُ والشِّمالُ مَضَلَّة¹ والطريقُ الوسطى هي الجادّة²
¹المَضَلّة: طريق الضَّلال، الضياع والهلاك.
²الجادّة: الطريق الصحيح، المستقيم.
¹المَضَلّة: طريق الضَّلال، الضياع والهلاك.
²الجادّة: الطريق الصحيح، المستقيم.