But methinks I hear the philosophers saying ‘tis a miserable thing for a man to be foolish, to err, mistake, and know nothing truly. Nay rather, this is to be a man.
— In Praise of Folly
— In Praise of Folly
I wish to stress that the humorous attitude is not simply a passive reaction to the world’s stimuli. It is, rather, a talent or a capacity for reinterpretation. The humorist, upon encountering an incongruity, demands of it that it make some contribution to the enjoyment of life.
Of course, just as a person can be overly serious, so too may a person be insufficiently serious. A person incapable of seriousness is just a buffoon who refuses to think things through or to deliberate over consequences and implications. However, a humorous attitude is not the same as an attitude lacking in seriousness. It is, rather, an ability to see things within the context of multiple perspectives. Humor, as Bakhtin has pointed out, in its fullest sense “purifies and completes”our seriousness rather than denying it.
Human dignity, it seems to me, is not so much a matter of what we accomplish successfully, but of our willingness to continue striving toward what we think is good and worthy. In remaining dissatisfied and discontented with the world as it is, the nihilist retains a strange sort of rebellious, heroic, and admirable dignity.
The world view of the nihilist suggests that we must despair of ever attaining ultimate and final satisfaction with ourselves or our place in the world. Life is a vain and unending struggle culminating in nothing, and all that seems beautiful and worthy is mere illusion, subject to decline and decay.
The pain of longing for what will be is chronically replaced by the pain of mourning for what was, and our lives are lived in a tense and unsettled state of unending desire for the ideal, which does not, and never will, exist in our here and now reality. The nihilist desires perfection but realizes that perfection is beyond reach. This incongruity between what is desired and what is actually possible lies at the heart of the problem of nihilism. Because it emphasizes frustration, pain, the vanity of struggle, and the hopelessness of attaining perfection, the philosophy of nihilism has traditionally been criticized as a doctrine advocating despair and depression.
— Laughing at Nothing
The pain of longing for what will be is chronically replaced by the pain of mourning for what was, and our lives are lived in a tense and unsettled state of unending desire for the ideal, which does not, and never will, exist in our here and now reality. The nihilist desires perfection but realizes that perfection is beyond reach. This incongruity between what is desired and what is actually possible lies at the heart of the problem of nihilism. Because it emphasizes frustration, pain, the vanity of struggle, and the hopelessness of attaining perfection, the philosophy of nihilism has traditionally been criticized as a doctrine advocating despair and depression.
— Laughing at Nothing
Existential psychotherapy says that all humans must quarrel with "four elemental anxieties":
• Death (the realization that your existence will eventually end).
• Isolation (the fundamental loneliness at the heart of human existence).
• Freedom and what it entails: being fully free makes us fully responsible for our existence.
• Meaninglessness (all our actions and beliefs have an inherent "absurdity" in them).
• Death (the realization that your existence will eventually end).
• Isolation (the fundamental loneliness at the heart of human existence).
• Freedom and what it entails: being fully free makes us fully responsible for our existence.
• Meaninglessness (all our actions and beliefs have an inherent "absurdity" in them).
Psychological dysfunction results from the individual's refusal or inability to deal with these normal existential anxieties.
In this sense, depression, loneliness, and anxiety are not "diseases" in themselves, but normal responses to basic—irremovable—anxieties about life and being. They become pathological only when they cause dysfunction to the individual's way of life.
In this sense, depression, loneliness, and anxiety are not "diseases" in themselves, but normal responses to basic—irremovable—anxieties about life and being. They become pathological only when they cause dysfunction to the individual's way of life.