Extracting Meaning from Emptiness
By Daniel Miessler on August 20th, 2009: Tagged as Philosophy
It is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that life and existence are eternally justified. — Nietzsche
I saw this quote on Reddit recently, and it resonnated with me. It reminded me of my thoughts on meaning, which basically conclude that meaning is not real, but that pleasure, happiness, and beauty are our best (and perhaps only) replacements for it.
The comments on this post were worthwhile.
I especially liked the first part:
I don’t know if this works for anyone else, but when I feel like shit, I can think about this quote and remind myself that beauty exists in the world. I can lose myself in a beautiful piece of music and drown out the incessant neurotic inner monologue playing in my head, and it helps. Hope it helps someone else too.
Sadly, I don’t believe beauty is a diversion from a false belief that there is no meaning, but rather that beauty is the diversion from the truth, which is that there is none.
But I’m ok with that. The wonders of this world are enough for me. ::