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Existential Crisis

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I don't know how to articulate this, so I will just ask this: What is the difference between Buddhism and Objectivism?
Great question. Buddhism, Epicurean-ism, Hedonism and Objectivism do have a certain core similarity: they propound an essentially egoistic quest or (to use a modernism) "meta-goal". In a recent thread there was some discussion of thinking there was this order of egoism in Christianity as well. Of course, just putting oneself as the goal of morality is nowhere near enough. First, we have the issue of what that self is: is it just a soul that needs to be made good in some way? is it just a body that needs to enjoy itself in the moment? The underlying metaphysics gives different answers: is a soul in heaven the ultimate happiness? is unity with the oneness of the universe the whole point we we will relax? do we just have a moment at any point and nothing more? should we seek value or should we try to reduce our desires? One can see how a modern person can shrug off parts that he thinks are silly and superstitious, while keeping many of the better egoistic elements, and adding his own interpretations on that foundation, ending up being very happy while considering himself a Buddhist, or a Christian, etc. at core.

Now, loop back to purpose and long-term goals. We ought not accept these as "oughts", or like a stoic would, as something we just have to aim for, by the inexorable laws of the universe. Purpose and long-term goals can only be good if they serve your life in some way. So, my point was not to run down purpose. I think purpose is really important to human happiness; indeed, some level of purpose is critical. Still, it does not stand there as something we aim for for any reason outside ourselves or higher than ourselves.

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@bluecherry

I am not sure how long term. In a certain sense it may be indefinite. More specifically though I am aware that I am supposed to have a range of goals ranging from long and short term goals.

@softwarenerd

That is an interesting explanation!

I now think that in the face of my own mortality I have to live a more active life, the one I want to live.

I am not sure though if purpose is a solution to an existential crisis.

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"I am not sure though if purpose is a solution to an existential crisis."

This is from your first post, "Everything I do seems pointless . . ."

This is from the wiki article on "existential crisis" that you cited as an explanation of what you meant by "existential crisis,": "An existential crisis is a moment at which an individual questions the very foundations of his or her life: whether his or her life has any meaning, purpose or value."

It sounds like purpose is a pretty central thing to the problem, specifically the lack of it. So, I'd think resolving that issue should at least go a long way toward resolving the crisis.

"However progress is a lie, because the universe does not favor life permanently. One day all of that progress will end and there will just be particles."

A sense of futility certainly can interfere with a sense of purpose. However, I challenge the notion that "progress is a lie" if something doesn't last forever. If you took a step forward, but then eventually took a step back again, does that step back mean you never went forward in the first place? Of course not. :P Furthermore, the time when any such metaphoric step back may occur is not happening and has not happened. It does not actually exist. In fact, it will never happen in the life time of you or anybody else you'll ever know. That hypothetical occurrence will never touch you. It has less bearing on you then the explosion of a star millions of light years away.

You wouldn't go out in shorts and sandals when it is -3 degrees outside just because eventually it will get warmer, would you? I don't think so. So why live your life now according to a context that is not here, which does not exist? ;)

"More specifically though I am aware that I am supposed to have a range of goals ranging from long and short term goals."

But why? What for? The answer to this determines what goal lengths are the ones to shoot for.

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That is an interesting explanation!
And yet, if you look at successful advisers, you'll see a whole lot of them, starting with different rationales, yet ending up telling their customers to take charge of their lives and to pursue values. There are T.V. evangelists who do this, Suize Orman does it, and you'll see an undertone even in Dear Abby. Of course, you'll also find much that is objectionable in all those, but I think it points to these different people observing the same aspect of reality -- that the pursuit of value is important to human happiness -- and then putting their own spin on it. Even the famous evangelist Rick Warren pushes the notion of "The Purpose Driven Life".

We have to discover what makes us happy, and have to evaluate whether there is any downside, whether the happiness is fleeting or long-term, etc. So, we have to discover what foods work, what exercise can do, what types of friendships are satisfying, and so on. We also have to discover what we like doing. Some people seem to fall in love with some type of work when they're young. Others -- I think the vast majority -- aren't quite sure what they want to do with their lives. One must not look a life-purpose as an edict, or think that a lack of enthusiasm for any one purpose is a moral fault. A purpose -- and the personal ambition that comes with it -- helps integrate the things one does, and the values one seeks. One simply has to look for things that are interesting and fun, and can also be a career, ideally a productive career that also helps one earn all the other values one wants in life.

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What do the religious call it? A 'crisis of Faith', or something..

If I rename it a crisis of reason and reality, I trust it won't be unacceptable.

I think such a crisis is healthy - up to a definite point. It is a drastic

reminder to check premises; to re-attach basics to principles, or even to

rebuild those principles from the ground up, all over again.

This entails a fresh appreciation of the "evidence of our senses", a reaquaintance with

facts of reality, and a re-visit to man's fundamental nature: which in part, is mortal animal.

"Goals" are not a 'given', nor "values", nor "virtues" - of each of them we should be again

questioning "Why?" Why this, why not that?

Effort, plenty of it needed, sure. However, it cannot be forgotten that the effort itself is

for one's own purpose, toward one's happiness, and is also FUN.

Failing that effort leads to intrinsicism or rationalism, I think.

David Kelley ( I think in 'Truth and Toleration') wrote insightfully:

"Fundamentally, the choice is objectivity vs. non-objectivity in its various forms.

Being objective in practice however, does require a kind of mental balancing that

sometimes feels like striking a compromize.

We have to hold in mind the requirements both of reality and of our own nature, and if

we focus too narrowly on one or the other, we tend to slide into intrinsicism or into

subjectivism."

I think Rand, with her "enormous breach of continuity..." statement, would heartily endorse this.

In essence, I believe it also means - be kind to yourself, too.

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From FB said:
I think one of the ugliest things about the generally accepted altruist morality is that it teaches you to devalue and dismiss all the wonderful little things in life, like cooking a tasty meal, or playing a new video game, watching TV, or even just cleaning the house a bit, as if they were worthless, meaningless. If you can't look back and talk about your Nobel Prize or your cure for cancer, your life was unimportant and of no value. That's just wrong.

What's uglier still is when people who supposedly reject the altruist morality still go around criticizing people who like to play video games, cook tasty meals, watch TV, and clean the house as if their happiness somehow wasn't big or important enough to qualify for . . . something. They have this idea that the only "real" passions are these big showy public spectacle things.

 

 

We have to discover what makes us happy, and have to evaluate whether there is any downside, whether the happiness is fleeting or long-term, etc. So, we have to discover what foods work, what exercise can do, what types of friendships are satisfying, and so on. We also have to discover what we like doing. Some people seem to fall in love with some type of work when they're young. Others -- I think the vast majority -- aren't quite sure what they want to do with their lives. One must not look a life-purpose as an edict, or think that a lack of enthusiasm for any one purpose is a moral fault. A purpose -- and the personal ambition that comes with it -- helps integrate the things one does, and the values one seeks. One simply has to look for things that are interesting and fun, and can also be a career, ideally a productive career that also helps one earn all the other values one wants in life.

 

This. Joy is an end in itself. But living a truly enjoyable life is impossible on a hedonistic mindset and takes the sort of evaluation of one's self and life softwareNerd talks about along with knowledge of what, in general, will work by the nature of life (i.e., the Objectivist code of ethics). 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Everything is impermanent, and this can't be changed . Values exist to promote life. Life however seems to be futile in that it will end no matter how succesful an organism is, entropy wins. This makes values seem futile.

The next realization you will make is just what the phrase "an end in itself" really refers to.
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  • 1 month later...

I am in the midsts of an existential crisis and I don't know why. I tried talking about it with some people already, however I am now prepared to ask the whole of the board for advice on this matter because of how miserable I have become.

Essentially I have realized that I will die, that humanity will cease to exist and that the universe itself will likely under go heat death. This has brought great emotional turmoil as of late. Everything I do seems pointless and is cast with a grim shadow. Things that are pleasurable no longer are, and my normal value structure has seemed to disintegrate. I am not sure why as only a week ago I was very positive and happy.

According to some psychological models, I lost my "anchor" when I realized that even the most advanced posthuman species will one day die. My anchor was the idea of "progress". However progress is a lie, because the universe does not favor life permanently. One day all of that progress will end and there will just be particles.

I really don't know how I am supposed to deal with this. If you have experienced this I would like detailed information on how you dealt with it. 

 

Very brave and honest question! I take this issue seriously, Hairnet, and hopefully I'll get to it (and the 34 replies) at some point.

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Probably just junk psychology, since i know very little of the subject, but anyways..

 

You talk of an emotional response to what sounds like your estimation of mortality. Well the 'hard' aanswer is that it is a fact. I guess the question is what do we do with the recognition of this fact. Should we make it the guiding principle? It may be a simplistic analogy but do you plan an action, any action, based on the knowledge that once completed it will have ended so why bother to act? The fact of a journey's end does not mean the journey is not worth the effort, especially if the fruit of the journry is the journey itself. Shit maybe I am a buddist. It sounds too simple , but if you can integrate that the fact of your existence is what makes all values possible may change your attitude about valuing, you can only do it when you can so to speak, knowing you can't when you can't, shouldn't stop you from trying to do it to the best of your ability while you can. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

There is no "heat death" of the universe.  Since the universe is eternal, the heat death would have already occurred if it was going to happen.  Since the universe is eternal nothing can happen to change it's ultimate nature that is based on the flow of time (like entropy) because the universe is outside of time.  For instance why didn't it happen ten billion years ago or ten trillion years ago (you can keep going to infinite years ago since the universe never "began" but always existed).  You can see why entropy like time is a concept applied to systems within the universe, systems with certain initial conditions that operate for a certain amount of time, and not the universe as a whole.  In fact classically entropy has a very specific context that involves a large number of molecules interacting with one another in a system.  Living organisms themselves constantly escape entropy, when we finally die we reach thermodynamic equilibrium.  The definition of life is basically escape from entropy by maintaining organization and heterogeneity.  The universe and life will continue to exist forever most likely since even if the human race and all life on Earth ended tomorrow there is literally an enternity for it to pop up again in the future.  This is what led Nietzsche to his idea of the eternal return because he thought there was a finite number of occurrences that can happen and an infinite amount of time for the universe to sample them (which i obviously disagree with).  You shouldn't even be having a crisis about this anyway since once you are dead you won't care what happens, you won't think or feel anything.

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