are there any distressing philosophies??

Question

i think the most disressing are solipsism, and eternal recurrence

solipsism because it says that life is all an illusion and nothing is real and its an illusion generated by your subconcious.

and eternal recurrence because you have to live the same life over and over for all eternity

are there any other distressing philosophies?

eternal recurrence is disproven due to the laws of entropy and thermodynamics.

and solipsism is basicaly refuted due to david deutches argument and the private language arguement raised by wittgenstein.

Answer 1

I'm not persuaded by Wittgenstein on this one, but I think that solipsism falls apart because it expects rational, intelligible proof of existence. The evidence of existence is prior to rationality or intelligibility. My baseball bat, a worldly object, can disable your ability to doubt the world's existence with one good shot up side your head, and to a lesser degree, so can fatigue, illness, extremes of pain, pleasure, or emotion, all of which impair your ability to engage in rational thought or doubt.
___Idealism, skepticism, and solipsism are very closely related, so they should be included as distressing. But a credulous, naive realism belongs here too, since we don't know everything that can be known, and so we can't know that we won't find out that out that our constructs of reality are woefully incomplete. If we get too arrogant about what we do know, we're doomed to a lot of restrictive possibilities.

Answer 2

I was just thinking of solipsism before I read the subpart. How about Berkeley's philosophy? I guess it's refered to as Idealism, or Material Idealism maybe. To me it sounds quite like solipsism. All our ideas are merely imprinted upon us by "God", and have no corresponding independent object. What is more distressing is the fact that there really is no corresponding independent world, and that we can never have any notion of another soul. But his ideas are so confusing I feel that maybe I misunderstand them. And that in itself is ... distressing.

Answer 3

"Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing..."
Shakespeare's Macbeth (OK, having a bad day!)

But the suspicion of a lack of core meaning, in an essentially random or accidental universe, can be a distresssing thing to contemplate..

Bernard Shaw saw it when the implications of evolutionary theory hit home:
"When it's whole significance dawns on you, your heart sinks into a heap of sand within you..."

Douglas Adams used the idea in his "Total Perspective Vortex." If you really saw the universe, and your insignificance in it, it would destroy you.

Ecclesiastes and Beckett both wrote about it.
Ecclesiastes takes refuge in a deity, almost in desperation.
Beckett finds laughter (possibly) an adequate counter-force.

Answer 4

Yes, I'm distressed by the idea of christian eternalism; they're paramount belief is that upon death they ascend into eternal bliss and therefore have no use for the reality of zen, (now), and this is evidenced by their attitude of anything goes including slaughter of the indians the ****** the japs the gooks and anybody else who gets in the way of their loving god.

Answer 5

I think the philosophy that if you eat meat on Friday, you'll burn in fire forever more is pretty distressing.

Easier not to worry about it.

Answer 6

materialism in general is, specially as Bertrand Russel expressed it. death is the end and there is no hope!