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The Difference between Nihilism and Fatalism

July 28, 2019

fatalism, life, meaning, nihilism, philosophy, thought

For some of you, the point of the title might be absurd. “The difference between nihilism and fatalism?” you might ask with incredulity. “Why, these two are the exact opposite of each other!”

But I’ve learned the lesson well: Never assume anything. This is especially the case when it comes to other people’s ideas. For a long time I naively assumed that if I could see the truth of something, others would too. But, apparently, self-delusion is what many people prefer.

In actual fact, most people to whom I’ve talked about nihilism seem to confuse it either with fatalism or depression. Let’s get this latter part out of the way: depression is, according to the American Psychiatric Association, “a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act.”

The difference between nihilism and fatalism is chaotic. The two are basically the exact opposite of each other.

Depression is an illness. Nihilism and fatalism are philosophical viewpoints.

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Death Is a Perspective: from Epicurus to Schopenhauer

July 6, 2019

Philosophy

death, fear, philosophy, subjectivity, time

To say that death is a perspective might at first sound bizarre. The fear of death must be among the most powerful fears humans experience during their life (think about the irony for a second).

Whether that fear is rational or not, it’s something we’ll need to talk about. We also need to ponder on what we mean by “fear of death”. Do we refer to our death or others’? Do we refer to death or dying?

All these are valid questions – albeit, questions most people bypass as too inconvenient. These, too, are parts of the “death is a perspective” thesis. But there’s much more to it.

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What Is Negative Capability

May 13, 2019

Literature, Philosophy

experiencing, Keats, literature, negative capability, philosophy, poetry, truth

In today’s post I will talk about Negative Capability. In particular, I’ll try to answer the question, What is negative capability? There’s a reason I’ve used bold font. There’s also a reason I said that I’ll try to answer the question.

Honestly, few things in a literary context have troubled me more than negative capability. Can I give you a definition? Sure. That’s very easy. Let’s take the one offered by John Keats himself, who coined the term.

[S]everal things dovetailed in my mind, & at once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in Literature & which Shakespeare possessed so enormously – I mean Negative Capability, that is when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason – Coleridge, for instance, would let go by a fine isolated verisimilitude caught from the Penetralium of mystery, from being incapable of remaining content with half knowledge.
The Letters of John Keats, ed. H E Rollins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958.

what is negative capability — Negative capability is about the search for *aesthetic*, rather than *philosophical* meaning.

Giving a simple definition is relatively easy. Understanding the repercussions, is an entirely different story. Let’s try to unpack this.

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