Lovecraftian Cosmicism | Existentialism, Absurdism and Nihilism

H.P. Lovecraft was an American writer who is known for his creation of what became the Cthulhu Mythos and the creator of the literary philosophy known as Cosmicism, emphasising the Cosmic Horror of the unknown and the insignificance of human beings in the vast realms of space and time.
This video explores the peculiar philosophy of Cosmicism and its similarities with Absurdism, existentialism, and nihilism, three movements that arose from the human experience of anguish and confusion stemming from the Absurd, ultimately diverging to different perspectives on life.
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📚 Recommended Reading (High Quality and Best Translations)
The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft
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Nietzsche
▶ Human, All Too Human (1878)
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▶ Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883)
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▶ Twilight of the Idols or How to Philosophise with a Hammer and The Antichrist (1888)
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Kierkegaard
▶ Either/Or (1843)
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▶ Fear and Trembling (1843)
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▶ The Sickness unto Death (1849)
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Camus
▶ The Stranger (1942)
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▶ The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
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▶ The Plague (1947)
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Sartre
▶ Nausea (1938)
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▶ The Wall (1939) and Other Stories
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▶ No Exit (1944) and Three Other Plays:
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⌛ Timestamps
0:00 Introduction Lovecraft & Cosmicism
1:08 Nihilist Engima: Existentialism, Absurdism, Nihilism
2:09 Absurdism
3:26 Existentialism
4:34 Nihilism
6:00 Cosmicism
12:29 Cosmicism Vs God
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🎶 Music used
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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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📝 Sources
Rottensteiner, F. (1992). Lovecraft as Philosopher. Science Fiction Studies, 19(1), 117-121.
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#lovecraft #cosmicism #existentialism #nihilism

[@Eternalised]

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[@Moonam75]

Great video again. Thank you sir.

[@visitorv5284]

I've rarely come across so one dimensional perspective on philosophy. You repeat one and the same thing in all of your videos. May be you should try reading naturalists. They base philosophy on actual knowledge.

[@Arkume8Beltz]

I love H.P.Lovecraft writings because take us from our antropocentrism, by ancient people, their village was the center of universe/existence, late the Earth become the center of universe to the Sun, but if universe have something we can call center, we don't know were it is(if that exists outside visible universe..). In biology we make the same..with "caucasic-euro"centrism to antropocentrism.. But exists forces we can't do nothing..meterorologic, sismic, solar flares or forces outside"our"little solar system..who knows..maybe a supernova exploded before history in few years kill us..or the energy pulse of a far pulsar/magnetar..or maybe something our science don't started a hypotecy to study yet a event/ force who erase us before know it, etc..and with that all believes, geopolithics, wars, posesions, money, social position/acceptance, will be meaningless..

[@atypicalkhubaib7472]

How to add those sticker in your comment bruh🗿

[@artophile7777]

​@@atypicalkhubaib7472 become channel member

[@ayushgaidhani]

The video explains such complex philosophies with such ease and with clarity. I thank you for making such splendid content.

[@chasecollins3263]

It's comments like these that make me subscribe. Thank you.

[@mikepastor.k6233]

@@chasecollins3263 yeah. This guy could use more subs. A shame some of these KZbin guys aren't more known.

[@LuhCrowley97]

i learned the english language myself , and this kind off subjects really attract me sometimes still a bitt hard but im learning thanks for vids i will definitely subscribe 💯💯

[@tylerhellums9823]

Yes. I'd say the greatest existential failure of humanity is it's hubristic, egotistical need for all things even that which exists outside of our world to be for us, to belong to us, and to love us. A far more sensable, reasonable thing, would be to realize that perhaps the meaning that we place on things is all we can expect, and that nothing else needs to have any opinions about us. We are a part of existence; existence is not a part of us. Why not make peace with these notions? But that's just my current view.

[@BansheeKing22]

Well said. Ever since I was very young I've always found mankind's inflated sense of their own importance to being a self destructive belief. Mankind believes itself to be the center of the universe, believes itself "chosen" as the only species to exist. As much as mankind believes itself so important it deludes itself onto thinking it is the top of the food chain, it believes itself the master of the land and beasts. Again an inflated sense of its own importance. Mankind is nothing but a momentary spec in an indifferent universe that places itself on such a high pedestal because its too afraid to face the reality that no matter how hard it tries, mankind will never be anymore important than a single cell bacterium. What proves my point even more is how hard mankind will fight against such a notion when its brought up going so far as to kill many for even daring to suggest that mankind is insignificant.

[@tylerhellums9823]

@@BansheeKing22 Thank you. The real question is: is it better to face oblivion in bliss, or to accept a sour reality and work to improve. After all, defiance is one of our talents.

[@zenithmentrada2231]

most researchers and intellectuals uninterested with the pursuit of meaning don't seem to have that trait, this might be similar to a migraine after drinking away last night, in this case it's religion and formerly religious countries.

[@cthulhu472]

Glad to see im not the only one who thinks life is inherently meaningless and humans are egoistical sociopathic animals and a virus , a fucking parasite

[@mikepastor.k6233]

@@BansheeKing22 that's very sensible but I'm afraid man's ego is so inflated as to force some understanding of it's purpose. His own hubris always gets in the way of true contemplative self awareness in place of self absorption.

[@cavy369]

Damn.. He was correct with "going mad from scienctific vistas of reality".. We've recently reached that point in society

[@enbilerfrainitiald8529]

Mind blowing, I had heard of Lovecraft, but never read him. Now I've got to read him! Great video as usual!!

[@Eternalised]

Thanks a lot. I'm pleased you'll start your journey of cosmic horror! 🐙

[@blakebeavers3424]

I mean, get ready for some top-tier racism, but the stories are otherwise quite good.

[@emmanueloluga9770]

@@blakebeavers3424 Forest the racism for a moment, the Romanticism is quite monumental in its own right (home literally died due to his Romanticism, and reluctance to see a doctor)...like Wtf lovecraft

[@lukasboruvka5151]

@@blakebeavers3424 No one isn't perfect and you also should look on Lovecrafts biography. He find part of the truth in the world around him, but his ignorance of unperfect life affected his work.

[@TheCyberianWonder]

Very interesting commentary on Lovecraft as a philosopher channelling through story telling. While most philosophers rely on established stories to demonstrate their ideas (eg, Camus and Sisyphus), Lovecraft had the ability to convey original philosophy through original story-telling. Thanks for these great insights.

[@dantino2279]

To be fair Camus also demonstrated his ideas through original stories (the stranger and plague)

[@glendanison3064]

A man said to the universe, "Sir, I exist." "However," replied the universe, "the fact does not create in me a sense of obligation." Stephen Crane Great channel. I just discovered this 2 days ago and now can't wait to get through the back catalog.

[@sechernbiw3321]

As a longtime fan of Lovecraft I've always felt there is a more positive side of his cosmicist philosophy. The ending of the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath hints that something about the culture and history of Lovecraft's native New England provided a precious bulwark for him against the indifference and alien inhumanity of the cosmos. Lovecraft also wrote a strange little poem called "The Peace Advocate" which is about a pacifist vicar in charge of a cathedral during wartime, who learns that his pacifism and his Christianity are not able to defend his family, his flock or his ancient and beautiful cathedral, and that defending them with force is sometimes a necessary response to aggression resulting from the faults of man. Its clear from the poem that Lovecraft thought the vicar's family, his flock, his country and his cathedral had real value, but that Christianity was a danger to all of them because it promoted wishful thinking and refusal to defend freedom, human life or human achievement. The conflict between humanity and the alien, inhuman wilderness can also be seen as a kind of war. I think these stories suggest Lovecraft agreed with the emphasis you find in the Lovecraft-inspired cosmicist show Rick and Morty on scientific advancement, family and other forms of human solidarity as a worthy response to the vast, inhuman indifference of the universe. As Morty pleads to an alternate version of his sister who is going through an existential crisis, "Don't run. Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die. Come watch tv?"

[@auraofeden7602]

but we don't exist. the only human nature is the self preservation, survival and nothing else is.

[@auraofeden7602]

e.e

[@sechernbiw3321]

@@auraofeden7602 Some worldviews or values might have more aesthetic value than others in the sense of being less or more cliche, more or less internally consistent, empirically consistent or consistent with an honest reckoning with what it is like to be a human being in an inconceivably vast universe, surrounded by half-deluded, absurd, half-animal creatures like ourselves, and positioned forever between the rock of human inhumanity to other humans and the hard place of the impersonal, uncaring, brutal and breathtakingly inhospitable conditions of the wilderness towards us even on planet earth where we evolved and which we have already partially taken control of, never mind in the airless and lifeless void of the vast space which surrounds us, dependent as we are on cooperation with other people, the power or duplicity of any one of which would be enough to kill us easily in a moment at any time. There are likely some universal themes here which are more befitting of us than others. I think its hard to argue (to chose an extreme example) that the "philosophy" of repeatedly slapping oneself in the face continually until death takes hold, for no reason, is equivalent in value to the quest to overcome and replace the wilderness with an artificial world where people can live well and honorably, whatever that might mean, and deal with one another as we deserve to be dealt with (not randomly cut down by lightning, fire or flood, to no end and for no reason, with no understanding, as happens to animals in the wild). Still, there is not going to be any one single universal answer, and there won't be any at all which entirely escapes the inevitable subjectivity and finitude of our situation and brain. In any case, that is my perspective. If you want to describe or label it, I think what I am saying is compatible with cosmicism, existentialism or absurdism, although I lean towards cosmicism more than I do towards existentialism or absurdism. By cosmicism I take myself to be describing the worldview of not only Lovecraft, but also Kazantzakis, the writer Cain linked above, Clark Ashton Smith, Frank Herbert, Arthur C. Clarke, Olaf Stapledon, Greg Egan and others. As I've mentioned, I think Rick and Morty does a pretty good job of representing this perspective, although its very far from providing the satisfying *justification* for cosmicism which I think can be found especially in Lovecraft and in Cain. Junji Ito is another popular visual artist whose works Uzumaki and Hellstar Remina are examples of tragic cosmicist art to complement the cosmicist comedy in Rick and Morty (the themes are especially unmistakable in Hellstar Remina). Erik Johansson is a prolific painter whose art arguably blends surrealism and cosmicism. Personally, 'red of tooth and claw' nihilism or animalism doesn't impress me. There is just a lot which it completely fails to explain. Even the pessimism of Thomas Ligotti's The Conspiracy Against the Human Race explains a lot more and makes a lot more sense. With Ligotti's pessimism you actually have to wrestle with and critique his values and arguments (for example, the slipperiness of attempting to define and measure pleasure, and the arbitrariness of judging life on that basis). With survivalist animalism it would be easy to critique the values involved. For example, no one "survives" or "preserves themselves" long, and even if they did, its very likely they would eventually become bored with preserving themselves for no purpose, as described very convincingly at the end of Greg Egan's Diaspora, or just as convincingly argued by Shelly Kagan in his course on "Death" which Yale has uploaded for free on KZbin, and that's just the beginning of the objections. Another objection from Kagan is that on a long enough timeline identity would lose any meaning, since either we would gradually replace our memories and convictions until we were an entirely different person, or else we would gradually accumulate memories of so many experiences in so many places that we would all begin to resemble one another more and more closely as we assimilated all knowledge and gained experience of every possible perspective and way of life, gradually becoming bored with all of them and with everything through the sheer monotony of endless repetition. You don't even have to make that critique though, because the animalist inherently doesn't understand what their human nature, as opposed to merely animal nature, actually is. Because of that, its enough to just contemplate what sort of animal has the mixture of rationality, persistence, absurdity and predatory exploitation of absurdity involved in the invention and propagation of something called a "social media platform" which is accessible on something else called a "smart phone." What animal besides a human could even *attempt* to create or *want* to create something like a social media platform or a smart phone, much less *actually* create and manage them and, with the right training, understand exactly how and why they work? The indifference of the other animals to the significance of the difference in kind involved here goes hand in hand with humanity's mostly indifferent, unintentional and almost unconscious slaughter of nearly every other animal species which is either even vaguely and rarely threatening to us or just happens to slightly get in the way of our whims. Those who would deny the difference between mere animals and humans are in disconcerting company with the apparent perspectives of the fast-disappearing wildlife who lack the personhood/human nature that would be necessary to compete with us meaningfully enough to prevent us from destroying their habitats and killing or enslaving them on a whim. This mass extinction and apparent end of the fully independent existence of most other animals is deeply, deeply unfortunate and tragic as far as I am concerned, but it's also worth noticing and contemplating the implications of.

[@auraofeden7602]

@@sechernbiw3321 dude, what a long reply...i mean i appreciate it, sincerely but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to take my time to answer. greetings.

[@darthlovecraft]

I myself am a fan of Lovecraft - so much so, that Cosmicism is a core part of my own philosophy on life, and I'm so glad to see a video analysis comparing it to other existentialist philosophies.

[@raskolnikovman936]

These are fascinating connections. I would never have thought of Lovecraft! Very well explained. I think the end is perfect, to find a meaning in a meaningless universe, mainly creating it ourselves and not relying on something else (e.g. God)

[@Davlavi]

This channel deserves way more views. Keep up the great videos.

[@NihilisticRealism]

Great upload, Thank you for highlighting my take

[@Eternalised]

Thanks for helping me understand interesting concepts ;)

[@johnmcwade1]

I’d say Lovecraft’s assertion that the universe/cosmos/existence has no meaning tells us more about his depressive mental state than anything real. Perhaps he perceives no meaning or can imagine no meaning, but he can’t possibly know that no meaning exists. Like, literally, cannot know. Which knocks the foundation completely from under his dark theses. Maybe it’s opposite. Maybe the universe is undergirded by unseen realms of beauty that endow everything with inherent value. We certainly live like that’s the case. When he called the earth “wretched,” I’m like okay, that’s so clearly wrong, this guy’s just morose. Great series; thanks for these synopses. Love the imagery you’ve chosen to accompany the script. Quite powerful!

[@TheFos88]

Strongly, I disagree. If one were to happen to have an experience where they could, in full consciousness, see what a distant star sees, for just a few moments even, I assure you that they'd literally lose all sanity. Removed from any other life on Earth, removed from our solar system... Just completely alone in an unimaginably vast and silent and cold sea of other galaxies dotting the back drop of darkness. No imaginary meaning. Just... There. You cannot convince me that it isn't all just complete random events one after another that will sooner or later collapse in on itself, perhaps to eternal discard or perhaps to begin all over again. Either outcome is meaningless and utterly terrifying. But I cannot dwell on these silly thoughts, I have a game to watch and some scotch to share with friends.

[@johnmcwade1]

@@TheFos88 Oh gosh, not trying to convince anyone of anything. Just making an observation. Although I will say you said that very well - “Just… There.” Great mental image of the nothingness, the vast, silent, cold aloneness, the randomness, the meaninglessness. I’ll add - of course you know this - that this picture exists only in the theater of your mind. (Amazing theater!) It’s not based on anything that any of us actually knows yet. It’s possible that it’s true, but based on Hubble’s findings it's fair to say there are a trillion trillion possibilities that it’s not. As I’m sure you also know, there’s growing talk in the astrophysics world that our universe is not THE universe but more like our neighborhood in an infinite realm that had no beginning. The hope is that the Webb telescope may help us learn more here. Of course, a cosmos with no beginning means it has always been, and is therefore eternal. Which is beginning to sound like God. The truth, I'd say, remains to be seen. No premature terrors necessary.

[@faulkgough1768]

found the hope nerd. yes, there is a deep mechanical grace in the way stars and galaxies form; in the way plants grow and how ice forms; in how atoms form and how space collapses... but there is no underlying love or meaning. It is a machine. If Big G is out there, they are an engineer, not a nurse. They care for the machine, not the detritus that hinders its moving. We do not matter. You except that and keep going, or you except that and exit stage left. Period. and either way, the universe doesn't care. but, before I go, you speak of morose? so, you have a meaning? you have a fundamental reason for why this universe needs you? May I inquire as to what you might and to the overarching eons of humankind that would in any way shape or form change the sway of earth in a way that any living thing that has ever been on this rock could argue changed anything? You poopoo on concepts of "dread" and "having no meaning" but cling to that fact you do. We by no means argue against life; but please, don't carry yourself like you matter because of "hope". To give hope is like offering to pray others food with a full pantry. The universe is a hard place. you may have it lucky, but to claim your luck means the universe isn't a bajillion miles around and full of exploding stars, and maybe aliens that may or may not want to kill us, and cosmic rays, and any manner of just not good stuff.... and, fuck... gods... and all that matters is... dododo happy thoughts and my good thoughts will keep me safe. I'm happy for you. I wish you the best and hope the cracks never open. May you never know what could be.

[@alexicouvaras965]

Been thinking for ages now about the similarities between cosmicisn and extistentialism as well as absurdism ... Interesting Video Topic 👍🏻 Keep up the good work..

[@Eternalised]

Thanks a lot Alexi! :)

[@igodreamer7096]

Great video, man! Keep up!

[@_..____]

Having quite a terrible day. Questioning my nature. Watching this video and meditating on these themes brought a sense of peace and stability to my mind. Learning from an alien truth is superior than blindly walking toward the warmth of a fire.

[@arkhie9883]

What more is terrifying than to imagine the existential horror that has been created by philosophy itself lurking outside the human will and the unconscious mind, then haunts the soul for the rest of eternity.. Indeed, a genre on its own right!

[@rudiiwii1]

i am grateful I found this through reddit... new Subscriber now!

[@Eternalised]

Awesome. Welcome to the channel. Glad you're here :)

[@iandonnelly522]

This is a great little gem of a channel! You deserve way more subs! 👍

[@Ed.Miller]

That was so good. Thank you!

[@Ralndrath]

Really noice vidya. Great way to sum up the existentialism and stuff. Subbed!

[@Eternalised]

Thanks a lot Ben!

[@NihilisticRealism]

Ey glad to see how well this is doing Definitely doing a full video on the dynamics of those 3 concepts

[@Eternalised]

Awesome. Looking forward to it.

[@jayabyss377]

Amazing. I loved this, cleared up many fuzzy concepts in my mind.

[@Eternalised]

Thanks very much! Glad it helped.

[@Dacademeca]

Oh my god this is epic! All the things in one video, great video and keep it up!!

[@Eternalised]

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it!!

[@luisschwank5550]

In depth analysis of Lovecraft and correlative philosophies, excellent video!

[@lastbot7383]

Just love this channel

[@KiraLou06]

Splendid presentation. Thank you.

[@Damn-Age]

Basically, the purpose of anything in this uni/multi-verse is to "create" own meaning/purpose. And that humans have both conscience and latest science as their initial boundary conditions.

[@sheldonwheaton881]

I was hooked on Lovecraft with that first paragraph of "The Call of Cthulhu"!🗿

[@mrScififan2]

great video

[@emberhydra7621]

Thank you for the video, it's fun to discuss this subject which align and interest me a lot

[@elantir9260]

I love your content, bro!!! You have a new suscriber. cx

[@kagamine5166]

new favorite channel!!!

[@Eternalised]

Welcome and thank you!

[@evanramirez2212]

Oh, you good....you reeeeal good 👍👌🌟....thanks for creating these video's man, their always succinct and packed with substance.

[@Eternalised]

Thank you very much!

[@micromikael4806]

it was a good video, it will help reflect with my own ideas.

[@rustcohle733]

Muy interesante el vídeo, lo disfrute mucho. También me gusto que estuviera subtitulado en español, gracias

[@InspirationFromThePast]

I certainly heard about Kathulu, but didn't heard much else about the author so it was quite interesting to hear on the authors take on life and other subjects.

[@JorgeSanchez-kr3eb]

Absolute 🔥 content

[@salomeabrt1574]

The first video of yours, that I saw. I really liked it. It reminds me of another channel, exurb1a. There he's exactly showing how vast insignificance of human life is actually liberating and how the possibility of things existing far outside of our imagination is actually fun and exciting. There's certain comfort in the absurd and freedom in being able to create own meaning.

[@Eternalised]

Thanks a lot Salomea! I love that, exurb1a is awesome. It's a very humbling and exciting notion.

[@DSAK55]

"Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV”. Mortimer Smith

[@SV42165]

Ayyy😃

[@VenusLover17]

Thanks so much!!

[@PhilosophyToons]

These are some interesting connections! What's your favorite Lovecraft story?

[@Eternalised]

Thanks, so far I loved Dagon more than any, although it's quite short. I'm reading quite a number of his stories atm :)

[@eastonscott988]

Subscribed!! Thank you for this awesome presentation. This is great content. Could you please raise the volume of your voice slightly next time? It is a bit soft but it could just be me. Looking forward to more.

[@Eternalised]

Thank you! Noted. I'll try to do something about the voice. Welcome to the channel.

[@freethinker79]

"Heed these words, you who wish to probe the depths of Nature: If you do not find within your Self that which you seek, neither will you find it outside. If you ignore the wonders of your own House, how do you expect to find other wonders? In you is hidden the Treasure of Treasures. Know Thyself and you will know the Universe and the Gods." --Oracle of Delphi

[@joehinojosa24]

Man is a fighter. He is born a fighter for Eternal love.He lives to love. He will defend love to the death after he surrenders all else. All that exists After death is yes, your love. SEE you guys in the void we all came from. PEACE BRUH.

[@nrpbrown]

Yeah this got me subscribed

[@Isaiahtorres149]

I cannot bring myself to agree with existential or nihilistic philosophies, though I find great comfort in them. All of these philosophies have one underlying and unified supposition imo: life is meaningless,purposeless, IF one defines oneself as separate from the universe. Let this idea sink and rattle within for a bit. If we are true “others” or complete strangers to this world, then indeed there is no inherent meaning in life. All these philosophies are put down after put down after put down of the human being. Yet, beyond what SEEMS to be, vs what IS, do we as humans have any actual compelling evidence to prove that we as humans truly do not matter? Apparently we matter enough for the universe to have grown us, for an earth to have nurtured us. We are indeed surrounded by endless void and infinite space and time, but realize that we are only insignificant IN COMPARISON to the cosmos. So this does beg the question, why do feel the need to compete and compare?? I think to really aid in digestion of this line of thinking is the Taoist position of mutual arising, and the alchemical quote: as above, so below. It’s oddly empowering to draw analogies between the necessity of unifying opposites, we don’t know hot apart from cold, nor up from down, light and dark, etc. well the universe and cosmos at large is obviously the macrocosm, and we the microcosm. The unlimited and infinite tied with the limited and finite. Our imagination and unconscious in our heads can be likened to the universe and infinte. Our conscious attention and ideals can be likened to the local universe and bounded world. These things seem to me absolutely necessary for each other. And we as humans exist literally on the edge of these two poles. We simultaneously inhabit both the infinite AND the finite. We can both discover and create meaning. We are both master and servant of this world. So I think if we seek a true cosmic purpose, it will be both given and created. Just like all authentic creations of art, it is a process of doing and allowing concentrated in the present moment whose seeds shall grow into future resonances. I think we are so alienated from our own roots and true being that we really believe we are outsiders in some profound and deep sense. Almost all of us identity with abstraction, and not what is. We can USE abstractions as tools, but like all tools, let them serve their purpose in the appropriate setting, the appropriate time,the appropriate place, the appropriate way in the context of whatever is happening.

[@iandonnelly522]

A suggestion may be to do a video on Miguel de Unamuno....that I would like to see! 😉

[@huntersexmes2839]

What's his cat's name though

[@thenobody9755]

Adored this video I have always found the connection between camus' absurd and Lovecraft's horror 🙏 I would go as far as to say Camus ought to be a central text in any study of post-anthroposcene 🙆‍♂️ Apologies for butchering the jargon 😵

[@Vlow52]

Due to the lack of neurobiological studies in the first half of 20th century, Cosmicism is still an anthropocentric idea. I think, Stanislav Lem was the closest fiction thinker, who tried to went further in his ideas, but it’s possible to go beyond with the crumbles of knowledge we have now.

[@stewartmair3995]

This is a great video explaining the post-death-of-God philosophies and you ended it in an interesting place. The next question to consider is, in a world without external meaning you're immediately confronted with absolute freedom which means absolute responsibility and hence an absolute burden. How do you go about adapting to the unbearable weight on your back without resorting to the philosophical suicide that you mentioned in the video?

[@giacomofasulo3861]

Finally someone who pronounces cthulhu correctly

[@lucasbaumgartner1361]

Interesting how you mention that Lovecraft's mythos "as an attempt to shelter him from the cosmic indifference of the universe". Lovecraft's "paradoxical claim that the absence of meaning to be some sort of meaning" is brilliant. Meaning is ultimately subjective. The Outer Gods have no meaning. They are just an animated reflection of the universe. However, our anthropocentric views challenge us when we view life (if you could call the outer gods alive) to have meaning. This contradiction leads humans to pursue meaning of that which has none, leading the mind down a road which has no end except insanity.

[@HeloIV]

Great video. There's a blogger named Zero HP Lovecraft, a horrorist, that you might find interesting.

[@Eternalised]

Thank you! Haven't heard of him, will check him out!

[@sookendestroy1]

Wow these principals very much accent eachother more than i thought. Im personally a prescriber of absurdism with a little bit of cosmicism, took me a while to come to that point after bouncing back and forth when i was younger. Personally Lovecrafts concept of humans coming upon a revelation so grand that it essentially drives men mad or destroys them, especially on a species wide scale has a luddic twinge. I wouldnt doubt that in the future we could find something or invent something where simply knowing of it or observing it could cause psychological damage in the sense of existential dread (a cognitohazard re SCP) but to assume as much of his works do that it is a sort of inevitability is odd in retrospect. Its like if you were to reveal that aliens existed the whole time, in the past you would see mass panic, now you still would but just as many would be excited as existential. And even in the modern day the largest sources of existentialism in that scenario (the leap of faith based churches) have already included clauses that allow aliens in their understanding of faith.

[@neversee3909]

Really curious on the connection of cosmicism and capitalist realism 🤔

[@moshefabrikant1]

5:15 Create your values in life. A greater meaning bigger then you. Buddha is great at it. 8:25 - 8:32 Myth exists to shield mind from reality I agree with that. And I think that anything big is scary because we understand how big the world is. How big life is. How we don't know many things. Most of the things in life we don't know but act like we do. We even dont know ourselves and we solve other problems with robots not ourselves. We solve Mars don't not ourselves. We get around the problem 13:00 It's hard for us to face life. We escape it with religion. What is the ideal life? Is escaping life because we don't understand the universe Or because its meaningless

[@alwaysgreatusa223]

It does not matter to me whether I am insignificant to the universe, so long as I am significant to myself -- yet not so significant to myself that I cannot laugh, nor love other people, nor sympathize with them, nor share with them some of their joys, their sorrows, their lives, and their dreams.

[@calvingrondahl1011]

In 1980 Carl Sagan tried to create meaning by embracing the Cosmos.

[@TheFos88]

I was literally just telling someone that I'm a cross between all of these. That's crazy.

[@jamesgrey13]

I opt to believe in a universe where a space monster, of unfathomable size, doesn't smack a speck of dust (Earth) as it's trying to hit a fly!

[@MrPooko]

There are two great paradoxes of human existence. The first, that god or no god, man is a thinking animal put here on earth to find truth and yet, ultimately, metaphysical truth is unknowable. The second is that the inability to find metaphysical truth does not prevent one from living a perfectly contented life.

[@lordodium3872]

What painting is at @4:45

[@cerwile1]

What is meaning? Please explain. People find it so important, but i don't understand what it is even supposed to be. Please tell me. Even bad answers are fine. When i try to figure it out i only find that almost always it's just an euphamism for reasons to live. Please tell me what it is, if not just that?

[@Dr0]

I think we can either see the world as having or not having a god and still fell into an existential crisis depending how self-conscious and how positive (or rather not being) about our existence. If we believe there is no god then we as humanity are alone and are not special at all, we are merely a probability existing in a comprehensibly infinite and indifferent universe. If, in the other side, we believe in a god, we must acknowledge that we were cast into a hostile world were there’s suffering nevertheless. And with God being all powerful then it is responsible not only of all the good but also all the bad and evil that is imposed over us. The idea of God can be terrifying and the only way it isn’t is assuming God is all loving and all good but at least from the bible if you actually read it, that wouldn’t be the case. Of closures, for people it’s better to be hopeful, else this ideas would destroy them if they were taken too seriously.

[@Zamindiana]

Basically its better to stay day dreaming this place is La la fairy tale and there is a “Daddy” God protecting us especially from Evil. At least to them existing in ignorance and lies helps them ease their reality. Most people think and bond that way.

[@EpicCygnus]

H. P. Lovecraft seems like a pretty cool person. I wonder what his cat is named.

[@Ambiguousss]

According to me, Lovecraft was not looking for meaning where there is lack of meaning as this video suggests. He was just trying to describe the ineffable. Which cannot be done.

[@Ensivion]

the way you've presented this concept to me (which I haven't heard of until now) is that it fails to disregard that humans live on a scale that is massive in comparison to other scales, i.e. bacteria and viruses. We are the bacteria's cthlulu . "cosmic indifference" thus is a fancy way of saying the absurd rather than anything more interesting.

[@FR-yr2lo]

Read "The Promethean Right"

[@phizzhead53]

Because i believe all things that begin to exist have a cause. And i know with as much certianty that i can have that the universe began to exist. It logicly follows that the cause of the universe needs to be somthing that always existed, and is not dependant on anything other than itself for existance, and i call that thing god.

[@bloke1348]

I have seen the dark universe yawning....

[@JSTNtheWZRD]

I think sysiphus by camus was a comedy, he is quite the funny guy. So was Dostoyevsky, Sartre was the serious one - and h.p. totally deadpan with it. But it's an opinion, ya know, maybe after I read more camus I'll change my mind - but not about Dostoyevsky.

[@VIVI1337]

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.

[@TheloniousCube]

I don't actually see Lovecraft as developing anything like a unique philosophy so much as dramatizing existential concerns - there isn't anything particularly original about his philosophical stance except perhaps the depth of his pessimism

[@misao7746]

2:52 what's that weird noise? It sounds like 2 syllables.. Do you hear that? It's reoccurring, ok.

[@rubenverheij4770]

::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The_meaning_ :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: of_life... :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Give_life_meaning!! :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

[@ronruggieri9817]

Lovecraft pioneered COSMIC HORROR , no doubt about that . His later LETTERS show him to have evolved into a democratic socialist . He was a kind and sensitive soul . Sometimes I feel that the ONLY antidote to Lovecraft's vision of COSMIC HORROR is pre-Vatican II Catholicism. A number of " YEARS BEST HORROR " stories I read recently are quite alien to the Lovecraft style. What I found REALLY scary about these stories is that they seem the product of unbalanced minds deranged by visions of sadistic horror PORN . " You can get rich on this sick trash ? " I wondered. If you cannot get beyond nihilistic COSMIC HORROR , then you will surely end up in the minions of Satan . Did popular science writer Carl Sagan consider this when he wrote his excellent book " The Demon Haunted World " ? What I liked about Albert Camus -his long reflections on THE ABSURD - was his concern to rise above the nihilism of our times. None of the obnoxious New Atheists show Camus' respect for the religious instincts of humanity that protect it from " the dark night of the soul ".

[@phizzhead53]

Actualy in my opinion the meaning of our exsientices it to provide entertainment and somthing intresting to watch for our creator so use that free will and go do somthing interesting

[@Andrew-bq9gz]

Our purpose in the literal sense is to use out collective awareness to spread colonize the universe and create sense.

[@dread-cthulu]

...why should anything have "meaning"?

[@badmojjo]

Lovecraft is narrating Lacan's real.

[@CJM-rg5rt]

I don't really understand the cosmic indifference.. like so what? It's incredible how people's minds are blown by that when realizing the absolute insanity of humans in their civilization mode is by far the most crushing realization. Anyone who's been successful in the slightest has been the least qualified person to understand what's really going on in their brains. They got to like.. care, else they stray from delusion and delusion is essential for joy and joy is essential to care. We literally need craziness only slightly less than food so yeah.. Cthulhu ain't got shit on that.

[@jbisntme]

The universe would mean nothing , and be the absurd , without the consciousness of man.

[@alexsveles343]

Lovcreftian cosmicism came straight out of Russian cosmicism…..except he used monsters and not science

[@thesimplicitylifestyle]

I wonder if ants think philosophical thoughts. I wonder if philosopher ants wonder if humans think philosophical thoughts. 😉

[@alwaysgreatusa223]

Philosophical Flavors for Neurotics : Cosmicism, Existentialism, Absurdism, and Nihilism Philosophical Flavors for Psychopaths : Rational Egoism, Objectivsm, Social Darwinism. and Nietzsche's Master Morality Philosophical Flavors for Depressives : Pessimism and Quietism Philosophical Flavor for Paranoids : Cynicism

[@mntnwzrd66]

Some people think HPL was so racist, they would look to racism to explain everything about him, like an indifferent Universe as the ultimate terror. Maybe that is a reaction formation to something far far more terrifying, maybe, the possibility that Karma is Real, and does not accept Racism as an excuse for how 'civilized' humans have always treated those they thought too powerless to fight back. An indifferent universe is warm and comfy compared to a universe that knows what you did, and what your Line did back hundreds of years, and that heard every prayer or curse that passed the lips of everyone they killed, raped, robbed, damaged, and shackled, and they are gunning for You, and if you should die, they will pursue you to the next life. That's a LOT more scary to a racist than an indifferent universe.

[@kallianpublico7517]

Feelings as philosophy? Trying to define a feeling logically? It seems to me that these philosophies of "meaning" are trying to resolve what is essentially irrational into some kind of rational process. If not some Hegelian Dialectic of purpose constantly reevaluating itself, then some ATTITUDE or shift in expectation which helps one cope with these "feelings" of meaninglessness. Unlike the three philosophers and their philosophies Lovecraft does not present an explanation of how to cope with "meaninglessness". Lovecraft presents meaninglessness indirectly; he gives us a literary glimpse of death that makes science itself puny. Lovecraft evokes the feeling of meaninglessness itself. Lovecraft's work has a unique perspective on science that is very keen and intuitive. He inherently understands the Darwinian impulse of science: that life is not "intention" but genes. Lovecraft understood, before genes were discoved, that the implications of Darwin and of science give us a view of the universe as essentially indifferent and violent. But instead of writing horror stories about being chased by malevolent creatures such as werewolves, vampires, and other alien creatures; Lovecraft has the indifferent universe itself gaze its eye(s) at us. The universe that science would have us believe in is exactly the kind that Lovecraft presents. It is a universe with a God of another image than man's: Azathoth's image - mad and blind. As opposed to the Gods of the Hindu or mythological texts. Neither is it the God of the Jewish texts which cares about our "morality". These are Gods of free will: intention; Cthulhu is a deterministic God who does not have believers but "followers".

[@themysteriousdomainmoviepalace]

Lovecraft wasn't okay. Neizche went mad. Just saying. Not everyone sees God as external.

[@hamburgler227]

I think you miss one essential point. In the end, you say maybe not having religion, and an omnipotent god/father figure, will actually allow us to find our own finite/mortal meaning in this world. But that is exactly what God is! He is man’s attempt at finding meaning in this overwhelmingly large universe, and he is created in our own image (ie. Not the other way around, which is how creation is explained in Christianity) most religions have some father figure, a god that looks like a human, but is immortal and all powerful. That is humans projecting themselves into the universe, but with power and everlasting life. Religion is the result of the search for meaning.

[@alexsveles343]

Herman oberto said to the Russians....you lit the flame and we wont lef it go extinguoshed until we have conquered space...Cosniccism emerged in Russia in Victorian era imperial russia....Soviet union inherited them and kickstarted the space age.

[@ChromiumCastle]

A whole lot of mental gymnastics in the comments to get around the fact that humanity exists for the sole purpose of doing whatever God wants us to do

[@reesetorwad8346]

No. Language isn't what you think it is. It's just noise. I know that's hard to "hear."

[@jeremifrancisco1]

Can you elaborate more, please?

[@satnamo]

A man cannot live without a ray of hope. I am a spark of the infinite that is functioning through this body+mind-complex. Why not become god unto our self ?

[@TheRealValus]

You have a glaring blind spot in your knowledge, Sir. Two words: Fyodor Dostoevsky

[@DoubleDsp]

It takes a small mind to believe in a god. To believe that he only focuses on the people of earth. The story goes that we got his son. Did god send his son elsewhere in the universe? Everything is insignificant! You live, you die! Have fun. I feel that you could take George Carlin and break his stuff down to a philosophical level and get to some of the same offerings of all that was offered in this vid. Big picture baby! Some can't or won't see it!

[@arciebaric3067]

I'm so upset that lovecraft die in meaningless. But this is how moratls portrays.

[@alambikkopatafruskj5525]

All these philosophies could be easily defined as dark Buddhism. All these authors are just missing the final step to real illumination, but they saw the dharma.

[@aydc6740]

reminds me of rick and morty 💀