Nihilism Is A Disease. But What Is The Cure?

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In this video, I talk about the 1957 film by Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal. This movie speaks on many subjects including the meaning of life, the existence of god, the afterlife, nihilism, atheism and much more. Please watch the movie and enjoy it for yourself.
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Full Movie:
• The Seventh Seal - HD ... (Old School)
• The Seventh Seal (1957... (4K edition)
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The Seventh Seal. Directed by Ingmar Bergman, SF Studios, 1957.
Bergman, I. (1957) The Seventh Seal [Film]. SF Studios.
Bergman I, director. The Seventh Seal. SF Studios; 1957.
Bergman, I. (Director). (1957). The Seventh Seal [Film]. SF Studios.
Directed by Ingmar Bergman © 1957 SF Studios. All rights reserved.

[@thomas_dries]

I’m a former nihilist who has begun to embrace absurdism. There is no set meaning to this life, but what that means is that we have the freedom to find\make our own meaning. The universe is cold and indifferent towards us, but that means we don’t have to conform to any kind of cosmic expectation.

[@mateusmatzensan]

And why does nihilism stop you from creating your own purpose?

[@SharedPhilosophy]

That's great! I also agree with the absurdist position. To me, it really is the most logical position and response against nihilism. Acknowledge it, and fight against it. Thanks for the comment!

[@jemperdiller]

You cant find meaning in absurdism if there is no meaning, it's just watered down nihilism, but even weaker epistemologically.

[@SharedPhilosophy]

Never said we can find meaning in absurdism. Just stated that it's a better way of dealing with nihilism than succumbing to nihilism

[@chananbaer7979]

There is a Creator. He made you. You didn't ask to be created. He had a reason. A need. You have no needs. You don't even need to be alive. But you must have a purpose bigger than you. His purpose for you- your mission, if you will. That's your purpose- to serve creation, or being-in the unique ways that only you can.

[@OrdnanceLab]

Great video and analysis. One of these days I'll get around to watching it.

[@SYN990]

This content is really under-rated with only 4K views. It's beautifully directed and well-written, especially the exploration of nihilism and its cure through the lens of The Seventh Seal. The way the film portrays Block’s struggle with faith amidst existential dread, Y’s secular and absurdist approach to meaning, and the contrasting coping mechanisms of other characters like Y and Mia, is profound. The diverse responses to death and suffering highlight the various ways people deal with the human condition. Excellent work in capturing these deep themes and presenting them so thoughtfully!

[@SharedPhilosophy]

Thank you so much! This is one of the videos that I really did my best to put time and effort into so I really deeply appreciate this compliment! Thank you so much for watching!

[@thyholynoodle6282]

We’ve spent all of the time the universe has existed before our birth as non-existence. Our biological fear of death triggers us to find comfort wherever we can. But as far as I am concerned when we die, we return back to non-existence. No more happiness but also no more pain. I like to think of it as peace, even though there is no longer a brain to interpret that peace. Life is like a fish leaping from a river. The river is non-existence. And but for a mere moment we exist for no other reason than because we can. We can spend in eternal anxiety and fear, or learn to find our own meaning in an inherently meaningless life.

[@jasinstuart41]

this one right here is spot tf on for me

[@wilmedina8368]

😁 nothing matters and that's ok. It means we are all free to live as we please 😁. If you're not having fun then you're doing it wrong (living life).

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

Alternatively your brain may literally be incapable of releasing the happy chemicals, but you know this is a thing already

[@Feverdream7777]

I have something to say to the world that's been on my mind since learning about Nihilism years ago: I've always looked at Nihilism as existential cowardice ... it's not admirable. Life in it's very definitions and mechanisms are to FIGHT.... fight to survive... fight to consume... fight to change.... Life is not a given ... it takes effort...not cowardice and apathy. ... it happens under the most unfavorable conditions.... and you must fight for each breath, even fight yourself at times. Yes, ultimately it all means nothing... but you don't have the luxury of a external viewpoint to judge yourself and your conditions. You are simply here to fight and your prove worthiness to live both for yourself and your family (or those you love and love you). Don't let the truth of actual emptiness/meaninglessness ruin what short time you have here. Your role in this universe is NOT to get so smart that you simply give up... it has to be more than that.

[@SharedPhilosophy]

Absolutely agree! We have this one life and we shouldn't waste it worrying about the nothingness and meaninglessness of life. We have it now and here, so we should just live it, enjoy it ,and cherish it. If anything does really matter then we could say that our subjective wellbeing and happiness matters. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist in the finite. I see nihilism as very much similar to solipsism in terms of how they are actually useful philosophical viewpoints. They pretty much stop all discussion about anything and end up being useless cowardice philosophies in the end. Thanks for the comment!

[@moveax1]

So argument from nature. Since life is ridiculous (only 1 lion cub out of 8 gets to adulthood) we should cherish the carnage and fight fight fight just like mother nature says we should... nice pep talk. Intelligence is just a scheming tool to out scheme other humans. After all the biggest threat to a human is other humans, and they have brains too, so it evolves as an arms race to compete against each other. Nature is just a gladiator war with no purpose. You have no 'role' it is made up. The universe doesn't assign roles, nor does it care. All holy books are humans writing down concepts, not actualized things in reality. I guess you could worship the laws of logic or something. "it has to be more than that" = "I want my wishful thinking to be true".

[@umairm.5662]

Yeah, knowing Nihilism is the reality shouldn't let anyone just bed rot all day justifying it with the existential crises. Still from a behavioral perspective I think people still live normally even knowing Nihilism is true - I think it's very rare that your knowledge is affecting your life - it's your ability which is making you not fight, and knowing Nihilism is just a lame excuse you put forward. There are people who learn for fun while living a happy and normal life and then there are philosophers who overthink everything to find meaning in it to change the course of their lives. I from experience can say, IT DOESN'T WORK.

[@umairm.5662]

This actually creates very simple life advice... My father was a failure who always put his religious views in front of me justifying his actions (which were none, cuz he never did anything in his life except sleeping, talking and Namaz). And of course worship was his justification of everything bad happening to him including his wife left and he is living alone for 20 years. He has some good religious views, LIKE any philosopher of course. SO IF YOUR KNOWLEDGE IS JUSTIFYING YOUR ACTIONS THEN IT'S KNOWLEDGE ISN'T FOR YOU. You're just in some confirmational bias situation and given there are so many realities you will really get far away from the commonly accepted reality. If you're consuming knowledge for fun, or maybe to streamline your things and get your life on your path. Then it's fine. Knowledge is for action not for justification. It's what education is for. You learn math to apply not philosophize. I just hate how philosophers live their lives.... Well it's just kinda rant, and I just met my father after so many years and he just made me more angry and I just spit it out to him, which of course he didn't understand - but his life is a total failure.

[@mateusmatzensan]

Oh, wow, we found a genius here. Congrats, my friend. BUT, as you said, the natural order is to fight. It actually takes courage to stop fighting. None coward is able to kill himself. Just becasue what you said, it's not natural. I'm a nihilistic and I like my life. My purpose is to have the most amount of pleasure with the less effort possible. But I don't say this is the universal right, because there is no such thing, it's just my right. If you think you have to fight, that's just your right, and no one else's.

[@jemperdiller]

The cure is Dostoyevsky.

[@Jman16007]

I don't think so. The cure is to look at the phenomenon plainly and clearly. See cause and effect. Then decide to turn away from it towards the opposite. Human greatness.

[@Critt_Ari]

If we were to call nihilism a disease dostoyevski would be a mountain of plague infected rats.

[@SharedPhilosophy]

Lemme guess, you like Jordon Peterson? No hate if you do, I love the man too (except when he talks about religion)

[@jemperdiller]

​@@SharedPhilosophyI like Dostoyevsky. The old lobster have decent understanding, but he just have to include Dostoyevsky in his individualistic classic liberal frame, which ironically destined to devolve into nihilism, as any enlightenment worldview. Meanwhile contextual analysis shows that Dostoyevsky literally invented cure for nihilism and brilliantly predicted future of west in case it won't be applied (which makes it much more pronounced than Leskov solution, for example). His formula was only bested and perfected by Seraphim Rose.

[@Jman16007]

I draw a lot from reading Schopenhauer's small collected works, parerga und paralipomena. He's the most well-argued nihilist. From there you see Nietzsche, a former admirer of Schopenhauer. Nietzsche is the vehement opposer of nihilism.

[@constantinefilip]

Once we discover that life is meaningless, we have two options. One, we just give up. Two, we see it as a liberation, as an inhale of fresh air, now you have no expectation, and can explore the world as you want (but following some moral and law hopefully). Honestly, it's the first time when I actually read the comments intentionally. One of them really made me question myself, because it's so true that we have this "slave mind", or rather "child mind", being unable to live without father authority, putting responsibility onto others, expecting instead of acting - that is so true. Yes, the truth is, we are afraid to be free, we'd rather cling on some ideology/religion. We can't create order in our life, so give this task to smb/smth else. But... when we abandon faith, we tend to cling on / obsess over something else so we create our own meaning or purpose instead of previous one that was forced by society. But how do we now, that our new meaning is truly ours?

[@SharedPhilosophy]

"Two, we see it as a liberation, as an inhale of fresh air, now you have no expectation, and can explore the world as you want (but following some moral and law hopefully)." Thank you for putting that preface on the morality at the end. Yes if we truly want to enjoy the freedom of meaninglessness then we should follow a moral framework because this allows us to not have our freedom taken away by the circumstances we create through evil actions. By not being moral, you'll go to jail, feel guilty, feel shame, have everyone hate you, etc. and these situations mean no more freedom. "so we create our own meaning or purpose instead of previous one that was forced by society. But how do we now, that our new meaning is truly ours?" You don't. And it sucks, but it's reality. You'll never have a guarantee. But I'd say you could identify if that meaning is good for you if it makes you happy and feels like you have an importance in the world. Because at the end of the day, that's all meaning in life. The feeling that you have an impact or importance in your life. Thanks for the comment!

[@gianni206]

As a Christian, I struggled with God’s existence and how it’s hard to both suffer and not hear Him. Yet that is what we’re called to do. To be faithful with very little. And through that, suffering is avoided, or at the very least it’s made easier now that I know my life’s purpose. And death is transcended. I don’t think humans can create their own purpose. We’re too limited to do something so powerful. We all have gifts and personalities and talents, and we can find our purpose based on what those things are. But we can never create our own purpose. Trust in God and Christ, for that’s where our meaning has been set before the universe was even founded 🙏

[@SharedPhilosophy]

As a former Christian, I can see how this viewpoint is appealing. However, firstly, evidence of god needs to be presented in order for me to accept that he exists and he set a meaning for my life. Secondly, creating our own meanings in life is not something beyond us, we do it all the time and as far as I know, that's what we have done with god. Created him in order to create meaning in our lives. Third, our personalities, talents, and identity are shaped by our environment and how we are raised and what we are exposed to when growing up. If I never heard about biology then how would I have the talent and personality of someone who likes biology. If someone never heard about Christianity, then how would they become a Christian? Fourth, the notion that our meaning for our life is set in place before we were even born is immensely depressing to me and undermines the notion of freewill as we have already had our life dictated for us before being born. There is no freewill to choose what you'd like to do in your life because it would go against the meaning set in place by god and what is more important than the purpose god gave you? Stating that we have no meaning in our lives without god is like a slave asking what he is supposed to do without his master. For some people, this level of freedom that we have in this life is too overwhelming so they may appeal to god as their master. As Jean Paul Satre stated, "man is condemned to be free." Thanks for your comment!

[@gianni206]

@@SharedPhilosophy Interesting thoughts! I totally understand this viewpoint. I definitely bought into it myself. I would say there is evidence for God, and just we can’t look for it in science because science is all about the human’s ability to observe. It always starts with what the human can grasp. But even then we’d see a unloving universe that has some order to it, despite the fact it was born out of chaos. That’s the intelligent design argument. If we looked more to logic, we’d see the cosmological argument, the ontological argument, the simulation argument, and the argument from objective morality. Atheists bring up critiques of these arguments, they never bring up actual counter-arguments (except for intelligent design and the simulation argument). So the fact most if not all of these arguments can work together at once, is proof of God. But it doesn’t stop there. Look to history: ancient monotheism is evident across the world. The idea that all religions were born out of animism is euro-centric and unproven. Many ancient tribes speak of being shepherded by a single invisible God, usually male in their function. Then there’s the resurrection of Christ… an event that turned 12 eyewitnesses into martyrs. An event said to have over 500 witnesses. This was in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Also, Pascal’s Wager totally works: christianity is one of 3 religions deemed “a true religion” by social scientist Roger Stark. The criteria: it assumes God exists, it’s consistent in its principles and doctrines, and it’s progressively complex in its revelation. Islam and Hinduism and others can’t say that. Out of the 3 “true religions”, only Christianity purports Hell for those that reject God in their hearts. So there’s the quickest proof on why that Christianity is true. I can go into depth on any of these arguments, not problem. On the topic of meaning: it’s not something completely set in stone, at least from our vantage point. You choose God, then you serve based on the passions and talents you have. You basically work it out with Him. There’s a lot of freedom in this. Most of all, Christianity is real freedom: freedom from sinful pleasures you can’t control. No other freedom is more real than this.

[@gianni206]

Christianity is hard, but it’s worth it. That’s all I can say. Pray today when you can sir 🙏 May God bless you

[@jskyg68]

@@gianni206 I think where most people go wrong is thinking Christianity is a religion, it's not it's a relationship with Jesus. The suffering we all go through is usually from our own bad choices, the 10 commandments are in full affect if we break them expect punishment, without punishment how does he correct our errors? "Zechariah 13:9 - And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined" We need to look at ourselves as Gods personal projects, a piece of wood in a Craftsman's hands goes through many changes to get to the final finished piece. If we can Humble ourselves and ask God to show himself he will, just don't expect it the way you think he will.

[@gianni206]

@@jskyg68 Amen! As St. Paul said, the cross is foolishness to the world and life to those who believe :)

[@SedgeHermit]

Being overlooked here is that moral anti-realism is true and is not a disease.

[@SharedPhilosophy]

Agreed. Nihilism is true but a disease, because it exists, and it plagues us. I feel that moral philosophy doesn't really play into this however. Nothing morally is being spoken about here. I also agree with the position of moral anti-realism, because by their nature, morals are subjective expressions about what a person ought and ought not to do and therefore cannot exist without a human mind, therefore not being objective or "real"

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

So in short, subjective morality.

[@fabiosilva9637]

oh baby, nihilism has just started. Once we stop relying on each other to solve each other's problems, value itself will literally cease to exist. Get ready and find some philosophical shelter.

[@SharedPhilosophy]

How bro felt after typing that: 😈😈😈

[@Visual_CirKus]

not sure nihilism is a disease. The philosophy of pessimism is VERY interesting ( True Detective Season 1 - "The Rust Cohle Files" )

[@FriendlyNeighbourhoodSkumbag]

As someone who was never raised religious, I really fail to understand why nihilism is seen as such a crisis by some people. So what there's no higher, authoritative meaning to life, do what you will with it, if you can't figure that out & you need to be given an answer, then you will yourself to be ruled. Freedom is terrifying, but a life lived without the courage to face the truth is not only devoid of meaning, but entirely pointless.

[@mateusmatzensan]

That's perfect. A world without universal rules or purpose means you get the freedom to create your own. People say nihilism is a weakness but you gotta have courage to think that way instead of the confort of thinking there is a god taking care of you.

[@SharedPhilosophy]

I wasn't raised religious either and left religion after seeing the problems with it. I just think a true strong nihilistic mindset can be unproductive or even harmful to human flourishing. Thats why I prefer absurdism.

[@FriendlyNeighbourhoodSkumbag]

@@SharedPhilosophy I think it depends on what resolves you to nihilism in the first place, if you strive for meaning in life & find none, then find yourself lost in a nihilistic worldview, in that case I agree it can be harmful. However, if you're just looking for what is vs. what isn't, I haven't found any sound hypothetical or evidential argument for anything other than what is apparent, meaning is a prescription, not a description & with regards to objective reality does not exist. I do believe there is meaning in experiential, subjective reality & that is the striving, rebellious attitude to live a meaningful life in a meaningless world, which I guess makes me more of an absurdist but I believe that to still be a nihilistic worldview, because meaning still has no worthy definition outside of our subjective experiences.

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

I’ll dodge the pointless thing, if not doing that thing you value is someone’s prerogative then so be it, they may decide if there is a point, as opposed to someone they never met. *Ah good this is a point you also said in a different way

[@karlheber23]

@2:36, you cut out a piece of the conversation.

[@SharedPhilosophy]

Yeah it was about 2 sentences which talked about the fact that people would face their death someday, which i talk about later in the video. Looking back at idk why excluded it, thats my bad 😅

[@highestsettings]

I don't think the problem is necessarily with Nihilism itself, but the response people have to it. Assuming that Nihilism is correct and the universe has no meaning, why does that mean that people should give up? Why do people require the universe to revolve around them in order to pursue a good life and a better world? That interpretation makes no sense to me, it just smacks of narcissism honestly. "The universe doesn't care about me, so I give up." Its a childish, petulant response to that notion. Do you not still exist? Do you not still feel pain and joy? Those are the reasons you engage with the world, not because there is some grand purpose and you have your role to play. Personally, I think the universe does have meaning. Perhaps not in the sense that everything is contributing to a larger whole however, though that may be the case. I believe meaning is created not discovered. You don't just one day stumble upon the thing that gives you purpose and makes your life meaningful. You have to look for it and you have to build it. The universe has meaning because life creates meaning. To me, that's the rebuttal to Nihilism. But even if you reject that concept and say that it still doesn't exist, as I said above, I don't understand and will never understand why to so many people the universe not caring about us means we should all find some hole to crawl into and collectively die.

[@SharedPhilosophy]

Very well said. I think the reason why many people think nihilism implies that we should just give up is that they believe it's the only logical conclusion that can be drawn from such a circumstance. I agree with what you're saying, that's why I like the philosophy of Absurdism, which asserts that even though there is no meaning to the universe and life we should continue to live our life and fight against any pessimistic thoughts that may arise from nihilism. Thanks for your comment!

[@genghiskhan7041]

Nihlism is simply truth.

[@SharedPhilosophy]

Yep. Nihilism exists just like disease exists. But we need to find a way to deal with it, just because it's the truth doesn't mean it's beneficial for us

[@TotesRandom]

You dont understand the word disease.

[@SharedPhilosophy]

@@TotesRandom seems like you don’t understand a metaphor is

[@davids.4431]

interested

[@JacobMarkHarrison]

The Munchausen trilemma is the cure

[@SharedPhilosophy]

I actually just learned about this recently. Are you suggesting that we should be pulling ourselves up by our boot strap?

[@johnblackman6523]

Jesus

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

Instead of some annoying prose you don’t care about, I’ll say this. Literally just live your life, we’re apes screaming on a ball of dirt. Just don’t murder people please and thank you.

[@SharedPhilosophy]

Oh I'm fine with a prose! As long as it's not religious claims with no evidence like "god gives us meaning" I hate those comments because it immediately puts an end to a huge question about life by plugging it with a simple solution with no evidence to back it up. Life is more complicated than that. I love having discussion on existential philosophy and the different ideas people have. Thanks for the comment!

[@mateusmatzensan]

Nihil: nothing. Nihilism: ''nothingism''. It only means you don't believe in nothing besides this world. It doesn't mean you think nothing makes sense. And if it does mean to you, then that's all alright. There isn't such things as ''right'' or ''wrong'' in philosophy, and therefore, in life itself.

[@SharedPhilosophy]

I never thought of nihilism that way. I just think that the logical conclusion of nihilism has the potential to make us basically give up on life and achieving anything in this life. Thats why I prefer absurdism, because it acknowledges the truth of nihilism but still asserts us to protest against it.

[@zhamed9587]

"But whoever turns away from My Reminder will certainly have a miserable life, then We will raise them up blind on the Day of Judgment.” - Quran 20:124 The cure is right in front of our eyes. Come to Islam

[@SharedPhilosophy]

Appreciate the invite but religion isn't for me for many reasons. Also, every religion ever has this same claim so the choice wouldn't be clear anyway

[@zhamed9587]

@@SharedPhilosophy In your last statement, you're committing what is known as the genetic fallacy. The choice is clear once you apply a very simple filter: Islam is the only religion and tradition that has Isnad. Scholars have said that without Isnad, anyone would have claimed whatever he wanted - which is exactly what we see in all other religions and traditions, including philosophical ones.

[@retdfdtfrdrtfhf]

thug shaker

[@SharedPhilosophy]

what 😭

[@gillesser7351]

nihilism is only possible on people's mind because of comfort they made that excuse to enjoy freely without consequence

[@JCdental]

what?