323 | Nihilism
The Minimalists
Joshua Fields Millburn
4.7 • 11.5K Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2022
⏱️ 56 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How are nihilism and minimalism related? (02:57)
Is Fight Club’s Tyler Durden an example of nihilism? (05:33)
What did Nietzsche mean by the “death of God”? (07:11)
What started the recent rise in nihilism? (10:58)
Is anger merely unrealized expectations? (12:21)
What is the “belief through the other”? (17:22)
How do you define “fundamentalism”? (18:32)
Are nihilism and pessimism the same perspective? (19:03)
How do we overcome pessimism? (20:24)
What would cause someone to become a nihilist? (21:38)
Why did Nietzsche believe we must all experience the death of God? (23:25)
What is “dialectics”? (24:15)
How do I help myself and my children adequately recover and move on after the death of their father ‬and the disintegration of my second marriage? (26:36)
What are “beta-elements”? (29:27)
What is an “alpha function”? (29:45)
What is your perspective regarding “symptoms”? (30:47)
What is the value of a psychotherapist for those of us struggling with issues? (31:04)
How do you find new meaning in life when the meaning you wanted is no longer an option? (33:21)
How do you define “depression”? (34:11)
What is the “object cause of desire”? (33:54)
How do you define “love”? (36:59)
How do you address a void? (40:24)
Why do you consider Los Angeles the most religious place in the world? (43:12)
What is “leveling”? (49:33)
What is the difference between a problem and a mystery? (53:34)
Detailed show notes: minimalists.com/podcast
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I |
| 0:14.0 | Fun. |
| 0:20.1 | that's just feeding your greed, oh I bet that you'd be fine without it. |
| 0:27.2 | Hello Minimizers, welcome to the Minimals Podcast where we discuss what it means to live |
| 0:31.9 | a meaningful life with less. My name is Joshua Fields-Millburn and my good friend Ryan |
| 0:37.2 | Nicodemus is out today. He has a children's cold and so we brought a special guest in the studio. |
| 0:44.1 | You're going to see him in a moment but first let's talk about our culture. We live in a culture |
| 0:49.9 | that's obsessed with positivity and purpose and so we've been told that nihilism is perhaps the |
| 0:57.0 | worst possible outcome for humans but is that true? Is nihilism always bad? Today on the public |
| 1:04.3 | podcast we're speaking with the philosopher, he's our fan favorite Peter Rollins is here today. |
| 1:09.9 | We're going to talk about the nuances of nihilism. Then this Thursday on the Minimals Private |
| 1:14.1 | Podcast Peter and I are going to talk about depression, despair, suicidal thoughts and suffering. |
| 1:21.0 | You could find that long form conversation at patreon.com slash the Minimists. There you'll also |
| 1:27.1 | gain access to hundreds of hours of private archives. Your support keeps our podcast and YouTube |
| 1:33.7 | channel 100% advertisement free because advertisements suck. Well Peter before we get into our first |
| 1:41.6 | question today, I really got to say you truly are a fan favorite. So thank you for being on the |
| 1:47.2 | podcast. You're just buttering me up because I know that I was not the first choice for today. I |
| 1:52.0 | know that the email came in a few days earlier so you can butter me up as much as you want. |
| 1:58.0 | It is true that he lives in Los Angeles that we can get last minute. He doesn't have a life. |
| 2:03.4 | He'll be able to do it. I've been wanting to have this conversation about nihilism for a long time. |
| 2:10.9 | In fact, the day we're recording this is the 11 year anniversary of the Minimals. In that first |
| 2:17.0 | month in December of 2010, we put up a post about well the nihilism will fight club and how it may |
... |
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