Best Philosophy Meme of the Day
22nd of March, 2020.
Amidst the Coronavirus crisis, there is some need for fun. We will hence start to share the best science and philosophy memes on a daily basis (on the provision that we find quality memes). Feel free to send us your favourite. If we select it, you will receive an honourable mention.
The best meme today comes from What Is It Like to Be a Philosopher?. Once again, it is a meme about existentialism:
Know your meme:
The picture depicts Professor Charles Francis Xavier, also known as Professor X, founder and leader of the X man — a team of mutant superheroes. Charles is bound to a wheelchair. In return, however, he has gained tremendous intelligence and psychic powers. Whether it is in the comics, movies, or animated series, the above pose is frequently found across these media, depicting him using his powers. Here, his mind/brain is put under enormous strain — indicating that he is trying something extremely difficult (such as penetrating someone’s mind).
The point of the meme is to suggest that the creation of meaning in a meaningless world is impossible — that even the smartest person in the room is unable to achieve this impossible task. The problem here is nihilism, or to be more precise: existential nihilism:
Since Friedrich Nietzsche, philosophers have grappled with the question of how to respond to nihilism. Nihilism, often used as a derogative term for a ‘life-denying’, destructive and perhaps most of all depressive philosophy, is what drove existentialists to write about the right response to a meaningless universe devoid of purpose. This latter diagnosis is what I refer to as existential nihilism, the denial of meaning and purpose, a view that not only existentialists but also a long line of philosophers in the empiricist tradition ascribe too. (Veit 2018, p. 212)
Nihilists deny that the quest of the existentialist can be successful. Where there is no meaning, no meaning can be created.
Nothing matters…
For an essay on the question of how life in a meaningless world is possible, click here:
Check out yesterdays winner, a battle between two such existentialists: Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
Send us your favourite memes (whether philosophy or science) and we will share them here.
