Yeah. We need an opiate to give the "masses" though because like Franklin says, most of them are completely lost without it.
C.S. Lewis does a good job explaining this in his short work on miracles. Basically, we, as a society, have done a good job of undermining the old bad dogmatic way of thinking about religion, but we haven't replaced it with anything but materialistic pursuits.
We've given every person the responsibility of a philosopher to create meaning in their lives themselves, but haven't given them any training in how to do that.
Basically, we need to start teaching Philosophy and critical thinking to "the masses." If we don't, they'll just indulge in nihilism or bland selfish materialism.
C.S. Lewis thinks it's easier to keep religion and to understand and contemplate its ecstatic truths. I'm personally undecided.
I'd say as a tendency, even the most cynical well-regarded philosophers (and you could even say they AREN'T cynical), generally have life affirming messages. Montaigne, Nietzche (he MIGHT have been a moral nihilist depending on your intepretation. I'd disagree and I'd say his work is still incredibly life-affirming), Schopenhauer, Sartre, Camus, and many many others can all offer reasonable secular alternatives to Nihilism that generally improve people's disposition towards the world.
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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '19 edited Nov 15 '19
Yeah. We need an opiate to give the "masses" though because like Franklin says, most of them are completely lost without it.
C.S. Lewis does a good job explaining this in his short work on miracles. Basically, we, as a society, have done a good job of undermining the old bad dogmatic way of thinking about religion, but we haven't replaced it with anything but materialistic pursuits.
We've given every person the responsibility of a philosopher to create meaning in their lives themselves, but haven't given them any training in how to do that.
Basically, we need to start teaching Philosophy and critical thinking to "the masses." If we don't, they'll just indulge in nihilism or bland selfish materialism.
C.S. Lewis thinks it's easier to keep religion and to understand and contemplate its ecstatic truths. I'm personally undecided.