Philosophy uses words to create meaning
Meaning is the interconnected matrices of phenomena/noumena.
Metaphorically.
Philosophy is a mental map of a geography.
Nihilism’s map is a fantasy map or an anti-map, rep[resenting no experienced geography.
Points on the map are phenomena in the world.
Distances, elevations, terrain etc. represent connectivity.
all these connection establish meaning.
A philosophy that cannot define its own concepts is not a philosophy - it is an anti-philosophy
Anti-wisdom.
No lover of wisdom.
A definition that cannot connect the concept to experienced reality - world - is all theory.
If it is used to replace the world it is nihilistic.
Example:
A spirituality that proposes a singularity, negating the world’s multiplicity, is anti-world.
A philosophy that proposes an immutable, indivisible, thing-in-itself, or a god-particle, or a one/nil - an absolute. Is anti-world.
a philosophy that constructs an elegant, magical fantasy map that corresponds to no existing geography, yet offers the mind an alternate world, i.e., Tolkien’s Middle Earth, or DC MARVEL Universes, or Rowling’s Harry Potter overlapping fantasy world, is nihilistic if it is literally believed and considered to be more real than the real world.
Semiotics - words, symbols, codes - are mediating connectors between the mind’s representations - abstractions, concepts - and the world outside the mind, experienced via a mediating interactive phenomenon e.g. light, atmosphere.
The map is a noetic representation of the world, not the world itself; nor is it a replacement alternate world.
Like a map it uses symbols, converting mathematically, the world to a representation of the world - an interpretation.
The interpretation - like any good map - is not arbitrary, nor is it imposed upon people by some collective; its utility is based on its accuracy and its accuracy is easily evaluated by every mind independently.
A map requires constant updates because all is in motion - dynamic. It requires constant reaffirmation.
The utility of the map is not determined by its popularity, like fantasy maps that use the map to escape the real world, not to engage it.
Three levels.
Physis… primary - ground, dynamic, interactive, existent.
Metaphysis…foundation of physis. Aligned with, not contradicting physis. Secondary - foundation.
ideal…aligned with the first two, projected as an objective - an orienting goal. Tertiary - ambition, destination.
These three bring us to Plato’s psyche:
Reason (charioteer) - Will (reigns) - Passions (steeds)
Past (immutable, determined) - present/presence (dynamic interactive becoming, determining) - Future (projection, yet to be determined)
Past manifests presence - perceived as appearance - moving towards the forever distancing future (space/time expanding outward, from a near absolute point that never finalized - Yin/Yang.
Chaos/Order
Patterned/Non-Patterned Energies.
Chaos is not complexity, it is the absence of pattern (order) which a conscious mind cannot perceive directly and so interprets it as void, darkness, abyss.