“Nothing matters” is an easily disprovable claim. I assure you many things matter to me. Mattering is subjective.
“Everything as a whole does not matter” or “there is no single ultimate purpose to everything as a whole” are more valid claims, but tautological. Something can only matter to some subject by definition, and ‘everything’ is a magic word that includes every thing, so it can’t matter to anything else, by definition, because there is no thing outside everything to which it could matter. This tautology is not well summarised as “nothing matters”.
I used to take solace in the “nothing matters” notion from nihilism, but I now think it’s a false and dangerous comfort. 1) it’s straight up disprovable with a few seconds’ analysis – really just a motivated twisting of the above tautology into something quasi-profound, and 2) it’s burying your head in the sand – it’s avoidant wordplay that will eventually fail you, engendering a dull feeling of narcissistic loneliness over time. I now think it’s better to recognise that each case of something ‘mattering’ requires both an object and a subject. That subject isn’t always you, but you might as well start with the cases where you are the subject. You can notice things that matter to you (just basics like pain, pleasure), and that they do indeed matter to you. Then you can consider that there are other minds, and realise that what matters to them isn’t the same as what matters to you - but the fact that things do matter to them may itself matter to you, and so on and on. Once you start looking for meaning you realise the universe is absolutely teeming with it. Just an unfathomable number of connections of meaning between subjects and objects. In human society there is a combinatorial explosion of matterings.
Life is indeed a cool trip, an adventure, but only so because it is so full of events that absolutely fucking matter along the way. And yes, then you die. That doesn’t mean none of it mattered to you, and it doesn’t mean none of what you did mattered to anyone else. These are just logical errors.
You might think I’m just being pedantic. But I think it’s a very important distinction. “Nothing matters” is not just pedantically different from “There isn’t one single universal reason for everything as a whole”, it’s completely different in its implications. The former is an oversimplification that causes a lot of unnecessary feelings of bleakness, and probably causes a lot of indirect social harm by drawing excellent minds into inaction, springing from a platitude we tell ourselves when things get too much and then repeat as a kind of sad-mantra. The latter correctly reveals itself as tautological wordplay that we may discard as meaningless.
It's important to differentiate between things that matter to my emotional well being and things that matter in a universal sense. Plenty of things matter to my personal monkeybrain - I want to have a stockpile of nutritious, calorie dense foods. I want to feel free of danger from predators and natural hazards, I want members of my tribe to prosper and multiply, etc. All those things might as well be noise on the universal scale.
It doesn't refute anything. The point is rather; what matters to you is part of your personal journey. Ultimately it still doesn't matter in the grander scheme, but that isn't the point of enjoying your adventure while you're around.
Does the cosmos care if I give my Mother a birthday present or not? Unlikely it does. Do I? Yes, I send one every year. Does it matter then? Not really, but I like doing it because I like being nice to my Mother.
I think we nearly agree, but I’d say you’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
The bathwater is the notion of a subjective cosmos, some overarching supreme being to whom specific events ought to matter somehow. I’m very happy to throw out that bathwater, along with other theocratic sophistries that still influence our thinking too much. The baby is meaning itself, all of which takes place within the cosmos, and every instance of which is subjectively experienced by some specific subject, by definition. And crucially, these subject–object connections can themselves be observed by third parties as real, objective phenomena through abundant evidence. They are as real as potatoes or sound waves.
This part of your comment feels like a non sequitur:
> Does it matter then? Not really
You just said it matters to you. Then you said it doesn’t ‘really’ matter because it doesn’t matter to…the cosmos as a whole? So what? It doesn’t matter to your toaster either, nor to my cat, but it still matters to you. For something to ‘matter’ there must be some particular object that matters to some particular subject, and in this case the subject is you. Your reason for doing it doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter to you, it’s just an explanation of why it matters to you.
And to me, sure, those things matter. But I also acknowledge that this isn't an objective thing the cosmos put into the world but a personal feeling. My argument is essentially that you've got to do that. Acknowledge that what matters to you is something personal. And to cherish that because the journey is important. I see it as a pathway to positive nihilism.
Yes. By induction, if nothing matters, then they don't matter either.
It helps you relax and put things in perspective. For example, you can focus on achieving high scores just for the sake of it. Have the kids you want, have the life you want, have the things you want, knowing that it's pointless but that you want it and that's enough.
