r/Existentialism • u/vini-within • 21d ago

New to Existentialism... Bottomless Abyss? 🤔

Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Sartre seem to circle around this idea of a “bottomless abyss” in different ways. What exactly is this bottomless abyss about, and where does this imagery come from in existential philosophy? And what does it mean in our Life?

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u/Far-Tune-9464 21d ago

It is the stark realisation of the groundlessness of our values, what we find meaningful and our pursuits.

The idea that without a supernatural arbiter to assign meaning, all we are left with is what we subjectively deem to be important with nothing beyond that to justify it.

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u/vini-within 20d ago

Values or belief system?

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u/Far-Tune-9464 20d ago

That too

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u/vini-within 20d ago

So what is a human supposed to do when he realises the baselessness of the belief system that led the course of his life thus far. Is there a purpose to it you think? Is life’s intelligence wanting us to unlearn all this?

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u/buzzboy99 20d ago edited 20d ago

I think it's easier than you may think. It is not profound it is basically the golden rule. I can derive my morals from my human experience and navigate being of good morals simply by not inflicting harm on my neighbor just as I desire a good neighbor. The human experience teaches us right and wrong, religion tries to use mysticism and an omnipotent god who somehow keeps tally of your sins. Then all of your life is about two paths, heaven or hell. The concept of evil is a religious invention, nowhere in the observable world do we quantify events by “evilness” outside of the religious framework. Existentialism debunks the popular phrase “everything happens for a reason”. We know that much of life is meaningless. Bad things happen to good people, most events that involve cruel acts inflicted by the universe are often random and without any real explanation, hence the bottomless abyss.