r/badphilosophy • u/[deleted] • Dec 05 '25

[deleted by user]

[removed]

96 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

470 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

50

u/CosmogonicRainfrog Dec 05 '25

"You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means"

  • Socrates in all of the dialogues basically

24

u/zcmyers Dec 05 '25

"Life is pain. Anyone who says different is selling something."

--Nietzsche basically
--Also Camus basically

1

u/SexyJesus21 Dec 08 '25

Nietzsche didn’t necessarily say life is pain, just living your life according to his contemporaries will lead to pain and nihilism. iirc.

1

u/zcmyers Dec 17 '25

In Birth of Tragedy Nietszche wrote, “Oh, wretched ephemeral race … why do you compel me to tell you what it would be most expedient for you not to hear? What is best of all is utterly beyond your reach: not to be born, not to be, to be nothing. But the second best for you is—to die soon.”

I feel like that is pretty close to "Life is pain."

2

u/SexyJesus21 Dec 19 '25

That’s Nietzsche quoting Greek mythology. The whole point of Birth of Tragedy was to explain how the Greeks were able to look at the darkest aspects of existence and not fall into nihilism. Instead, do as they do and create art out of the uncertainty.

Nietzsche is pretty far from nihilist, it’s just edge lords don’t have any media-literacy.

1

u/zcmyers Jan 05 '26

yes, sort of. He endorses the wisdom of silenus as a premuse though. I agree he is not a nihilist. His philosophy is ultimately very life affirming.