# Philosophy

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philosophy/129708>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 26, 2002, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philosophy/129708 "2002-09-26T13:50:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philosophy/129708/1 "2002-09-26T13:50:55Z")

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**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philosophy/129708/2 "2002-09-26T14:03:26Z")

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Now, that’s what I call philosophical.

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**Author:** ![Skippman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Skippman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skippman)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philosophy/129708/3 "2002-09-26T14:30:29Z")

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Decartes walks into a bar.  
Bartender says “Whatal ya have?”  
Descartes replies “I’ll have a beer.”  
Descartes drinks the beer in silence  
and the bartender asks if he wants another one.  
Descartes replies “I think not.” and \<poof\> vansishes.

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**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philosophy/129708/4 "2002-09-26T16:29:30Z")

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Uh…

Where’s my question?

The watered down version is: what are 1 (or a few) sentence definitions of Nihilism, Objectivity, exilstentialism (sp?), and other philosphical belief’s. I was looking for very basic definitions.

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**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philosophy/129708/5 "2002-09-26T16:37:07Z")

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Nihilism — Rejection of the existence of human knowledge and values or denial of the possibility of making any useful distinctions among things.

Objectivism — Ethical self-interest, rationally derived, in a metaphysical context of objective reality.

Existentialism — Emphasis on the primacy of individual existence over any presumed natural essence for human beings.

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**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philosophy/129708/6 "2002-09-26T16:52:36Z")

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Libertarian- Thanks! What are a few other types of philosophy?  
What was Nietche’s (sp?)

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**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philosophy/129708/7 "2002-09-26T17:18:11Z")

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Basically, Nietzsche was a nihilist. There are as many philosophies as there have been people. I recommend [The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy](http://plato.stanford.edu/) if you wish to pursue some introductory study.

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**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philosophy/129708/8 "2002-09-26T23:51:54Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Libertarian \*  
> **. There are as many philosophies as there have been people.**

This, of course, is the most important thing. Saying “I believe in **[name of philosophy**” is just shorthand for “I agree with **[originator of philosophy**, _mostly_” Nobody with more than three brain cells accepts uncritically every possible inference from the central tenet(s) that philosophy was founded upon.

To take a random example, both **Libertarian** and I subscribe to the political principle of libertarianism, but this does not mean that we necessarily agree about every application of that principle (and in fact we do not).