Nietzsche's "perspectivism" put the damper on all philosophical inquiries concerning evaluation of life. whether life is worth living, good, a gift or the worst mistake that could have happened to a person really depends in their situation. when philosophers talk about life, they all talk about it as if the experience is same for everyone. both the experiences of an ugly schizophrenic Indian midget who is suffering from a horrific genetic disease with no cure and a tall, charismatic, genius millionaire with perfect health are called a "life" as if it's the same thing. who is retarded enough to decide these two "life"s are both the same and are worthy/unworthy of living?

someone really chooses their own philosopher just as they choose a car based on the terrain of where they live. in this sense there is not one philosopher who is ultimately correct. Leibniz is entirely correct when he said this world is the best of all possible worlds, and Schopenhauer is just as right when he said it is the worst of all possible worlds. they simply uttered what their physicality experienced. when someone believes life is unbearable and wants out, chances are he is entirely justified. when someone sees life as a gift, he is too entirely justified if we were to imagine of the reasons he might have for thinking that way.

>>24460715 (OP)
Bit of a bummer no?

>>24460758
in what sense? I think it's a useful discovery. it refutes nihilism because most of the time when nihilists come to the conclusion that life means nothing they think they stumbled upon a universal truth whereas they just found out that their life means nothing because it sucks. however it is a double-edged sword in that when someone claims life is a gift he's just talking about his own lucky configuration.

it is interesting how no philosopher recognized this mistake until Nietzsche. not one of them said my life is good/bad, they always insisted "life" universally is good/bad.

>>24460715 (OP)
>when someone believes life is unbearable and wants out, chances are he is entirely justified. when someone sees life as a gift, he is too entirely justified if we were to imagine of the reasons he might have for thinking that way.
Well, yeah.

Why should we live at all?
There's no better answer than simply saying that life is worth living as you long as *you* find it worth. Although you can always make depressed people see a better life, help them find confidence in the ability of their choices to improve their lot, as long as you focus on yourself and on taking pride in every action you take out of sheer willpower you can probably find happiness, unless you're actually mentally handicapped maybe.

Most importantly people need to stop comparing themselves to *everyone*, find your own standards, worthy adversaries, worthy objectives according to a *realistic* evaluation of your life and capabilities (don't lie to yrself) and work towards achieving the best you can from what you have.

>>24460818
>not one of them said my life is good/bad, they always insisted "life" universally is good/bad
Existentialism is not even 200 years old; read a book.

>>24461208
>people need to stop comparing themselves to *everyone*
it might be psychologically helpful to think that, but I don't think it's realistically possible because it's too deeply rooted in our psyche to just avoid. only way that comparing yourself to others stops being a problem is when you are clearly better than everyone else in parameters everyone would accept so it stops being a problem on its own.

>>24461275
I don't see how existentialism relates to this as it presupposes all life is inherently meaningless and it is part of the prejudice and mistake that I'm trying to show.

>>24460818
you should take it a step further. just as it is impossible to speak about the value of life in a general sense, so is it impossible to speak conclusively about the value of your own life. after all, you cannot perfectly recall everything that you have experienced, and your estimation of the same experience may (and often do) change over time. so all we can really say is whether we right now feel a yes or a no towards life.