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It seems as if when one looks into the sky and realizes the vastness of the world around them that it's natural to feel empty and alone. Is that all humans can feel? Or is there more to life than wailing into the void?

user189728
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  • Many people also feel wonder and solidarity with others. I am pointing that out to let you know there is more. Although your question seems very broad, it is the kind of existential questions that real people have and they wish they knew how to make sense out of. – Frank Hubeny Mar 22 '18 at 03:55
  • Here are different translations of the same fragment by Anaximander. http://www.beyng.com/grk/anax1.html note in Nietzsche's translation "pay back and be judged". Please do not confuse your question with the existentialism of the 20th century. There are some slight similarities but to mix them together at this time will only hinder your study. – Gordon Mar 22 '18 at 16:30
  • Do a search for "existential guilt", this can be free floating and result in exactly the kind of anguish you mention. We can say, loosely, that the existentialism of the 20th century followed in the train of Husserl. But what you have put your finger on is a far older problem. Also you may want to read the Wikipedia on "Nemesis". – Gordon Mar 22 '18 at 16:36
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    [The Ancient Greek people never felt they could live up to their gods. They felt the need to "pay back" or guilt. So for instance they would scatter some grain on the ground and pour some wine on the ground as a way of paying back, making an offering for their existence. Of course in the Judeo Christian tradition there is the idea of Eden, and then the fall, and the need for atonement. This feeling of the need for atonement I think is something basic to this study.] – Gordon Mar 22 '18 at 17:01
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    First, let's start with the difference between what you ask in the title and what you ask in the question: "is it human nature" and "is it all humans can feel" are two vastly different questions, and I'd suggest you to edit either one of them to fit the other. Second, asking about "human nature" is rather controversial - "human nature" isn't exactly something we actually know of. Throughout history different philosophers argued over various different "human natures", so I think the most accurate statement will be "current human society" or something like that. – Yechiam Weiss Mar 23 '18 at 06:54

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Feelings are just the interplay of chemicals and neurons. Anguish, the subjective analogue of physical pain, is probably as inevitable as feeling some physical pain - it is how we learn, it helps categorise and order memories to avoid the stimulus or situation in the future, and absence of it is found to form serious disorders.

Stephen Batchelor in his writings on atheist Buddhism, chooses the word anguish rather than the word suffering, in translating the Buddhas diagnosis of not just the human condition, but that of all beings. Buddhism identifies being an arising thing with seeking what isn't so, and inevitably some of what is sought will lead to frustration, and that is suffering or anguish; these are laid out in the first three Noble Truths. Then in the fourth Noble Truth a process -the eightfold path- is laid out to reach a way of being reconciled with how things are, and so towards not suffering or being in anguish.

There is therapy, catharsis, in setting ourselves in the correct scale with our surroundings: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/18 Terrifying, or sublime. You decide.

Einstein said

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed."

To look out on the universe and only feel empty and alone, seems essentially egotistical and selfish. How can you not feel awe, wonder, at this vast cosmos we are so near the beginning of starting to understand? Perhaps that feeling of wonder is the flourishing of life that has found balance, or perhaps it is the seed which starts the journey there. Cultivate a sense of wonder, exercise that part of being and seek experiences with which it arises. Take forward sincerely held questions into that, and be sure if you can hold on to the question the answers are out there.

CriglCragl
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  • Is "feeling awe and wonder at the vast cosmos" mutually exclusive with "feeling empty and alone"? – BlowMaMind Apr 04 '18 at 17:55
  • @BlowMaMind To be full of wonder is to be empty of yourself – CriglCragl Apr 05 '18 at 01:06
  • You say "To look out on the universe and only feel empty and alone, seems essentially egotistical and selfish. How can you not feel awe, wonder, at this vast cosmos we are so near the beginning of starting to understand?" Can't one feel awe, wonder at this vast cosmos we are so near the beginning of starting to understand and still feel empty and alone? – BlowMaMind Apr 29 '18 at 15:45
  • @BlowMaMind "and only feel" I said, so sure. – CriglCragl Apr 29 '18 at 18:44