Philosophical stances I take

Some philosophical positions that have resonated with me:

Existence and reality:

• Existential nihilism — The philosophical theory that life has no intrinsic meaning or value. The answer to "What is the meaning of life?" is "There is none; you are free to pursue whatever goals you like."

Ethics:

• Egalitarianism — the stance that all humans are equal in fundamental worth or moral status
  • IMHO, that includes all people around the world. I specifically reject Malthusianism or any hint of social Darwinism (meaning "survival of the fittest" as a moral theory), because we eventually realized that demographic transition was a significant factor that limited (and sometimes even reversed) long-term population growth.
• Humanism — "a philosophy that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual's dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason"
  • Secular humanism — a stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making
• Negative utilitarianism — the view that people should minimize the total amount of aggregate suffering and then, secondarily, maximize the total amount of happiness

Epistemology:

• I try to avoid pseudoskepticism, as Marcello Truzzi defines it
• Map-territory relation
• Antipositivism — the position that the social realm cannot be studied with the methods of investigation utilized within the natural sciences
• Semiotics — meaning-making is often a social/collaborative process (see also signifier versus signified)