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AdeleneDawner comments on Existential Angst Factory - Less Wrong
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A refinement: Proper serotonin levels (lack of depression) confers the ability to assign meaning to things and take pleasure from that meaning - it's more like the electricity that powers the lamp than the light itself. It's still possible for the light to be off, even if the electricity is running.That's what the original post was talking about: According to Eliezer, most people who claim to be suffering from existential angst need to realize that they can turn their light on for themselves, and figure out how to do so (Edit: without resorting to delusional thinking, which is how theists do it) - and that's a solution that the Judeo-Christian view of things doesn't suggest.
It is right that meaning and purpose don't come from serontin levels. And serotonin levels aren't the only cause of meaning assignment. But what I was denying above is that there are instances where someone is not depressed and yet also nihilistic (not having assigned meaning to anything). I think assigning meaning to the world is basically instinctual, if you aren't depressed you'll start valuing things without having to will it or make a conscious choice.
It does seem to be possible, for example in alexuthymics (example - and from the rest of that post, the poster doesn't appear to be depressed). I'll agree that such situations are rare, though, and perhaps impossible for people with normal brain-function.
The point I was making was more along the lines of 'don't assume you're clinically depressed just because you don't automatically notice meaning in things the instant you look for it', though.
Great link, thanks. Unfortunately it led to a really intense reedit procrastination session. It did occur to me that there might be some kind of condition like this, and I thought about including that possibility but didn't want to qualify the argument and make it more complicated. I should have checked to see if there was such a thing. Anyway yes, qualify my previous claim with "with normal brain function".
Sure. My position is just that chronic nihilism is epiphenomenal to unhappiness except in cases of non-standard brain function.