The Dark Philosophy of Cosmicism - H.P. Lovecraft

Lovecraft's dark philosophy of cosmic horror is known as Cosmicism, which focuses on the insignificance of humanity and its doings at the cosmos-at-large, in contrast to the anthropocentric philosophies in which many find intellectual reassurance. This form of non-anthropocentrism is crucial to the philosophy of Cosmicism.

The question of the meaning of life was better left unanswered. Cosmicism is a type of extreme existentialism, as it brings up the uncertainty about the role of humanity in the uncaring universe, an existential crisis on a large scale.

Lovecraft embraces the truth of reality. Things are important to us on the human scale, but we simply don’t matter in the cosmos. He described us as "the miserable denizens of a wretched little flyspeck on the back door of a microscopic universe.”

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📚 Recommended Reading

The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories

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⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction: Fear of the Unknown
(1:35) A Biography of H.P. Lovecraft
(7:20) Introdction: Cosmicism
(12:00) The Cthulhu Mythos: Introduction
(14:03) The Cthulhu Mythos: The Elder Things
(15:10) The Cthulhu Mythos: The Great Old Ones and The Deep Ones
(18:05) The Cthulhu Mythos: The Outer Gods
(21:26) Fourth Dimensional Horrors
(24:48) Forbidden Knowledge
(25:50) The Dreamlands
(26:37) Otherness: Anti-Human Becoming

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6. Drums of the Deep – Kevin MacLeod
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8. Dark Ambient Background Music The Lost – CO.AG Music

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🎨 Artists

Check the pinned comment for the full list (running out of space to type).

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📝 Sources

- H. P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature (1927)
Smith, P. (2011). Re‐visioning Romantic‐Era Gothicism: An Introduction to Key Works and Themes in the Study of HP Lovecraft. Literature Compass, 8(11), 830-839
- Oliva, J. (2020). Lovecraft's Fear of the Unknown and Unimaginable
- Slåtten, K. Ø. (2016). Humans in a hostile cosmos: Science, cosmicism and race in HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos (Master's thesis, University of Stavanger, Norway).
- Nagelvoort, C. (2020). Becoming Anti-Human: How Lovecraftian Horror Philosophically Deconstructs Otherness
- Rosen, M., Al-Rayes, H., Beech, A., et. al (2020). Diseases of the Head: Essays on the Horrors of Speculative Philosophy

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#lovecraft #cosmicism

[Eternalised]

*“We are the miserable denizens of a wretched little flyspeck on the back door of a microscopic universe.”*
— H.P. Lovecraft


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👀 Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn 🐙

[shoozymusic]

You know that you're in for a wild ride if the philosophy video has a viewer discretion warning.

[MrPhife]

Lovecraft summed up basically says, "There's nothing 'out there' that loves you. If there IS something out there, it probably just wants to eat you." This was the underpinning of his writing, and I just love the way it translates to stories filled with such existential dread.

[freewheeler]

A favorite Lovecraft story of mine is *Dreams in the Witch House* . It's about a student who studies modern physics in the day time, and is exposed to cosmic horrors every night. It's the perfect blend of Sci-Fi\Horror. Lovecraft is the undisputed master of this style.

[Zyklon-Bro]

That ending quote for The Outsider is haunting looking back on how HP lived his life and how we lovingly embrace his works nearly a century later. He was the outsider in his time and life. And I feel truly sorry he never got the love he desperately needed

[asterodon]

"The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind."
This is my favorite quote of his and perfectly encapsulates how he, and I, feel about the world.

[WisdominQuotes]

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."
~~H. P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu [1928], ch. 1.

[TheDandyMann]

I started listening to H P Lovecraft audiobooks because of a channel called the Exploring series which usually tends to make videos on a universe called SCP which uses lovecraftian cosmic horror as a base and I absolutely love it.

[EDTHEMAX]

I have loved Lovecraft for years but I only realized how impressive his writing was until I tried to write a Lovecraftian story for a creative writing class. Not going try that again, his tone is nearly impossible to capture without feeling life a poor imitation.

[brandonmaddox]

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” - Arthur C. Clarke

That’s one of my favorite quotes, and it’s Lovecraftian as it gets

[treemannick]

"Dagon" was the first Lovecraft story that I ever read and instantly got hooked onto his works. Not even 2 weeks go by after I read Dagon, I bought all of his public works compacted together into a series of 6 hardback cover books. And haven't put them down yet.

[Goobeous]

I’ve been thinking about him on a daily basis since I found the call of Cthulhu when I was 12, now I’m a marine bio major on my way to go searching for what he wrote about

[Lex]

One of the first works I read from Lovecraft was "At the Mountains of Madness" when I was 20. I had nightmares. Not the regular ones people get after watching or reading a ghost story, but the ones about how small and insignificant we are as human beings in the vast universe.

[nihilisticinquisition]

During the uprising of modern science in the late 19th century, Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God and thereby the end of metaphysics as a means of orientation in the world. Lovecraft then manifested the pure horror of living in an endless, indifferent universe, which is way beyond human grasp.

[WhoCares]

I’m 53 now. Started reading Lovecraft when I was about 9 ( my English teacher got me to read some of his short stories). I had some freaky dreams when I was young!!!! 🤣 Just love the way he wrote.

[Bane]

“I have seen the dark universe yawning,
Where the black planets roll without aim;
Where they roll in their horror unheeded,
without knowledge or lustre or name.”

~ Nemesis, H.P.Lovecraft

[gabrielabrahao]

Lovecraft: "It was a terrible, indescribable thing..."

And then he proceeds to describe it

[gregbors]

Considering that for most of human history involved humans thinking they were a special species located at the epicenter of the universe, the scientific revelations of the late 19th and early 20th must’ve blown a lot of people’s minds. In fact, many people still can’t handle it

[creepyjanitor]

an author can only hope their readers really "get" the whole thing, the deepest aspect of the work. This is so great, well done.

[JL-go]

I discovered his work in my 30s, it's strange his stories make me feel at ease. Yes I am small and insignificant in this universe but I will face my Oblivion with open arms and a smile because I existed. I became conscious.