Concept
Existential nihilism
Overview
Existential nihilism is the philosophical theory that life has no objective meaning or purpose. The inherent meaninglessness of life is largely explored in the philosophical school of existentialism, where one can potentially create their own subjective "meaning" or "purpose". The supposed conflict between our desire for meaning and the reality of a meaningless world is explored in the philosophical school of absurdism. Of all types of nihilism, existential nihilism has received the most literary and philosophical attention.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Philosophers who discussed Existential nihilism
Related ideas
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Philosophy
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Life
- Metaphysics
- Being and Nothingness
- Nihilism
- Nature
- Terror management theory
- Absurdism
- Paradox
- Religion
- Søren Kierkegaard
- Ernest Becker
- William Shakespeare
- Bible
- Martin Heidegger
- The Myth of Sisyphus
- Morality
- The Stranger (Camus novel)
- Sublimation (psychology)
- Samuel Johnson
- Jacques Derrida
- Arthur Schopenhauer
Place in the tradition
Part of Absurdism.