Tradition

Nihilism

Overview

Nihilism is a family of philosophical views that reject the existence of any objectively meaningful purpose, moral value, truth, or knowledge. Nihilistic views span several branches of philosophy, including ethics, value theory, epistemology, and metaphysics. Nihilism is also described as a broad cultural phenomenon or historical movement that pervades modernity in the Western world.

Existential nihilism asserts that life has no objective meaning or purpose. The idea that all individual and societal values are ultimately pointless has been associated with various responses. They range from general indifference and existential crises to transformative reinterpretations of established ideals and a creative embrace of personal meaning-making. Moral nihilism, a related view, denies the objective existence of morality, arguing that moral evaluations and practices rest on misguided assumptions without any foundation in external reality.

In epistemology or the theory of knowledge, nihilism challenges knowledge and truth. According to relativism, knowledge, truth, or meaning are relative to the perspectives of specific individuals or cultural contexts. This implies there is no independent framework to assess which opinion is ultimately correct. Skeptical interpretations go further by denying the existence of knowledge or truth altogether. In metaphysics, one form of nihilism states that the universe could have been empty without any objects. This view holds that there is no fundamental reason for why something exists rather than nothing. Mereological nihilism asserts there are only simple objects, like elementary particles, but no composite objects, like tables. Cosmological nihilism is the view that reality is unintelligible and indifferent to human understanding. Other nihilist positions include political, semantic, logical, and therapeutic nihilism.

Some aspects of nihilism have their roots in ancient philosophy in the form of challenges to established beliefs, values, and practices. However, nihilism is primarily associated with modernity, emerging in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly in Germany and Russia through the works of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi and Ivan Turgenev. It took center stage in the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, who understood nihilism as a pervasive cultural trend in which people lose the traditional values and ideals guiding their lives as a result of secularization. In the 20th century, nihilist themes were explored by Dadaism, existentialism, and postmodern philosophy.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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In a world of _Becoming,_ reality is merely a _simplification_ for the purpose of practical ends, or a _deception_ resulting from the coarseness of certain organs, or a variation in the tempo of Becoming. The logical denial of the world and Nihilism is a consequence of the fact that we must oppose nonentity with Being, and that Becoming is denied. ("_Something_" becomes.) _Being_ and _Becoming._--"_Reason_"…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Will to Power
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All objects of the inclinations have only a conditional worth, for if the inclinations and the wants founded on them did not exist, then their object would be without value. But the inclinations, themselves being sources of want, are so far from having an absolute worth for which they should be desired that on the contrary it must be the universal wish of every rational being to be wholly free from them. Thus the…
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
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Belief is always most desired, most pressingly needed where there is a lack of will: for the will, as emotion of command, is the distinguishing characteristic of sovereignty and power. That is to say, the less a person knows how to command, the more urgent is his desire for one who commands, who commands sternly,—a God, a prince, a caste, a physician, a confessor, a dogma, a party conscience.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Joyful Wisdom
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