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Nihilism is often associated with the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who provided a detailed diagnosis of nihilism as a widespread phenomenon of Western culture. Though the notion appears frequently throughout Nietzsche's work, he uses the term in a variety of ways, with different meanings and connotations.
Oct 20, 2022 · Nihilism is a philosophy that rejects values and the valuation society places on people, objects, and life, and instead states that everything is meaningless.
Nihilism was named by the philosopher Friedrich Jacobi in the early 19 th century; Jacobi believed that Immanuel Kant’s transcendental idealism implied what we will call metaphysical nihilism—the idea that nothing is real. Although this was not to be the most famous and supposedly dangerous form of nihilism, it was a criticism of Kant’s philosophy.
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\"Nihilism\" comes from the Latin nihil, or nothing, which means not anything, that which does not exist. It appears in the verb \"annihilate,\" meaning to bring to nothing, to destroy completely. Early in the nineteenth century, Friedrich Jacobi used the word to negatively characterize transcendental idealism. It only became popularized, however, ...
In Russia, nihilism became identified with a loosely organized revolutionary movement (C.1860-1917) that rejected the authority of the state, church, and family. In his early writing, anarchist leader Mikhael Bakunin (1814-1876) composed the notorious entreaty still identified with nihilism: \"Let us put our trust in the eternal spirit which destro...
The earliest philosophical positions associated with what could be characterized as a nihilistic outlook are those of the Skeptics. Because they denied the possibility of certainty, Skeptics could denounce traditional truths as unjustifiable opinions. When Demosthenes (c.371-322 BC), for example, observes that \"What he wished to believe, that is w...
The caustic strength of nihilism is absolute, Nietzsche argues, and under its withering scrutiny \"the highest values devalue themselves. The aim is lacking, and 'Why' finds no answer\" (Will to Power). Inevitably, nihilism will expose all cherished beliefs and sacrosanct truths as symptoms of a defective Western mythos. This collapse of meaning, r...
In The Dark Side: Thoughts on the Futility of Life (1994), Alan Pratt demonstrates that existential nihilism, in one form or another, has been a part of the Western intellectual tradition from the beginning. The Skeptic Empedocles' observation that \"the life of mortals is so mean a thing as to be virtually un-life,\" for instance, embodies the sam...
In the twentieth century, it's the atheistic existentialist movement, popularized in France in the 1940s and 50s, that is responsible for the currency of existential nihilism in the popular consciousness. Jean-Paul Sartre's (1905-1980) defining preposition for the movement, \"existence precedes essence,\" rules out any ground or foundation for esta...
By the late 20th century, \"nihilism\" had assumed two different castes. In one form, \"nihilist\" is used to characterize the postmodern person, a dehumanized conformist, alienated, indifferent, and baffled, directing psychological energy into hedonistic narcissism or into a deep ressentiment that often explodes in violence. This perspective is de...
In contrast to the efforts to overcome nihilism noted above is the uniquely postmodern response associated with the current antifoundationalists. The philosophical, ethical, and intellectual crisis of nihilism that has tormented modern philosophers for over a century has given way to mild annoyance or, more interestingly, an upbeat acceptance of me...
French philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard characterizes postmodernism as an \"incredulity toward metanarratives,\" those all-embracing foundations that we have relied on to make sense of the world. This extreme skepticism has undermined intellectual and moral hierarchies and made \"truth\" claims, transcendental or transcultural, problematic. Postmo...
In The Banalization of Nihilism (1992) Karen Carr discusses the antifoundationalist response to nihilism. Although it still inflames a paralyzing relativism and subverts critical tools, \"cheerful nihilism\" carries the day, she notes, distinguished by an easy-going acceptance of meaninglessness. Such a development, Carr concludes, is alarming. If ...
It has been over a century now since Nietzsche explored nihilism and its implications for civilization. As he predicted, nihilism's impact on the culture and values of the 20th century has been pervasive, its apocalyptic tenor spawning a mood of gloom and a good deal of anxiety, anger, and terror. Interestingly, Nietzsche himself, a radical skeptic...
philosophy. nihilism, (from Latin nihil, “nothing”), originally a philosophy of moral and epistemological skepticism that arose in 19th-century Russia during the early years of the reign of Tsar Alexander II. The term was famously used by Friedrich Nietzsche to describe the disintegration of traditional morality in Western society.
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Jul 7, 2023 · Epistemological Nihilism. Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with the theory of knowledge. Epistemological nihilism, therefore, can be defined as a form of philosophy that states firstly that knowledge doesn’t exist. And secondly, if it did, it is unobtainable to human beings, so its existence is redundant.
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Jul 6, 2022 · Nihilism was a gloomy philosophical school from the 19th century – its leaders argued nothing mattered, and life had no higher purpose. Derived from the Latin word ‘nihil’ meaning ‘nothing’, Nihilism was quite possibly the most pessimistic school of philosophy. It was a widespread style of thinking throughout 19th century Europe, led ...
