A Complete History of Nihilism

Nihilism comes from the Latin word nihil, meaning, nothing. Nihilism is typically defined as a belief in nothing. Depending on a person’s flavor of nihilism, nihilists don’t believe in objective morality, no good or evil. There is no objective knowledge, no truths and no falsehoods. There is no reason to even exist, because we are all going to be dead in the end. The universe is, and beyond that nothing: no order, no structure, no design, no purpose.

Arguably the best thinker on nihilism was 19th century German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche, a miserably cantankorous individual, whose life was burdened by excruciating stomach and migraine pain, and who died in a madhouse unable to feed himself, said there were many different stages to nihilism, but all of them relied on a willing towards nothing.

NIHILISM

Citations:

Hegel Georg Wilhelm. The Science of Logic. Cambridge University Press, 2010. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Twilight of the Idols and the Anti-Christ. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic. Buy here!

Plato. Phaedrus. Plato Complete Works. 247c-e. Buy here!

Heidegger, Martin. “‘The Word of Nietzsche: God Is Dead.’” The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 2013. Buy here!

Rohlf, Michael. “Immanuel Kant.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 28 July 2020.

Hughes, Peter. “Nietzsche & Nihilism.” Ethical Society. 22 Nov. 2009.


Deleuze, Gilles. Nietzsche and Philosophy. Buy here!

Ceika, Jonas. How to Philosophize with a Hammer and Sickle: Nietzsche and Marx for the 21st-Century Left. Watkins Publishing, 2022. Buy here!

Fincher, David, director. Fight Club. 20th Century Fox, 1999. Buy here!

Liv Agar: WallStreetBets, Gamestop, & Nietzsche’s Account of Nihilism.

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How the ‘Real World’ at Last Became FAKE NEWS? | Nietzsche

Nietzsche thumbnail How the Real World Became a Myth

My interpretation of Nietzsche’s aphorism “How the ‘Real World’ at Last Became a Myth.” In this aphorism, Nietzsche traces out the real/appearance distinction throughout the history of philosophy: from Plato to Nietzsche’s own mature philosophy. (view more)

Citations:

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Human All-To-Human. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Daybreak. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Twilight of the Idols and the Anti-Christ. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic. Buy here!

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TRANSCRIPT

PHILOSOPHY

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Nihilism | Why Even Get Out of Bed?

Mr. Meeseeks with the words "Nihilism" and "Existence is meaningless"

THEORETICAL NIHILISM

Nihilism is typically defined as a belief in nothing. Depending on a person’s flavor of nihilism, nihilists don’t believe in objective morality, no good or evil. There is no objective knowledge, no truths and no falsehoods. There is no reason to even exist, because we are all going to be dead in the end. The universe is, and beyond that nothing: no order, no structure, no design, no purpose. Is it truly all for naught? Nothing matters.

Arguably the best thinker on nihilism was 19th century German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche said there were many different stages to nihilism, but all of them relied on a willing towards nothing. Nietzsche believed liberal democracies, modernity, and capitalism inaugurated a new, higher form of nihilism: Theoretical Nihilism.

Friedrich’s proclamation of the Death of God is the realization that all the highest values have been devalued.

TRANSCRIPT

Citations:
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Untimely Meditations. Edited by Daniel Breazeale. Translated by Reginald J. Hollingdale, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs. Buy here!



Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Twilight of the Idols and the Anti-Christ. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic. Buy here!

Deleuze, Gilles. Nietzsche and Philosophy. Buy here!

Heidegger, Martin. “The Word of Nietzsche: ‘God Is Dead.’” The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays, translated by William Lovitt, Harper Torchbooks, New York, 2004. Buy Here!

Ceika, Jonas. How to Philosophize with a Hammer and Sickle: Nietzsche and Marx for the 21st-Century Left. Watkins Publishing, 2022. Buy Here!

Fincher, David, director. Fight Club. 20th Century Fox, 1999. Buy Here!

Liv Agar:
WallStreetBets, Gamestop, & Nietzsche’s Account of Nihilism

Aperture:
Nihilism: The Belief in Nothing

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The NIHILISM of Religion | Nietzsche

Practical Nihilism thumbnail

Practical Nihilism

What if all your beliefs are actually nothing? No justification, no proof, no authority? This willing-towards-nothing is itself a nihilism. Dogmatism, religion, philosophy, all a willing-towards-nothing. Obviously, the tradition of the West doesn’t believe it’s willing towards nothingness. It fervently, without reservation, believes these values (God, the Forms, a Pure world, a world which is realer than this world of mere appearances). This nihilism is practical because it is performed through action, not reflection. Practical nihilism is a willing towards nothingness, but a nothingness that is still rich with meaning because even a willing-towards-nothing creates values. But these values, which supposedly transcend and seem above us, are nihilistic because they are profoundly anti-life.

TRANSCRIPT

HISTORY

Citations:
Friedrich, Hegel Georg Wilhelm. The Science of Logic. Cambridge University Press, 2010. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Twilight of the Idols and the Anti-Christ. Buy here!

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic. Buy here!

Plato. Phaedrus. Plato Complete Works. 247c-e. Buy here!

Heidegger, Martin. “‘The Word of Nietzsche: God Is Dead.’” The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 2013. Buy here!

Rohlf, Michael. “Immanuel Kant.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 28 July 2020.

Hughes, Peter. “Nietzsche & Nihilism.” Ethical Society. 22 Nov. 2009.

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how to redeem the world | nietzsche

Myself on the Left motioning to Nietzsche on right

“What alone can our teaching be? – That no one gives a human his qualities: not God, not society, not his parents or ancestors, not he himself (-the nonsensical idea here last rejected, was propounded, as ‘intelligible freedom’, by Kant, and perhaps also by Plato before him). No one is accountable for existing at all, or for being constituted as he is, or for living in the circumstances and surroundings in which he lives. The fatality of his nature cannot be disentangled from the fatality of all that which has been and will be. He is not the result of a special design, a will, a purpose; he is not the subject of an attempt to attain an ‘ideal of man’ or an ‘ideal of happiness’ or an ‘ideal of morality’ – it is absurd to want to hand over his nature to some purpose or other. We invented the concept ‘purpose’: in reality purpose is lacking…. But nothing exists apart from the whole! – That no one is any longer made accountable, that the kind of being manifested cannot be traced back to a causa prima, that the world is a unity neither in sensorium nor as ‘spirit’, this alone is the great liberation – thus alone is the innocence of becoming restored…. The concept ‘God’ has hitherto been the greatest objection to existence…. We deny God; in denying God, we deny accountability: only by doing that do we redeem the world.”

Twilight of the Idols by Friedrick Nietzsche.

Citations:
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Twilight of the Idols and the Anti-Christ. Translated by Reginald J. Hollingdale, Penguin Books, 2003.

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How to Murder God?

Dead God next to website logo

God is Dead | Nietzsche

German philosopher Friedrick Nietzsche famously announced the death of the Christian God in his 1882 work The Gay Science. In this video, I analyze aphorism 125, “The Madman”, to reveal all the hidden meanings behind Nietzsche’s proclamation of the death of God. For Nietzsche, the most significant development is the creation of a new type of nihilism, theoretical nihilism. What happens to truth, knowledge, morality, society when God dies?

Citations:
Deleuze, Gilles. Nietzsche and Philosophy, translated by Hugh Tomlinson, Columbia University Press, New York, 1983. Buy here.
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs, translated by Walter Kaufmann, Vintage Books, New York, 1974. Buy here.
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None. Translated by Walter Kaufman, The Viking Press, 1966. Buy here.
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Twilight of the Idols and the Anti-Christ. Translated by Reginald John Hollingdale, Penguin Books, 2003. Buy here.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, translated by Walter Arnold Kaufmann, Vintage Books, New York, 1989. Buy here.

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November Nihilism

nihilism

UPDATE: Because Nihilism means that nothing has meaning anymore, I’ve decided to say fuck calendars, it’s November Nihilism for as long as I want.

Announcing November Nihilism. This month I will be focusing on videos, essays, and journalism that analyzes nihilism, or a willing-towards-nothing.

I will heavily rely on the philosophy of Friedrick Nietzsche, which is always freakin awesome.

Here’s a sneak peak of what to expect:


Also, all TL;DR philosophy for this month will be profoundly EVIL!

Check out the Too Long; Don’t Read philosophy Playlist:

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