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.
Nihilism was first used by German philosopher Friedrich Jacobi who used the term to describe the transcendental idealism of Immanuel Kant. According to Jacobi, Kant’s philosophy will lead to everything being known leaving nothing left to believe in and no mysteries left to search for. Jacobi saw nihilism as leading us towards inaction, where nothing is done. Other nihilists include Russian novelists like Ivan Turgenev who used the term to describe the disillusionment of the youth towards both progressivism and traditionalism.
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.
03/26/2022
PRACTICAL NIHILISM: Why All Your Beliefs Are Nothing?
Practical nihilism refers to the religious doctrines which dominated Western Europe for nearly two thousand years: mainly Christianity. Yet, Nietzsche doesn’t stop there, but also refers to the philosophical schools of thought descending from Socrates and Plato, and even modernity itself to a certain extent. This nihilism is practical because it is performed through action, not reflection. (view more)
12/11/2021
German philosopher Friedrich 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? (view more)
11/19/2022
THEORETICAL NIHILISM: Why Even Get Out of Bed?
Theoretical Nihilism occurs after the death of God and includes our current age. It is when the highest values of practical nihilism are devalued becoming nothing. It is theoretical because upon reflection, these values are realized to be our own fictions. (view more)
