Nihilism

:This article is about the philosophical position. For the Russian political and revolutionary movement, see Nihilist movement.

Nihilism in philosophy

Though the term nihilism was first popularized by Ivan Turgenev (see below), it was first introduced into philosophical discourse by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819), who used the term to characterize rationalism, and in particular Immanuel Kant's "critical" philosophy in order to carry out a reductio ad absurdum according to which all rationalism (philosophy as criticism) reduces to nihilism, and thus it should be avoided and replaced with a return to some type of faith and revelation.

Related Topics:
Ivan Turgenev - Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi - 1743 - 1819 - Immanuel Kant - Reductio ad absurdum - Faith - Revelation

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Friedrich Nietzsche's later work displays a preoccupation with nihilism. Book One of the posthumous collection The Will to Power (a highly selective arrangement of jottings from various notebooks and from a surceased project began by Nietzsche himself, then released by his sister) is entitled "European Nihilism," which he calls "the problem of the nineteenth century." Nietzsche characterized nihilism as emptying the world and especially human existence of meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value.

Related Topics:
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Will to Power

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Though some deride it as nihilistic, postmodernism can be contrasted with the above formulation of nihilism in that nihilism tends toward defeatism, while postmodern philosophers tend to find strength and reason for celebration in the varied and unique human relationships it explores. Nihilism can also readily be compared to skepticism as both reject claims to knowledge and truth, though skepticism does not necessarily come to any conclusions about the reality of moral concepts nor does it deal so intimately with questions about the meaning of an existence without knowable truth.

Related Topics:
Postmodernism - Defeatism - Skepticism - Existence

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nihilism in ethics and morality

In the world of ethics, nihilist or nihilistic is often used as a derogatory word referring to a complete rejection of all systems of authority, morality, and social custom, or one who purportedly makes such a rejection. Either through the rejection of previously accepted bases of belief or through extreme relativism or skepticism, the nihilist is construed as one who believes that none of these claims to power are valid, and often that they should be fought against. From a nihilist point of view, the ultimate source of moral values is the individual rather than culture or another rational (objective -- this being an interjection) foundation.

Related Topics:
Ethics - Relativism - Skepticism - Objective

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Postmodernism and the breakdown of knowledge

Postmodern thought is colored by the perception of a degeneration of systems of epistemology and ethics into extreme relativism, especially evident in the writings of Jean-François Lyotard and Jacques Derrida. These philosophers tend to deny the very grounds on which Western cultures have based their 'truths': absolute knowledge and meaning, the accumulation of positive knowledge, historical progress, and the ideals of humanism and the Enlightenment. Though it is often described as a fundamentally nihilist philosophy, before entering a brief discussion on postmodern thought it is important to note that nihilism itself is open to postmodern criticism: nihilism is a claim to a universal truth, exactly what postmodernism rejects.

Related Topics:
Postmodern - Epistemology - Ethics - Jean-François Lyotard - Jacques Derrida - Humanism - The Enlightenment

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lyotard and meta-narratives

Lyotard argues that, rather than relying on an objective truth or method to prove their claims (logic, empiricism, etc.), philosophers legitimize their truths by reference to a story about the world which is inseparable from the age and system the stories belong to. Lyotard calls them meta-narratives. He then goes on to define the postmodern condition as one characterized by a rejection both of these meta-narratives and of the process of legitimization by meta-narratives.

Related Topics:
Objective - Logic - Empiricism - Meta-narratives - Postmodern condition

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In lieu of meta-narratives we have created new language-games in order to legitimize our claims which rely on changing relationships and mutable truths, none of which is privileged over the other to speak to ultimate truth. It is this unstable concept of truth and meaning that leads one close to nihilism, though in the same move that plunges toward meaninglessness, Lyotard suspends his philosophy just above its surface.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nihilism and Nietzsche

:"To the clean are all things clean" — thus say the people. I, however, say unto you: To the swine all things become swinish!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:Therefore preach the visionaries and bowed-heads (whose hearts are also bowed down): "The world itself is a filthy monster."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:For these are all unclean spirits; especially those, however, who have no peace or rest, unless they see the world FROM THE BACKSIDE — the backworldsmen!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:TO THOSE do I say it to the face, although it sound unpleasantly: the world resembleth man, in that it hath a backside, — SO MUCH is true!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:There is in the world much filth: SO MUCH is true! But the world itself is not therefore a filthy monster!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::-Thus Spoke Zarathustra

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

While few philosophers would claim to be nihilists, nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche defined the term as any philosophy that, rejecting the real world around us and physical existence along with it, results in an apathy toward life and a poisoning of the human soul — and opposed it vehemently. He describes it as "the will to nothingness" or, more specifically: A nihilist is a man who judges of the world as it is that it ought not to be, and of the world as it ought to be that it does not exist. According to this view, our existence (action, suffering, willing, feeling) has no meaning: the pathos of "in vain" is the nihilists' pathos?at the same time, as pathos, an inconsistency on the part of the nihilists (The Will to Power, section 585, Walter Kaufmann). In this sense the philosophical equivalent to the Russian political movement mentioned above: the irrational leap beyond skepticism — the desire to destroy meaning, knowledge, and value. To him, it was irrational because the human soul thrives on value. Nihilism, then, was in a sense like suicide and mass murder all at once. He saw this philosophy as present in Christianity, which he describes as slave morality, Buddhism, morality, asceticism and any excessively skeptical philosophy.

Related Topics:
Friedrich Nietzsche - Walter Kaufmann - Christianity - Buddhism - Morality - Asceticism

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nietzsche is referred to as a nihilist in part because he famously announced "God is dead!" What he meant by this oft-repeated statement was not that God has passed away in a literal sense, or even necessarily that God doesn't exist, but that we don't believe in God anymore, that even those of us who profess faith in God really don't believe. God is dead, then, in the sense that his existence is now irrelevant to the bulk of humanity. "And we," he says in The Gay Science, "have killed him." Nietzsche also believed that, even though he viewed Christian morality as nihilistic, without God humanity is left with no epistemological or moral base from which we can derive absolute beliefs. Thus, even though nihilism has been a threat in the past, through Christianity, Platonism, and various political movements that aim toward a distant utopian future, and any other philosophy that devalues human life and the world around us (and any philosophy that devalues the world around us by privileging some other or future world necessarily devalues human life), Nietzsche tells us it is also a threat for humanity's future - this warning can also be taken as a polemic against 19th and 20th century scientism.

Related Topics:
The Gay Science - Platonism - Utopia - Scientism

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nietzsche advocated a remedy for nihilism's destructive effects and a hope for humanity's future in the form of the Übermensch, a position especially apparent in his works Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Antichrist. The Übermensch is an exercise of action and life: one must give value to their existence by behaving as if one's very existence were a work of art. Nietzsche believed that the Übermensch "exercise" would be a necessity for human survival in the post-religious era.

Related Topics:
Übermensch - Thus Spoke Zarathustra - The Antichrist

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another part of Nietzsche's remedy for nihilism is a revaluation of morals — he hoped that we are able to discard the old morality of equality and servitude and adopt a new code, turning Judeo-Christian morality on its head. Excess, carelessness, callousness, and sin, then, are not the damning acts of a person with no regard for his salvation, nor that which plummets a society toward decadence and decline, but the signifier of a soul already withering and the sign that a society is in decline. The only true sin to Nietzsche is that which is against a human nature aimed at the expression and venting of one's power. Virtue, likewise, is not to act according to what has been commanded, but to contribute to all that betters a human soul.

Related Topics:
Judeo-Christian - Salvation - Decadence - Virtue

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nietzsche attempts to reintroduce what he calls a master morality, which values personal excellence over forced compassion and creative acts of will over the herd instinct, a moral outlook he attributes to the ancient Greeks. The Christian moral ideals developed in opposition to this master morality, he says, as the reversal of the value system of the elite social class due to the oppressed class' resentment of their Roman masters. Nietzsche, however, did not believe that humans should adopt master morality as the be-all-end-all code of behavior - he believed that the revaluation of morals would correct the inconsistencies in both master and slave morality - but simply that master morality was preferable to slave morality.

Related Topics:
Ancient Greeks - Social class - Roman

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The nihilist paradox

Nihilism is often described as a belief in the nonexistence of truth. In its most extreme form, such a belief is difficult to justify, because it contains a variation on the liar paradox: if it is true that truth does not exist, the statement "truth does not exist" is in itself not a truth, thereby proving itself incorrect. A more sophisticated interpretation of the claim might be that while truth may exist, it is inaccessible in practice, but this leaves open the problem of how the skeptic or nihilist has accessed it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some would that the nihilist has not accessed truth directly, but has come to the conclusion that truth is ultimately unattainable within the confines of human circumstance. Thus, since the nihilist knows truth cannot be attained in this life, (s)he looks upon the activities of those rigorously seeking truth as futile.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~