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Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing

can be known or communicated. A true nihilist would believe in

nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose. While few philosophers

would claim to be nihilists, nihilism is most often associated with

Friedrich Nietzsche who argued that its corrosive effects would

eventually destroy all moral, religious, and metaphysical convictions

and precipitate the greatest crisis in human history.

 

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Table of Contents (Clicking on the links below will take you to those

parts of this article)

1. Origins

2. Friedrich Nietzsche and Nihilism

3. Existential Nihilism

4. Antifoundationalism and Nihilism

5. Conclusion

 

 

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1. Origins

 

" 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, to describe the crude scientism a

creed of total negation.

 

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 destroys and annihilates

only because it is the unsearchable and eternally creative source of

all life--the passion for destruction is also a creative passion! "

(Reaction in Germany, 1842).

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 what each man believes " (Olynthiac), he

posits the relational nature of knowledge. Extreme skepticism, then,

is linked to epistemological nihilism which denies the possibility of

knowledge and truth; this form of nihilism is currently identified

with postmodern antifoundationalism. Nihilism, in fact, can be

understood in several different ways. Political Nihilism, as noted,

is associated with the belief that the destruction of all existing

political, social, and religious order is a prerequisite for any

future improvement. Ethical nihilism or moral nihilism rejects the

possibility of absolute moral or ethical values. Instead, good and

evil are nebulous, and values addressing such are the product of

nothing more than social and emotive pressures. Existential nihilism

is the notion that life has no intrinsic meaning or value, and it is,

no doubt, the most commonly used and understood sense of the word

today.

 

Max Stirner's (1806-1856) attacks on systematic philosophy, his

denial of absolutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any

kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For

Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state,

which necessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond

the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by

others because their very existence is an obstacle compromising

individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an

endless " war of each against all " (The Ego and its Own, trans. 1907).

 

 

 

 

 

2. Friedrich Nietzsche and Nihilism

 

Among philosophers, Friedrich Nietzsche is most often associated with

nihilism. For Nietzsche, there is no objective order or structure in

the world except what we give it. Penetrating the façades buttressing

convictions, the nihilist discovers that all values are baseless and

that reason is impotent. " Every belief, every considering something-

true, " Nietzsche writes, " is necessarily false because there is

simply no true world " For him, nihilism requires a radical

repudiation of all imposed values and meaning: " Nihilism is . . . not

only the belief that everything deserves to perish; but one actually

puts one's shoulder to the plough; one destroys " (Will to Power).

 

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, relevance, and purpose will be the most destructive force in

history, constituting a total assault on reality and nothing less

than the greatest crisis of humanity:

 

What I relate is the history of the next two centuries. I describe

what is coming, what can no longer come differently: the advent of

nihilism. . . . For some time now our whole European culture has been

moving as toward a catastrophe, with a tortured tension that is

growing from decade to decade: restlessly, violently, headlong, like

a river that wants to reach the end. . . . (Will to Power)

Since Nietzsche's compelling critique, nihilistic themes--

epistemological failure, value destruction, and cosmic

purposelessness--have preoccupied artists, social critics, and

philosophers.

Convinced that Nietzsche's analysis was accurate, for example, Oswald

Spengler in The Decline of the West (1926) studied several cultures

to confirm that patterns of nihilism were indeed a conspicuous

feature of collapsing civilizations.

 

___________ " Withdrawal, for instance, often identified with the

negation of reality and resignation advocated by Eastern

religions,___________

 

is in the West associated with various versions of epicureanism and

stoicism. In his study, Spengler concludes that Western civilization

is already in the advanced stages of decay with all three forms of

nihilism working to undermine epistemological authority and

ontological grounding.

In 1927, Martin Heidegger, to cite another example, observed that

nihilism in various and hidden forms was already " the normal state of

man " (The Question of Being). Other philosophers' predictions about

nihilism's impact have been dire. Outlining the symptoms of nihilism

in the 20th century, Helmut Thielicke wrote that ___________

 

" Nihilism literally has only one truth to declare, namely, that

ultimately Nothingness prevails and the world is meaningless "

 

(Nihilism: Its Origin and Nature, with a Christian Answer, 1969).

From the nihilist's perspective, one can conclude that life is

completely amoral, a conclusion, Thielicke believes, that motivates

such monstrosities as the Nazi reign of terror. Gloomy predictions of

nihilism's impact are also charted in Eugene Rose's Nihilism: The

Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age (1994).

 

________If nihilism proves victorious--and it's well on its way, he

argues--our world will become " a cold, inhuman world "

where " nothingness, incoherence, and absurdity " will triumph._______

 

3. Existential Nihilism

 

___________While nihilism is often discussed in terms of extreme

skepticism and relativism, for most of the 20th century it has been

associated with the belief that life is meaningless. Existential

nihilism begins with the notion that the world is without meaning or

purpose. Given this circumstance, existence itself--all action,

suffering, and feeling--is ultimately senseless and empty.________

 

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

same kind of extreme pessimism associated with existential nihilism.

In antiquity, such profound pessimism may have reached its apex with

Hegesis. Because miseries vastly outnumber pleasures, happiness is

impossible, the philosopher argues, and subsequently advocates

suicide.

 

 

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 establishing an essential self or a human nature. When

we abandon illusions, life is revealed as nothing; and for the

existentialists, nothingness is the source of not only absolute

freedom but also existential horror and emotional anguish.

Nothingness reveals each individual as an isolated being " thrown "

into an alien and unresponsive universe, barred forever from knowing

why yet required to invent meaning. It's a situation that's nothing

short of absurd.

 

_________________Writing from the enlightened perspective of the

absurd, Albert Camus (1913-1960) observed that Sisyphus' plight,

condemned to eternal, useless struggle, was a superb metaphor for

human existence (The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942).

The common thread in the literature of the existentialists is coping

with the emotional anguish arising from our confrontation with

nothingness, and they expended great energy responding to the

question of whether surviving it was possible. Their answer was a

qualified " Yes, " advocating a formula of passionate commitment and

impassive stoicism. In retrospect, it was an anecdote tinged with

desperation because in an absurd world there are absolutely no

guidelines, and any course of action is problematic. Passionate

commitment, be it to conquest, creation, or whatever, is itself

meaningless. ________________-Enter nihilism.

 

____________________Camus, like the other existentialists, was

convinced that nihilism was the most vexing problem of the twentieth

century.__________________________

 

Although he argues passionately that individuals could endure its

corrosive effects, his most famous works betray the extraordinary

difficulty he faced building a convincing case.

Camus was fully aware of the pitfalls of defining existence without

meaning, and in his philosophical essay The Rebel (1951) he faces the

problem of nihilism head-on. In it, he describes at length how

metaphysical collapse often ends in total negation and the victory of

nihilism, characterized by profound hatred, pathological destruction,

and incalculable violence and death.

 

 

 

 

4. Antifoundationalism and Nihilism

 

By the late 20th century, " nihilism " had assumed two different

castes. In one form, " nihilist " is used to characterize the

postmodern man, 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 derived from the existentialists' reflections on

nihilism stripped of any hopeful expectations, leaving only the

experience of sickness, decay, and disintegration.

 

In his study of meaninglessness, Donald Crosby writes that the source

of modern nihilism paradoxically stems from a commitment to honest

intellectual openness. " Once set in motion, the process of

questioning could come to but one end, the erosion of conviction and

certitude and collapse into despair " (The Specter of the Absurd,

1988). When sincere inquiry is extended to moral convictions and

social consensus, it can prove deadly, Crosby continues, promoting

forces that ultimately destroy civilizations. Michael Novak's

recently revised The Experience of Nothingness (1968, 1998) tells a

similar story. Both studies are responses to the existentialists'

gloomy findings from earlier in the century. And both optimistically

discuss ways out of the abyss by focusing of the positive

implications nothingness reveals, such as liberty, freedom, and

creative possibilities. Novak, for example, describes how since WWII

we have been working to " climb out of nihilism " on the way to

building a new civilization.

 

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 meaninglessness.

 

 

American antifoundationalist Richard Rorty makes a similar

point: " Nothing grounds our practices, nothing legitimizes them,

nothing shows them to be in touch with the way things are " ( " From

Logic to Language to Play, " 1986). This epistemological cul-de-sac,

Rorty concludes, leads inevitably to nihilism. " Faced with the

nonhuman, the nonlinguistic, we no longer have the ability to

overcome contingency and pain by appropriation and transformation,

but only the ability to recognize contingency and pain " (Contingency,

Irony, and Solidarity, 1989). In contrast to Nietzsche's fears and

the angst of the existentialists, nihilism becomes for the

antifoundationalists just another aspect of our contemporary milieu,

one best endured with sang-froid.

 

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 we accept that all perspectives are equally non-binding,

then intellectual or moral arrogance will determine which perspective

has precedence. Worse still, the banalization of nihilism creates an

environment where ideas can be imposed forcibly with little

resistance, raw power alone determining intellectual and moral

hierarchies. It's a conclusion that dovetails nicely with

Nietzsche's, who pointed out that all interpretations of the world

are simply manifestations of will-to-power.

 

 

 

 

 

5. Conclusion

 

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 preoccupied with language, knowledge, and truth,

anticipated many of the themes of postmodernity. It's helpful to

note, then, that he believed we could--at a terrible price--

eventually work through nihilism. If we survived the process of

destroying all interpretations of the world, we could then perhaps

discover the correct course for humankind:

 

I praise, I do not reproach, [nihilism's] arrival. I believe it is

one of the greatest crises, a moment of the deepest self-reflection

of humanity. Whether man recovers from it, whether he becomes master

of this crisis, is a question of his strength. It is possible. . . .

(Complete Works Vol. 13)

 

 

 

 

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