I have been having a debate with a friend on what is actually the concept of Nihilism, and ended up entirely confused on it’s meaning after our conversation. I thought Nihilism meant believing that everything is meaningless and hence not doing anything. My friend says that it is more like Nihilism is questioning the meaning behind everything and accepting that we are the ones giving meaning. My take makes Nihilism seem like a bad thing, his take makes it seem really endearing. But what does it actually mean? I did check out earlier posts on this , but did just end up becoming more confused.
In: Other
Nihilism is a way of thinking which rejects concepts, meaning, or life. It is a philosophical position or condition. Nihility means “nothingness”, and “nihil” is the Latin word for “nothing”. Nihilism can mean the belief that values are meaningless ideas. It can also mean the belief that nothing has any meaning or purpose. In fact, there are many different beliefs that can be called nihilism.
The German thinker Friedrich Nietzsche wrote many things about nihilism. What he wrote is often called the most important explanation of nihilism. Nietzsche wrote that nihilism comes from questioning traditional values until they fall apart. This is called “value destruction”.
The Russian thinker Mikhail Bakunin inspired a lot of nihilists because he believed this kind of destruction was good. The word “nihilism” was then made popular by a Russian novel called *Fathers and Sons* by Ivan Turgenev. The hero of the story is a nihilist named Bazarov. Some other Russian thinkers such as Dmitry Pisarev also wrote good things about this kind of destruction. Russian nihilism inspired many revolutionaries, such as Sergei Nechaev and Vladimir Lenin. The Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky was almost also a nihilist. But he became an anti-nihilist after ten years in exile. He wrote about nihilism in many novels such as *Crime and Punishment*.
Nietzsche thought value destruction could not be avoided, even though it has bad results. He also thought Christianity was a source of this value destruction, and was therefore a kind of nihilism. According to the French writer Gilles Deleuze, he thought Christianity was nihilistic because it was life-denying, meaning it has a negative and unhealthy attitude towards living. Religious thinkers have instead thought that nihilism comes from rejecting religion. Some parts of Buddhism have also been called a kind of nihilism, even though other parts strongly reject nihilism. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the word “nihilism” was mostly used against people who rejected religion or believed in nothing. Either way, nihilism is often seen as a word for life-denying beliefs.
The problem is, words don’t have some universal, set, objective meaning. Words acquire meaning by how people use them. And people have used nihilism to mean both what you say *and* what your friend says.
Now, if there existed some supreme authority over words, then we could say who is right. But such an authority doesn’t exist.
Both of your interpretations are interpretations people have made with respect to nihilism over time, demonstrating that it isn’t a static, monolithic concept.
Nihilism is like helping Bunny do a self-kidnap, but also like stealing The Dude’s car and courting off your girlfriend’s toe.
Nihilism is the acceptance that literally nothing matters and that we are so small and insignificant in the face of the universe/reality that nothing we do will ever have an effect on this larger scale. In short we exist for no reason and trying to find purpose is pointless because in the end we’ll all be a rotting corpse that won’t be remembered 5 or 6 generations down the line.
This is how I would define nihilism but there’s a bunch of others who say nihilism means xyz so really just take your pick of which to believe.
Your friend’s definition sounds more like existentialism or humanism. Nihilism doesn’t mean you do nothing though. I know nihilists who function just fine.
Your friend is talking about optimistic nihilism. There are many different ways of interpeting nihilism but just going straight by the word it means nothing ism. Meaning you don’t have an ‘ism’ to existence.
There is no point to live, there is no reason to do anything, but that also means there is no reason NOT to live or not to do things.
When you come to the conclusion that everything is meaningless, you either have two choices. You here that and decide to be miserable about it, or you realize it and decide to make your existence as pleassurable as possible.
This does not equal hedonism either because well, you’re expected to live for a while, and I much rather have most of it be pleasant.
Goals are rewarding so I work for goals. I also get a positive response experiencing cool things, so I try to experience coom things, I smile more when people around me smile, so I try to make them smile more.
Some will say that this is better described as expressionism or such, but I definstely disagree. The very specific point that nothing matters is the driving force. At least for me.
Basically Nihilism means they don’t believe in anything. They don’t believe in religion, politics, government, moral values, etc. They just don’t find meaning in anything.
This is different from Anarchists who typically don’t believe in being governed and will actively try to disrupt the governing construct. Atheists don’t believe in a god and don’t follow religion.
You and your friend can both be right. Nihilism is the belief that there is no fundamental reason for anything, no objectively true values. What you do with that concept is up to you. You can feel that nihilism means that everything is meaningless, or you can take the stance of what has been called ‘positive nihilism’ – that you are responsible for creating your own meaning, and that can be a beautiful thing.
Latest Answers