What is the most accurate meaning of Nihilism?

773 views

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

8 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

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.

You are viewing 1 out of 8 answers, click here to view all answers.