Nihilism
Tradition · 19th century, Europe, named and diagnosed as a cultural condition · Philosophy, stage 2: Map the schools
Nihilism, as Nietzsche describes it, is the condition that follows once the highest values a culture relied on, especially the Christian God and objective moral truth, lose their credibility. Nietzsche did not invent the term, but he gave it its most influential philosophical treatment, arguing that Europe was heading toward a crisis in which people would find that nothing has inherent value or purpose. He treated nihilism as a dangerous but necessary stage to pass through, not simply reject, on the way to creating new values, which is where the Übermensch and eternal recurrence come in. Nihilism is often confused with plain pessimism, but Nietzsche's use of the word is more specific: it names the collapse of a value system, not just a bad mood.
What it claims
- Traditional sources of meaning and morality, especially religious ones, no longer hold up under scrutiny.
- Without those sources, nothing has meaning or value built into it from outside.
- This collapse is a real historical and psychological crisis, not just an abstract puzzle.
- The response should be creating new values, rather than either denying the crisis or giving in to despair.
Key ideas
People
Sources
- Friedrich Nietzsche Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Nihilism Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
