Nihilism

Nihilism is a way of thinking which rejects concepts, meaning, or life. It is a  or condition. Nihility means "nothingness", and "" 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 "".

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  after ten years in exile. He wrote about nihilism in many novels such as Crime and Punishment. The people who assassinated the Russian emperor, Tsar Alexander II on 13 March 1881, are often thought of as nihilists.

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 , 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.

Important terms 

 anti-nihilism — Anti-nihilism means to be against nihilism. It was also a genre of Russian literature in the 19th century. Examples of people who have been called anti-nihilists are Ivan Turgenev, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Friedrich Nietzsche. But in one way or another, many anti-nihilists have ended up helping nihilism.
 life-denying — If something is life-denying it means it has a negative and unhealthy attitude towards living. It is the opposite of being "life-affirming". Gilles Deleuze says that the process "of denying life and depreciating existence" is what Friedrich Nietzsche calls "nihilism". Nihilism is often seen as a word for life-denying beliefs.
 value destruction — Value destruction means destroying the values that people take for granted. This is by questioning traditional values until they fall apart. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that nihilism is "not only the belief that everything deserves to perish". Instead, it also makes an effort to . This is also called the devaluation of values, which means losing the worth of those values. It is also called negation, which means denying something or cancelling it out.

Origins 

The word "nihilism" comes from "", which is the Latin word for "nothing". But the exact origins of the word "nihilism" are unclear. In the Middle Ages the word was used for some kinds of heresy. Around the time of the French Revolution, it was a word for the destruction of Christianity and traditional European values. It was used in many European countries. Soon, the word was also used in English. It probably came from the French, German, or Late Latin form of the word.

"Nihilism" first became a philosophical word in German philosophy, and then in Russian philosophy. These two studies of nihilism were combined by Friedrich Nietzsche.

German nihilism 

In 1733, the German writer Friedrich Lebrecht Goetz used the word "nihilism" as a literary term.  Swiss esotericist Jacob Hermann Obereit also used the word  in 1787,  German thinker Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi did in 1799. This is where it first became part of philosophy. The belief that no one can know true reality is what Obereit called "nihilism". He used this definition to call the German thinker Immanuel Kant a nihilist. This was because Kant said people cannot be certain of real things, but can only be certain about their experience of real things. Jacobi also used this definition to say Kant and his followers were nihilists. For example, he famously called the German thinker Johann Gottlieb Fichte a nihilist. Jacobi thought both the humanism and German idealism that had come out of the Age of Enlightenment were kinds of nihilism. According to him, these so-called rational philosophies were the complete opposite of rational.

Around 1824, the German journalist Joseph von Görres used the word "nihilism" in a political way. He said that to reject social structures is nihilism. But the word "nihilism" almost died out during this time. For example, the German thinker Max Stirner is called one of the first true nihilists but he never used the word. He wrote most of his works in the 1840s.

Russian nihilism 

Russian nihilism was an early kind of nihilist philosophy. It was also a broad cultural movement that mixed with some revolutionary movements. Russian nihilism is often wrongly called a kind of political terrorism because of this. Its main interest was to destroy traditional values, especially in art and religion. Its main philosophers were Nikolay Chernyshevsky and Dmitry Pisarev. It also rejected the belief in free will and God. Unlike German nihilism which came from German idealism, Russian nihilism was strongly against idealism.

The Russian writer Nikolai Nadezhdin was probably the first to use the word "nihilism" in Russian publication. He first used it in 1829 by calling scepticism the same as nihilism. This same meaning was later used by the Russian writer Vasilij Bervi. The Russian journalists Mikhail Katkov and Vissarion Belinsky also used the word. Katkov said nihilism created a threat of revolution because it rejected all morality. Belinsky used the word in a more neutral way. But the word was still not popular at the time.

The Russian thinker Mikhail Bakunin is often called the father of Russian nihilism. In 1842, he wrote: "Let us therefore trust the eternal Spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unfathomable and eternal source of all life. The passion for destruction is a creative passion, too!". Then in the 1850s and 60s, the theory behind Russian nihilism started to form. Originally it was a philosophy of scepticism towards morals and truth. It was in 1862 that the Russian author Ivan Turgenev made the word "nihilism" popular. He used it in his novel called Fathers and Sons to describe the attitude of the younger generation. The nihilists in the book say they are people who "deny ", who do "not take any principle on faith", and who think that "at the present time, negation is the most useful of all". Even though Turgenev was more of an , many young people started to call themselves "nihilists" because of this book.

For Pisarev, nihilism was mostly philosophical and not political. He thought extraordinary people should free themselves from rules and morals. He thought anyone who did this would be above ordinary people. But later, Russian nihilism became more and more political. It inspired many revolutionaries such as Sergei Nechaev and Vladimir Lenin.

Nietzsche 

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote many criticisms about nihilism that have become known as the most important explanation of nihilism. Even though Nietzsche was very critical of nihilism, he has similarities to earlier nihilists such as Dmitry Pisarev and Max Stirner. Because of this, he is sometimes called a nihilist and sometimes called an . His explanation of nihilism combined the German and Russian meanings of the word, and also went further.

When Nietzsche asks the question "What does nihilism mean?", he gives the answer "That the highest values  themselves. The aim is lacking; 'Why?' finds no answer." According to Nietzsche, nihilism is when someone thinks the world  should not exist, and the world  does not exist. For example, some religions think the world is wrong , and should be perfect instead. He also says nihilism is "not only the belief that everything deserves to perish". Instead, it also makes an effort to .

Related pages 
 Absurdism
 Cynicism
 Egoism
 Existentialism
 God is dead
 Pessimism
 Postmodernism

References 

Philosophical movements and positions
Terrorism
Anarchism