Discuss the conception of Nihilism in Nietzsche Philosophy.
Autor: Krisnatágoras | Publicado: 2015-11-08T10:12:00-05:00



Nihilism (from the Latin nihil, nothing) is a term and a philosophical concept that affects most of areas of contemporary world (literature, art, social theories, science, moral and ethic)  that suggests the lack of belief in one or more meaningful aspects of life.           That is the most common conception of nihilism, but is not the only one. What Friedrich Nietzsche thought by nihilism features the opposite of the common sense.          The first occurrence of the term dates back to the French Revolution when they were defined as "nihilists" the groups who were neither for nor against the Revolution.           On the other hand, beyond the alleged paternity of the term attributed to the great Russian writer Ivan Turgenev in his book 'Fathers and Sons', the first properly philosophical use of the concept can be found in the late eighteenth century, during the debates and disputes that characterize the foundation of idealism.



&nbsp;But it is with Nietzsche that the reflexion reaches the most high degree. With a radical thinking that shows the origin of the phenomenon in the ancient greek philosophy as the Platonism and after in Christianism.          Insofar that the Christian and Platonism values deny the dimension of natural forces in life in name a transcendental values (world of ideas in platonism and heaven in christianism), values that pointed to another world which is not this one and is also better then this one (the same thought is applied to any religion - as muslims, buddhism, to philosophy - the idealists, metaphysics, and science).  So, those values lead us to underestimate and mischaracterize the human condition (appetites and instincts) in name of a promise that cannot be accomplished.          Basically, in this perspective exists two ways of relation with life: Denying the life or affirm the life.  So, if the nihilism in common sense is the idea of a lack of belief in any meaning of life, the denial of higher values, for  Nietzsche the nihilist is a kind of denies the World of Life.           As world of life we can understand as  the pragmatic world, the world of the matter, the world of the meetings, the world of the emotions,  the sensations, the instincts, the world of the vital energies. So, instead of lead the life in name of behalf of superiores values, for Nietzsche claim deny the heaven in name of the earth.  Nietzsche wrote down in a small fragment titled "On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense” which was published after his death, his perception of truth: 


"In some remote corner of the universe, poured out and glittering in innumerable solar systems, there once was a star on which clever animals invented knowledge. That was the highest and most mendacious minute of "world history"—yet only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths the star grew cold, and the clever animals had to die."


         This knowledge is not about how the things really were but as created for a way to organize and understanding the universe to support the continuing life of that animal as a form of adaptation to ensure about biological survival. That knowledge was not about truth but basically about survival.          Therefore, Nietzsche in this fragment wants to show the only real dimension of human life is not transcendental but material and is part of this world our instinct and will of power.          Once the history of Western civilization is known for a super valorization of reason over the irrational and sensations and our society values the prospect of a future and better life - paradise, revolution, free market - on behalf of current and material life, that is composed of a complexity that can not be reduced to simple religious or scientific formulas, since science and religious and also all the economic systems are not sufficient to deal with the complexity of what is human, one could realize that deny the world on behalf of any higher transcendent belief that try to reduce the condition of life, whether in holy books or scientific formulas, causes us to lose sight of what matters most.           For Nietzsche, yet in his time, known as one who did philosophy to hammer blows, it is necessary to destroy all the foundations of security certainties and which deny the life, thus free from all the shackles of certainties, as society we could create new values that will be able to provide a new kind of relation with life, in an affirmative way.