Defining nihilistic philosophy

The famous Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines nihilism as the view that all traditional values, morals and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is meaningless and useless!

The dictionary cites the words of the contemporary philosopher Ronald H. Nash, who says, “Nihilism is the state in which all values and beliefs lose their value.”The word nihilism in the English language comes from the Latin root Nihil, which means “nothing.”

The birth of nihilistic philosophy

The basic principles of nihilism existed long ago, even before the name and the term itself were born. The main ideas of this philosophy are found in the beliefs and philosophy of the Greeks (i.e. BC). Perhaps the Greek philosopher Gorgias, who lived in the period from 483 to 378 BC, is the spiritual father of these Philosophy, where the following saying affects him:

Philosopher Gorgias (483 to 378 BCE) Nothing exists, and if something existed, it would not be known.

As for the term nihilism, it goes back to the Middle Ages, when it was used to refer to heretics in Europe, and the first to introduce this term to Russian literature was the writer Nadezhdin in his famous article, The Messenger of Europe in 1829, but he equated the principle of nihilism with the principle of skepticism.

Nihilism and Nietzsche

By Nietzsche we mean the well-known German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), who hardly mentions nihilistic philosophy unless he is mentioned with it, and this is due to his description of nihilism in his well-known book “Will to Power.” One of the most famous inferences from Nietzsche’s words in his book is this phrase “Any belief or any thinking that there is a real thing is necessarily a false belief and thinking because there is simply no real world.”

Nietzsche believes that there is no objective arrangement or structure of this world except what humans arrange, which is of course artificial and not of the origin of the world.

The main themes in nihilistic philosophy

Nihilism in general is broad and contains many ideas and themes, but to facilitate its study, it can be divided into the following axes:

Cognitive nihilism

Epistemological nihilism denies the possibility of knowledge and truth and is associated with skepticism about all knowledge and ideas.

Political nihilism

Political nihilism calls for the prior destruction of all political orders, social beliefs, and religious teachings on which the state or society is based, so that the wheel of progress and improvement in this society can proceed.

Moral nihilism

This axis of nihilism rejects the existence of absolute moral values, as it believes that the concepts of evil and good are vague concepts, and the association of any moral value with them is simply a result of social and emotional pressures.

Existential nihilism

Existential nihilism is the most well-known view among people, and it contrasts with the concept of existential philosophy, as it emphasizes the idea that life has no meaning or any intrinsic value.

Is nihilism an aggressive philosophy?

Nihilism has often been considered a violent and hostile philosophy, and some may even describe it as terrorism, and the reason for this is that most of the early nihilists were revolutionary and embraced violence. From a neutral point of view, their number was not large enough to pose a threat to the whole of society, but rather their direct threat to those in power.

Are nihilistic philosophers necessarily atheists?

Atheism is closely related to nihilistic philosophy, whether intentionally or unintentionally, but critics of nihilistic philosophy assert that it is linked to atheism and that one of the two ideas may lead to the other. Necessarily arrived at nihilism, and the same is the case if we move in the opposite direction, the nihilist sees the whole world as unreal and that there is no essential reason for life, and therefore he will end up as an atheist.

Where can nihilism lead to its owner?

In fact, if a person believes in nihilism completely, he will see the world as meaningless and even unreal, and therefore will be dominated by despair and will lose the existence of God and all objective and moral values, and he may even commit suicide, of course this does not mean that all nihilists committed suicide in the end, but nihilism in a way It can lead to indifference to life and its regulating values, and it may also lead to revolt against everything that society considers to be fixed, absolute, and correct.