nihilism

existentialism

trolley problem

pessimism

will

Arthur Schopenhauer

Friedrich Nietzsche

G.W.F. Hegel

socialism

life

Jean-Paul Sartre

Slavoj Zizek

Ubermensch

self-sacrifice

meaning of life

Albert Camus

materialism

greed

money

is a condition in which there is a disjunction between our [inherited] experience of the world and the conceptual apparatus we have at our disposal to interpret it.

Keith Ansell-Pearson writes, 'Nihilism describes a condition in which there is a disjunction between our [inherited] experience of the world and the conceptual apparatus we have at our disposal . . . to interpret it' (Keith AnsellPearson, An Introduction to Nietzsche as Political Thinker, 1994). (diethe 207)

is a kind of eternal nothingness and meaninglessness.

the most extreme form of nihilism: nothingness (the meaningless) eternally!

is a lack of positive faith and the absences of some higher goal.

Nietzsche characterizes this lack of positive faith as 'nihilism,' and sees it as a great danger. We need something to aim for, some higher goal, or we will give up on life entirely. (nietzsche spark beyond )

is a natural consequence of a culture (or civilization) ruled and regulated by categories that mask manipulation, mastery and domination of peoples and nature.

Nihilism is a natural consequence of a culture (or civilization) ruled and regulated by categories that mask manipulation, mastery and domination of peoples and nature. Cornel West

is affirmation that is directed. Affirmation requires trust in a world and what may yet transpire in it beyond what we are 'warranted' to assert.

Nihilism' is the name Nietzsche gives to this state, in terms of which the question of 'affirmation' or of saying 'yes' would be directed. Affirmation, in other words, requires a belief or trust in the world and what may yet transpire in it, beyond what we are 'warranted' to assert. (Rajchman 2000 : 76)

is, in its ideal form, a kind of affirmation (an openness toward the world) which one tries to forcefully direct. Affirmation requires trust in a world and what may yet transpire in it, beyond what we are 'warranted' to assert.

is just a disillusioned metaphysics whereby angst is the flipside of faith.

Life may not have a built-in purpose, but that is not to say that it is futile. The nihilist is just a disillusioned metaphysician. Angst is just the flip side of faith. (Eagleton 2007 58)

is just another aspect of our contemporary milieu. . . The fact that nothing grounds or legitimizes our practices and pain, suggests that we don't have the ability to overcome our pain, only to recognize our pain.

American antifoundationalist Richard Rorty makes a similar point: 'Nothing grounds our practices, nothing legitimizes them, nothing shows them to be in touch with the way things are' ('From Logic to Language to Play,' 1986). This epistemological cul-de-sac, Rorty concludes, leads inevitably to nihilism. 'Faced with the nonhuman, the nonlinguistic, we no longer have the ability to overcome contingency and pain by appropriation and transformation, but only the ability to recognize contingency and pain' (Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, 1989). In contrast to Nietzsche's fears and the angst of the existentialist, nihilism becomes for the antifoundationalist just another aspect of our contemporary milieu, one best endured with sang-froid. '

nihilism, n.Memes

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