Nihilism

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Nihilism ; from nihil 'nothing' is a philosophy, or style of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such(a) as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values or meaning. Different nihilist positions defecate variously that human values are baseless, that life is meaningless, that knowledge is impossible, or that some sort of entities form not symbolize or are meaningless or pointless.

Scholars of nihilism may regard it as merely a denomination that has been applied to various separate philosophies, or as a distinct historical concept arising out of nominalism, skepticism, & philosophical pessimism, as well as possibly out of Christianity itself. sophisticated understanding of the view stems largely from the Nietzschean 'crisis of nihilism', from which derive the two central concepts: the waste of higher values & the opposition to the affirmation of life. Earlier forms of nihilism, however, may be more selective in negating specific hegemonies of social, moral, political and aesthetic thought.

The term is sometimes used in connection with anomie to explain the general mood of despair at a perceived pointlessness of existence or arbitrariness of human principles and social institutions. Nihilism has also been mentioned as conspicuous in or constitutive ofhistorical periods. For example, Jean Baudrillard and others have characterized postmodernity as a nihilistic epoch or mode of thought. Likewise, some theologians and religious figures have stated that postmodernity and many aspects of modernity represent nihilism by a negation of religious principles. Nihilism has, however, been widely ascribed to both religious and irreligious viewpoints.

In popular use, the term commonly planned to forms of § Moral nihilism, the rejection of any social and § Political nihilism, the stance that no cognition can or does exist § Epistemological nihilism, and a number of § Metaphysical nihilism, that § Mereological nihilism, or even that life itself does non exist.

Etymology, terminology and definition

The etymological origin of nihilism is the Latin root word , meaning 'nothing', which is similarly found in the related terms annihilate, meaning 'to bring to nothing', and nihility, meaning 'nothingness'. The term nihilism emerged in several places in Europe during the 18th century, notably in the German form , though was also in usage during the Middle Ages to denoteforms of heresy. The concept itself first took shape within Russian and German philosophy, which respectively represented the two major currents of discourse on nihilism prior to the 20th century. The term likely entered English from either the German , Late Latin , or French .

Early examples of the term's usage are found in German publications. In 1733, German writer Friedrich Leberecht Goetz used it as a literary term in combination with noism German: Neinismus. In the period surrounding the French Revolution, the term was also a pejorative forvalue-destructive trends of modernity, namely the negation of Christianity and European tradition in general. Nihilism first entered philosophical discussing within a discourse surrounding Kantian and post-Kantian philosophies, notably appearing in the writings of Swiss esotericist Jacob Hermann Obereit in 1787 and German philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi in 1799. As early as 1824, the term began to take on a social connotation with German journalist Joseph von Görres attributing it to a negation of existing social and political institutions. The Russian form of the word, Russian: нигилизм, entered publication in 1829 when Nikolai Nadezhdin used it synonymously with skepticism. In Russian journalism the word continued to have significant social connotations.