What is Nihilism?
Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. Nihilism is a family of views that reject or deny certain ideas about existence. Different forms of nihilism deny different claims about reality. For example, existential nihilism denies that life has a higher meaning, and moral nihilism rejects the existence of moral phenomena.
Rather than a single doctrine, nihilism encompasses multiple philosophical positions across ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, and value theory. Existential nihilism is the notion that life has no intrinsic meaning or value, and it is, no doubt, the most commonly used and understood sense of the word today. Ethical nihilism or moral nihilism rejects the possibility of absolute moral or ethical values. Instead, good and evil are nebulous, and values addressing such are the product of nothing more than social and emotive pressures. Extreme skepticism, then, is linked to epistemological nihilism which denies the possibility of knowledge and truth; this form of nihilism is currently identified with postmodern antifoundationalism.
Origins & Lineage
The word nihilism is a combination of the Latin term nihil, meaning ‘nothing’, and the suffix -ism, indicating an ideology. The word emerged in 18th-century Germany, first as a literary term and later as a philosophical notion, which Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi conceptualized to criticize philosophical thought that rejects meaning or existence. The term dates to 1817, as “the doctrine of negation” (in reference to religion or morals), from German Nihilismus, from Latin nihil “nothing at all”, coined by German philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819).
The term became popular in 19th-century Russia through Ivan Turgenev’s novel Fathers and Sons and the Russian nihilist movement. Interest in it increased more broadly in the 20th century in response to Friedrich Nietzsche’s works, while its meaning expanded to cover a wider range of philosophical and cultural phenomena. It only became popularized after its appearance in Ivan Turgenev’s novel Fathers and Sons (1862) where he used “nihilism” to describe the crude scientism espoused by his character Bazarov who preaches a creed of total negation.
The Nihilists were the generation of young, radical, non-gentry intellectuals who espoused a thoroughgoing materialism, positivism and scientism. The major theorists of Russian Nihilism were Nikolai Chernyshevskii and Dmitrii Pisarev, although their authority and influence extended well beyond the realm of theory.
Among philosophers, Friedrich Nietzsche is most often associated with nihilism. For Nietzsche, there is no objective order or structure in the world except what we give it. Penetrating the façades buttressing convictions, the nihilist discovers that all values are baseless and that reason is impotent. Nietzsche understood nihilism as a pervasive cultural trend in which people lose the traditional values and ideals guiding their lives as a result of secularization.
In 1927, Martin Heidegger observed that nihilism in various and hidden forms was already “the normal state of man”. In the 20th century, nihilist themes were explored by Dadaism, existentialism, and postmodern philosophy.
How It’s Practiced
Nihilism is not typically “practiced” in the sense of a spiritual discipline. It functions primarily as a philosophical orientation or analytical lens rather than a system of exercises. Those engaging with nihilism intellectually may:
- Read foundational texts: Nietzsche’s The Will to Power, The Gay Science, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra; Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons; existentialist responses by Camus (The Myth of Sisyphus) and Sartre.
- Philosophical inquiry: Questioning received values, examining the foundations (or lack thereof) of moral systems, investigating whether knowledge claims rest on ultimately arbitrary assumptions.
- Contemplative examination: Some engage nihilistic insights not as paralyzing despair but as clearing ground—stripping away inherited beliefs to see what remains or what might be authentically constructed.
Diverse possible reactions to existential nihilism have been proposed. Inspired by Indian philosophy, Arthur Schopenhauer suggested a pessimistic and ascetic response, advocating detachment from the world by renouncing desires and ceasing to affirm life. Friedrich Nietzsche proposed that accepting the lack of an otherworldly source of meaning can liberate individuals from inherited dogmas to affirm life without illusions. He sought to use the disruptive force of nihilism to re-interpret or re-evaluate all established ideals and values in an attempt to overcome nihilism and replace it with an affirmative attitude toward life.
Nihilism Today
Contemporary encounters with nihilism rarely occur in retreat centers or structured spiritual settings. Instead, seekers typically engage nihilism through:
- Academic philosophy courses focusing on existentialism, Continental philosophy, or ethics
- Reading groups and online forums discussing Nietzsche, Camus, and related thinkers
- Cultural artifacts: Films (e.g., the Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski explicitly addresses nihilism), literature, and visual art exploring meaninglessness, absurdity, and value collapse
- Therapeutic contexts: Existential psychotherapy and logotherapy (Viktor Frankl) address the meaning-crisis that nihilism articulates
In the 20th century, nihilistic themes–epistemological failure, value destruction, and cosmic purposelessness–have preoccupied artists, social critics, and philosophers. Mid-century, for example, the existentialists helped popularize tenets of nihilism in their attempts to blunt its destructive potential.
The term surfaces frequently in political discourse, popular culture, and discussions of modernity’s spiritual crises, though often imprecisely or pejoratively.
Common Misconceptions
Nihilism is not synonymous with despair or depression. While nihilistic insights can accompany existential crises, the philosophical position itself is analytical, not emotional. Many who articulate nihilistic positions (Nietzsche included) sought responses beyond nihilism.
Nihilism is not Buddhism’s śūnyatā (emptiness). Emptiness should not be confused with nihilism, which asserts that nothing has any intrinsic value or meaning. Buddhism does not deny the conventional reality of the world nor the importance of ethical conduct; Its doctrine of emptiness simply asserts that the true nature of things is characterized by interdependence and lack of solid, independent existence. It doesn’t deny that things exist; it describes how they exist. Shunyata never connotes nihilism, which Buddhist doctrine considers to be a delusion, just as it considers materialism to be a delusion.
Nietzsche was not a nihilist. Nietzsche’s notoriety as the ‘philosopher of nihilism’ is ironic, since he was actually the philosopher working against nihilism, a belief that became commonplace in popular culture, but more alarmingly, in some circles of academic philosophy. He diagnosed nihilism as Europe’s crisis and sought to overcome it through revaluation of values and life-affirmation.
Nihilism does not necessarily advocate destruction. Political Nihilism is associated with the belief that the destruction of all existing political, social, and religious order is a prerequisite for any future improvement. However, this is one specific historical form (19th-century Russian nihilism), not the philosophical core of all nihilistic thought.
How to Begin
For those intellectually curious about nihilism:
Start with Nietzsche’s accessible works: The Gay Science (especially the “God is dead” passage) and Thus Spoke Zarathustra offer literary-philosophical entry points. Walter Kaufmann’s translations include helpful commentary.
Read Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons (1862) to understand nihilism’s literary and historical origins in 19th-century Russia.
Explore existentialist responses: Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus directly addresses the question “Why not suicide?” in light of life’s apparent meaninglessness, proposing defiant engagement rather than despair.
Consult the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy or Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entries on nihilism for rigorous, scholarly overviews of its various forms and historical development.
Consider courses in Continental philosophy or existentialism at universities or online learning platforms, where nihilism is typically addressed within broader intellectual contexts.
Approach nihilism not as a comfortable worldview to adopt, but as a philosophical challenge that tests the foundations of your beliefs and potentially clears space for more examined commitments.