Nihilism

NihilismThe loss of meaning

Late 19th and early 20th century

Duchamp’s The Fountain

German artist George Grosz

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

NihilismWhat is it and why did it arise?

Nihilism

• Arose as a reaction to the despair and isolation produced by a growing atheism and reliance on science and human rationality (naturalistic and materialistic worldview)

Industrialization had left many people feeling

dehumanized and isolated

The brutality and inhumanity of WWI had left many without

hope

Impact of WWI– despair over man’s inhumanity and brutality

People found themselves feeling alone and adrift in a

seemingly absurd, cruel, and uncaring world

What is nihilism?

Not a true philosophyDenial of everything

truth knowledgemoralitybeautymeaningpurpose

Nihilism rejected

• The complete confidence in Enlightenment rationality

• Confidence in science and empiricism

• Traditional philosophy and philosophical assumptions

• Religion • The notion of a universal truth

How does nihilism address the worldview questions?

Prime reality

No ultimate reality or truthNo God

External reality• Cold and indifferent universe

• Chaotic • Unpredictable• Absurd • Harsh• Lonely

• The universe is a determined (Closed) system

• Humans cannot “act significantly”

Human beings

• Humans are physical beings ONLY• (no soul or spirit)

• We are solitary and alone• Humans have no free will

• (seen as a delusion)

Death

• Complete extinction• Death is the ultimate absurdity in

an absurd and indifferent universe

Knowledge

• There is no knowledge• The human intellect and rationality

cannot be trusted.• If the human mind is just physical

matter, why should we trust it?

Moral ethics

• There are no universal moral standards

• Man must live according to his passions and instincts

• The primary focus is on power • “Reason cannot establish values”

Nietzsche

History

• Endless cycle of meaningless events in a meaningless universe

Friedrich Nietzsche - 1844-1900

German philosopherson of a Lutheran minister

Nietzsche’s major ideas

• Believed that Christianity produced a “weak, slave” mentality

• Believed that a race of “supermen” would ultimately rule over the weak and inferior

• Believed that the ideal human being was beyond the concept of good and evil

• Proposed that man must embrace his essential nature• Live according to his instincts and

passions• Power and force

• For Neitzsche,women were seen as weak and too emotional to ever act in authentic ways.

“In our whole unhealthy modernity there is nothing more unhealthy than Christian piety.

To be physicians here, to be inexorable here, to wield the scalpel here- that is our part,

that is our love of man….”

“God is dead. We have killed him.”Nietzsche believed that humanity had “killed” the idea and importance of God by ceasing to believe. Religion and the notion of God had become irrelevant.

Nietzsche’s endless repetition of life: the same thing over and over again

with no meaning or purpose.

According to nihilism, humans would have to face the void of a world

without God, truth, purpose or meaning.

“The abyss”

Heart of Darknessby Joseph Conrad

“But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had

looked within itself and, by heavens I tell you, it had gone

mad."

“The horror…the horror” Kurtz’s last words

“The Scream” by Edvard Munch

• Dada art

Hate

Purpose found in destruction. What is

reality?

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