Disclaimer: My writings state my opinion. Feel free to disagree.

I have noticed in my travels around the internet and on the news, that nihilism, is almost entirely and often vulgarly misinterpreted. This is my attempt at reducing Nihilism to its most central ideas to help anyone who reads this understand how freeing and positive it can be.

It is a grave situation, the time that we live in, religion and tradition dictate minds and the free man is an outsider to the world. Our society demands of us a form of submission, shrouded by what we call “values”, “morals”, “virtue” and lastly “goodness”. Most of us blindly follow the false path that society lays down for us, being consciously unaware of it almost all our lives. Nihilism is an attempt to free us of the chains we are born with in this day and age.

It dates back to the dawn of the 19th century, when Heinrich Jacobi, a German philosopher, critiqued other philosophers like Kant, Spinoza and Fichte. He opposed their philosophies and promoted what he called “ Glaube” which roughly translates to faith, and revelation and rejected speculative reasoning. He believed that all reasoning would ultimately lead to the conclusion that there is no meaning to life, or the universe and he called this view Nihilism. The idea was repelling to him, as he believed that all human activity and knowledge is founded on faith. However, the term Nihilism was popularized by Ivan Turgenev, in his book titled Fathers and Sons. It’s lead character, Bazarov, was a nihilist. When one of the characters asks what a nihilist is, the reply is the following.

A nihilist is a person who does not bow down to any authority, who does not accept any principle on faith, however much that principle may be revered.

That, is a moderately accurate definition of what I consider a nihilist would be.

The bad rep that surrounds nihilism can be credited to the Russian movement that was formed in the 1860s called the “Nihilist Movement”. It rejected all authorities and the Nihilists were known throughout Europe as proponents of the use of violence in order to bring about political change. This is what is responsible for the distorted idea of Nihilism that most people have.

Now, moving on to define Nihilism. As Wikipedia puts it very tersely,

Nihilism is a philosophical stance which rejects the belief in one or more reputedly meaningful aspects of life.

There’s more than one type of Nihilism! These are the most important three.

The Epistemological Nihilist is someone who believes that there is no true knowledge, you can never be sure of anything at all. To understand this, recognize the fact that you are forever stuck in your head and have access to the environment only via what your sense organs tell you. The Existential Nihilist is someone who denies that life has any inherent meaning or purpose. This is pretty straight forward. From the perspective of the universe, nothing has any value or purpose. Existence has no inherent essence. The Ethical Nihilist is a person who does not do what society says is ought to be done for just the sake of it. If there is no reason do something, no matter how much society might value doing it, an Ethical Nihilist will not do it. For the Ethical Nihilist, there are no inherent morals or values or “rules” that he/she has to follow. However, let me make no mistake, this does not mean that such a person is a violent, murderous animal. It simply means that a Nihilist is behaviorally immune to what others think. There is no moral fabric that encompasses the entire universe. Morality is an evolved, man-made construct.

By Nihilism, most people mean Existential and Moral Nihilism and so do I, as those two are what most affects our lives. A lot of people think that since Nihilists do not have an obligation to behaving morally, they are violent, selfish and “immoral”, of course. What they do not consider is that a Nihilist is a human being, and human beings have biologically evolved to behave “morally”, as we call it. With time, our morals evolve and always have evolved. Do not confuse natural human behavior with what ought to be done. A nihilist does whatever he does either because it is logically beneficial or because he feels an urge to do it, but never because society recommends it.

Isn’t Nihilism depressing?

Although Nihilism negates the belief that life has any meaning, it does not mean that a Nihilistic life is a depressing one. A Nihilist can still do what he likes to do and enjoy all the pleasures of life. There is nothing to be depressed about. In fact, there’s so much to not be depressed about. Imagine there being a purpose to your life, something that you HAVE to do, you have no choice but to do it. That would be the definition of un-freedom, if there was such a word. That is the life that theists live, slaves to an oppressive dictator who prescribes them what they should do and what they should not. Freedom is the essence of being a Nihilist.

Many would consider my interpretation of Nihilism as existentialism, but I would say that existentialism is basically cowardly Nihilism. In fact, it’s just a rephrasing of what Nihilism stands for. Dodging the fact that there is no real meaning to life in the universe and sugar coating it by saying that there is no meaning until you give it meaning is not something I would consider honorable. If you’re the one giving it meaning, it implies that there is no inherent meaning and that whatever meaning you give it is subjective, this is just Nihilism in disguise.

Nihilism and Atheism

You must’ve already guessed. All Nihilists are atheists. By definition. And, all atheists are Moral Nihilists, although many deny it. They have to be. Once you reject the source of your morality being an entity with the definition of a God, you have nowhere else to go. There can’t be a source of objective morality to an atheist. However, Nihilists are more Apatheistic than Atheistic.

Conclusion

A “true Nihilist” is someone who always acknowledges that any value or meaning they perceive exists only in their own mind and not as a feature of the external world. Nihilism is not Pessimism. Nihilists are not psychopaths, unlike as portrayed in popular media. When the news channels call Islamic State terrorists Nihilistic, they’re wrong, in fact, they’re the furthest away from being Nihilistic. It’s a pity that the word has been portrayed in such vulgar ways. I believe the reason for such misrepresentation is lack of knowledge about what the philosophy is truly about.