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Question: Describe nihilism to me!?
I found an answer to this question on this site:

"Nihilism is the belief that existence is without meaning or purpose; Nothing has value!.

So basically, objective morality does not exist!. No action is preferred to any other!. Since there is no objective morality, existence has no real higher meaning!. There is no concrete evidence or argument for the existence of a higher intelligence or God!. Even if God exists, humanity has no moral obligation to worship him!."

HOWEVER, what is "objective morality"!? How would a nihilist act to other people!? Would you be able to tell if the person is a nihilist!? How do they act in society!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Nihilism means the belief in nothing!. There are different types of nihilism, mereological, ontological, and others!. You're describing moral nihilism, as discussed most notably by Nietzsche!.

Nietzsche himself was not actually an advocate of nihilism!. He saw it as the first step on the way to a more enlightened way of life!. Passive nihilism is the belief in nothing and that nothing matters!. Things just happen around you!. Those people, you can tell in society!. The film Taxi Driver was based largely on this view!. After that film came our Hinkley, who shot Reagan asked Scorscese how he knew about him!. Hinkley saw so much of himself in that film that he was convinced it was litterally about him!. Other passive nihilists may include the columbine killers and others who hide in the shadows and later act strongly, not caring whether it is for good or evil, so long as it makes a statement!.

Active nihilism is the realization that the belief in no objective morality allows you to find your own subjective morality!. If nothing matters inherently, you can find what matters to you!. Camus was the best advocate of this, though Nietzsche agreed!. Active nihilists seek to better themselves and are much less likely to be distinguished based on how they act!. Camus was a moral upstanding citizen and by all accounts a very nice man!. To some degree he had to defend why he was nice when he didn't believe in the existence of any objective morality!.

I advise you to read the Plague for a better understanding of this!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

If they truly believe in nothing and no value, then they would behave toward things as though they had no value!. Nihilists are usually very narcissistic people!.

There's a great scene in the movie, The Big Lebowski, where the Nihilists didn't care about anything until they were getting the crap kicked out of them by John Goodman, who plays a warped Vietnam vet!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

n!.
Philosophy!.
An extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence!.
A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated!.
Rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief!.
The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement!.
also Nihilism A diffuse, revolutionary movement of mid 19th-century Russia that scorned authority and tradition and believed in reason, materialism, and radical change in society and government through terrorism and assassination!.
Psychiatry!. A delusion, experienced in some mental disorders, that the world or one's mind, body, or self does not exist!.
[Latin nihil, nothing + –ISM!.]

Antonyms: nihilism

n
Definition: refusal to believe, obey
Antonyms: belief, faith, obedience, optimism

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: nihilism


Any of various philosophical positions that deny that there are objective foundations for human value systems!. In 19th-century Russia the term was applied to a philosophy of skepticism that opposed all forms of aestheticism and advocated utilitarianism and scientific rationalism; it was popularized through the figure of Bazarov in Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons (1862)!. Rejecting the social sciences, classical philosophical systems, and the established social order, nihilism rejected the authority of the state, the church, and the family!. It gradually became associated with political terror and degenerated into a philosophy of violence!.

Philosophy Dictionary: nihilism
A theory promoting the state of believing in nothing, or of having no allegiances and no purposes!. The term is incorrectly used to characterize all persons not sharing some particular faith or particular set of absolute values!.

Columbia Encyclopedia: nihilism
(nī'?l?z?m) , theory of revolution popular among Russian extremists until the fall of the czarist government (1917); the theory was given its name by Ivan Turgenev in his novel Fathers and Sons (1861)!. Nihilism stressed the need to destroy existing economic and social institutions, whatever the projected nature of the better order for which the destruction was to prepare!. Nihilists were not without constructive programs, but agreement on these was not essential to the immediate objective, destruction!. Direct action, such as assassination and arson, was characteristic!.

Obscure Words: nihilism


1) the belief that existence is senseless
2) the belief that conditions are so bad as to make destruction desirable; terrorism

Nihilism (from the Latin nihil, nothing) is a philosophical position, sometimes called an anti-philosophy, which argues that the world, especially past and current human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value!. Nihilists generally assert some or all of the following:

there is no reasonable proof of the existence of a higher ruler or creator,
a "true morality" does not exist, and
secular ethics are impossible;
therefore, life has no truth, and no action can be preferable to any other!.

The term nihilism is sometimes used synonymously with anomie to denote a general mood of despair at the pointlessness of existence!.[1]

Nihilism is often more of a charge leveled against a particular idea, movement, or group, than it is an actual philosophical position to which one overtly subscribes!. Movements such as Dada, Futurism,[2] and deconstructionism,[3] among others, have been identified by commentators as "nihilistic" at various times in various contexts!. Often this means or is meant to imply that the beliefs of the accuser are more substantial or truthful, whereas the beliefs of the accused are nihilistic, and thereby comparatively amount to nothing (or are simply claimed to be destructively amoralistic)!.Www@QuestionHome@Com