Perspectives on the Meaning of Life: Nihilism

This is a part of the Perspectives on the Meaning of Life series.

Nihilism rejects any authority's claims to knowledge and truth, and so explores the significance of existence without knowable truth. Rather than insisting that values are subjective, and might be warrantless, the nihilist says: Nothing is of value, morals are valueless, they only serve as society's false ideals. Albert Camus asserts that the absurdity of the human condition is that we search for external values and meaning in a world which has none, and is indifferent to us.

Much of Nihilisms fame comes from Nietzsche's famous proclamation that "God is dead." But what Nietzsche was really eulogizing was morality. "God is dead" wasn't about an actual God who first existed and then died in a literal sense. It may be more appropriate to consider it Nietzsche's way of saying that the Gods of religion are no longer a viable source of any moral code. When one gives up faith, one pulls the right to morality out from under one's feet. The problem is retaining any system of values in the absence of a divine order.

Nietzsche asserts that nihilism is a result of valuing "higher", "divine" or "meta-physical" things (such as God), that do not in turn value "base", "human" or "earthly" things. But a person who rejects God and the divine may still retain the belief that all "base", "earthly", or "human" ideas are still valueless because they were considered so in the previous belief system (such as a Christian who becomes a communist and believes fully in the party structure and leader). In this interpretation, any form of idealism, after being rejected by the idealist, leads to nihilism. Moreover, this is the source of "inconsistency on the part of the nihilists". The nihilist continues to believe that only "higher" values and truths are worthy of being called such, but rejects the idea that they exist. Because of this rejection, all ideas described as true or valuable are rejected by the nihilist as impossible because they do not meet the previously established standards.