Nihilism: Embracing the Void of Existence
As far as we can observe, being 'alive' means that, for a limited amount of time, we’re beings in a mysterious universe, doing whatever we do, seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting, until we die. Animals and plants seem perfectly content with this arrangement. They come into this world and do their thing and then pass away without questions asked.
But somehow (probably due to our higher intelligence that allows us to ask the question “why”), we humans are not satisfied with just being part of this arrangement without any further explanation. We want to know what life’s all about. Why are we here? What are we supposed to do? What’s the goal? What’s the meaning of all this? Throughout the ages, many systems of belief have provided us with answers. Clear examples are major religious groups that are very influential to this day, providing explanations of our whereabouts, purpose, and the nature of the universe.
But, as Friedrich Nietzsche noticed, the Western World has been experiencing a religious decline, which started around the 16th century. “God is dead,” he famously proclaimed. No longer is religion the uncontested source of morality and meaning. However, without Christianity to guide us, the West now faces a void – a nothingness. If there’s no God to guide us, no Afterlife to suffer for, and no divine purpose, then what’s the point of living?
Even though Nietzsche was highly critical of Christianity (seeing it as a “life-denying” force), he acknowledged the danger of its decline: nihilism. Nietzsche observed that after the belief in God and the accompanying moral order becomes unsustainable, people go from one extreme position to another, namely, the complete denial of any meaning in life, the belief in nothing. The belief that “God is truth” rebounds into “all is false.”
I quote: Nihilism appears at that point, not that the displeasure at existence has become greater than before, but because one has come to mistrust any “meaning” in suffering, indeed in existence. One interpretation has collapsed; but because it was considered the interpretation, it now seems as if there were no meaning at all in existence, as if everything were in vain. End quote.
Scholars identified different forms of nihilism. There’s moral nihilism, cosmic nihilism, existential nihilism, and even epistemological nihilism; the latter denies the existence of knowledge. There’s also political, ethical, positive, negative, active, and passive nihilism. To prevent this video from becoming a piece solely describing philosophical terminology, we’ll mainly explore the existential and moral dimensions of nihilism.
Or, simply put, the experience that nothing matters, that there’s no inherently good or bad, that life is meaningless, and thus, that nothing in life is worth living or striving for. As humans, we face a dilemma regarding ‘the’ meaning of life: something we ultimately cannot prove exists. On the one hand, we might accept there’s no meaning and that life is pointless, but simultaneously suffer the truth we just accepted.
On the other hand, we might deny the meaninglessness of life by adopting a belief system that fills our existential void. By adopting a belief system in the form of religion, we take “a qualitative leap,” as Danish philosopher Kierkegaard called it, also described as a “leap of faith.” “To have faith is precisely to lose one's mind so as to win God,” stated Kierkegaard.
But for many people, especially when science increasingly debunks the claims of long-existing belief systems, that's very hard to do. It requires suspension of disbelief. And despite updated interpretations of religious texts so that ancient belief systems fit today's scientific knowledge about the world and universe, many religious core concepts come across as fairy tales to the modern human.
The concepts of God, the Afterlife, divine morality, karma and rebirth, and providence: what scientific proof do we have of their validity? This absence of evidence and the questioning and debunking of religious concepts and beliefs by science makes us wonder: Did God create us? Or did we create God? Why return to what humanity liberated itself from by reviving Nietzsche’s dead God? Would we embrace something that we can’t verify just to have our existential questions answered, regardless of the validity of these answers, so we won't have to face the agony of nihilism?
Many choose not to relieve their existential pain by adopting a belief system. But as a consequence, they pay the price of being without any remotely satisfying answer to questions like, “why am I here?” “What's the meaning of all this?” “What am I to live for?” The price is not just the existential dread but also the potential danger that the nihilist worldview may bring about.
The once so-cozy ship of religious belief has sailed. In the past, it provided us with the warmth of community, a helping hand in times of need, the security that our lives have meaning and purpose, that we’re all part of God’s plan, that he’s watching over us, and that we can always count on him. But all that warmth, that sense of safety… gone.
And so we stand in the cold. We stare at the ship disappearing in the distance, being swallowed by the dark horizon of the unknown. We willfully let this ship leave our shores. No, we even pushed it away, shouting for it never to return, ridiculing those still on board, demanding them to never bother us again. But now, as Nietzsche predicted, we’re facing the existential void of a post-Christian world.
What does nihilism mean? That the highest values devaluate themselves. The aim is lacking; “why?” finds no answer. End quote. For a nihilist, nothing we do or experience has any meaning. Nothing we achieve has any significance. There’s no inherent good or bad, and any belief system that claims so is false.
But if nothing has meaning, why would we do anything? What’s left to live for if all we do amounts to nothing? A meaningless universe without objective truth isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, people’s attitudes toward this idea could be problematic. Many people become depressed when facing the meaninglessness of their lives, realizing that nothing they do has significance.
Despair, pessimism, melancholy, and hopelessness plague their minds. “What am I even doing here?” they ask themselves. Others soothe the pain of meaninglessness by indulging in sensory pleasures through mind-numbing entertainment to distract themselves from a threatening void. Some people use the idea of moral nihilism as a license to engage in brutal acts of violence.
We only have to look at recent history to see what people lacking morals are capable of. Why be “good” (whatever that means) if no Heaven, Paradise, or Enlightenment awaits to compensate us for it? If Man, not God, created these values (for whatever purpose he saw fit), why would we abide by them? After all, if we designate a quality like ‘generosity’ as ‘good,’ it doesn’t mean it’s universally true.
Therefore, according to the moral nihilist, ‘generosity’ isn’t any better than its opposite ‘greed,’ ‘forgiveness’ isn’t preferable over ‘revenge,’ nor is ‘faithfulness’ over ‘infidelity.’ When no morals are genuine, and there’s no overarching purpose to life, no divine judge to obey, and no ultimate concern, then everything is permitted, and nothing we do is better or worse than anything else.
When there’s nothing left to live for, anything goes. But a lack of objective meaning doesn’t have to result in despair. Philosopher Albert Camus embraced meaninglessness and believed we could live happy, fulfilling lives despite it. Friedrich Nietzsche saw it as an invitation to create our own meaning.
We’ll briefly explore both ideas in the following part of the video. Does meaning always have to come top-down? Does it always have to be all-encompassing, like it’s a divine purpose, a task for everyone? Or could a more personal, individual meaning be created by oneself or evoked by one’s circumstances?
According to Nietzsche, we must ideally create our own meaning: an idea expressed in his work Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which tells about a fictional prophet who teaches people the concept of the Overman (or Übermensch). The Übermensch has overcome himself, creates himself, and doesn’t abide by the rules of others as he invents his own. By doing so, he not only triumphs over nihilism by filling in the void that religion left us with; he also prevents himself from being brainwashed by movements that provide structures of meaning as a replacement for religious values, like Fascism, Neo-Nazism, or Nationalism.
Nietzsche believed that we have to face nihilism one way or another before moving forward. I quote: Why has the advent of nihilism become necessary? Because the values we have had hitherto thus draw their final consequence; because nihilism represents the ultimate logical conclusion of our great values and ideals – because we must experience nihilism before we can find out what value these “values” really had. – We require, at some time, new values. End quote.
Does the nothingness of life actually need to be solved? Isn’t nothingness but one’s reaction to this nothingness – this lack of meaning – what creates the suffering? Why does life need a purpose in the first place? Isn’t life worth living, pointless as it is? Why can’t we just take the burden of meaning off our shoulders and stop asking all those existential questions: the universe will never provide us with answers anyway.
As mentioned before, during the many ages that humans have walked the earth, countless forms of supposed objective meaning, numerous creation myths, and detailed descriptions of our purpose on Earth have seen the light of day. According to Albert Camus, they lack proof. Their value and significance require faith.
So, you’re lost in life. But what does it mean then to be found? Most of the time, if not always, not being lost in life means nothing more than abiding by one of the many variations of how life should be. Like Kierkegaard, we could give in to faith, adopt certain existentially satisfying beliefs as truth, and be done with it.
We dive into the warm, comfortable bath of a system that thinks for us and gives us all the answers we’re looking for, although the validity of these answers remains questionable. Such a system doesn’t have to be a religion per se; it could also be political ideologies based on very dubious convictions.
But if we rely on such systems to answer our existential questions, we deny our critical thinking capacity. According to Albert Camus, we commit philosophical suicide. Philosophical suicide, along with physical suicide, Camus saw as a way to escape the inconsistency between the human desire for objective meaning and the apparent lack thereof.
He called this inconsistency The Absurd. Even though Camus saw the universe as meaningless, a basis for nihilism, he wasn’t a nihilist. Instead, he presented a solution to deal with The Absurd: to accept it and revolt against it. For Camus, the meaninglessness of life is not a reason to despair but to live.
He aimed to maximize the quantity and variety of life experiences in the face of an indifferent universe. The Absurd individual lives life to the fullest, knowing full well that it ultimately doesn’t amount to anything. For Camus, being lost in life means freedom.
There’s no fixed direction. There’s no one in charge, no Afterlife, no day of judgment, and, most importantly, no purpose. There’s only the present and your decision of what to make of it. Now, is that a reason for despair or joy? Thank you for watching.