Nihilism (IPA pronunciation: "na.lzm") is the belief that life is, overall, meaningless. A true nihilist would have no loyalties, and no purpose. The atheist Friedrich Nietzsche argued that moral, religious, and metaphysical convictions lead to nihilism's corrosive effects; cause the collapse of meaning, relevance, purpose, and precipitate the greatest crisis in human history.[1] An example of nihilism would be the question reportedly posed by Jared Loughner to a congresswoman whom he allegedly later shot:[2]
German political philosopher Leo Strauss argued that modern liberalism has within it a tendency towards nihilism. Faith in God is the opposite of nihilism. In government and politics, another example of the opposite of nihilism is the concept of natural rights, as formulated in the Declaration of Independence.
Major types of nihilism include:
In his book, The Decline of the West, German philosopher Oswald Spengler observes that pattern of nihilism was a feature shared by all civilizations on the verge of collapse.
Friedrich Nietzsche saw two kinds of nihilism in the world; pessimistic and joyous. Pessimistic nihilism was that created by the death of God in the minds of men, and corresponds to the idea that life is without meaning or value. Joyous nihilism was that experienced by those few who, like him, experienced the loss of an externally created and imposed moral structure as a liberation and not a great loss, and was the seed that let the herald Nietzsche proclaim the coming of the bermensch.
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