Meaning of Nihilism (What is it, Concept and Definition)

What is Nihilism:

As nihilism is called the stream of philosophical thinking that denies all beliefs, principles or dogma , whether of character religious, political or social.The word, as such, comes from the Latin nihil , which means' nothing ', and is composed with the suffix -ismo , which means' doctrine 'or' system '.

Nihilism argues that existence is meaningless , and that there is, as such, no superior or supernatural entity that endows it with meaning, objective or purpose in itself.There is, therefore, a superior meaning for life, since it lacks verifiable explanation.

In this sense, nihilism contains a deep criticism of the values, customs and beliefs about that our culture stands, to the extent that they participate in the meaning of life denied by this philosophical current.

On the contrary, nihilism postulates the idea of ​​an existence with cebida as a constant becoming of objective history, in which there is no higher purpose.

Thus, nihilism is favorable to the idea of ​​an existence that does not simply revolve around a certain higher sense of things, but remain open to the multiple possibilities of existence.

As such, antecedents of nihilistic thinking can be traced back to Ancient Greece, in the school of the cynic founded by Antistenes in the 4th century BC, as well as in the doctrine of skepticism.

In the 19th century, Russian intellectuals took the concept of nihilism as a reaction to romanticism and certain religious, metaphysical and idealistic conceptions prevailing at the time, however, it would be the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who would endow nihilism with a formal articulation in the field of philosophical thought.

At the end of the twentieth century, postmodernity is brewing It takes Friedrich Nietzsche's thinking with a current perspective defined as modern nihilism.

See also:

Active and passive nihilism

Friedrich Nietzsche proposed that in the There were two opposing attitudes towards the acceptance of the lack of meaning of existence: active and passive nihilism.

The active nihilism , also called positive, is the one who proposes the destruction of all traditional values ​​that gave meaning to existence, mainly belief in God, to replace them with others that inaugurate a new moment in history, for the appearance of a new moral and a new man.

The passive or negative nihilism , on the contrary, is one that arises as a result of the death of God and the crisis of meaning that it generates.

In this sense, passive nihilism manifests itself with attitudes such as despair, inaction and renunciation of the desire to live Well, life, which until then had a supernatural entity, outside it, that gave it meaning, is then unsustainable, empty and meaningless.

See also Superman.