Who were famous nihilists?

While few philosophers would claim to be nihilists, nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche who argued that its corrosive effects would eventually destroy all moral, religious, and metaphysical convictions and precipitate the greatest crisis in human history.
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Who is the father of nihilism?

Nihilism has existed in one form or another for hundreds of years, but is usually associated with Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th century German philosopher (and pessimist of choice for high school kids with undercuts) who proposed that existence is meaningless, moral codes worthless, and God is dead.
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Who theorized nihilism?

Arthur Schopenhauer, Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche further expanded on these ideas, and Nietzsche, particularly, has become a major figure in existential nihilism. The atheistic existentialist movement spread in 1940s France.
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What's wrong with nihilism?

Nihilism matters because meaning matters, and the best-known alternative ways of relating to meaning are also wrong. Fear of nihilism is a main reason people commit to other stances, such as eternalism and existentialism, that are also harmful and mistaken.
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Did Nietzsche believe in nihilism?

Summary. Nietzsche is a self-professed nihilist, although, if we are to believe him, it took him until 1887 to admit it (he makes the admission in a Nachlass note from that year). No philosopher's nihilism is more radical than Nietzsche's and only Kierkegaard's and Sartre's are as radical.
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Nihilism: The Belief in Nothing



Was Dostoevsky a nihilist?

Dostoyevsky urged Russians to rediscover their native roots and Christian Orthodox ideals, eschewing the Western ideologies that he saw as infecting Russian society. Through his novel Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky targeted Russian nihilism that had taken a hold of the Russian youth.
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Is Buddhism a nihilist?

In The Will to Power, Buddhism is described as passively nihilistic with the purpose of acting as a temporary salve for those suffering (1968, 18).
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How do you tell if you're a nihilist?

Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy.
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What is the opposite of a nihilist?

Antonyms & Near Antonyms for nihilist. optimist, Pollyanna.
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How does someone become a nihilist?

Perhaps, the most simple definition of a nihilist might be the following: “Someone who thinks that there is no intrinsic meaning or value in reality.” Let us try to elaborate on this intellectual position. As humans inescapably embedded in our culture, the moment we are born, we make immediate contact through language.
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Was Shakespeare a nihilist?

In his nihilistic attitude, Shakespeare in his tragic plays discards the prevalent philosophical trends of Naturalism and Humanism and exhibits his existentialistic deliberations of “to be or not to be”.
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Was Kierkegaard a nihilist?

Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855): The nineteenth century Danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard—who many academics regard among the first existentialist philosophers—wrote about nihilism, calling it “leveling.” Kierkegaard felt that leveling was not a positive thing, because the problem of nihilism was that it meant ...
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Do nihilists believe in God?

Without God, we are alone, exposed to a natural universe devoid of the comforting idea of a God-given purpose to things. According to Nietzsche, this state of nihilism – the idea that life has no meaning or value – cannot be avoided; we must go through it, as frightening and lonely as that will be.
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Is Joker a nihilist?

Joker has a unique character and he is different from other villains in movies. While they committed crime based on personal revenge, economic fulfillment, Joker does it his own way. He does not obey rules, laws, or even morals. Based on those ideas, the writer includes Joker as a nihilist.
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Is Socrates a nihilist?

Socrates is thus only able to counter cynicism in the visible world through faith in the existence of an invisible world, an invisible world that he argues is more real than the visible world. In other words, it is Thrasymachus's cynicism that forces Socrates to reveal his nihilism.
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What are the four types of nihilism?

Based on this passage one can see that the first three types of nihilism; moral, epistemological, and cosmic, each negate meaning from an important area of life where human beings have traditionally searched for it.
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What are the 2 types of nihilism?

Passive and active nihilism, the former of which is also equated to philosophical pessimism, refer to two approaches to nihilist thought; passive nihilism sees nihility as an end in itself, whereas active nihilism attempts to surpass it.
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Do nihilists believe in love?

In the late 1800s, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had a lot to say about love. Arguing that society was heading toward nihilism – that is, a world without meaning, morals and values – Nietzsche thought that romantic love was frivolous, with friendship acting as a much stronger foundation for relationships.
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Do nihilists have morals?

Nihilism comes from the Latin word "nihil" -- which means, nothing. Nihilists assert that there are no moral values, principles, truths.
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Does nihilism go away?

For those of us who have not created meaning or who have not gained anything we consider of value, we will suffer indefinitely. The only way to kill nihilism is existentialism.
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Can a nihilist be depressed?

Depression goes beyond spontaneous sadness, however. It is active and deliberate—although it feels passive and externally imposed. Nihilistic depression suppresses the feelings (positive and negative) that go with recognition of meaning.
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Are nihilists sad?

Nihilism doesn't have to be depressing. It can be seen as creatively building your own meaning for the world. We're given a blank canvas to draw whatever we see as right and just in the world, and we can just live for ourselves and our interests, while considering the lives of others, of course.
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Is Nirvana a nihilist?

Grunge musicians, such as the late Kurt Cobain of the band Nirvana, exemplified a nihilistic lifestyle and glorified self-worthlessness.
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What did Buddha say about nihilism?

He defined Buddhism as a “true-world theory”, meaning that Buddhism claims there is another, superior form of existence (Buddho, Nirvana, etc) and that inherently defies the value of our common, normal, unawakened life, hence it is nihilistic.
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What comes after nihilism?

It is therefore tempting to answer that what comes after nihilism is sadness. The transcendental nature of norms and values has been scorched; our rationality has been shown to be ridden with biases, systemic errors, and, as is beginning to be made painfully clear, is probably a functional delusion.
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