Nihilism by Nolen Gertz

Author:Nolen Gertz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Philosophy; Western philosophy; Existentialism; Postmodernism; Critical Theory; Phenomenology; Technology; Science; Atheism; Pessimism; Cynicism; Apathy; Freedom; Authenticity; Metaphysics; Epistemology; Truth; Positivism; Social constructivism; Enlightenment; Politics; Ethics; Friedrich Nietzsche; Hannah Arendt; Simone de Beauvoir; Jean-Francois Lyotard; Jean-Paul Sartre; Albert Camus; Immanuel Kant; Martin Heidegger; Karl Marx; Theodor Adorno; Jacques Ellul; Paulo Freire; Søren Kierkegaard; Franz Kafka; Fyodor Dostoyevsky; Plato; Socrates; Aristotle; René Descartes; David Hume; Nothingness; Bureaucracy; Capitalism; Neoliberalism
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 2019-08-15T16:00:00+00:00

5

Where Is Nihilism?

Now that we have developed in the previous chapters a more detailed analysis of what nihilism is, we can begin to develop in this chapter an analysis of where nihilism is. Nihilism is not merely the denial that life is inherently meaningful, as nihilism can instead be seen as a particular way of responding to the anxiety caused by the discovery of life’s inherent meaninglessness. The nihilist does not despair like the pessimist, detest like the cynic, nor detach like the apathetic individual. Nihilists can be optimistic, idealistic, and sympathetic, as their aim in life is to be happy, to be as happy and carefree as they were when they were children, as happy and carefree as they were before they discovered that life lacked the meaning they thought they’d find in it when they grew up.

As we have seen, the nihilist’s way of responding to life’s meaninglessness cannot be properly understood if reduced to an individual affair. On the one hand, nihilism is like a disease, a contagious attitude that can quickly spread from individual to individual. On the other hand, nihilism is contagious because the nihilistic way of life is an outgrowth of a way of life that nihilists are born into and share with others.

Considering the danger of being surrounded by people who do not care about the consequences of their actions, we might expect that society would be actively engaged in combating nihilism. Yet while the label of “nihilist” is used in everyday life as a term of criticism, the logic of nihilism can nevertheless be found to be championed by various elements of society. Hence, the spread of nihilism might not only be due to the contagiousness of a nihilistic attitude among individuals but might also be due to cultural influences that encourage a nihilistic attitude and help to make it so contagious. And it is just such cultural influences that this chapter will explore, as nihilism can be found on TV, in the classroom, on the job, and in politics.

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