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A.Tres Chaires
Jennifer Gammage
English 220
12 February 2014

The Definition of Nihilism
There are many different kinds of people in this world, people who obtain different
beliefs and purposes on certain aspects of life even life itself. There are those who are brought up
in a certain religion whose beliefs are concrete and drilled into them for the entirety of their lives.
Others, who are non-religious and have their own meanings to life and its events, and then there
are Nihilists. Those who practice Nihilism are those who see no truth or morality to existence
and have no value to life or any afterlife.
Nihilism is the mentality of having no truths in life. According to Azmi Azam an M.A. in
English Literature states in his journal The Concept of Nihilism and Torment in Samuel Barclay
Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing
can be known or communicated(24). In other words, all beings are placed here on Earth for no
reason and there is nothing one can obtain from being here and there isnt any purpose to think
otherwise. There is nothing to live for and there arent things that can be useful to anyone.
Nihilism sees the absolute bottom line of nothingness. He continues to state that They (nihilists)
suffer from loneliness, attempt suicide, evoke pessimism and remain unpredictable and
dissatisfied till the end of the play. Nihilists are negative people who dont see any reason for
life and no truths of being. There are no reasons to live and nothing that can be obtained from
existing. In short, they are simply waiting for their life to be done with so they dont have to
suffer any longer.
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German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche states in his book Will to Power The most
extreme form of nihilism would be the view that every belief, every considering-something-true,
is necessarily false cause there simply is no true world (15). When someone is nihilistic, there
are no truths in the world. Everything that could have been taught to someone for some sort of
meaning is false. Whether it be going to school or working hard at a job to support a family, a
Nihilist will simply ask themselves what for? or whats the purpose in doing that? there final
answer will be, there is none. There is nothing that can be taught or can be changed in the world
that has any meaning. It is simply the way Nihilists think, it is their mentality. Nietzsche
continues to state that Nihilism, as the denial of a truthful world, of being, might be a divine
way of thinking(15). There is a state of pessimistic tendencies that sets into a Nihilist. The state
of mind they are in sees no truths to anything and everything in the world.
The pessimistic mindset of seeing no truths derives from the departure from the church
and the church beliefs. Sciences studies have shown people that there are other ways that the
Earth and its being have come to existence apart from the Bibles book of Genesis. Nietzsche
states in regards to Christian beliefs that It posited that man had a knowledge of absolute values
and thus adequate knowledge precisely regarding what is most important(4). Attending church
and fallowing the moral beliefs that church presented was a way that people choose to live their
life by. Nihilistic people see that it is actually some sort of brainwashing technique and a way to
keep moral values and beliefs in lines so that everyone can live a morally sound proof life
instead of what really is true. Nihilists see that there is no such thing as religious beliefs. There
are no morals, or a set way any one individual should live his/her life. They see it as a system
with zero moral values and no meaning in any actions that happen in life. There are no such
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things as good and bad people; they see everyone as the same. There are no special abilities
or looks anyone has from the next. There is no morality, and no meaning to any human being.
Nihilism does not believe in anything let alone the church; especially the church because
of its high values in morality and wellbeing. The Christian Church has the belief that if one does
good deeds and truly loves his God, then he/she will be granted the most highest of any award
which is Heaven. Distance from the church obviously means that Nihilists do not see any life
after the one they are currently serving. If they believe there is nothing to live for than how could
they believe there is a Heaven or something that they should be morally good for so that they can
obtain such afterlife? Nihilistic people see life as just a temporary state until death. It is a
negative attitude that one looks forward to their death date. Nihilists have had suicidal tendencies
as mentioned above. They arent hoping for a better life, they arent hoping to be a person in an
after world. They seek an absolute nothing, where there is no existence. Nietzsche states that
realization that we lack the least right to posit a beyond or an in-itself of things that might be
divine or morality incarnate. Coming from a science aspect, he notes that since we have other
explanations for what actually is, that the church beliefs are now discredited and should no
longer be the only thing everyone chooses to live by. He believes that there are no truths now
especially to an afterlife because what was once the only truth that anyone believed in is now
something that can be altered and explained in a way that differentiates from the church which
was once the basis of life in the human world. Nietzsche also makes it known that the tactics the
church uses are brainwashing the participants and misleading them to believe in ideas that are
not truly there. He mentions that the deceptions of the church granted man an absolute valueit
prevented man from despising himself as a man(4). The church gave man a meaning and a
purpose to live. What was meaningful to many at the time is now seen as a misconception by
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Nietzsche. He means to say that Nihilism believes that there is no reason to live, no god, no
absolute value to man, and no reason for a man not to despise himself for living in this way.
Nihilism is entirely filled with an insurmountable amount of gloom.
To say to have a want for absolute nothing could produce some sort of paradox for a
nihilist. Nihilist do not have a want for nothingness because a want would be some sort of
desire for something, and would result in some sort of meaning to it. Nihilists are simply
nothing. They see nothing of the world, there is nothing to obtain, no reason for their being on
the Earth and nothing that they can accomplish on their time spent here. Truths are dull to them,
they cannot find anything that is trustworthy or could be considered to be true. Truth is just an
aspect to them that they see other people grasping but dont believe in it for the slightest second.
Their mindset is very pessimistic and unchangeable if they are a true Nihilist. Morals are nothing
to Nihilists because morals derive from the church. The church can be brought back to the truth
aspect that it doesnt really exist. Therefor if the truth comes from the church and isnt believed
in, and morals also come from the church, then none of this is true to Nihilists. Truth and morals
are what people believe in to obtain the next level of life which is heaven in the Christian Church
beliefs. If we combine all of what we know which is truth and morals that derive from the church
to reach the main goal which is heaven and Nihilists are against these two main things (besides
praying and attending church) we can conclude that Nihilists also do not see any post life after
the one they are already suffering in. Nihilists see being alive as more of a punishment rather
than a blessing. There is no want to do any good or to make someones day by helping them out
even in the slightest of ways. The same question will appear in their head for what?. Its not
that Nihilists want to get something in return or see that they cannot better themselves if they
were to perform a kind deed. Nihilists have no willpower of preforming any deed, good or bad,
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because there is no meaning in it to them, there is no purpose to live, and there is nothing they
can obtain from living in a world in which they do not wish to live in.