The Evolution of Nihilism and Its Opposition to Religious Faith (Part Three)

Author: M. Farahi Tojegi

The Evolution of Nihilism and Its Opposition to Religious Faith (Part Three)

The Stages of the Emergence of Nihilism and Its History (Continued)

Since nihilism is the belief that things are baseless and disconnected, it is often accompanied by extreme pessimism and a tendency to condemn existence itself. Pessimism is another way of describing futility and meaninglessness. As Schopenhauer says: “We are meaningless beings; at best, we are self-destructive creatures.”

In nihilism, disappointment and disillusionment with the existing order first arise, followed by a loss of confidence in prevailing values, and finally, hatred and resentment toward what exists. In nihilism, or nothingness-thinking, the absence of social purpose, lack of moral standards, and rejection of any measure for evaluating things become evident.

The  roots of nihilism can be traced back to early societies where detachment from worldly life, self-forgetfulness, indifference, disbelief in the purposeful nature of the universe, and a sense of helplessness regarding human intellectual and mental capacity were prevalent. Extreme skepticism about everything, combined with disgust toward social, political, economic, cultural, and educational life and the feeling of its futility, forms the earliest elements of nihilism.

There are two main states of nihilism: passive and active.

In the passive state, a person avoids all effort to organize life and indulges in empty distractions.

In the active stage, all values are denied — this is the stage of total negation. A person who has lost all motivation and movement becomes purposeless and aimless: neither believing in God nor in disbelief, neither a reformer nor a revolutionary, but merely living without any commitment.

In such a condition, several tendencies can be observed:

1. Rebellion and defiance of new intellectual schools, often in the form of opposition to every idea and movement — such as anti-psychiatry, anti-art, or anti-humanism;

2. Seeking various ways of escape;

3. The presence of ascetics who dream of human liberation.

Therefore, resorting to false and sometimes destructive amusements, joining hollow political regimes or parties such as Marxism [1] or Socialism [2], or turning toward sexual freedom and economic alienation, are all consequences of this lack of commitment.

After the invention of machines and the rise of the Western industrial lifestyle — from the 18th century onward — a new issue emerged known as “Man’s Return to Himself.” This was because intellectual and economic exploitation, and the transformation of humans into mere tools, posed a serious threat to human dignity. Consequently, discussions arose about human alienation and the domination of various forces over humanity. Alongside political and economic ideologies, new schools of thought appeared that emphasized human goals — among them Humanism and it  branch, Nihilism.

It is said that the term nihilism was first used in the West by a German thinker named Friedrich Jacobi in 1799. In a letter to Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Jacobi apparently used the word nihilism for the first time — but it was Friedrich Nietzsche who popularized the term.

In modern Western thought, various figures have spoken about nihilism, and some differences exist among them. Among these figures, Nietzsche — the thinker who made the term famous — remains the most thought-provoking.

We must admit that in no era of human history has nihilism revealed itself as clearly as it has in recent decades. If Nietzsche declared at the end of the 19th century that nihilism was at the door, in our present age this uninvited guest has become the master of the house and taken over our world.

Today’s world — our world — is a Nietzschean world. Nihilism now lives within each of us, and if we open the eyes of our insight, we can clearly see it within our lives.

Life of Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844, as the first child of a Lutheran pastor’s family in Röcken, in the Kingdom of Saxony, Prussia. Since his birth coincided with the birthday of Frederick William IV, the king of Prussia and patron of the clergy, he was named Frederick William in honor of the king. Thus, Nietzsche, who would later become a determined critic of Christianity, spent his early years in a Christian-clerical household. Both his father and maternal grandfather were pastors, and in his youth, he hoped to one day join the clergy.

At the age of fourteen (1858), he received a special scholarship to Schulpforta. By the age of twenty, he went to the University of Bonn, where he joined the fraternity Frankenia, but later withdrew. He then transferred to Leipzig. Later, he founded the Historical Linguistics Society, and even before completing his doctorate, he was offered a professorship at Basel.

Nietzsche’s interest focused entirely on the health, greatness, and maladies of human cultures. He held a deeply critical stance toward Judaism and Christianity, believing that these faiths, by suppressing human instincts through slavish and absurd beliefs in a world beyond reality and promises of afterlife bliss, were destroying Western humanity.

Nietzsche was among the first to predict the decline of Christianity in increasingly secular Europe, famously declaring: “God is dead.” He questioned which values would replace Christian values as guides for Western culture. His concept of the Übermensch (Superman) — the authentic human in the post-Christian era — along with his critique of Judaism and morality, was later misused by some National Socialists to justify their policies. Nietzsche’s fundamental critique of metaphysics, unity, even truth, and his perception of reality and values as expressions of the will to power, paved the way for postmodern thought. [4]

Stages and Features of Nihilism

In nihilism, disappointment and disillusionment with the existing order first appear, followed by the inability to rely on prevailing values in one’s mind, eventually leading to resentment and bitterness toward reality. In nihilism, or nothingness-thinking, the lack of social purpose, absence of standards, and refusal to accept measures for evaluating matters become evident. The origins of nihilism can be traced back to early societies, where detachment from worldly life, self-forgetfulness, indifference to the purposeful nature of the universe, and helplessness regarding human intellectual and mental capacity were common. Extreme skepticism toward everything and disdain for social, political, economic, cultural, and educational life — combined with their perceived futility — formed the initial elements of nihilism [5].

Regarding the history of the term nihil, it was used by church authorities when criticizing classical skepticism and the Cynic school. But for the first time in modern philosophy, the term was recorded in a letter from Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743–1819) to Fichte (1799). Jacobi, a critic of Kant and post-Kantian idealism, expressed concern and distress about nihilism.

Nihilism has different forms. For example:

1. Epistemological nihilism, which denies the existence of any knowledge or considers all knowledge meaningless;

2. Metaphysical nihilism, which negates or denies the existence of the external world independent of the mind.

These forms represent distinct levels within the historical and cultural development of nihilism [6].

In Western civilization, three historical stages of nihilism can be distinguished:

1. Cosmos-centric nihilism of Greek and Roman thought;

2. Latent and semi-legalistic nihilism of the Middle Ages;

3. Doubled and humanistic modern nihilism [7].

Continues…

Previous Part

Reference: 

1. [For a better understanding and familiarity with the beliefs and doctrines of this school of thought, refer to the topic Marxism in the section of Philosophical Theories and Schools on the website of the Scientific and Research Department of Kalemaat.]
2. [Ibid.]
3. [Frederick Copleston, Friedrich Nietzsche: Philosopher of Culture, translated by Alireza Behbahani and Ali-Asghar Halabi, Behbahani Publications, first edition, 1992, p. 17.]
4. Lawrence Cahoone, From Modernism to Postmodernism, translated by Abdulkarim Rashidian, Ney Publications, second edition, 1381, p. 103.
5. Arasteh, Khomohammad, Critique and Perspective on the Culture of Scientific and Social Terminologies, ChabakhshPublications, first edition, 1381, p. 103.
6. Shahriar Zarchinas, Nihilism, Andisheh Javan Publications, third edition, 1386, p. 13.
7. Ibid., p. 17.