nihilism
/ˈnʌɪ(h)ɪlɪz(ə)m
/noun [mass noun]
1The rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.Those who rejected nihilism and stood against evil in the past lead the way....
- Pinker argues that we need not fear nihilism or meaninglessness from the modern human sciences because they show that morality is wired into the human brain.
- And since he asserts that atheism = nihilism and deism = atheism lite, then I must really be a nihilist.
Synonyms
negativity, cynicism, pessimism;
rejection, repudiation, renunciation, denial, abnegation;
disbelief, non-belief, unbelief, scepticism, lack of conviction, absence of moral values, agnosticism, atheism, non-theism
1.1 Philosophy The belief that nothing in the world has a real existence.Thus, from a Nietzschean perspective, nihilism is the unforeseen consequence of the Kantian critique of metaphysics....
- Existentialism is just another form of nihilism in Nietzsche's sense.
- The dislodging of epistemology from its old status of first philosophy loosed a wave, we saw, of epistemological nihilism.
1.2 historical The doctrine of an extreme Russian revolutionary party circa 1900 which found nothing to approve of in the established social order.
Origin
Early 19th century: from Latin nihil 'nothing' + -ism.