Ernest Becker in his book " The denial of
death" illustrated two basic fears which stir
a person's behavior all throught his life.
First being the fear of this very existence,
a realm of absurdity, full of uncertainty,
pain and suffering, engenders a somewhat default
level of stress.
- Second is the fear of death, an instinctual
sense, a inborn thought, that the end of it
all is to vanish utterly, one day.
- These two basic fears make existence rather
strenuous to bear ; a living hell despite
the occasional bouts of pleasure.
This burden forces the individual to find
a plausible reason as to why they should continue
living - a meaning.
- For hundreds of years the Christian doctrine
had provided people with such a meaning ; that
is no matter how much suffering they are to
endure, an eternal soothing awaits after death
- heaven.
- Since the rise of the Roman empire man was
not bothered by this perplexing inquiry.
The meaning of life and the path one is to
choose were served by the Church that had
established itself back then as the sole government
and at once educator.
- So, people were uninterested in such questions
partly for questioning the church would portray
them as heretics, and partly for the answers
about life which they were handed were quite
convincing.
Convincing because the Church made these answers
seem other-wordly, comming from high-above,
and thus appear objective and true.
Nietshe thought that people always searched
for an objective meaning, one that is not
man-made, bias-resistant, existing outside
the mind.
- By infusing this life with a meaning intertwined
to an unreachable dimension, Christianity
succeeded in creating a firm rationale which
kept atheim & skepticism at bay for generations.
This vision of an afterlife is a strong narrative,
imbues people with hope for a better future
in heaven compared to their shitty earthly
existence; makes it more endurable as we always
have something unearthly, and thus exciting
to look forward to.
That said, Nietzshe was remarkable in that
he was one of the first to have predicted
the fall of christianity.
Beginning with the scientific revolution of
the 16th century, up to the age of enlightenment,
Nietzshe was correct in his calculation that
science would replace religion.
These periods were marked by pervasiveness
of philosophical thought ; primarily critism
of the sovereign christian dogmas and the
emphasis on experiment as a measure of truth.
Quite the opposite of what religion advocates.
Christianity for so long had presented itself
as the provider of an objective truth about
this life and its meaning.
Nietzshe noted that philosophy exposed christianity
as not a truth in itself, but an interpretation
of the truth, a mere subjective opinion on
actuality.
The problem is not this transition from religion
to science, but in the outcomes thereof.
Nietshe thought that however great discoveries
it had done and has yet to do to clarify reality
and raise the intellect, science and a complete
and utter entrenchment in a scientific interpretation
of existence would deprive life of all meaning.
Plant the seed of philosophical questioning,
people get skeptical about the practicality
of religion, get shaken, schoked, disown their
beliefs, get suspicious about the meaning
of life itself since it was provided by religion,
drop that.
- Now we're left with a populace that is disoriented,
lacking meaning again, which make difficult
to choose to continue living or to be active
in life.
With science, we're back at square one similar
to where religion had never existed.
Nietzshe had predicted this inevitable existential
crisis with precision.
"This thought is intended for the ears
and consciences of our mechanist who
nowadays like to pass as philosophers and
insist that mechanics is the doctrine of the
first and last laws on which all existence
must be based as on the ground floor.
But an essentially mechanical world would
be an essentially meaningless world."
From here it's safe to lay down our many definitions
of the term.
Nihilism, thus a psychological state in which
the person had come to realize that his most
cherished beliefs were not as he had long
conceived to be true.
It is the biggest existential shock there
is.
It starts with the questioning of one's religious
convictions, but it is more than just philosophical
questioning ; nihilism is a destructive force,
violently raiding upon one's beliefs.
On the verge of getting suspicious about all
what religion preaches, the person then becomes
distrustful of all beliefs, all value systems,
all meanings, concepts & morals.
Nihilism then, is the negation of this earthly
reality as fake on the premise that everything
it contains is opinion, rather subjective,
man-made and thus valueless.
"What were the advantages of the Christian
moral hypothesis?
1.
It granted man an absolute value, as opposed
to his smallness
and accidental occurrence in the flux of becoming
and passing
away.
2.
It served the advocates of God insofar as
it conceded to
the world, in spite of suffering and evil,
the character of perfection-
including "freedom": evil appeared full of
meaning.
3.
It posited that man had a knowledge of absolute
values
and thus adequate knowledge precisely regarding
what is most
important.
4.
It prevented man from despising himself as
man, from
taking sides against life; from despairing
of knowledge: it was a
means of preservation.
In sum: morality was the great antidote against
practical
and theoretical nihilism."
The populace awakened from slumber of morality
to the void of critical thought.
A not so pleasant transition as they're now
faced with another dilemma, that of meaninglessness.
"The end of the moral interpretation of the
world, which no longer has any
sanction after it has tried to escape into
some beyond, leads to nihilism."
The moral interpretation of life bestowed
by christianity as the seed of truth is the
same seed which brought about its demolition.
And then, one stands an empty shell as our
hitherto provider of beliefs was also our
provider of meaning.
"Now we discover in ourselves needs
implanted by centuries of moral
interpretation-needs that now appear
to us as needs for untruth; on the other
hand, the value for which we endure life
seems to hinge on these needs."
Since nihilism is the natural outcome of the
distancing from the moral interpretation of
life, Nietzshe implies that these two extremes
overlap in a sense that one end inevitably
leads to the other.
Christianity is nihilism in some sense, as
he noted: "Insofar as we believe in morality
we pass sentence on existence."
Proof: There is no value in value itself,
there is no meaning in meaning ; if life is
meaning less then obviously there is no sense
in action or desire.
"What does nihilism mean?
That the highest values devaluate themselves."
Man upon disowning morality enters a state
in which everything is permitted but yet in
which everything is perceived as valueless.
Rejecting idealism results in nihilism.
He now sees this world unable to assert itself
as true.
Once he became mistrutful of the moral ideal,
he turns against all interpretations and ideals.
He concludes that humans have no right to
simplify existence by creating a metaphysical
narrative,(I;e heaven) a fake world subjectively
created merely to make this earthly chaotic
reality feel more endurable, to comfort themselves
so to say.
"Radical nihilism is the conviction
of an absolute untenability of
existence when it comes to the
highest values one recognizes;
plus the realization that we lack
the least right to posit a beyond
or an in-itself of things that might
be "divine" or morality incarnate."
Since no worldview can satiate the nihilist's
need for objectivity, he denies the value
in this existence.
And come to deduce that a real world, including
the highest values such as truth & morality,
cannot exist except in thoughts and in the
subjective confines of the human mind.
Thus, to him, this world is fake.
And that a true world is non-existent.
"A nihilist is a man who judges of the world
as it is
that it ought not to be, and of the world
as it ought
to be that it does not exist."
You may have noticed that as I've gone furher
into the video, I've been providing more than
one meaning to the term Nihilism, each of
which gave more clarity to the former.
The reason is Nietshe's style of writing especially
in the will to power.
He offers many definitions to Nihilism, his
style is anti systematic, ambiguis, and because
of this his views are subject to many interpretations.
With some research and adding in my personal
understanding, I compiled this video for you
guys.
In upcoming sequels, we'll be looking at another
cause aside from loss in religious faith,
which can also trigger nihilisim.
Thanks for watching.
"The supreme values in whose service man should
live, especially
when they were very hard on him and exacted
a high price-these
social values were erected over man to strengthen
their voice,
as if they were commands of God, as "reality,"
as the "true" world,
as a hope and future world.
Now that the shabby origin of these
values is becoming clear, the universe seems
to have lost value,
seems "meaningless"-but that is only a transitional
stage."
