Nihilism Essay, Research Paper
The word Nihilism comes from the Latin root for nothing , with more ancient connections withthe word for trifle . Nihilism is the general phenomenon of human values having no power, inthat questions about meaning fail to yield answers that are trustworthy or in the truth, but rather avoid of senseless silence. While episodes of Nihilism could be identified throughout our speciescultural history, the label is usually applied to the crisis of valuation that now grips the planet spre-eminent culture, the so called western culture. The concept of Nihilism receives its Most penetrating analysis in the work of Germangenius Friedrich Nietzsche(Neetchee), who called Nihilism the most uncanniest of guests . Nihilism is the result of a family value-system turning back on itself and its human creators,ultimately devaluing itself an causing the experience of nothingness on the many levels of human
consciousness. Nietzsche saw Nihilism as both the great curse and the great opportunity. Man, he said,might very well destroy himself because of Nihilism, either through physical destruction or byturning to a nihilistic religion in which man would die spiritually. But he also hoped that perhapsa new race of philosophers would arise, who could both look into the sun of Nihilism withoutblinking and who could legislate a new order of value, new tablets , for the strong creativeminority to live by, values that would serve their creators rather than enslave and demean them. It remains for us to be honest and cheerful in the light of Nihilism. Nietzsche said We areall nihilists–those who deny it have not yet awakened to the necessary evolution of their owndiseased call structures or refuse to see out of cowardice. Those of us who look over the edgeand per into the void must call up new tablets of values out of ourselves.