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Nihilism is defined as rejecting objectively meaningful purpose, moral value, truth, knowledge, or related concepts, with different forms targeting different “aspects of existence.”
Nihilism is a family of philosophical views that reject or deny certain aspects of existence, including objectively meaningful purpose, moral value, truth, knowledge, or related concepts. Because different nihilist positions deny different kinds of “foundations,” nihilism spans multiple branches of philosophy—especially ethics and value theory, epistemology (theory of knowledge), and metaphysics. It is also described as a broader cultural/historical phenomenon in the Western modern world, associated with skepticism toward established norms and values and with attitudes such as indifference or despair. Its scope is broad: existential nihilism claims life has no objective meaning or purpose; moral nihilism denies the objective existence of morality (and sometimes values more generally); epistemological nihilism challenges the possibility or universality of knowledge and truth, often via relativism (truth/meaning relative to perspectives) or skepticism (denying knowledge/truth altogether); and metaphysical nihilism includes claims such as the universe could have been empty, or that only simple objects exist (mereological nihilism). Beyond these, nihilism can also appear in political, semantic, logical, and therapeutic forms, and the term is used more loosely in everyday language to describe negative or antisocial attitudes.
Nihilism is defined as rejecting objectively meaningful purpose, moral value, truth, knowledge, or related concepts, with different forms targeting different “aspects of existence.”
Its scope covers multiple philosophical domains (ethics/value theory, epistemology, metaphysics) and also appears as a cultural/historical phenomenon in modern Western thought.
A family of philosophical views that reject or deny objectively meaningful purpose, moral value, truth, knowledge, or related concepts.
The view that life has no objective meaning or purpose.
The metaethical view that there are no moral facts, denying the objective existence of morality.
Views that challenge the existence or universal nature of knowledge, often denying objectivity of truth or knowledge.
The view that truth, knowledge, or meaning are relative to individual perspectives or cultural/historical contexts, leaving no independent standard for correctness.
The view that denies the existence of knowledge or truth altogether.
Views that deny certain metaphysical foundations of reality, such as the idea that the universe must contain objects or that composite objects exist.
The view that only simple objects exist and that composite objects (like tables) do not.
The view that reality is unintelligible and indifferent to human understanding.
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