what is nihilism?

Nihilsm is a set of gloomy ruminations on the human condition, posited as truth, and tarted up as philosophy, to console the adolescent and adults suffering from arrested development, that things are in fact much worse then they imagine, and justifying a puerile refusal to play nice with the society which shelters them.

The dictionary definition:

ni·hil·ism

n.

1. Philosophy.
a. An extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence.
b. A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.

2. Rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief.

3. The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement.
also

4. Nihilism A diffuse, revolutionary movement of mid 19th-century Russia that scorned authority and tradition and believed in reason, materialism, and radical change in society and government through terrorism and assassination.

5. Psychiatry.
a. A delusion, experienced in some mental disorders, that the world or one's mind, body, or self does not exist.

But I kinda like Setanta's description! lol

fishin' ... thanks! <g>

setanta - are you saying it's a stage?

Yes, and one from which some never emerge . . .

I looked it up, and apparently nih-i-lism is a condition whereby people just can't stop quoting lines from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

um Cav, you left out Firesign Theater.
"While the E always stands for excellence in my book, I think we are out of gas"

Hmmm.. Well.. That certainly doesn't bode well for me!

Love the Firesign Theater....should have remembered...

Nihilism, in my book, is the last stage before mankind will understand that everything is factually interconnected and that we all stem from a mysterious and inexplicable event; some call it Big Bang, others call it God.

Our interconnectedness is a scientific fact. There are no separate entities, not one is above the other, we all depend on each other to make it in the long run. This is scientifically true, and before you know it, you're writing ethics: ethics spontaneously builds on this physical interconnected reality, and so nihilism is objectively wrong.

Alt. sp. Nae-hill-ism: A fear of golfing in the rocky Scottish Highlands

Wolf, I hate to point this out; but:

You have just announced three things as facts which are theories or beliefs.
"An inexplicable event" (singularity) may never have happened.
The singularity depends upon a view of time and space that may not agree with observation.

"The Big Bang- Expanding Universe" theories also have serious difficulties in the observation department. In reading some 50 books on the subject I have never found anybody that actually did the math.

" The "Creator-Creation" theory also has serious difficulties on the observation department. I have never found anyone who knew a "God" outside of his dreams and imaginations.
( I knew Dolly Parton in that manner but I try not to confuse facts with wishes and dreams) It's very easy to do, believe me!


I have elaborated a bit more on A2Ks "worst sin" thread. and would love to pursue it till I find someone competent to explain the arithmetic.

Naw; nihilism is a rare tropical disease found in some persons who have been swimming in a North African river!

I like Setanta's definition best.

So do I; but there's no way I would admit it!

And, about that "stage" thing.......
One could say (and you can quote me) all of a2k's a stage!
BoGoWo, June 2003.

In more than one way even.. A stage of life? or a stage for our "grand performances"? Take yer pick..

Go, Mech. I like that post.

Yep, well worthy of the "stage"!

You get an official "Dolly" pardon!

Thanx Fellows

Here's something to meditate about, is the psychiatric definition correct?, what I mean what if it wasn't a disease, what if those persons had a more clear view of their own existence, wouldn't they be some steps ahead of us in the quest of understing our important, yet insignificant existence?