Nihilism arose in the late 19th/early 20th century as a reaction to increasing atheism, reliance on science over religion, and the dehumanizing effects of industrialization. The brutality of WWI furthered feelings of despair, absurdity, and isolation in the world. Nihilism rejects traditional philosophy, religion, and the notion of universal truth or meaning. For nihilists, the universe is cold, chaotic, and humans are alone with no free will or soul, facing complete extinction after a meaningless life in an indifferent world without purpose or truth. Major figures like Nietzsche believed nihilism meant embracing passions over rationality and pursuing power.

1. Nihilism
The loss of meaning
Late 19th and early 20th
century

2. Duchamp’s
The Fountain

3. German artist George Grosz

5. Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the
stage
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

6. Nihilism
What is it and why did it arise?

7. Nihilism
• Arose as a reaction to the
despair and isolation produced
by a growing atheism and
reliance on science and human
rationality
(naturalistic and materialistic
worldview)

8. Industrialization had left many
people feeling dehumanized
and isolated

12. The brutality and inhumanity
of WWI had left many without
hope

13. Impact of WWI– despair over man’s
inhumanity and brutality

18. People found themselves
feeling alone and adrift in a
seemingly absurd, cruel, and
uncaring world

19. What is nihilism?
Not a true philosophy
Denial of everything
truth
knowledge
morality
beauty
meaning
purpose

20. Nihilism rejected
• The complete confidence in
Enlightenment rationality
• Confidence in science and
empiricism
• Traditional philosophy and
philosophical assumptions
• Religion
• The notion of a universal truth

22. How does nihilism address
the worldview questions?

23. Prime reality
No ultimate reality or truth
No God

24. External reality
• Cold and indifferent universe
• Chaotic
• Unpredictable
• Absurd
• Harsh
• Lonely
• The universe is a determined
(Closed) system
• Humans cannot “act significantly”

25. Human beings
• Humans are physical beings ONLY
• (no soul or spirit)
• We are solitary and alone
• Humans have no free will
• (seen as a delusion)

26. Death
• Complete extinction
• Death is the ultimate absurdity in an
absurd and indifferent universe

27. Knowledge
• There is no knowledge
• The human intellect and rationality
cannot be trusted.
• If the human mind is just physical
matter, why should we trust it?

28. Moral ethics
• There are no universal moral
standards
• Man must live according to his
passions and instincts
• The primary focus is on power
• “Reason cannot establish values”
Nietzsche

29. History
• Endless cycle of meaningless events
in a meaningless universe

31. Friedrich Nietzsche -
1844-1900
German philosopher
son of a Lutheran minister

32. Nietzsche’s major ideas
• Believed that Christianity produced
a “weak, slave” mentality
• Believed that a race of “supermen”
would ultimately rule over the weak
and inferior
• Believed that the ideal human being
was beyond the concept of good and
evil

33. • Proposed that man must embrace
his essential nature
• Live according to his instincts and
passions
• Power and force
• For Neitzsche,women were seen as
weak and too emotional to ever act
in authentic ways.

34. “In our whole unhealthy modernity
there is nothing more unhealthy
than Christian piety. To be
physicians here, to be inexorable
here, to wield the scalpel here-
that is our part, that is our love of
man….”

35. “God is dead. We have killed him.”
Nietzsche believed that humanity had “killed”
the idea and importance of God by ceasing to
believe. Religion and the notion of God had
become irrelevant.

36. Nietzsche’s endless repetition of life:
the same thing over and over again
with no meaning or purpose.

37. According to nihilism,
humans would have to face
the void of a world without
God, truth, purpose or
meaning.
“The abyss”

38. Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
“But his soul was mad. Being
alone in the wilderness, it had
looked within itself and, by
heavens I tell you, it had gone
mad."
“The horror…the horror”
Kurtz’s last words

39. “The Scream” by Edvard Munch

41. • Dada art

43. Hate

44. Purpose found in destruction. What is
reality?

46. Blasphemychallenge.com
Blaspheme the Holy Spirit and
dare God to send you to Hell