What is nihilism? This is a question with many different correct answers. People have used the term to refer to different things. For me, it represents what I would call more specifically “philosophical” nihilism, a combination of philosophical positions that could loosely be said to form a worldview. These positions are as follows: Ontological nihilism…
Tag: existential nihilism
Being nothing
I am what I am not. I am not what I am. Jean-Paul Sartre The concept horse is not a concept. Gottlob Frege What is the self? This is my interpretation. It is unique among things in the world in that it is a subject, while everything else consists of objects. The self is not…
Existential nihilism and despair in three songs and three philosophers
What is moving will be still What is gathered will disperse What has been built up will collapse Andrew Bird, “Tin Foil” (Fingerlings 3, 2006) These lyrics are an adapted quote from Lama Sogyal Rinpoche’s Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Impermanence (aniccā in Pali) is an important idea in many forms of Buddhism. It…
