The Negative Impact of Nihilism on Society part I

By Khaza Mokhammed Ph.D.

Philology Romance languages.
Adele Cain M.A.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the danger of nihilism and to give a historical and philosophical analysis of nihilist ideology as well as to assert the importance of philosophy in confronting an ideology that threatens the very fabric of our society. Indeed, philosophy is the highest level and type of worldview: it is a theoretically formalised, system-rational worldview. It is, by its very essence, designed to reveal the rational meaning and universal laws of the existence and development of the world and of humankind.

Philosophy and Science
Unlike other sciences, “philosophy wants to know the unchanging, eternal, existing in itself; its goal is truth. Philosophy is the doctrine of absolute truth, and therefore it lays claim to the role of absolute science. In contrast to the empirical sciences, philosophy is the science of reality, of essential necessity in-itself-and-for-itself. Philosophy does not exist for other sciences, but they exist for it. As for the social function of philosophy, Hegel directly speaks of the need to merge philosophy and the state. He substantiates “the need for state power, religion and the principles of philosophy to coincide together, so that there is a reconciliation of all reality in general with the spirit, and the state with religious conscience and philosophical knowledge.” If, in a generalised form, we express how philosophy was presented in the self-consciousness of philosophers, then such a representation is summarised as follows: it is the science of being, of the first causes of being, the science of sciences, absolute science, the keeper of the truth in the last resort, the owner of the principles on the basis of which intelligent life can be built.

Definition of nihilism
The essence of nihilism is the complete denial of everything generally accepted, all traditional norms and values, including religion, state, marriage and family. In isolated manifestations, nihilism existed even in antiquity among the Cynics. As a mass phenomenon, it began to manifest itself in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Prior to this, the entire way of life of medieval European society was traditionally built on the basis of religious ideas. However, the Age of Enlightenment and, in particular, the French bourgeois revolution that followed it, made European society secular. As a result, as Heidegger wrote, God lost power over both the existence and the destiny of humankind. But as soon as God ceased to play a decisive role in the life of society, the ideals based on divine authority began to be questioned and rejected, that is, those norms and principles that gave order, purpose and meaning to the life of European man. This is precisely the essence of nihilism.
“Nihilism” is from the Latin word nihil, which means nothing. The same root can be found in the verb “annihilate” – which means to nullify or completely destroy. Nihilism claims that nothing can be known or generalised. There are several definitions of nihilism, all slightly different; in some, nihilism is presented as a simple denial of the objects of reality, in others as a revolutionary movement against power and an investment in the illusion of life.
Mikhail Maslin defined nihilism as a kind of negative mindset (in this regard, he associates nihilism with pessimism and radical scepticism), expressing complete denial, based on confidence in the absolute falsity of what is being denied. The status of social denial (negativism) is given to nihilism when it is directed against socially significant values and public institutions. Here one can trace such features of nihilism as the thoughtless denial of everything and everything: the denial of values and foundations to the point of outright vandalism.

History of the term nihilism: first used by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819)
The term “nihilism” was first used by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819). Jacobi used this term to characterise rationalism and in particular the “critical” philosophy of Immanuel Kant to the point of absurdity, according to which all rationalism (philosophy as criticism) is reduced to nihilism and thus should be avoided and replaced by returning to some type of faith and revelation. Bret W. Davies writes: “The first philosophical development of the idea of nihilism is generally attributed to Friedrich Jacobi, who in a famous letter criticised Fichte’s idealism as falling into nihilism. According to Jacobi, Fichte’s absolutization of the ego (‘absolute self’, which postulates ‘non-self’) is an inflation of subjectivity that denies the absolute transcendence of God.” A related but oppositional concept is fideism, which sees reason as hostile and succumbs to faith.
Nihilism is often associated with the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who provided a detailed diagnosis of nihilism as a common phenomenon in Western culture. Although the concept appears frequently throughout Nietzsche’s work, he uses the term in various forms, with different meanings and connotations, all negative. Karen Carr describes Nietzsche’s characterization of nihilism “as a condition of tension, as a disproportion between what we want to have meaning (or necessity) and how the world is presented and works”. When we learn that the world does not have an objective meaning, or the value that we want it to have or have long believed it to have, we are in a crisis. Nietzsche argues that with the fall of Christianity and the rise of physiological decadence, nihilism is actually a characteristic of the modern age, although he suggests that the growth of nihilism is not yet complete and that there is still more to be overcome. Whilst the problem of nihilism becomes especially pronounced in Nietzsche’s notebooks, it is mentioned repeatedly in his published works and is closely related to many of the problems mentioned there.

Varieties of nihilism.
Metaphysical nihilism is the theory that there are no objects or that objects do not exist in principle, and that empirical reality is therefore an illusion; or, more commonly, metaphysical nihilism claims that there cannot be objects for everyone (i.e., that there is a possible world in which there are no objects at all). An object here refers to a thing or being that can have properties and is related to other objects. This position was stated in different ways by such philosophers as Parmenides, Buddha, Advaita and Immanuel Kant.
Mereological nihilism holds that objects made up of parts do not exist, and only the basic building blocks exist (e.g., electrons, quarks). (Mereology is the theory of the relation of part to the whole, and the relation of part to part in the whole.) Thus, the world that we see and feel as a whole, in fact, is full of objects consisting of parts: it is a product of human distorted perception. The philosopher who argued something close to pure mereological nihilism was Peter K. Unger (1942 -), who argued that “There are no ordinary things” and “I do not exist”.
Moral nihilism is the meta-ethical notion that ethical claims are generally false. It claims that there are no objective moral facts or true propositions – that nothing is morally good, bad, wrong, right, etc. – because there are no moral truths (for example, moral nihilism claims that killing is not a wrong deed, but at the same time, it is not right, either). The philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli is sometimes presented as a model of moral nihilism, but this is very doubtful, since it is largely silent about moral issues and, in any case, it represents an alternative to the ethical theories of its time, and not a general rejection of all morality.
Legal nihilism is a negative attitude towards the law. Its basis is a weak belief that the law is beneficial to society. Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, has often spoken against legal nihilism, stressing the need to increase the strength of belief in the law and legal awareness of the people. Pressure from international public opinion has had substantial influence on the struggle against internal legal nihilism in Russia. Many scholars believe that legal nihilism is a destructive phenomenon.
Epistemological nihilism claims that there is absolutely no knowledge.

The problem of Nihilism
Even though the term nihilism was first used in the 18th century by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819), it is nevertheless vital to trace its roots further back. Scepticism (from ancient Greek σκεπτικός – considering, investigating) is a philosophical direction that puts forward doubt as a principle of thinking, especially doubt about the reliability of truth. Moderate scepticism is limited to the knowledge of facts, showing restraint in relation to all hypotheses and theories. One of the problems that the nihilist faces intellectually is the problem of morality. It cannot be said that nihilists are far from understanding morality and morality. But it is customary for them to think that the moral is a relative constant. However, nihilism cannot be seen as a disregard for moral rules. Rather, a nihilist will support those rules only if beneficial to themselves. And if they are dealing with the traditions of any people, they understand that it is useless to do anything, and therefore, most likely, they will obey the moral rules. But they will understand that morality is just an obsolete convention. From the examples above, it can be understood that nihilism is a special ethical system in which the concepts of duty and responsibility are relative. Nihilists don’t see the point of putting in the effort if there is no absolute good and bad. Therefore, nihilists are considered to be asocial (antisocial) personalities. A classical nihilist is not interested in soul-searching. And yet, deep down, the nihilist understands that they too have values and that these values are their own interests. Therefore, a nihilist can be considered an absolutely healthy person from the point of view of the psyche. The nihilist is not addicted to self-destruction. The nihilist thinks people who are caught up in duties towards society are strange and naive.