Nihilism
Rejection of certain ideas about reality
Summary
Nihilism is a family of philosophical views that reject the existence of any objectively meaningful purpose, moral value, truth, or knowledge. Nihilistic views span several branches of philosophy, including ethics, value theory, epistemology, and metaphysics. Nihilism is also described as a broad cultural phenomenon or historical movement that pervades modernity in the Western world.
Originally created by 64.229.204.xxx
9/24/2001, 5:15:47 PM
Modified
5/19/2026, 12:46:36 PM
Recent revisions
my usual small tweaks.
/* Sources */ typo
Undid revision [[Special:Diff/1351744623|1351744623]] by [[Special:Contributions/Andrew Davidson|Andrew Davidson]] ([[User talk:Andrew Davidson|talk]]) see talk
Rescuing orphaned refs ("auto5" from rev 1351648960)
remove disputed OR symbol per talk
not a standard symbol of nihilism; restore previous image and remove tag since the restored references directly support it; see talk page
Rescuing orphaned refs ("auto5" from rev 1351307674)
Nihilism Symbol
Changed verb to a more appropriate one
[[Wikipedia:OABOT|Open access bot]]: hdl updated in citation with #oabot.
ce
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shorten per [[WP:SD40]]
avoid implying that nihilism is primarily about the concept "reality"
/* Definition, related terms, and etymology */ more in line with source
nihilism doesn't seem to reject "certain aspects of existence" (but more generally the idea that reality and existence can be interpreted objectively)
/* Definition, related terms, and etymology */ more in line with Gertz; it's generally ideas and beliefs of others or the possibility of ''objective'' "truth" that are rejected by nihilism, rather than "certain aspects of existence" or "features of reality"
/* top */ The two hatnotes can be merged
End of history
Dating maintenance tags: {{Or}}
