Existentialist Nihilism

Nihilism, in its most common application, is understood as a denial of all meaning in existence in the belief that nothing matters. While this interpretation is not entirely inaccurate, it is incomplete in its failure to address what lies beyond the "nothingness". If this ordinary definition of nihilism is processed as a complete treatment of the position, then it is not at all far removed from fatalism, or the belief that all is hopeless, and one should simply surrender their ambitions to cold despair, while the forces of fate dictate the flow of one’s life. Indeed, many who have been embraced by the nothingness of nihilism never make it through to the other side, where the nothingness leads to a somethingness in which one discovers the knowledge that potentially leads to the identity of inner substance in which meaning can be supplied. This fall into despair is one which J.L. Mackie addresses in his rejection of objective values:

"The denial of objective values can carry with it an extreme emotional reaction, a feeling that nothing matters, that life has lost its purpose...Of course this does not follow; the lack of objective values is not a good enough reason for abandoning subjective concern or for ceasing to want anything."

Why is it not a good enough reason? The ones who are unable to pry themselves from the grip of despair may have a difficult time answering this question. The ones who have shattered that grip, from the power of sheer affection for life, know full well why losing oneself to this hopelessness cannot be justified. There is liberation in the rejection of objective value, and this liberation is the freedom to supply one’s own meaning to life, rather than appealing to objective authority, which, having gone through the cold void of nihilistic awakening, has now been reduced to mere illusion.

The process of nihilism fundamentally involves a removal of all values projected onto the world by human thought. This process requires one to recognize the world’s natural condition as merely one of physical function, devoid of objective properties which govern actions according to particular values. Through this recognition, one arrives at the understanding that all human value is an illusion, as there exists nothing objectively as a property of the world that can validate those values. The nihilist comes to understand all attempts to make projected values real through the mental action of objectification as a mistaken presumption of objectivity absent of any grounds in reality with which to support those presumptions. Though we conduct ourselves as if there actually are objective properties that exist as part of the world, these properties are simply nothing more than a projection of the human mind. The fundamental error is a projection mistaken for recognition, or a process of valuation which is not one of discovery, but of conception.

The nihilist, having successfully completed the task of eliminating value from the world, understands all actions as being without value when held up to the void of nothingness that essentially is the universe. This holds true even in regards to moral actions. To the world as it exists in reality, apart from human projection of values, the act of murder is no different than tossing a rock into a pond. Both actions are empty of any value. It is not until humans supply a particular value to the action of murder that it becomes considered a "wrong" act. But the truth of this value resides only in the mind of the human, and so it is a mechanical truth, not a natural one. To the nihilist mind, this is the reality of the world and our relation to it.

The logical response to this theory from one who is alien to the very idea of it is an expression of concern as to how and why does one carry on in the realm of existence after having entered into the realm of nihil. Indeed, there is a profound despair accompanied by a shade of sorrow during the nihilistic process, a feeling of utter hopelessness that has the potential to suspend one within a paralyzed state of uselessness. There are many who are suspended in this condition for the remainder of their existence, unable were they to make it through to the other side of the void, where the nothingness becomes somethingness. This stagnant condition is sometimes used as a cheap excuse to free oneself from the responsibility that comes with existentialism, which is a common philosophy assumed by one who succeeds in making it through the nothingness. It is much more difficult to go back into the world of projected illusion after one has awakened oneself to the truth of nihilism, unless they find it unconvincing from the off, or have felt a freezing fear in its initially cold embrace that sends them back into the realm from which they came. But if one accepts nihilism as truth, there can be no turning back. There is no promise, however, of going forward either. For those who do not, fatalism becomes them.

Few, in fact, appear to make the journey out of fatalist nihilism. It requires a certain capacity of courage, inner strength, intellectual penetration, and, perhaps above all, a profound affection for life itself. Arthur Schopenhauer, whose philosophy asserts that it is the Will which is the original metaphysical element, and that the world is but a representation of the mind, illustrates this point:

"Take any large, massive, heavy building: this hard, ponderous body that fills so much space exists, I tell you, only in the soft pulp of the brain. There alone, in the human brain, has it any being. Unless you understand this, you can go no further."

Though Schopenhauer is not addressing nihilism exactly with this passage, his illustration is functional toward explaining the process involved.

To introduce the transition from fatalist nihilism toward a form of nihilism which can supply one’s existence with meaningful direction, let us again turn to Schopenhauer:

"When I see a wide landscape, and realize that it arises by the operation of the functions of my brain, that is to say, of time, space, and causality, on certain spots which have gathered on my retina, I feel that I carry it within me. I have an extraordinarily clear consciousness of the identity of my own being with that of the external world."

Again, Schopenhauer makes this observation in the context of his philosophy of the will and world as representation, but his formulations of these ideas were influential to future existentialist thinkers. Interpreted in the view of nihilism, a passage such as this demonstrates the experience of discovering meaning, identity, and purpose in existence even while realizing the illusion of what is commonly taken as reality.

Because nihilism wipes away all projected value from the world, the nihilist who does make it through to the other side of the realm of nothingness will feel the need to formulate this acquired knowledge into a philosophy that accommodates nihilistic views. Crossing the threshold of nothingness does not involve shedding nihilism. It is carried into the next realm, but needs to be developed into a doctrine articulating a certain path for the remainder of one’s existence. This is where the philosophy of existentialism awaits.

Jean-Paul Sartre formulated the philosophy of existentialism, which recognizes human existence as preceding essence, a quality entirely unique to the human being. This approach emphasizes human freedom, though at the burdensome price of individual obligation. As Sartre states,

"...man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself....at first, he is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be. Thus, there is no human nature, since there is no God to conceive it."

Because the existence of a God would contradict this freedom and responsibility, the philosophy of existentialism is, at least in its common formulations, an atheistic position. This eliminates all appeals to objective values, as such values simply do not exist in this view. The power is in the possession of the human being.

The burden of this responsibility, often referred to as "existential angst", arrives in the choosing, not just for oneself, but for all. In defining oneself, one defines all of humanity, free of all consequences which would constrain personal freedom. This removes the focus from individual interests and shifts it toward the ideal of humanity, in accordance with one’s vision of what all humanity should be. This is the great weight of the existential burden, without which, we could not have the power of freedom. Again, Sartre:

The existentialist does not receive freedom on the cheap, but at a tremendous cost in the shape of responsibility for all mankind.

Existentialist nihilism is the condition of having removed all projected values from reality, in the recognition of those values as mere illusions, then using the nothingness that is left as a canvas upon which to create one’s own meaning in existence. Nihilism reveals the meaninglessness of our values in the context of the reality of the world, while existentialism provides a path on which one discovers personal identity through a defining of the self, and, ultimately all of humanity. For those who transcend the cold, dark void of bare nihility, in which fatalism lurks hungrily, existentialist nihilism is one philosophical discovery that awaits to offer meaning to an existence occurring bizarrely in an otherwise meaningless world.

Allen Donaldson

4/15/07