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Nihilism (from the , it was held the religiously oriented , would not feel bound by moral norms; consequently, he would tend to be callous or selfish, even criminal." (at p515) Elsewhere, Stanley Rosen identifies Nietzsche's equation of nihilism with "the situation which obtains when 'everything is permitted.'" Cf. Rosen, Stanley. Nihilism: A Philosophical Essay. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1969. p. xiii. Nihilism is often more of a charge leveled against a particular idea, movement, or group, than it is an actual philosophical position to which someone overtly subscribes. Movements such as ). Nihilism is also a characteristic that has been ascribed to time periods: for example, represent the rejection of God, and therefore are nihilistic. Nihilism is often associated with , who argued that " term ''nihilism'' has a very specific meaning. What remains unquestioned and forgotten in metaphysics is being; and hence, it is nihilistic."Korab-Karpowicz, W. J.: "Martin Heidegger," in ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (2006) [http://www.iep.utm.edu/h/heidegge.htm] IN PHILOSOPHY Though the term ''nihilism'' was first popularized by Ivan Turgenev (see below), it was first introduced into philosophical discourse by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi ( 1743 – 1819 ), who used the term to characterize rationalism, and in particular Immanuel Kant 's "critical" philosophy in order to carry out a Reductio Ad Absurdum according to which all rationalism (philosophy as criticism) reduces to nihilism, and thus it should be avoided and replaced with a return to some type of Faith and Revelation . (See also Fideism .) Friedrich Nietzsche 's later work displays a preoccupation with nihilism. Nietzsche characterized nihilism as emptying the world and especially human existence of meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. He hints that nihilism can become a false belief, when it leads individuals to discard any hope of meaning in the world and thus to invent some compensatory alternate measure of significance. Nietzsche used the phrase 'Christians and other nihilists', which is in line with his low estimation of Christianity in general. Though some deride it as nihilistic, Postmodernism can be contrasted with the above formulation of nihilism in that the most common type of nihilism tends toward Defeatism or Fatalism , while Postmodern philosophers tend to find strength and reason for celebration in the varied and unique human relationships it explores. Some also compare nihilism to Skepticism , claiming both reject claims to knowledge and truth; however, skeptics are often offended by this comparison, pointing out they don't in fact reject claims to truth outright; they only reject these claims if there is insufficient empirical evidence to support them. The other side might argue that skepticism does not necessarily come to any conclusions about the reality of moral concepts nor does it deal so intimately with questions about the meaning of an Existence without knowable truth. In a very different vein to that just given, contemporary analytic philosophers have been engaged in a very active discussion over the past few years about what is called , such as Democritus of ancient Greece, Dharmakirti of ancient India, that it is the position held by Kant in his transcendental idealism, and that it is the position actually found in quantum observational physics. {Link without Title} Grupp, Jeffrey. "The R Theory of Time" The other contemporary mereological nihilists are not atomists (instead they advocate a slightly different theory, called Simples ), such as the mereological nihilists Trenton Merricks of the University Of Virginia , and Peter Van Inwagen of the University Of Notre Dame . In ethics and morality See Also: Moral nihilism In the world of Ethics , ''nihilist'' or ''nihilistic'' is often used as a derogatory term referring to a complete rejection of all systems of authority, morality, and social custom, or one who purportedly makes such a rejection. Either through the rejection of previously accepted bases of belief or through extreme Relativism or Skepticism , the nihilist is construed as one who believes that none of these claims to power are valid. Nihilism not only dismisses received moral values, but rejects 'morality' outright, viewing it as baseless. Postmodernism and the breakdown of knowledge and The Enlightenment . Though it is often described as a fundamentally nihilist philosophy, before entering a brief discussion on postmodern thought it is important to note that nihilism itself is open to postmodern criticism: nihilism is a claim to a universal truth, exactly what postmodernism rejects. However, it is equally worth noting the extent to which postmodernism might fail according to the same logic. = Lyotard and meta-narratives Lyotard argues that, rather than relying on an Objective truth or method to prove their claims, philosophers legitimize their truths by reference to a story about the world which is inseparable from the age and system the stories belong to. Lyotard calls them Meta-narrative s. He then goes on to define the Postmodern Condition as one characterized by a rejection both of these meta-narratives and of the process of legitimization by meta-narratives. "In lieu of meta-narratives we have created new language-games in order to legitimize our claims which rely on changing relationships and mutable truths, none of which is privileged over the other to speak to ultimate truth." This concept of the instability of truth and meaning leads in the direction of nihilism, though Lyotard stops short of embracing the latter. = Jean Baudrillard - ''On Nihilism'' Baudrillard wrote briefly of nihilism from the postmodern viewpoint in '' Simulacra And Simulation ''. He stuck mainly to topics of interpretations of the real-world over the simulations that the real world is composed of. The uses of meaning was an important subject when Baudrillard discussed nihilism: Nietzsche See Also: Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche While few philosophers would claim to be nihilists, nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche . In most contexts, Nietzsche defined the term as any philosophy that results in an apathy toward life and a poisoning of the human soul—and opposed it vehemently. He describes it as "the will to nothingness" or, more specifically:
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