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Nihilism

Nihilism. Nina Mallery. Background: What is Nihilism?. The philosophy that all values are baseless and nothing can be known. Turganev

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Nihilism

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  1. Nihilism Nina Mallery

  2. Background: What is Nihilism? • The philosophy that all values are baseless and nothing can be known. • Turganev • “a nihilist is a man "who approaches everything from a critical point of view … who does not bow down before any authorities, who does not accept a single principle on faith, no matter how much respect might surround that principle." • Pessimism/skepticism • Latin nihil - nothing • Changed over time through interpretation • total rejection of established laws and institutions • anarchy, terrorism, or other revolutionary activity.

  3. Types of Nihilism • Epistemological- denies knowledge and truth • Political- destruction of political order is necessary • Ethical- rejects absolute moral values • Existential- life has no intrinsic meaning • Out, out, brief candle!, Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more; it is a tale, Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing (Macbeth)

  4. Relation to 19th century Russia? • Kierkegaard- Levelling: suppressing individuality • Max Stirner (1806-1856)-attacked systematic philosophy • Ivan Turganev (1818-1883) - universe lies beyond empirical method Fathers and Sons • (1860-1917) Identified with revolutionary movement that rejected state, church and family • Rejection of tradition • Unclear philosophies • Rejection of religion • Liberty equal rights • “Land and freedom” -Emancipation Act of 1861

  5. Continued Michael Bakunin (1814-1876) anarchist entreaty • Let us put our trust in the eternal spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unreachable and eternally creative source of all lifehis passion for destruction is also a creative passion! (Reaction in Germany, 1842) • 1870’s association with terrorism and assassination • Friedrich Nietzsche (1883-1888)- no order to world except what we give it • Valued destruction Nihilism is . . . not only the belief that everything deserves to perish; but one actually puts one shoulder to the plough; one destroys (Will to Power)

  6. Affect through History • Philosophy challenging each other • late 20th-dehumanization • conformist, alienation • Modern examples of nihilism • Dada • Punk music • Watchmen, The Big Lebowski • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzfZKFDNMBA

  7. Significance and Symbolization • Depression • Atheism • Materialization • Antifoundationalists- upbeat concept of meaninglessness • Individual freedom • Anarchy • Why? • Emotional anguish in lit. • Question of survival? Yes

  8. Examples in the book? • P.3 “Put no faith in those dreams” • P.28 “It would not have been possible to sink to a lower ebb of disorder” • P. 42 “His eyes and his mind craved for space” • P.47 “Or throw up life altogether!..” • P. 63 “free from that sorcery, that obsession” • P.65 “ He thought of nothing and was incapable of thinking…” • P.68 “What value has the life of that sickly, stupid, ill-natured old woman?” • Constant “why?” • Raskolinkov, Raskol= dissent • Dostoyevsky idea was to oppose nihilism

  9. Works Cited • Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. New York: Modern Library, 1950. Print. • "Nihilism [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://www.iep.utm.edu/nihilism/>. • "Nihilism." Philosophy - AllAboutPhilosophy.org. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/nihilism.htm>. • "Nihilism-Nihilism In Russia and as a Russian Export." Science.Jrank.org. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://science.jrank.org/pages/10487/Nihilism-Nihilism-in-Russia-Russian-Export.html>. • Nihilism and Meaning, Part 1 - YouTube. CD. • Land, 1863, Freedom Was Leaderless, and Freedom's Dissolution. "Nihilistic Sentiments." Lethbridge Undergraduate Research Journal. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://www.lurj.org/article.php/vol3n1/nihilist.xml>. • "Nihilism | Define Nihilism at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nihilism>.

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