Nihilism Concepts of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche

Is there a purpose to life? Does anything really matter? Nihilists like Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche don’t think so. In this essay, I will be exploring these two 19th century philosophers and their diverging ethics, and how exploring or even embracing aspects of nihilism could lead to a more peaceful world. Nihilism comes from the word ‘nihil’, which means ‘nothing’. This root word implies the most basic belief of this philosophy; nothing objectively matters, there is no inherent meaning to life. Because of this, nihilists reject objective morality and religion because both imply that there is a meaning to life, a ‘right’ way to behave, suggesting that there is a meaning to the universe. Some nihilists may accept a moral standard, but this is because of conscious suffering, not relating to or adding importance to the lack of meaning of the universe. Essentially, accepting morality because morals may be important to humans, not because they matter (especially considering humans don’t even matter)!

As of now in our Terminality class, the two significant philosophers we have studied are Friedrich Nietzsche (German, 1844-1900) and Arthur Schopenhauer (German, 1788-1860). Though they were both nihilists and important in the nihilism philosophy movement, their approaches and ideas are very different. Schopenhauer’s philosophy was the first Western reinterpretation and response to buddhist enlightened pessimistic thought. As stated in his 1809 book The Emptiness of Existence, he believed that “[man] strives his whole life long after imaginary happiness”, and the only real force within us is our will-to-life (61).

This will is a constant force that is blind and dumb, motivated by the instincts of hunger, sex, and boredom. There is no end to these desires - they are insatiable, and this is a large source of our unhappiness. If merely existing was enough for humans, we wouldn’t be bored or constantly searching for joy in vain. We spend our whole life restlessly pursuing these instincts and trying to distract from our boredom, but we strive to no avail and it all ends in the necessity that is death. Our will-to-live (self-subsidence and self-preservation) cause us great suffering, and he suggested that we transcend this through appreciating, or more like distracting ourselves from existence through the artsWe are greatly like animals, but because we have more self awareness, we are less happy. This finite existence is narrated by constant change, meaning that once something is, it immediately was. “No man has even felt perfectly happy in the present” and he never could be because “existence [is] based solely on the ever fleeting present” (Schopenhauer, 66, 61). From this, I draw that we are conscious of time slipping away but we are also conscious that there is time in the future.

This begs the question of purpose: Is anything ever worth a serious effort? In Nietzsche’s On Truth and Lie in a Nonmoral Sense he states that life has no meaning and we only carry the value of existence within ourselves as a means of preservation. Only humans centre so much importance and emphasis on life. Nietzsche believed that everything in nature, including us, is insignificant but most people think they are the centre of the universe. This false sense of importance creates both the damage of deception within ourselves and in our relationships with others and can be blamed greatly on Christianity. Nietzsche's nihilism is rooted in re-interpreting or questioning the morals of the Christian church. He believed that Christian morals subdued life’s opportunities and stop people from reaching their full potential and from getting what they want while also giving men a sense of too much value and self-importance in the world. We can never attain the Christian morals “God” has set for us. He considered the Christian “God is truth” mindset as inferior to the “All is false” Buddhist mindset because he thought… (look in The Will to Power. ) “Morality was the great antidote against practical and theoretical nihilism” and Nietzsche's nihilism was a philosophical attempt to overcome popular, ruling ideas of Christianity and the morals it promotes (The Will to Power, 10).

Instead, he suggested that we accept our shortcoming, embracing our will to power and all the struggles that come with existing. The faults of humanity. This gives us a sense of vitality and can help guide us to achieve what we want in life. Nietzsche was a profit of great overcoming, even introducing the idea of The Übermensch, or Superman: someone who rises above their difficulties to embrace whatever life throws at them. Nietzsche himself called Schopenhauer a “passive nihilist” - both see reality as a falsehood that causes suffering, but where Schopenhauer chooses to avoid this suffering, Nietzsche chooses to embrace it. Nietzsche advocates for our will to power and to embrace suffering, not because of some sadomasochist notion, but because he believed that embracing life, our will to power, and the suffering that accompanies that is a necessary process of becoming.