I feel like this isn’t a great explanation of nihilism, someone might think it functionally is materialism, or some sort of skepticism.
Nihilism is the rejection of meaning, ethics, or knowledge as things that actually exist objectively. An existentialist accepts some form of nihilism, and grapples with its consequences. One key idea across existentialist thinkers is that Existence precedes Essence, that existing is always shaping who you become, rather than some kind of intrinsic being that nihilism would reject.
I feel like this isn’t a great explanation of nihilism, someone might think it functionally is materialism, or some sort of skepticism.
Nihilism is the rejection of meaning, ethics, or knowledge as things that actually exist objectively. An existentialist accepts some form of nihilism, and grapples with its consequences. One key idea across existentialist thinkers is that Existence precedes Essence, that existing is always shaping who you become, rather than some kind of intrinsic being that nihilism would reject.
I’ll admit that a lot of my understanding of nihilism came from existentialist thinkers, and from Turgenev’s Bazarov.