It’s extremely important to make the case for nihilism in all its forms.
See what I did there?
If nothing matters, then surely it doesn’t matter whether nihilism is the case.
Or does it?
Take moral nihilism.
Please.
If there are no objective values, does that mean that anything goes? But if anything goes, wouldn’t that imply that there’s something wrong with asserting the existence of objective values? Does nihilism end up eating its own tail?
There’s nothing wrong with self-contradictory paradoxical statements, except when there is. Of course, since everything I say about epistemological nihilism is a lie, then there’s nothing to worry about worrying about.
As Ivan Karamazov was wont to proclaim, “If God doesn’t exist, then everything is permitted.” But if everything is permitted, then nothing is prohibited. But if nothing is prohibited, then there’s at least one thing—nothing—that isn’t permitted.
Dang!
I want to be a nihilist, but if I want something, then I’m implying that it’s desirable. But if it’s desirable, then I seem to be committed to the notion that it has some sort of value.
Dang, again!
Of course, it doesn’t really matter what you do; the Universe doesn’t care, that’s for sure, whether you regularly volunteer at the local soup kitchen or steal candy from unsuspecting babies in their strollers. The Universe’s little cousin, though, Humanity, might have something to say about this and maybe that’s good enough for government work or jazz—or both, if it’s a government-supported jazz combo!
The simple fact that nihilism is especially popular among teenaged boys should tell you all you want to know about its status as a reasonable way to organize one’s life. (Same goes double for the philosophical views of Ayn Rand).
Ludwig Wittgenstein, in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, famously states, “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent;” but that hasn’t stopped philosophers from holding forth on all sorts of unspeakable claims.
Nilihist: Nothing wrong with that!
