nihilism
pronunciation
How to pronounce nihilism in British English:
UK [ˈnaɪɪlɪzəm]
How to pronounce nihilism in American English:
US [ˈnaɪəˌlɪzəm, ˈni-]
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- Noun:
- a revolutionary doctrine that advocates destruction of the social system for its own sake
- the delusion that things (or everything, including the self) do not exist; a sense that everything is unreal
- complete denial of all established authority and institutions
Word Origin
- nihilism (n.)
- 1817, "the doctrine of negation" (in reference to religion or morals), from German Nihilismus, from Latin nihil "nothing at all" (see nil), coined by German philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819). In philosophy, an extreme form of skepticism (1836). The political sense was first used by German journalist Joseph von Görres (1776-1848). Turgenev used the Russian form of the word (nigilizm) in "Fathers and Children" (1862) and claimed to have invented it. With a capital N-, it refers to the Russian revolutionary anarchism of the period 1860-1917, supposedly so called because "nothing" that then existed found favor in their eyes.
Example
- 1. Well , I would say one ends up in nihilism .
- 2. Nihilism is not the stuff of legacy .
- 3. Those who understand the purpose of life and avoid nihilism completely will never utter these words .
- 4. But even if structural breaks cannot be predicted , that is no excuse for nihilism .
- 5. Shackle-lachmann nihilism or kirzner 's " discovery " approach to the market process were the new paradigms that young austrian scholars were now immersed in .