Nihilist movement

The Nihilists were mainly children of the aristocracy. They had access to education, were influenced by liberal ideas from the West, and realised the great gap between the Russian semi-feudal society and countries like France, England and Prussia. They rejected all preconceived ideas and social norms, to which they referred as "the conventional lies of civilized mankind". A sharp sincerity was their trademark. The movement owes its name to the 1862 novel Fathers and Sons by the Russian author Ivan Turgenev, the main character of which ...

See also:

Nihilist movement, Nihilist movement - History, Nihilist movement - Historical context, Nihilist movement - Political philosophy

Read more here: » Nihilist movement: Encyclopedia II - Nihilist movement - History

Nihilism as a philosophical position is the view that the world, and especially human existence, is without meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. Some philosophers are considered nihilists if they hold the philosophical position that either (1) nothing exists (all there is is nothing), (2) the reality we humans experience does not exist at all as we see it, or (3) reality is unknowable, and thus the pursuit of objective understanding is pointless. It is more often a charge leveled against a particular idea ...

Including:

• Nihilism - Etymological Origins
• Nihilism - Nihilism in Philosophy
• Nihilism - Nihilism in Ethics and Morality
• Nihilism - Postmodernism and the Breakdown of Knowledge
• Nihilism - Nihilism and Nietzsche
• Nihilism - Nihilism Self-consistency and Paradox
• Nihilism - Nihilism in Art
• Nihilism - Dadaism
• Nihilism - Nihilism in Literature
• Nihilism - Nihilism in Music
• Nihilism - Books on Nihilism

Read more here: » Nihilism: Encyclopedia - Nihilism

Though the term nihilism was first popularized by Ivan Turgenev (see below), it was first introduced into philosophical discourse by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743–1819), who used the term to characterize rationalism, and in particular Immanuel Kant's "critical" philosophy in order to carry out a reductio ad absurdum according to which all rationalism (philosophy as criticism) reduces to nihilism, and thus it should be avoided and replaced with a return to som ...

See also:

Nihilism, Nihilism - Etymological Origins, Nihilism - Nihilism in Philosophy, Nihilism - Nihilism in Ethics and Morality, Nihilism - Postmodernism and the Breakdown of Knowledge, Nihilism - Nihilism and Nietzsche, Nihilism - Nihilism Self-consistency and Paradox, Nihilism - Nihilism in Art, Nihilism - Dadaism, Nihilism - Nihilism in Literature, Nihilism - Nihilism in Music, Nihilism - Books on Nihilism

Read more here: » Nihilism: Encyclopedia II - Nihilism - Nihilism in Philosophy

The term comes from the Latin nihil, meaning "not anything". The Oxford English Dictionary gives 1817 as its earliest use in English, and Alain Rey's Dictionnaire historique de la langue française (rev. ed. 1995) gives 1787 as the first use of the word in French, noting that nihiliste was used in 1761, though in a religious sense of 'heretic' that is now obsolete. Rey also argues that the Russian equivalent nigilizm (нигилизм) that appeared in 1829 was an impulse to ...

See also:

Nihilism, Nihilism - Etymological Origins, Nihilism - Nihilism in Philosophy, Nihilism - Nihilism in Ethics and Morality, Nihilism - Postmodernism and the Breakdown of Knowledge, Nihilism - Nihilism and Nietzsche, Nihilism - Nihilism Self-consistency and Paradox, Nihilism - Nihilism in Art, Nihilism - Dadaism, Nihilism - Nihilism in Literature, Nihilism - Nihilism in Music, Nihilism - Books on Nihilism

Read more here: » Nihilism: Encyclopedia II - Nihilism - Etymological Origins

There have been various movements in art, such as surrealism and cubism, which have been criticized for touching on nihilism, and others like Dada which have embraced it openly. More generally, modern art has been criticised as nihilistic due to its often non-representative nature, as happened with the Nazi party's Degenerate art exhibit. Nihilistic themes can be found in literature and music as well. This is especially true of contemporary music and literature, where the uncertainty following what some perceive as the demise of modernism is explored in detail. ...

See also:

Nihilism, Nihilism - Etymological Origins, Nihilism - Nihilism in Philosophy, Nihilism - Nihilism in Ethics and Morality, Nihilism - Postmodernism and the Breakdown of Knowledge, Nihilism - Nihilism and Nietzsche, Nihilism - Nihilism Self-consistency and Paradox, Nihilism - Nihilism in Art, Nihilism - Dadaism, Nihilism - Nihilism in Literature, Nihilism - Nihilism in Music, Nihilism - Books on Nihilism

Read more here: » Nihilism: Encyclopedia II - Nihilism - Nihilism in Art

Nihilism was not a political movement. It was a youth culture. Nevertheless, it led to the politization and radicalization of the Russian youth. Many revolutionaries like Nikolai Tchaikovsky, Sophia Perovskaya, Sergei Kravchinski, Vera Zasulich and Sergey Nechayev were adept of Nihilist values. Nihilist political philosophy rejected all religious and political authority, social traditions, and traditional morality as standing in opposition to freedom, the ultimate ideal. In this sense, it can be seen as an extreme form of anarchism, but ...

See also:

Nihilist movement, Nihilist movement - History, Nihilist movement - Historical context, Nihilist movement - Political philosophy

Read more here: » Nihilist movement: Encyclopedia II - Nihilist movement - Political philosophy

After more than a century of Westernization that began with the reign of Peter the Great (1682-1725), a Russian national consciousness evolved slowly throughout the early decades of the nineteenth century, reflected in the development of a uniquely Russian literature (by authors such as Aleksandr Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov). But despite this growing national identity, European thought continued to exert considerable influence on Russia’s dominant political and cultural institutions: Russian troops brought back Western id ...

See also:

Nihilist movement, Nihilist movement - History, Nihilist movement - Historical context, Nihilist movement - Political philosophy

Read more here: » Nihilist movement: Encyclopedia II - Nihilist movement - Historical context