Friedrich Nietzsche’s Philosophy of Nihilism in the Posthumous Fragments (1885–1888)

Abstract

This article highlights the main principles of the Nietzschean view of nihilism. The analysis is focused on considering nihilism as a special approach to examination of the modern world. Nietzsche is positioning himself not only as a theorist or an investigator of cultural and anthropological symptoms of decadence, but also speaks as a prophet or a visionary. The article traces how Nietzsche gradually comes to the problem of dangerous nihilism. Already in his first significant work devoted to Greek tragedy he traces the tendencies of the decline of Western culture. Later on, the philosopher demonstrates that the origins of nihilism go back to the doctrine of true and false worlds in Platonism and this particular idea is the basis of the Christian moral doctrine. Nietzsche continues, as a result of the spread of the Judeo-Christian worldview, the ideals of hatred, resentment, bad conscience, and guilt are established, based on which the physical world is devalued. Therefore, the weakest forms of life are justified. This has a suggestive influence on all domains of culture: philosophy, science, art, literature, etc. Finally, a man turns into a possessor of the will to nonbeing. Nietzsche exposes different types of this nihilistic movement. His words ‘death of God’ become a figure of human loss of values that provided a person with meaning, purpose, and integrity. A tired and exhausted human being is disposed to pessimism as a symptom of nihilism. In Western society, substitutes for God—progress or collective happiness—are invented to save the situation. In contrast to this, Nietzsche’s active nihilism, which opposes passive nihilism—indifference and weakness that indicates trivial joys instead of the will to power—will be able to change the condition.