Arthur Schopenhauer's Ideas Of Nihilism

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Pessimism is the belief that the world is as bad as it could possibly be and that life has no value. According to pessimists, there is no real meaning to life. Pessimists anticipate the worst and see things for how they are in order to avoid suffering. It is because of this that they do not see a meaning to life. If life is filled with so much suffering and holds negative value, then there is no point in living it. At the core, ideas of nihilism, the outcomes of trying to achieve attainment, and turning away from desire dictate and justify the ideas of what life really is and how pessimists see the world around them. Nihilism is the belief that values are baseless. Nihilism says that since nothing can be properly and truly known or communicated, one's morals, ideas, or beliefs …show more content…

Friedrich Nietzsche originally theorized about nihilism and passive nihilism, building upon Arthur Schopenhauer's ideas on life from a pessimistic stance. In fact, the Schopenhauerian pessimism served as a model for what Nietzsche called passive nihilism. (Lebovic, p54). Schopenhauer's idea of pessimism said that the will had no goal or purpose, due to nothing having true meaning. This eventually inspired the negative value ideals behind nihilism. Nietzsche contemplated the meaning of values and their significance to existence. He drew the conclusion that values were baseless since there are no absolute values that exist. He also supported his idea of nihilism by claiming the human beings created individual values to benefit their own survival and growth, deeming them meaningless. (Wilkerson, "Friedrich Nietzsche"). Hand-in-hand with nihilism is the idea that not only are values and personal morals meaningless, but they also hold very little importance at the end of the day. In The Will to Power, Nietzsche says, "The logic of pessimism down to ultimate nihilism: what is at work in it? The idea of

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