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In 1888, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote,

What I relate is the history of the next two centuries.

I describe what is coming, what can no longer come differently. The advent of nihilism.

Nialism is the conviction that there is no meaning to life, that the world is inhospitable

to our highest hopes and values, and that there are no gods or higher purposes to justify our

suffering. To be a nihilist is to flirt with despair in the sentiment that life is not worth living,

and thus the nihilist position is antithetical to life.

The question whether not to be is better than to be is itself a disease, a sign of decline.

The nihilistic movement is the expression of physiological decadence, explains Nietzsche.

Although nihilism has existed in all times and places, it is especially prevalent in the

modern West.

To understand why, we are going to turn to the insights of Friedrich Nietzsche.

Specifically, we are going to examine why Nietzsche thought that all the dominant

worldviews of the West have been pessimistic evaluations of life, and thus precursors to modern

nihilism. In 1885, Nietzsche saw the specter of nihilism looming on the horizon of Western

civilization, and as he wrote, Why has the advent of nihilism become necessary?

Because the values we have had hitherto thus draw their final consequence,

because nihilism represents the ultimate logical conclusion of our great values and ideals.

The West has long been under the spell of worldviews predicated on the existence of what

Nietzsche called a true world. Such worldviews posit that along with this flawed, earthly

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