Nihilism vs Existentialism - Explanations and Differences (What is Nihilism and Existentialism?)

lately i've noticed some individuals including a few commenters on this channel as well some discussions happening in various philosophy groups mixing up the terms nihilism and existentialism so in this short video i'll explain the difference between the two and give you some background on both now just to be clear i'll be focusing on existential nihilism associated with the philosophy of frederick nietzsche and the existentialism associated with 20th century european philosophers particularly john paul sartre who popularized the term some scholars extend the ideas of nihilism and existentialism back to the ancient greeks and if you liked this video and thought it was helpful at any point please consider sharing it with others and subscribing for more videos like it using the link in the description and don't forget to turn on the notification bell to receive updates when new videos are out okay so first it's essential to understand the term nihilism refers to a number of different views in philosophy but for this video like i said when i refer to nihilism i mean existential nihilism now existential nihilism is the belief that life has no intrinsic meaning or value it suggests that each human and even the entire human species is insignificant without purpose and unlikely to change in existence totality the word nihilism was first used by frederick jacoby a german philosopher and socialite however it's most associated with frederick nietzsche and frequently appears through many of his philosophical works basically nietzsche wrote about how the decline of christianity had ushered in a state of nihilism in europe that needed to be solved and overcome we used to get our purpose and meaning from the church of god but now that god is dead at least according to nietzsche people may fall into despair since it appears that we're just meaningless animals and not meaningless universe as he wrote in his book the will of power nihilism appears at that point not that the displeasure of existence has become greater than before but because one has come to mistrust any meaning and suffering indeed in existence it now seems as if there is no meaning at all in existence as if everything were in vain in his work such as human all too human he talked about how difficult nihilism can be and living in a world without the comfort of religious dogmas can be depressing perhaps you've had times in your life where you felt directionless powerless and that nothing really matters however he believed that nihilism can be overcome and actually wished to quicken its coming so that we can we together can hasten the departure of it he wrote about two types of nihilism active and passive nihilism now passive nihilism recognizes there will never be any meaning in the world and passive nihilists should try to separate themselves from their wills and desires to reduce suffering as much as possible he called this a will to nothingness ultimately though this will to nothingness is still a will and thus will end up being a futile attempt that ends up in deep despair or the individual embracing another mass movement once again to find some sort of meaning on the other hand one can become an active nihilist if this was a possibility for us we should try to choose this option active nihilists are individuals who actively destroy our old fake false virtues like those in christianity and begin constructing our own subjective beliefs and interpretations of meaning like a sculptor we bash away false meaning and start to chisel out our very own by writing about active nihilism nietzsche was really one of the first existential philosophers although he's commonly associated with nihilism so then what does existentialism mean then well existentialists believe the world intrinsically has no objective meaning but through a combination of free will awareness and personal responsibility we can create our own subjective meaning according to nietzsche we should interpret existence in a manner that is like promoting or creates our own authentic meaning in life specifically we should work on becoming a greater version of ourselves a higher man as he called it now this higher man is in touch with his deep feelings instincts and drives we all have especially suffering and his life's mission is to make peace with the chaos his work would pave the way for the french existential movement in particular uh laying some of the foundations for the work of the philosopher john paul sartre who is the one to have popularized the term existentialism now the basis of sartre's existentialism is the phrase existence precedes essence meaning no general account of what it means to be human can be given and that meaning can only be decided and constructed through existence itself for example this phone you may be watching this video on already has a meaning or essence it was built for communication and entertainment human beings however create our own meaning and essence through the choices we make while we live our lives at the end of the day no one else is responsible for this meaning but us in fact sartre wrote that we're condemned to be free because of the overwhelming near infinite choices we can make to give our lives meaning now if we choose to live without pursuing freedom and our own meaning then we're doing what he called living in bad faith that faith is the phenomenon of accepting that we are a certain way and subsequently refusing to pursue alternative options he explains this concept through the example of a waiter who's immersed in his job so much that he believes a waiter is what he truly is and that's all he's ever meant to be he lives in bad faith because he rejects his freedom and his responsibility to explore the possibilities life presents him he believes that the choice to do something or not is to do it is ultimately not his even though according to sartre it is thus he does not allow himself to be truly uh to be a truly free human being through embracing freedom and creating authentic meaning we can better our lives and humanity in general the meaning in essence that we create is ontological and we will live on in a way after death just as sartre is living on through his ideas and philosophical works through this video now there's a lot more to the philosophy of existentialism and nihilism but i think this gives you an understanding of the difference between the two while existential nihilism deals with the idea that there's no intrinsic meaning anywhere in the universe existentialism deals with ways to address this uh the goal of the end goal of existentialism being the creation of one's essence and subjective meaning so if you like this video and thought it was helpful please again consider sharing it with others and subscribe for more videos like it using the link in the description so hopefully this video was helpful and i'll see you again in another one soon you

Channel: Thinking Deeply with Ben

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Id: vQMCV5Bk220

Length: 6min 25sec (385 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 19 2020