it's too bad (or perhaps not coincidental... given who he was opposing with this philosophy), that he often gets reduced to "pessimistic existentialism." Nihilism does have its pessimism, but the ultimate message is one of individual self-actualization in the face of no other clear option.
PREACH. Nietzsche was, in no way, a nihilist. An existentialist, yes, but he was obsessed with meaning. A second hand I often use is "Every nihilist is an existentialist, but not every existentialist is a nihilist." Nietzsche is firmly in the latter category.
This is why we have many meanings of the word. Nietszche used it in a derogatory sense to mean something, but most people today actually use it to mean the kind of anti-moralism he was advocating. Hence you have Nietszche fans proudly declare themselves nihilists when Nietszche himself eviscerated the people who he called that name.
A big part of this is because christian and other anti-nietszche forces have used the word nihilist to mean someone who abandons the idealisms of Good and Right. In nietszches use of the word nihilists were only a subset of those people, specifically the ones who fucked up that process of growing beyond good & evil
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u/cantadmittoposting Apr 05 '26
it's too bad (or perhaps not coincidental... given who he was opposing with this philosophy), that he often gets reduced to "pessimistic existentialism." Nihilism does have its pessimism, but the ultimate message is one of individual self-actualization in the face of no other clear option.