What Do We Mean by "Nihilism?"

When reading Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons I was struck by the discussion of Eugene Barazov's "nihilism" by himself and his friend Arkady Kirsanov with Kirsanov's father Nikolai and uncle Pavel. Nikolai, never having heard the term before but having enough Classical education to recognize the Latin root "nihil," "presume[s]" that it means "a man who declines to accept anything."* Arkady, however, corrects him by saying that he "treats things . . . from the critical point of view"; that a nihilist "declines to bow to authority, or to accept any principle on trust."

There is a world of difference between the two concepts--the "acceptance" of or believing in nothing, and the refusal to accept simply on the basis of authority rather than form one's own judgments, a position that has been a foundation for a socially critical perspective, which is, after all, what Barazov espouses. (As Barazov himself says, the nihilists condemn the corruption, oppression and superstition they saw as both unjust and holding back societal progress--a socially critical, materialist, position, but not nihilistic in the sense of "believing in nothing.")

Still, few understand the distinction, and of those who do understand it those who set great store by authority while taking a dim view of individual reason and judgment it is common to see the second tendency leading to the first, the rejection of authority in favor of individual discernment ultimately leading to a belief in nothing (whether rightly or wrongly). And unsurprisingly given the predominance of that conservative viewpoint it is that view of nihilism as a denial of all values that has prevailed.

Still, how often does one encounter people who really "believe in nothing," when push comes to shove? It seems to me that those who talk as if they do so are generally doing one of two things, or both of them:

1. Engaging in pseudo-macho, "Look what a tough guy I am!" posturing, like we get from the characters in Shintaro Ishihara's scribblings.

2. Showing themselves to be selfish to the point of idiotic, clueless, unhingedness. They treat everyone and everything as of no meaning--except themselves. When it comes to their personal interests, well-being, standing, comfort, they are never nihilists, instead believing in that totally and deeply.

Both the posturing and the selfishness deserve only contempt.

* I quote the Hogarth translation of the classic.