Mikhail Bakunin (Founder of Rusian Nihilism)

Nihilism (from the Latin ‘nihil’ meaning ‘nothing’) is the doctrine negating one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life.

The most common existential nihilism argues that life is without any objective, meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.

Moral nihilists assert that morality does not inherently exist, and that any established moral values are abstractly contrived.

Nihilism can also take other forms and state that in some aspects knowledge is not possible, or that some aspects of reality do not exist as such.

The term nihilism is sometimes used in association with anomie, to explain the general mood of despair, at a perceived pointlessness of existence, that one may develop upon realizing there are no necessary norms, rules, or laws.

Movements such as Futurism and deconstruction have been identified as “nihilistic” at various times in various contexts.

Nihilism is also a characteristic that has been ascribed to time periods: post modernity has been branded as a nihilistic epoch by Jean Baudrillard.

Some Christian theologians and figures of religious authority have asserted that post modernity and many aspects of Modernity represent a rejection of Theism. The rejection of their theistic doctrine entails nihilism.