Nihilism

English Meaning

Nothingness; nihility.

1. Philosophy An extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence.
2. Philosophy A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.
3. Rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief.
4. The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement.
5. A diffuse, revolutionary movement of mid 19th-century Russia that scorned authority and tradition and believed in reason, materialism, and radical change in society and government through terrorism and assassination.
6. Psychiatry A delusion, experienced in some mental disorders, that the world or one's mind, body, or self does not exist.