Can Nihilists Be Happy?

Can a Nihilist be happy? Well, I wish I could offer you an exact answer, but like everything in philosophy, the answer to this question is debatable. With the current state of the debate, I could reasonably say that to be a Happy Nihilist, you would have to be acting irrationally. Given what we know about the role’s purpose and hope play in your personal happiness and nihilism’s rejection of those two concepts. It is unlikely that if you were a true nihilist that you could also be happy.

What is Nihilism?

Nihilism in the most basic and generic form is best characterized by the rejection of meaning in all areas of life and the belief that there is no grounding for values or knowledge. The word nihilism is a conjunction of the Latin word nihil and the English suffix -ism the combination of these two parts literally translates to an ideology of nothing. Nihilism is often accompanied by extreme pessimism, radical skepticism, and the impulse for destruction. Though this is the typical form of nihilism, there are many other degrees of nihilism that people practice.

Types Of Nihilism

1. Metaphysical nihilism 

A belief that that the physical world does not exist. 

2. Epistemological nihilism 

The idea that nothing can be known or proved right. 

3. Mereological nihilism

The belief that there are no complex objects. That only the necessary objects exist, and the whole world is only made complex by human perception. 

4. Existential nihilism

The belief that life has no meaning or value.

5. Moral nihilism

The idea that nothing is inherently right or wrong

How Do You Become A Nihilist?

There are a lot of ways to become a nihilist. Just as all roads lead to Rome, most roads lead to some form of nihilism. There are classical arguments for nihilism, and some are convinced by them. Others have read the books of other Nihilists and have been persuaded by them. While most become nihilistic as a result of personal trauma and depression. There are two concepts and depending on your beliefs about them, you can become a nihilist.

1. Purpose

If you think that there is no meaning at any level in life and existence is a purposeless void of chaos. Then you could be classified as a nihilist. Although, if you think there is meaning or order in life, you may still be a nihilist in some other areas of life. However, this rejection of purpose typically follows from every form of nihilism.

2. Knowledge

If you think that nothing can be known and have succumbed to a form of radical skepticism. You will most likely be a nihilist. If you doubt everything and can know nothing, then nothing is what you will believe in, and that’s what nihilism is. The belief in nothing. However, some doubt so much that they even doubt the nihilism that is ascribed to them. It could be said of them that they are so nihilistic that they are even nihilistic about their nihilism.

Nihilism and Happiness

So can you be a happy nihilist? I think that it if it is not impossible, it is at the very least irrational. Each of the types of nihilism poses a problem for our current understanding of happiness. Happy people believe in something and sometimes anything, but they do not believe in nothing. If nihilism is a belief that nothing has meaning or that nothing can be known or that nothing exists. Then nihilism is not a belief system that is conducive in producing a happy human.