The Greatest Root of Nihilism

Nihilism, especially moral nihilism, is a conspicuous predicament of the present age. But what is the source of nihilism? In China, we say that from the May Fourth era to the Cultural Revolution, traditional values were comprehensively overthrown; in the West, we say that science shattered the authority of Christianity and plunged us into the predicament of God is dead. Yet these are only concrete manifestations of the problem; they do not strike at its root.

Why are we unable to persuade nihilists? In fact, once the original authoritative value system has been toppled, we might be able to build a society of value pluralism, where different people can believe in their own value systems, while everyone shares the common goal of living a moral life and pursuing common happiness—this society ought to be better than the old one, in which ethics were established by authority. Yet the fact is that today’s society is not a morally plural society, but a morally lost one. More and more people are deeply sunk in the bewilderment of nihilism; it is not that values have become richer, but that values have become absent! Why is this?

Those nihilists question and reject all ethical rules. If they are merely averse to tradition and authority, why are they unwilling to set some moral standards for themselves? Why do so many people say, “I don’t have a view of life”? Don’t they want to make their lives meaningful and their existence orderly?

We can analyze this from many, many angles, but if we do not touch one question, we will never touch the crux—that question is death!

Yesterday, when talking about a view of life, I already mentioned it (see my essay “My View of Life” and its supplement): when discussing a view of life, if you do not mention the word “death,” you are forever scratching an itch through a boot! The problem of nihilism is the same. The greatest cause of nihilism is nothing other than the development of modern science, which has dealt a heavy blow to the various old hopes for a beyond and for the immortality of the soul! This is true in the West, and it is true in China as well—although the Confucian view of life and death does not need to presuppose the immortality of the soul, it takes the continuation of descendants and great peace for all ages as its ultimate pursuit. Although this is a higher spiritual plane than Western religion, modern cosmology has still mercilessly overturned the hope of the perpetual continuation of humankind! Moreover, the Confucian life-ideal was only really influential among intellectuals; in Chinese popular belief there were still many superstitions about ghosts, spirits, and souls, and modern science has smashed all of this to pieces…

The crux of the problem is not democracy overthrowing feudalism, nor science overthrowing religion, but science shattering the hope of immortality!

Since nothing is infinite, since nothing is eternal, then what is there worth pursuing? Eternal truth, eternal continuation, eternal value, eternal purpose—everything of this sort is empty, all of it! Moral preaching always appears feeble before nihilists, not because nihilists stubbornly reject authority, or stubbornly cling to relativism, and so on—these are only excuses! People are always unwilling to admit their fear of death. Nihilists rarely admit that their nihilism stems from a sense of nothingness before death, but that is precisely the most fundamental cause! Moral preaching says: one must think of heaven, one must think of the afterlife, one must think of future generations, one must think of nature, and so on. But not only have heaven and the afterlife been denied by science, future generations and the universe as a whole also do not possess any eternal meaning!—No wonder, then, that before nihilists, such moral preaching seems feeble and powerless. Since there is no eternity, no wonder so many people are willing to become slaves to animality, following the rule of muddling through and seizing pleasure while you can.

So I dare say this: if a moral preacher has not himself yet emerged from the problem of death, then he cannot possibly persuade a nihilist! Any great thinker, if his thought is truly to overcome the predicament of this age, must first solve the problem of the nothingness of death!

In the essay “My View of Life,” I mentioned several choices—these choices are for those who do not wish to fall into nihilism; there are several paths that may allow them to find the meaning of life—letting reason stop short, believing in religion, living in the present, elevating one’s spiritual level, and so on. Yet in the face of a stubborn nihilist, a thoroughgoing skeptic, none of these preachments seems to possess sufficient persuasive force…

Therefore, we must be frank—we do not have the ability to persuade nihilists. What we can do now is preserve and develop those paths that can give reason some temporary peace—for example, preserving and supporting existing religions, inheriting and carrying forward the Chinese traditional view of spiritual attainment, exploring and developing the compatibility between the philosophy of “living in the present” and moral life, emphasizing the priority of the moral law over ends, and so on—so that those people who do not wish for their lives to sink into nihilism can more easily find hope and sustenance!

2005-12-30

Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.