Jovian Press

Doubt in morality is the decisive factor. The downfall of the moral interpretation of the universe, which loses its raison d’être once it has tried to take flight to a Beyond, meets its end in Nihilism. “Nothing has any purpose” (the inconsistency of one explanation of the world, to which men have devoted untold energy—gives rise to the suspicion that all explanations may perhaps be false). The Buddhistic feature: a yearning for nonentity (Indian Buddhism has no fundamentally moral development at the back of it; that is why Nihilism in its case means only morality not overcome; existence is regarded as a punishment and conceived as an error; error is thus held to be punishment—a moral valuation). Philosophical attempts to overcome the “moral God” (Hegel, Pantheism). The vanquishing of popular ideals: the wizard, the saint, the bard. Antagonism of “true” and “beautiful” and “good.”

The Nihilistic consequences of the political and politico-economical way of thinking, where all principles at length become tainted with the atmosphere of the platform: the breath of mediocrity, insignificance, dishonesty, etc. Nationalism. Anarchy, etc. Punishment. Everywhere the deliverer is missing, either as a class or as a single man—the justifier.

What has actually happened? The feeling of worthlessness was realised when it was understood that neither the notion of “Purpose,” nor that of “Unity,” nor that of “Truth,” could be made to interpret the general character of existence. Nothing is achieved or obtained thereby; the unity which intervenes in the multiplicity of events is entirely lacking: the character of existence is not “true,” it is false; there is certainly no longer any reason to believe in a real world. In short, the categories, “Purpose,” “Unity,” “Being,” by means of which we had lent some worth to life, we have once more divorced from it—and the world now appears worthless to us. . . .