Nihilism and the Fear of Death
Philosophy ·To live is to suffer, and to survive is to find a meaning in the suffering - Friedrich Nietzsche.
What is nihilism and do nihilists fear death? This post is aimed to argue that a true nihilist does not fear death in metaphysical sense and any fear that arises is grounded on the usual physical pain that often accompanies the process of death. In other words, a true nihilist would willfully accept an assisted suicide.
The idiom “the highest values devaluate themselves” explains the idea of nihlism as expounded by Nietzsche. What does it mean for life to have meaning? It depends on your opinion about death. Do you believe that there is life (perhaps a non-physical existence) after death? If you believe otherwise, that there is no life after death, then you can appreciate the deep sense of distress in Nietzsche’s mind when he says that “the highest values devaluate themselves”. I will argue assuming that there is no life after death (although I don’t myself stand with the idea that a mere belief in some logical arguments can be basis of the conclusions of some of the deepest questions, like this one, which has baffled mankind for centuries. I think one should find his own ways to “know” truths rather than “infer” them based on certain unfalsifiable logics limited to our perception of the external and internal world. I will be more explicit about my views in some other post). If there is no life whatsoever after death, then death is it. You cease to exist after death. It is like one dreamless deep sleep where you feel neither pain nor pleasure, neither gain not loss, neither desires nor accomplishments. Whatever happens while you are alive does not matter the moment you die. There is no “you” to experience anything. What does value and meaning have to do with our lives in that case? Why to value anything at all if nothing matters after you die? And how to decide which values are “higher” and which are “lower”. Afterall what are values, values are norms, principles, and rules that determine the order of our lives in all arenas, the experiential order, as well as the material or physical order, as well as the moral order. Values help us find meaning in life. For instance, one may think that we should help the poors and eradicating poverty “becomes” the meaning of his life. Nietzsche asserts that these values that order our lives are themselves ordered so that we can talk of highest values - values to which all values are subordinated. The highest values devaluate themselves when they no longer serve the purpose of ordering the world, when they cease to impose obligations upon us in any way whatsoever. Nihilism is the claim and conviction and the resulting dispair, that the highest values have no objective backing meaning that one cannot find values in nature and has to constructed out of subjective experiences. For example, it is not a law of nature that helping others is moral. Moral codes, ethics are, but a human construct contingent to the human mind. Thus the highest values no more impose obligations upon us and hence they devaluate themselves. The result is devastating. A nihilist believes in “nothing”. There is no inherent meaning in life - a thing many people need to survive. No rules to follow, no goals to achieve, no responsibilities, no obligations to anybody, no “life” to “live”. Why is life a suffering then? A total lack of order and meaning is inherently a suffering. We littrally keep screaming for answers in an answerless world. This is absurd and hence life is suffering for a nihilist. How should a nihilist then go about living a life full of pain and distress? The natural course of action that a nihilst would purport is suicide (I am not supporting it but just pointing out the viewpoint of a staunch nihilist). This is sometimes called passive nihilism. Now one can understand the distress in Nietzsche’s quote. What is more important is the fact that philosophers tried to reconcile their lives with their understanding of nihilism. Nietzsche who is known to be the strongest proponent of nihilism went mad toward the end of his life with his realisation. But others struggled to find “a meaning in suffering”. Philosophers like Sartre, Camus and many others came up with what is known as Existentialism which results in existential nihilism (a different topic altogether for discussion).
Why do we fear death? This question is not in ordinary sense of fear which one can triumph over. This is an existential question. It is so common that there is a word for death anxiety - thanatophobia. The most common fear arises out of the ordinary fear of physical pain often accompanied by, in the process of dying. The most powerful fears is the existential one. The fear of not existing, the distress of the inability to avoid one’s own eminent death. The fear of losing one’s personal identity - the fear of “ego death or ego dissolution”. The mere thought of complete annihilation into oblivion tends to evoke anxiety and depression. There is a deep connection of this anxiety rooted in what we think about life. People often have ambitions for life which they persevere for. People are so busy in “living” that they often ignore their mortality and when they face it head-on they fail to come to terms with life. This is one of the main sources of the anxiety. Ernest Becker, in his book “ the denial of death”, argues that everything that we do, careers we choose, raise children, work for betterment of the society, is to “deny” our own death - repression. We repress the fear of death by living a so called “meaningful” life so that we can act normal and overcome the anxiety associated with our own annihilation. To appreciate this fact try thinking about the process of your own dying (I hope you live a long heathy life) - you are lying on your deathbed probably in pain and surrounded by your loved ones (I hope so). You remember the things you could not accomplish in life and the way things will be when you are gone. Isn’t is depressing. Phew! You don’t have to imagine this for yourself. Instead watch this short video below, of a philospher’s death at the age of $97$. He had written books on death and argued why one should not fear death for his whole life. Now that he is facing his own eminent death, see how he reacts.
Is death really so depressing? It is not more powerful than the power of arguing of a philospher. Plato in his dialogue Pheado comes up with many arguments as to why one should not fear his/her death. Althought the argument assumes the existence of souls (which itself is a debatable question - the physicalist verses the dualist), something not everyone can buy. Plato’s arguments prove that souls are immortal and hence there is nothing to fear (existential) death as the soul will be free of the body and hence capable of “doing” more things without taking a break! Many won’t like to exist without body. The question remains. The fear of death is inevitable for people searching meaning in life because at some point they will be vanquished by the total annihilation and will not be able to live by their expectations of life. A mere thought of this fact will lead to immense fear and suffering.
A nihilist on the other hand believes in nothing. He finds no meaning in life and his life is suffering. As Kierkagaard put it in his quote -
The whole order of things fills me with a sense of anguish, from the gnat to the mysteries of incarnation; all is entirely unintelligible to me, and particularly my own person. Great is my sorrow, without limits. None knows it, except God in Heaven, and He cannot have pity.
A true nihilist therefore finds no point in living and he lives only because its physically painful to die, once his existential suffering overcomes the threshold of physical pains, he is gone into the oblivion as if he never existed. A nihilist would willfully agree to go to the deep slumber of death if given to him without pain. There are loopholes in nihilstic thoughts based on semantics and the limits of knowledge. How can one “know” that there is no afterlife? Knowing in the sense of direct knowledge and not by some logical inference. Questions like these fall in the field of ontology - another subject of discussion. A true nihilist has a convinction in the ultimate meaninglessness of life nonetheless and hence the dispair in life.