If embarking on a second year of shutdowns, social restrictions, constant health risks, and existential dread has eroded your sense of life's ult

Good news for nihilists? Life is meaningless after all, say philosophers

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2021-05-25 10:30:08

If embarking on a second year of shutdowns, social restrictions, constant health risks, and existential dread has eroded your sense of life's ultimate meaning and purpose, a new report by philosophers in Britain and Australia may offer a double whammy of encouragement.

"In fact, there are good things that might come out of it," said Tracy Llanera, assistant research professor of philosophy at Notre Dame University in Sydney, Australia. "I think that shift in perspective will just open a lot more philosophical and practical possibilities for people."

Llanera co-authored the 70-page study, entitled A Defence of Nihilism, with the British philosopher James Tartaglia, a professor at Keele University. His earlier books include Philosophy in a Meaningless Life.

Nihilist viewpoints begin with a refusal to believe that human life draws meaning from a greater context, such as the will or purpose of a divine being, or another external force such as fate or moral goodness, or any measure of the worth and quality of human life. In some interpretations, a purely nihilistic outlook disdains any attempt to attribute value or meaning to anything at all.