NIETZSCHE AND NIHILISM: THE DENIAL OF OBJECTIVE TRUTH

 Nihilism is basically the same thing as moral relativism and postmodernism. They all deny the objective reality of any moral or spiritual truth. Instead, they are just a matter of what we subjectively choose for ourselves. The German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, said it this way:

• “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”  

However, this statement and all of the statements of postmodernism are logically incoherent; they don’t make any logical sense. How so? Nietzsche had claimed that there was no “correct way.” However, by making this dogmatic statement, he had claimed that there was a correct way – HIS way!

Well, what is his way? His insistence that the correct way “does not exist!” (How does he know this?)

I’m not picking on his wording or phraseology. The incoherence is part of his nihilistic postmodern worldview. He asserts that everything is personal and subjective. However, in order to make this assertion, he must resort to using an objective statement of truth, something he claims that we cannot do.

How do you talk to someone like Nietzsche, and there are many Nietzsches around? I would simply ask him:

• Are you absolutely and objectively certain that a “correct way… does not exist?”

If he answers “yes,” then I would point out that:

• Well, doesn’t your assertion just reflect your OWN thinking?

If, instead, he answers that “no” and that he is merely just expressing the way he feels or sees things, then I would respond:

• If this is just the way you FEEL, well, who cares!