1.
nihilism
The philosophical position that life, morality, or knowledge has no inherent meaning, value, or foundation. The standard Japanese translation of the European philosophical term.
彼は虚無主義に傾倒している。
He is drawn to nihilism.
ニーチェの思想は虚無主義と深い関係がある。
Nietzsche's thought has a deep connection with nihilism.
戦後の若者の間には虚無主義的な雰囲気が広がっていた。
A nihilistic mood spread among young people in the postwar period.
Compound of 虚無 (emptiness; nothingness) + 主義 (-ism; doctrine). Used both in academic philosophy and as a literary descriptor of a worldview.
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 虚無主義的: nihilistic
- 虚無主義に陥る: to fall into nihilism
- 虚無主義を超える: to overcome nihilism
SIMILAR WORDS:
- ニヒリズム: nihilism — loanword; common in critical and pop-culture writing
- 厭世主義: pessimism — about world-weariness, not absence of meaning
- 懐疑主義: skepticism — doubts knowledge, not value