ABSTRACT
The argument the author defend in this chapter is that nihilism is a necessary condition for ethical life. The study of nihilism is usually considered under the headings of moral nihilism, epistemological nihilism, existential nihilism, and ontological or metaphysical nihilism. In other words, nihilism, understood in this way, as something enabling, can be seen as a force for good. An example of this is provided in the novel, Fathers and Sons, in which Turgenev casts Bazarov as a nihilist who, in order to create a more just and democratic society, was determined to destroy the social and political values which defined bourgeois society in Russia in the nineteenth century. The author examines some of the causes of passive nihilist condition. He presents the chapter under the following headings: altruism; materialism; post humanism; the Anthropocene; and the sacred. There are different ways in which the concept of the sacred can be invoked to give form, and to sustain, a political discourse.
