Myth, philosophy, meaning and nihilism

Posted in July 29, 2010 ¬ 9:55 amh.Hamed Movahedipour

Human mind needs order, certainty, explicit explanations and structure to be able to grasp and categorize phenomena of the world and also understand why he exists. The interesting fact is that myth and philosophy fulfill this human need but of course in different ways. Philosophy provides order and stability by illustration of abstract, universal and timeless categories and ideas. Myth also is a response to the same needs not in a conceptual way, but with eternal, universal, impersonal, unchanging and sacred mythic realities, facts and stories. So apparently philosophy and myth has served one need with different approaches. But at a certain point in philosophy history, the machine of order and structure generation stopped and it was by emergence of the phenomenon of Nietzsche. He confronted all philosophical traditions, did dissection on value structures, illustrated dawn of idols and death of god and introduced Nihilism as the process of devaluating of all values and all meanings becoming meaningless. At this point apparently human needs were secondary to seeking the dreadful truth. Nihilism is the excess honesty of mind which doesn’t assimilate and doesn’t buy structured universal values by giving away and suppressing the apprehension of uncertainty and meaninglessness. Myth and philosophy (before Nietzsche) was somehow forming the Promised Land to human to settle, rest, become stable and free of all pains. By demonstration of nihilism in fact a fundamental change is happening, human is migrating from search of a Promised Land and accepts becoming a nomad and tramp. He apprehends the dynamics of meaning and value structures which are destroyed and reconstructed in an endless cycle and in this cycle there is no place to settle.

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