Nihilism, Absurdism and Solipsism Explained: Where Each Word Comes From and What It Means

Start here"Nothing matters." "Life is absurd." "Maybe I am the only one who is real." Each line borrows an idea from philosophy, and each idea has a history worth knowing.

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Nihilism, absurdism and solipsism are three words that come up whenever people talk about meaning, and they are easy to mix up. In plain words, nihilism says that something we count on, such as meaning, morals or knowledge, has no real basis. Absurdism is Albert Camus’s answer to the clash between our search for meaning and a world that gives no reply: live with it, do not escape it. Solipsism is the idea that only my own mind can be known to exist, and it is studied far more as a problem than held as a belief.

Below are 12 short cards in three groups. Each says where the word comes from, what it says, what the sources found, and something to try.

01Nihilism: the idea that something has no real basis

Nihilism is a family of ideas, not one creed, and its best-known thinker treated it as a crisis to get through.

1. Where the word “nihilism” comes from

The word is built from the Latin nihil, “nothing”, and a Russian novel made it famous.

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy traces “nihilism” to the Latin nihil, or nothing. In German, the philosopher Friedrich Jacobi used it in an open letter to Fichte, written in March 1799. In the printed letter he speaks of “idealism, which I brand as nihilism” (our translation). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy credits Jacobi with forging the word’s philosophical meaning, as distinct from an older religious sense.

The word became widely known through Ivan Turgenev’s novel Fathers and Sons (1862). In Constance Garnett’s translation, the young Arkady says that a nihilist is “a man who does not bow down before any authority”. Merriam-Webster dates the word’s first known use in English to 1812, in the sense “a doctrine that no reality exists”.

For example, the same Latin root sits inside “annihilate”, to bring to nothing.

Try this: Next time you hear someone called a nihilist, ask what they are supposed to have no faith in. In the novel, it was authority.

How sure: Strong the dates come from the letter itself, the novel and standard reference works.

2. The four kinds of nihilism

“Nihilism” can be about meaning, morals, knowledge or politics, and these are different claims.

The encyclopedia lists several kinds. Existential nihilism is the notion that life has no intrinsic meaning or value, and it is the most common sense today. Moral nihilism rejects the possibility of absolute moral values. Epistemological nihilism denies that knowledge and truth are possible. Political nihilism holds that destroying the existing order must come before any improvement.

Asking “nihilism about what?” clears up a lot of confusion.

For example, “life has no built-in purpose” and “nothing is morally wrong” are two separate claims. Someone can think about one without signing up to the other.

Try this: When an argument turns to “it’s all meaningless”, ask which of the four kinds is meant.

How sure: Strong these distinctions come from a standard reference work.

3. Moral nihilism: “nothing is morally wrong”

A few philosophers argue seriously that moral claims are never true, and the debate is still open.

The Stanford Encyclopedia sums up moral nihilism in four words: “Nothing is morally wrong”. It notes that smart and knowledgeable people take it seriously and argue for it, citing John Mackie (1977) and Richard Joyce (2001).

Mackie coined the term “error theory” in 1977. An error theorist thinks moral judgments aim at the truth but systematically fail to reach it, because the world contains nothing to make them true. The encyclopedia compares this to how an atheist sees claims about God.

What comes next is argued over. Some error theorists want to treat moral talk like a fiction, and others would mostly drop it. Even the second group presumably allows moral language in plays and jokes.

For example, on this view “stealing is wrong” works like a sincere claim about something the speaker thinks is there, when the error theorist thinks it is not.

Try this: Pick one moral rule you hold and ask what would make it true. It is a good way to see why this debate has lasted.

How sure: Unsettled the encyclopedia notes that most people do not take moral nihilism seriously in ordinary discussions, yet philosophers still argue for it.

4. Nietzsche: nihilism as a crisis to get through

Nietzsche is the name most tied to nihilism, but he described it as a crisis to overcome, not a goal.

The Internet Encyclopedia notes that few philosophers would claim to be nihilists, and that nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche. The Stanford Encyclopedia says the main problem his late work addresses is the crisis of nihilism, in which “the highest values de-value themselves”.

A note printed as section 2 of The Will to Power puts it this way, in Anthony Ludovici’s translation: “What does Nihilism mean?—That the highest values are losing their value.” That book is a selection from his notebooks, put together by his sister Elisabeth, who took control of his writings during his illness.

He believed we could, at a terrible price, eventually work through nihilism. For Nietzsche, saying yes to life is the way out of nihilism. The Stanford Encyclopedia frames his affirmation of life as the rejection of nihilism. For his line “God is dead” and the passage around it, see our page on Nietzsche’s quotes.

For example, he expected the loss of old beliefs to bring the greatest crisis in human history. On a small scale, a person can feel lost for a while after leaving a faith that shaped their life.

Try this: Name one value you hold that does not depend on anyone else agreeing with it.

How sure: Strong both encyclopedias describe his nihilism as a crisis he hoped could be worked through.

02Absurdism: Camus and the clash between us and the world

For Camus, the absurd is not in us or in the world but in the meeting of the two, and his answer is to keep living with eyes open.

5. Where “the absurd” comes from

The everyday word goes back to Latin, and the philosophical sense comes mainly from Albert Camus in the 1940s.

Merriam-Webster traces “absurd” to the Latin absurdus, “out of tune”, from surdus, “deaf” or “muffled”. Camus’s essay The Myth of Sisyphus was finished in February 1941 and published by Gallimard in October 1942, according to the Société des Études camusiennes. Merriam-Webster dates the English word “absurdism” to 1946.

Before Camus, Kierkegaard had described a “knight of faith” whose trust looks “absurd” to an outsider. Camus used the word differently, as card 8 shows.

For example, a note that does not fit its tune is “absurd” in the old Latin sense: it does not answer to what is around it.

Try this: Next time you call something “absurd”, ask whether you mean silly, or a clash between what you want and what you get.

How sure: Strong the dates come from Camus scholars and a major dictionary.

6. What the absurd means for Camus

The absurd is the clash between our wish for meaning and a world that gives no answer.

The Internet Encyclopedia describes it as a collision between our desire for order, meaning and purpose and the “silence of the universe”. In Camus’s words, as the encyclopedia quotes him: “The absurd is not in man nor in the world, but in their presence together”. The Stanford Encyclopedia quotes his “wild longing for clarity” against the “unreasonable silence of the world”.

The Internet Encyclopedia adds that, in Camus’s terms, it means more than a vague sense that modern life is full of paradoxes. The absurd lives in the gap between the question and the silence.

For example, after a loss you may ask “why did this happen?” and get no reply. The absurd is in that gap.

Try this: Notice the next “why” question you ask that the world cannot answer. Camus’s essay is about that gap.

How sure: Strong this is how both encyclopedias read the essay.

7. Camus’s three responses

Camus weighs three ways of answering the absurd and accepts only one.

In Camus’s view there are three possible responses to this situation, the Internet Encyclopedia explains. The first is ending one’s life. The encyclopedia states his answer plainly: “In the end, Camus rejects suicide.”

The second is a leap to religion or another world beyond this one, which Camus calls “philosophical suicide” and rejects as an escape. The third, which he accepts, is to live without escape and with integrity, in “revolt” and defiance. Camus’s answer is to keep living with eyes open.

For example, his own image is Sisyphus, condemned to push a rock uphill forever. The essay ends with him, in the English translation quoted in the Stanford Encyclopedia: “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy”.

Try this: Next time a task feels pointless, notice whether you are waiting for it to mean something, or choosing to do it well anyway.

How sure: Strong the essay sets out the three responses, and both encyclopedias describe the same three options.

8. Absurdism is not nihilism, and Camus was not an existentialist

Camus starts from a world without given meaning but refuses despair, and he turned down the “existentialist” label.

Writing about an early essay, “Between Yes and No”, the Internet Encyclopedia says he “goes beyond nihilism by positing a fundamental value to existence-in-the-world”. In his later book The Rebel, he wrote that the rebel acts for a “common good more important than his own destiny”.

Sartre “accepted the ‘existentialist’ label that Camus rejected”, the Stanford Encyclopedia notes, and the Internet Encyclopedia says “throughout his career Camus repeatedly denied that he was an existentialist”. The Myth of Sisyphus was written against existentialists such as Shestov, Kierkegaard, Jaspers and Heidegger. Kierkegaard senses the absurd, Camus argues, but seeks to be cured of it by turning to God. Our page on existentialism goes further.

For example, a nihilist might say “nothing matters, so why bother”. In our own words, Camus’s reply is closer to this: nothing is handed to us, so we keep going, together.

Try this: When you feel “nothing matters”, ask what you would still defend for someone else. In The Rebel, Camus’s rebel acts for a common good.

How sure: Strong his denials and his rejection of despair are recorded by both encyclopedias.

03Solipsism: “only my mind is sure”

Solipsism says only my own mind can be known to exist, and almost nobody holds it; philosophers study it because it is hard to rule out.

9. Where the word “solipsism” comes from

The word joins the Latin solus, “alone”, and ipse, “self”.

Merriam-Webster gives its roots as Latin solus, alone, plus ipse, self, and dates its first known use to 1836. The same dictionary records a second, everyday sense: extreme egocentrism.

The everyday sense and the philosophical one are different things. In everyday use, calling someone “solipsistic” can mean they are self-absorbed. The philosophical claim is about what can be known to exist.

For example, a friend who only ever talks about themselves is solipsistic in the everyday sense. They still believe you exist.

Try this: When you meet the word, check which sense the writer means before you argue with it.

How sure: Strong the roots, date and two senses come from a major dictionary.

10. What solipsism says

Solipsism is less “I happen to be alone” and more “I cannot make sense of any mind but mine”.

The Internet Encyclopedia notes that solipsism is sometimes put as “I am the only mind which exists”. But the sole survivor of a nuclear disaster could believe that without being a solipsist. The true solipsist, it says, cannot attach any meaning to experiences other than his own: “pain” means “my pain”.

Merriam-Webster’s definition is “a theory holding that the self can know nothing but its own modifications and that the self is the only existent thing”. Solipsism is a claim about what I can know, not a feeling of loneliness.

For example, a dream can feel full of people. One way to picture the worry: waking life might be like that, with no way to check from the inside.

Try this: Try to prove, to yourself alone, that a friend feels pain. Noticing how hard it is shows why the idea has lasted.

How sure: Strong the definitions come from a standard reference work and a major dictionary.

11. Who held it: almost nobody

No major philosopher has defended solipsism, but it has proved hard to rule out.

The Internet Encyclopedia states that no great philosopher has espoused solipsism, and that it is clearly very far removed from common sense. It traces the problem to René Descartes, whose method of doubt left a lone thinking mind sure only of itself. Descartes got past it by appealing to a God who does not deceive us.

The Stanford Encyclopedia notes that the threat of solipsism largely preoccupied philosophers, at least until more recently. For Descartes’s deceiving demon and the brain in a vat, see our page on thought experiments.

For example, the question “what if this is all a simulation?” raises a similar kind of doubt to the one Descartes worked through.

Try this: Next time the simulation question comes up, ask what evidence could ever count against it. It is a version of the knot Descartes faced.

How sure: Strong both encyclopedias say solipsism is studied as a problem, not held as a view.

12. The problem of other minds, and an old answer

How do I know other people have minds? This is the problem of other minds, and one old answer reasons from my own case.

The Stanford Encyclopedia frames it as a question: how do I know that other beings have thoughts and feelings? One standard answer is the argument from analogy, as stated by J.S. Mill. Others, he wrote, “have bodies like me” and “exhibit the acts, and outward signs” that in my own case come from feelings.

The argument was later criticised: its conclusion can never be checked, and it reasons from a single case. Other replies appeal to the best explanation of what we see, and more recently to testimony.

For example, when a friend winces after stubbing a toe, you take the wince as a sign of pain, because yours works that way.

Try this: In your next conversation, notice how much you read from faces and tone. That everyday reading is the thing philosophers try to justify.

How sure: Unsettled no answer has won everyone over, and attempts to repair the argument from analogy continue.

04Where to learn more

• What we do with our days if meaning is not handed to us: our page on Stoicism.
• An ancient answer to the fear of death and the search for a good life: our page on Epicurus.
• Kierkegaard, Sartre and Camus in more depth: our page on existentialism.
• What Nietzsche wrote, line by line: our page on Nietzsche’s quotes.
• Descartes’s demon, the brain in a vat and other puzzles: our page on thought experiments.
• For depth on any card, the encyclopedia entries listed below are free to read.

05Quick answers

06Use this

07Quick quiz

How we checked this · Last checked November 2026

• We read the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entries on each idea, the 1799 printing of Jacobi's letter, Turgenev's novel in Constance Garnett's translation, Ludovici's translation of The Will to Power, the Société des Études camusiennes page on The Myth of Sisyphus, and four Merriam-Webster entries.
• The translation of Jacobi's German is our own. The Camus lines are the English wording quoted in the encyclopedias, which do not always name the translator.
• Descartes's demon, the brain in a vat and Nietzsche's "God is dead" have their own pages, so they are only linked here.

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