Abstract

There is something rather comical about the nihilist, who makes such a passionate ado about precisely nothing. This is not to deny the tragic consequences, in Russia and elsewhere, of the nihilist’s revolutionary fury. It is only to suggest that, despite what he may say about himself, the nihilist himself is no more animated by “the tragic sense of life” than he is elevated by a sense of humor. Tragedy requires “some error” in an agent and his agency. Such an error presupposes in turn some standard of the human good by virtue of which that error comes to light, but the reality of such a standard is the one thing nihilism cannot allow. It is given to us, but not to the nihilist, to see the tragedy and the comedy of nihilism. One might therefore be inclined to wonder whether nihilism really has anything to do with philosophy, which, if Socrates is to be trusted, requires the self-conscious possession of the tragic and the comic art in equal measure.