英文“Nihilism”这个词最早来源于拉丁语中的“nihil”,意为“什么都没有”。牛津英语字典认为它于1817年进入英语词汇,而Alain Ray的Dictionnaire historique de la langue française(1995年修订版)认为它在1787年进入法语词汇,nihiliste最早于1761年使用;不过那时,指宗教意义上的异教徒。Ray同时认为1829年出现在俄语中的nigilizm,是由于这个词对于现代语言的浸透。
Deleuze, Gilles. Nietzsche and Philosophy. 由Tomlinson, Hugh翻译. London: The Athlone Press. 19621983. ISBN 978-0-231-13877-2. Nietzsche calls the enterprise of denying life and depreciating existence nihilism.
Pratt, Alan. Nihilism. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (原始内容存档于2010-04-12). Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence.
Nihilism. Encyclopædia Britannica. [2021-12-17]. (原始内容存档于2021-11-25). In the 20th century, nihilism encompassed a variety of philosophical and aesthetic stances that, in one sense or another, denied the existence of genuine moral truths or values, rejected the possibility of knowledge or communication, and asserted the ultimate meaninglessness or purposelessness of life or of the universe.
see: Rose, Gillian. 1984. Dialectic of Nihilism; Carr, Karen L. 1988. The Banalization of Nihilism; Pope John-Paul II. 1995. Evangelium vitae: Il valore e l'inviolabilita delta vita umana. Milan: Paoline Editoriale Libri."
Phillips, Robert. Deconstructing the Mass. Latin Mass Magazine. 1999, (Winter). (原始内容存档于2004-04-17). For deconstructionists, not only is there no truth to know, there is no self to know it and so there is no soul to save or lose." and "In following the Enlightenment to its logical end, deconstruction reaches nihilism. The meaning of human life is reduced to whatever happens to interest us at the moment...
Pratt, Alan. "Existential Nihilism | Nihilism (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆)." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 存档副本. [2005-08-11]. (原始内容存档于2010-04-12).: Existential nihilism is "the notion that life has no intrinsic meaning or value, and it is, no doubt, the most commonly used and understood sense of the word today."
Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi [1](页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆). entry by George di Giovanni on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy website