Against Nihilism: A Cross-Civilizational Argument for the Reality of Meaning, Value, and Human Purpose

Abstract

This article argues the radical premise of total meaninglessness, demonstrating why comprehensive nihilism is philosophically wrong and logically unsound. Rather than operating as a single, uniform doctrine, nihilism is a collection of different denials rejecting human purpose, right and wrong, objective truth, and the reality of the world. Against these widespread negations, this paper builds a cross-civilizational argument to defend the reality of meaning, value, and purpose. Ultimately, it proves a completely meaningless view of the universe cannot stand up to serious, global philosophical scrutiny. The central thought is that strong nihilism collapses under its own conditions of assertion: it uses reason to deny reason, meaning to deny meaning, and evaluative seriousness to deny value. Through a qualitative comparative method, the article examines Western, Eastern, African, Indigenous, and Latin American philosophical traditions. Across these traditions, one finds not uniform agreement, but a deep convergence: human existence is interpreted through relation, practice, virtue, liberation, responsibility, harmony, transcendence, or consciousness. The article concludes that nihilism is not a final truth about reality but a pathological abstraction from broken relation, suffering, and civilizational disorientation.