Metaphysical nihilism is a philosophical term that refers to the theory that there are no objects or that objects do not exist. This position has been attributed to philosophers such as Parmenides, Buddha, Advaita Vedantins, and Immanuel Kant (according to some interpretations of his transcendental idealism). Blob theory is also considered very closely aligned with mereological nihilism (the position that there are no parts and wholes). Obviously if metaphysical nihilism, in this sense, is correct, empirical reality is an illusion.
Among philosophers today, the term is more commonly used to refer to the doctrine that there might have been no objects at all, i.e. that there is a possible world in which there are no objects at all. Or, even more commonly, it is used to refer to the weaker doctrine that there might have been no concrete objects at all, so even if every possible world contains some objects, there is at least one that contains only abstract objects.
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Metaphysical Nihilism is a concept that can be applied to modernism as it relates to the abstraction of known forms that have been manifested in all the Arts. In this application it can be understood as the reduction of all associated and applied meaning to an object or form. The matter and form of the matter itself can exist out side of any sign or signifier that traditionally created its meaning, in a void of human knowledge. In this manner it exist with out reference to any other realities of knowledge. It simply exist as a collection in and of itself.
To understand this we must realize that one’s perception of all elements and forms in one’s life are based on associations and relationships with other forms, objects and experiences. In Metaphysical Nihilism this knowledge is completely removed. In the field of Art the term used relative to abstraction can be understood (remotely) as a single image, world, object, form or some matter existing in a space. It exist entirely on its own with no relationships to anything. It is vacuous to any knowledge.
In a perceived example one can attempt to imagine water (h2o) existing without any other material or knowledge of such materials. It is simply an abstract form with its own properties in space. Its meaning is not relative, there are no comparisons nothing else exist as a reference. The matter, its form and its properties is all that exist, the possession of these qualities, resides only on the knowledge of this single element. Its qualities, meanings and significance have no reference outside of themselves, those that essentially attribute to its structure and form and their result from it. It relies only on its existence relative to itself. It can not be understood in relationship to anything else.
(In reality for human perception this is impossible. As an exercise in modern art it has been used to essentially perceive a form or matter relative to its own qualities out side of developed references, social, individual and cultural constraints. In a manner to try and understand forms and matters as they exist on their own.)
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