The Ontology of Nothingness: A Philosophical Encounter between Nagarjuna’s Emptiness and Nietzsche’s Nihilism
The Ontology of Nothingness: A Philosophical Encounter between Nagarjuna’s Emptiness and Nietzsche’s Nihilism

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the philosophical encounter between Nāgārjuna’s doctrine of emptiness and Friedrich Nietzsche’s diagnosis of nihilism, clarifying both their affinities and their decisive differences. Although both thinkers challenge metaphysical notions of stable foundations, permanent identities, and ultimate substances, their projects unfold within distinct conceptual horizons. In Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka philosophy, śūnyatā does not signify absolute nothingness or the denial of phenomenal reality, but the absence of intrinsic nature, or svabhāva. Emptiness is inseparable from dependent origination and allows for causality, transformation, ethical responsibility, and liberation. By contrast, Nietzschean nihilism designates primarily a historical and axiological crisis: the devaluation of the highest values after the collapse of transcendent foundations such as God, absolute truth, and metaphysical morality. The comparison shows that Nāgārjuna’s emptiness avoids both eternalism and annihilationism, while Nietzsche’s nihilism opens a path from passive resignation toward active transvaluation and life-affirmation. The study argues that their strongest convergence lies in the critique of reification: both expose the human tendency to solidify becoming into fixed concepts. Yet their aims diverge: Madhyamaka seeks liberation from attachment and the cultivation of compassion, whereas Nietzsche seeks the creative overcoming of nihilism through the affirmation of becoming.

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