“Radical nihilism is the conviction of an absolute untenability of existence when it comes to the highest values one recognizes.”

Nietzsche gives a definition of nihilism, the problem of which underpins the entire text. He argues that the previous highest values for culture, centered on Christian morality, are no longer tenable. Thus, modern life is confronted with a profound crisis of meaning.

“But among the forces cultivated by morality was truthfulness: this eventually turned against morality.”

Nietzsche offers an explanation as to why Christian morality has become untenable. It encouraged the virtues of honesty and truthfulness which, over time, were directed toward Christian morality itself, resulting in the questioning of God and Christian moral values.

“Morality guarded the underprivileged against nihilism by assigning to each an infinite value, a metaphysical value.”

Nietzsche discusses the type of meaning morality gives to people, especially the underprivileged and oppressed—a sense that one’s life has value as a moral soul in a unified moral order. Thus, our actions and even our thoughts matter in terms of their relation to this structure.