Dogmatism refuses to consider alternative viewpoints, while skepticism doubts commonly held beliefs and demands reasoned arguments. Cynicism questions all rules and norms, believing people are selfish. Nihilism believes all values are worthless and life has no meaning. Skepticism can help consider all views without bias, while cynicism today views people as purely self-interested. Nihilism rejects all religious and moral principles as having no objective truth.

1. Dogmatism, Skepticism,
Cynicism, and Nihilism
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Ethics, CHAPTERS 3 & 8
1

2.  Dogmatism is the
stubborn refusal to
consider challenges to your
own ethical point of view.
 When you are a dogmatist,
you refuse to consider
challenges to your beliefs,
values, and actions.
Are you being dogmatic?
2

3. There’s a difference between
being convinced of
someone’s reasons through
a sound argument and
being manipulated into
accepting their reasons.
3
Know the why for your what!

4. Prove it!
 Skepticism:
 A philosophical stance
 An everyday attitude of
doubting the truth of
commonly held beliefs
4

5. Skepticism…
 A skeptical attitude toward ethical claims would
require the “prove it” mentality…
 It will help you in the three following ways:
1. You will demand a reasoned account of others’ ethical
claims
2. You will consider all points of view
3. You will not be swayed by partial considerations
5

6. Religion and Science, Dogmatists and Skeptics
6
…in VIDEO GAMES!

7. Cynicism (a Greek perspective)
 Historically, Cynicism started as
a philosophical movement in the
4th Century B.C. that lasted until
the Fall of Rome.
 Antisthenes, an associate of
Socrates, is counted the 1st Cynic…
 Rather than a school of
philosophy, Cynicism refers to an
informal group of philosophers with
certain attitudes and unconventional
behaviors…
“Cynicism” > Taken from About.com

8. Cynicism…
 “…the highest good of a human life was to fulfill basic,
natural needs. As such, Cynics rejected the argument
that humans needed to be concerned with social
conventions and conformity.”
 “…the Cynics …questioned everything, whether that
be rules, laws, sciences, "gods", or social norms.”

9. Cynicism…
“I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the
kind, bark at the greedy and bite
scoundrels.”
 Main cynical beliefs: people are generally selfish and dishonest!

10. Cynicism today
 Cynicism: an attitude of doubt directed
against moral beliefs, practices, and
institutions.
 Cynic: a person who believes that
people are motivated purely by self-
interest rather than acting for
honorable or unselfish reasons.

11. Nihilism
 From the Latin root nihil, “nothing”,
“that which does not exist.”
 This same root is found in the verb
“annihilate”: to bring to nothing, to destroy
completely.
 The term “nihilism” was coined by the
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
(1844-1900) to express the rejection of
all religious and moral principles.

12. Nietzsche and Nihilism…
 In Will to Power [notes 1883-1888], Nietzsche
writes,
“Every belief, every considering
something true, is necessarily
false because there is simply
no true world.”
 For Nietzsche, there is no objective order or
structure in the world except what we give it.

13. So…
 Nihilism is the belief which:
 labels all values as worthless
 associates itself with extreme pessimism
and a radical skepticism
 It is often seen as the belief that
life is meaningless.

14. Nihilism…
 The objective of nihilism manifests itself in several
perspectives:
 Epistemological nihilism denies the possibility of knowledge and
truth, and is linked to extreme skepticism.
 Political nihilism advocates the prior destruction of all existing
political, social, and religious orders as a prerequisite for any future
improvement.
 Ethical nihilism (moral nihilism) rejects the possibility of absolute
moral or ethical values. Good and evil are vague, and related values
are simply the result of social and emotional pressures.
 Existential nihilism, the most well-known view, affirms that life has
no intrinsic meaning or value.

18. ADDITIONAL SOURCES:
Apple Dictionary
http://atheism.about.com/library/glossary/general/bldef_cynicis
m.htm
http://atheism.about.com/u/ua/atheismhistory/Favorite-Ancient-
Greek-Philosopher.htm
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/cynicism
http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/nihilism.htm
http://www.cartoonstock.com/