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Illustration of various forms of nihilism

Nihilism is a family of philosophical views. Existential nihilism asserts that life is inherently meaningless and lacks a higher purpose, suggesting that all individual and societal achievements are ultimately pointless. Moral nihilism denies the objective existence of morality, arguing that moral evaluations and practices rest on misguided assumptions without any foundation in external reality. Epistemological forms of nihilism challenge objective knowledge and truth. Some versions argue that these phenomena are relative to the perspectives of individuals or cultural contexts, while others deny their existence altogether. Cosmological nihilism is the view that reality is unintelligible and indifferent to human understanding. Metaphysical nihilism holds that there is no fundamental reason for why something exists rather than nothing. Nihilism is also described as a broad cultural phenomenon or historical movement that pervades modernity in the Western world. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Altar with Palmyrene inscription

... that the first decipherment of a dead language in modern times was of Palmyrene inscriptions (first published example pictured)?
... that a raja of Kolhapur was knighted at the age of 14?
... that a lunar eclipse is said to have fulfilled a prophecy resulting in the fall of Constantinople?
... that a historian described the publisher T. S. Denison as synonymous with blackface minstrelsy?
... that director Peyton Reed likened the collaboration between the filmmakers of Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the studio system of Golden Age Hollywood?
... that several people returned to Judaism after discovering their Jewish ancestry through the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies?
... that Cathy Cassidy wrote Angel Cake after reading a girl's account of her first days in Britain?
... that the 1980s J-pop song "Aoi Sangoshou" appeared on music charts in Korea 44 years after its release?
... that the Coral Sea Islands were once proclaimed to be an independent nation known as the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands?

In the news

Romuald Wadagni

Separate school shootings in Siverek and in Onikişubat, Turkey, leave 12 people dead and 35 others injured.
Romuald Wadagni (pictured) wins the Beninese presidential election.
In golf, Rory McIlroy wins the Masters Tournament.
The Tisza Party, led by Péter Magyar, wins the Hungarian parliamentary election, ending sixteen years of rule by Viktor Orbán's Fidesz.

On this day

April 22

Two-cent piece

1073 – Gregory VII was elected pope following the death of Alexander II.
1864 – Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized the minting of the two-cent piece (pictured), the first U.S. coin to bear the phrase "In God We Trust".
1951 – Korean War: The Chinese People's Volunteer Army attacked positions occupied mainly by Australian and Canadian forces, starting the Battle of Kapyong.
2004 – Flammable cargo exploded at a railway station in Ryongchon, North Korea, killing at least 54 people and injuring more than a thousand others.
2020 – A truck struck and killed four Victoria Police officers on the Eastern Freeway, Australia, the force's deadliest single incident.

Germaine de Staël (b. 1766)
Emily Davies (b. 1830)
Dan Cloutier (b. 1976)
Adrian Garrett (d. 2021)

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Sheila Dikshit

As of 2026, more than 200 chief ministers of states in India have been members of the Indian National Congress (INC), one of the two major parties in the political system of the Republic of India. According to the Constitution of India, the governor is the de jure head at the state level, but de facto executive authority rests with the chief minister. In the parliamentary system of government, the chief minister is treated as the "first among equals" in the cabinet. Their term is normally limited to five years if they have the assembly's confidence. There are no limits to the number of terms the chief minister can serve. Five INC chief ministers have been women, including Sheila Dikshit (pictured), who was Chief Minister of Delhi from 1998 to 2013. Dikshit is the longest-serving INC chief minister, as well as the longest-serving female chief minister of any party. As of March 2026, the INC is in power in three states: Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana. (Full list...)

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J. Robert Oppenheimer (April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. He is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in overseeing the development of the first nuclear weapons. During the Second Red Scare, Oppenheimer's stances, together with his past associations with the Communist Party USA, led to a security hearing before the United States Atomic Energy Commission and the revocation of his security clearance in 1954. He continued to lecture, write, and work in physics, and in 1963 received the Enrico Fermi Award for contributions to theoretical physics. This portrait photograph of Oppenheimer was taken around 1944, while he was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory. The image is in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Photograph credit: unknown; restored by MyCatIsAChonk

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