Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
What if nihilism is not just something to reject, but something you have to grieve deeply enough to see through?
In Part 2 of this Lectern conversation, John Vervaeke joins Ethan Hsieh to continue exploring *Notes on No-Thing*, a course on the Kyoto School of Philosophy and its response to nihilism, nothingness, and the recovery of the sacred.
John and Ethan return to the role-play from Part 1 and reflect on what happened inside the encounter with everyday nihilism. John explains the Socratic process of meeting someone where they are, opening a little space, and helping them see that their immediate affect may not be a reliable guide for how to govern their life. Rather than attacking nihilism directly, he shows how the person can be nudged toward recognizing the limits of their current standpoint.
The conversation then turns to Keiji Nishitani and the idea that nihilism can become a kind of exhausted intellectual laziness when it refuses to consider that there may be more to reality than its own affective certainty. John distinguishes between affective nihilism, conceptual nihilism, and forms of nihilism bound up with deconstruction, especially when someone is reacting against an oppressive religious background.
John suggests that the Kyoto School is uniquely helpful because it approaches the crisis from “outside” the familiar Western religious framework. Through Zen, Chan, Buddhism, and no-thingness, the Kyoto School can help a person see that what appears to be a hole may actually become an aperture: a new way of seeing into the depths of reality.
Using the analogy of grief, John argues that if we try to fill the hole with substitutes—distraction, gratification, substances, or self-enclosure—we can deepen our suffering. But if nihilism is grieved deeply enough, it can become an eye through which we see reality more fully.
John and Ethan also explore the dangerous vacillation between nihilism and narcissism: the movement between “nothing matters” and “only my affect, agency, or authentic self matters.” They discuss the problem of cultural authenticity, Heidegger, Sartre, Nishida, William Desmond, Dostoevsky’s *Notes from Underground*, Chekhov’s *The Seagull*, and Conrad’s *Heart of Darkness* as literary and philosophical windows into the breakdown of shared meaning.
The episode closes by widening the frame historically. John explains why Japan and the Kyoto School became such a powerful dialogical partner for confronting nihilism: shaped by Japanese Buddhism, Western philosophy, militarism, defeat in World War II, and the collapse of inherited religious and cultural structures. For John, Nishida, Tanabe, and Nishitani offer a way to see through and break through the shared crisis of nihilism and narcissism.
This is Part 2 of 3 from the full Lectern conversation on *Notes on No-Thing* and the Kyoto School’s response to nihilism.
*Notes on No-Thing* is an introduction to the Kyoto School of Philosophy. The course runs Sept 14th to Nov 9th. No class on Oct 26th.
Resume this episode here:
youtu.be/lPWDQ4HA-uM?si=DFwSz8eigVZrdPPL&t=2694
Learn more and register:
lectern.johnvervaeke.com/courses/notes-on-no-thing
Explore more from The Lectern:
lectern.johnvervaeke.com
John Vervaeke:
johnvervaeke.com
youtube.com/@johnvervaeke
patreon.com/johnvervaeke
Chapters
00:00 Nihilism as an Aperture
01:00 The Socratic Process
02:20 Nihilism and Intellectual Laziness
03:00 Affective vs. Conceptual Nihilism
04:10 Escaping Oppressive Frameworks
06:20 Kyoto School from the Outside
07:30 The Hole Becomes an Aperture
08:20 Grief, Substitutes, and Suffering
09:40 Seeing Through Nihilism
10:30 Narcissism and Nihilism
12:20 The Trap of the “True Self”
13:40 Meaning Must Be Shareable
15:00 Dostoevsky’s Underground Man
16:50 Self-Overcoming Nihilism
17:40 Literature and Performative Contradiction
19:00 Careening Between Nihilism and Narcissism
20:00 Culture, History, and the Kyoto School
21:20 Japan, the West, and Modern Nihilism
22:20 World War II and Religious Disillusionment
24:00 Nishida, Tanabe, and Nishitani
25:10 The Kyoto School as Dialogical Partner
Explore courses and teachings from The Lectern:
lectern.johnvervaeke.com
Support The Lectern and join a growing community of wisdom seekers:
patreon.com/johnvervaeke
What if nihilism is not just something to reject, but something you have to grieve deeply enough to see through?
In Part 2 of this Lectern conversation, John Vervaeke joins Ethan Hsieh to continue exploring *Notes on No-Thing*, a course on the Kyoto School of Philosophy and its response to nihilism, nothingness, and the recovery of the sacred.
John and Ethan return to the role-play from Part 1 and reflect on what happened inside the encounter with everyday nihilism. John explains the Socratic process of meeting someone where they are, opening a little space, and helping them see that their immediate affect may not be a reliable guide for how to govern their life. Rather than attacking nihilism directly, he shows how the person can be nudged toward recognizing the limits of their current standpoint.
The conversation then turns to Keiji Nishitani and the idea that nihilism can become a kind of exhausted intellectual laziness when it refuses to consider that there may be more to reality than its own affective certainty. John distinguishes between affective nihilism, conceptual nihilism, and forms of nihilism bound up with deconstruction, especially when someone is reacting against an oppressive religious background.
John suggests that the Kyoto School is uniquely helpful because it approaches the crisis from “outside” the familiar Western religious framework. Through Zen, Chan, Buddhism, and no-thingness, the Kyoto School can help a person see that what appears to be a hole may actually become an aperture: a new way of seeing into the depths of reality.
Using the analogy of grief, John argues that if we try to fill the hole with substitutes—distraction, gratification, substances, or self-enclosure—we can deepen our suffering. But if nihilism is grieved deeply enough, it can become an eye through which we see reality more fully.
John and Ethan also explore the dangerous vacillation between nihilism and narcissism: the movement between “nothing matters” and “only my affect, agency, or authentic self matters.” They discuss the problem of cultural authenticity, Heidegger, Sartre, Nishida, William Desmond, Dostoevsky’s *Notes from Underground*, Chekhov’s *The Seagull*, and Conrad’s *Heart of Darkness* as literary and philosophical windows into the breakdown of shared meaning.
The episode closes by widening the frame historically. John explains why Japan and the Kyoto School became such a powerful dialogical partner for confronting nihilism: shaped by Japanese Buddhism, Western philosophy, militarism, defeat in World War II, and the collapse of inherited religious and cultural structures. For John, Nishida, Tanabe, and Nishitani offer a way to see through and break through the shared crisis of nihilism and narcissism.
This is Part 2 of 3 from the full Lectern conversation on *Notes on No-Thing* and the Kyoto School’s response to nihilism.
*Notes on No-Thing* is an introduction to the Kyoto School of Philosophy. The course runs Sept 14th to Nov 9th. No class on Oct 26th.
Resume this episode here:
youtu.be/lPWDQ4HA-uM?si=DFwSz8eigVZrdPPL&t=2694
Learn more and register:
lectern.johnvervaeke.com/courses/notes-on-no-thing
Explore more from The Lectern:
lectern.johnvervaeke.com
John Vervaeke:
johnvervaeke.com
youtube.com/@johnvervaeke
patreon.com/johnvervaeke
Chapters
00:00 Nihilism as an Aperture
01:00 The Socratic Process
02:20 Nihilism and Intellectual Laziness
03:00 Affective vs. Conceptual Nihilism
04:10 Escaping Oppressive Frameworks
06:20 Kyoto School from the Outside
07:30 The Hole Becomes an Aperture
08:20 Grief, Substitutes, and Suffering
09:40 Seeing Through Nihilism
10:30 Narcissism and Nihilism
12:20 The Trap of the “True Self”
13:40 Meaning Must Be Shareable
15:00 Dostoevsky’s Underground Man
16:50 Self-Overcoming Nihilism
17:40 Literature and Performative Contradiction
19:00 Careening Between Nihilism and Narcissism
20:00 Culture, History, and the Kyoto School
21:20 Japan, the West, and Modern Nihilism
22:20 World War II and Religious Disillusionment
24:00 Nishida, Tanabe, and Nishitani
25:10 The Kyoto School as Dialogical Partner
Explore courses and teachings from The Lectern:
lectern.johnvervaeke.com
Support The Lectern and join a growing community of wisdom seekers:
patreon.com/johnvervaeke
