The nihilist errs by treating existence as a lack rather than a positive lack

Evidence

The nihilist attitude manifests a certain truth. In this attitude one experiences the ambiguity of the human condition. But the mistake is that it defines man not as the positive existence of a lack, but as a lack at the heart of existence, whereas the truth is that existence is not a lack as such. And if freedom is experienced in this case in the form of rejection, it is not genuinely fulfilled. The nihilist is right in thinking that the world possesses no justification and that he himself is nothing. But he forgets that it is up to him to justify the world and to make himself exist validly. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 56

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes authentic ‘positive existence of a lack’ from the nihilist’s ‘lack at the heart of existence.’
• XREF: connects to: Specific lacks are perceived as definite negative presences — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 499; Hegel makes negativity intrinsic to God’s self-production, implying an originary lack; Levinas described the ‘there is’ as emptiness that feels full — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 1359