More New Words

I've seen these words in print occasionally, but I always tried to discern their meaning from the context of what I was reading. Today I finally looked them up in a dictionary. I may never actually use either of them in a real conversation but they're still fun words to know.

Nihilism: (n) The doctrine that existing social, political, and economic institutions must be completely destroyed in order to make way for new institutions; a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless.

Solipsism: (n) The theory that the self can be aware of nothing but its own experiences and states; the theory that nothing exists or is real but the self.