Existentialism, postmodernism, and poststructuralism have all been touched by Nietzsche’s work. Still, you are right when you say Nietzche is fighting Nihilism, but his Nihilism, not ours, not the "lack of belief" or "belief in nothing".Friedrich Nietzsche introduced several ideas into Western philosophy that have had a huge influence on the culture of the 20th and 21st centuries. Therefore, nihilism because all that truly IS becomes NOTHING to the eyes of the believer. When you have a perfect world outside, bigger, eternal, things of life become pathetic, sad and generally worthless (the "passions tristes" of Spinoza, even if this is more used when you devalue the present comaped to the future or the past regrets, hope.). On the contrary, many "beliefs", particularly religious ones, for Nietzsche, lead to nihilism, for they value something that does not exist, is outside of reality and / or the present moment (for example, all the "Paradise" things, future state of existence like the Nirvana, but also philosophical concepts like the Platonic pure ideas, "Dinge an sich" as he said, etc.) and relatively, reality, what is, becomes nothing. You don't take in consideration that Nietzsche does NOT consider nihilism as "a lack of beliefs". Still, I can't agree with you when you are talking about Nietzsche and the nihilism. There is much there that I don't even mention in passing. My hope is this gives people a place to start with Nietzsche but if they want to substitute it for actually reading his work they will be doing themselves a disservice. Nietzsche feared that a world that embraced science as the highest value would lead to nihilism. This would probably lead to the foundation of his basic philosophy because Nietzsche came to the conclusion that science had replaced religion in our world and this was a problem because, unlike religion, science gave us no values from which to live our lives but simply gave us empirical data.
He knew so much about the bible and about theology that he was called “the little preacher” because he was more knowledgeable than most adults. One of the things that often is missed about Nietzsche is that as a child he was very religious. Nietzsche’s work is concerned with nihilism and is in opposition against it. One thing that is very important to make clear is one mistake that many students make and a misconception that just will not die: NIETSZCHE WAS NOT A NIHILIST! Nihilism is often defined as “belief in nothing” but would more accurately be called a lack of beliefs. Nihilism, Perspectivism and The Death of God Though all his books are thematically connected Nietzsche takes for granted that his audience is familiar with his previous work before they begin to read the next one and his satirical, often sly references to other philosophers require that his readers have a basic understanding of the history of philosophy in order to appreciate the context. Also, he often contradicts himself to make his point through irony. Writing in a literary style means that interpreting exactly what he is saying is a challenge. Even though Nietzsche is easy to read he is not easy to understand. In short, Nietzsche is the “bad boy” of the philosophical world and the closest thing there has ever been to a philosophical rock star. Many people gravitate toward Nietzsche because his writing style is bold, provocative, hilarious and seemingly “dangerous” all at the same time. The 19 th Century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is the most widely read and perhaps the most widely misinterpreted philosopher of our time.