Loss of inspiration to achieve goals

A goal’s ability to inspire depends on two conditions: first, it depends on the agent’s estimation of the value of the goal; second, it also depends on the agent’s estimation of the realizability of this goal. 

The goal loses its ability to inspire if one or both of these conditions is not met. 

Nihilism, then, may have two sources: a devaluation of the goals in the realization of which our life has hitherto found its meaning, or the conviction that these goals are unrealizable.