<p>Nihilism is the condition in which life is portrayed as meaningless. Nietzsche linked this condition and its portrayal to modern science. As Whitehead argued, the scientific materialism of the Seventeenth Century portrayed nature as nothing but matter in motion, moving endlessly, meaninglessly. Supporting this, knowledge was characterized as nothing more than the means to make predictions from some observations to others. Kant and his followers struggled against this nihilism, and neo-Kantians and phenomenologists argued for the primacy of experience over the abstractions of science. However, a more effective opposition came from metaphysicians who challenged the basic assumptions of mainstream science. Peirce as a Schellingian process metaphysician was a major contributor to this tradition, and was a major inspiration for philosophers of science opposed to logical positivism. This included Norwood Russell Hanson who was strongly influenced by Peirce. Another opponent of logical positivism was Michael Polanyi who was explicitly concerned to overcome nihilism, and to this end, developed an anti-reductionist hierarchical ontology. Polanyi inspired Howard Pattee’s work on hierarchy theory, through which he explained how matter becomes symbols, and Stan Salthe related Pattee’s work to biosemiotics. Combining hierarchy theory, including the work of Polanyi, and biosemiotics, provides the basis for comprehending humans as participating through the development of their cultures in the creative becoming of nature, developing through this an affirmation of life. I will show how this provides the basis for a post-nihilistic dialogic grand narrative committed to augmenting life.</p>