Between Nihilism and Faith

Between Nihilism and Faith PDF Author: Karsten Harries
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110226898
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
If the Enlightenment turned to reason to reoccupy the place left vacant by the death of God, the history of the last two centuries has undermined the confidence that reason will bind freedom and keep it responsible. We cannot escape this history, which has issued in a pervasive nihilism and has rendered all appeals to the ethical questionable. Nor could Kierkegaard. The specter of nihilism haunts all of his writings, as it haunts already German romanticism, to which he is so indebted. To exorcize it is his most fundamental concern. And it is the same fundamentally religious concern that makes Kierkegaard so relevant to our situation: What today is to make life meaningful? If not reason, does the turn to the aesthetic promise an answer? To really choose is to bind freedom. Either-Or calls us to make such a choice, i.e. to be authentic. But what does it mean to be authentic? How are we today to think of such an authentic choice? As autonomous action? As a blind leap? As a leap of faith? Either/Or circles around these questions.

Between Nihilism and Faith

Between Nihilism and Faith PDF Author: Karsten Harries
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110226898
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 202

Get Book Here

Book Description
If the Enlightenment turned to reason to reoccupy the place left vacant by the death of God, the history of the last two centuries has undermined the confidence that reason will bind freedom and keep it responsible. We cannot escape this history, which has issued in a pervasive nihilism and has rendered all appeals to the ethical questionable. Nor could Kierkegaard. The specter of nihilism haunts all of his writings, as it haunts already German romanticism, to which he is so indebted. To exorcize it is his most fundamental concern. And it is the same fundamentally religious concern that makes Kierkegaard so relevant to our situation: What today is to make life meaningful? If not reason, does the turn to the aesthetic promise an answer? To really choose is to bind freedom. Either-Or calls us to make such a choice, i.e. to be authentic. But what does it mean to be authentic? How are we today to think of such an authentic choice? As autonomous action? As a blind leap? As a leap of faith? Either/Or circles around these questions.

Relativism, Nihilism, and God

Relativism, Nihilism, and God PDF Author: Philip E. Devine
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780268016401
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description
This book presents a defense of the reality of God in the sense in which Nietzsche proclaimed His death. It explores various contemporary versions of Nietzsche's maxim God is dead and proposes an alternative to them. Philip E.Devine critically examines three views that, in one way or another, accept the death of God and take it as central to the intellectual life: pragmatism, which asserts that the only end of the intellectual life is the pursuit of worldly goods other than truth; relativism', which admits a multiplicity of truths corresponding to the modes of life pursued by human beings; and nihilism, to which the pursuit of truth is a deception. Devine then defends his own position on the nature of God and religion and argues for a convergence between the concerns of faith and philosophy.

Film, Nihilism and the Restoration of Belief

Film, Nihilism and the Restoration of Belief PDF Author: Darren Ambrose
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
ISBN: 1782794042
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Despite the clichés which govern much of its current forms, the cinema continues to have a vital political and aesthetic significance. Our commitment to, and our sincerity towards, our ways of being in the world have become catastrophically eroded. Nihilism and despair have taken hold. We must find a way to renew our faith in our capacity to transform the world, a faith that will give us back the reality of a world eroded by the restrictive capitalist ontology of modernity. How can we restore belief in the reality of a world when scepticism and universal pessimism have taken hold? Is it possible to find alternative ways of living, being and thinking? This book will discuss the means by which some filmmakers have grasped the vocation of resisting and transforming the present, of cultivating new forms of belief in the world when total alienation seems inevitable. ,

Against Nihilism

Against Nihilism PDF Author: Stepenberg Maia Stepenberg
Publisher: Black Rose Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1551646781
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Described by Thomas Mann as "e;brothers in spirit, but tragically grotesque companions in misfortune,"e; Nietzsche and Dostoevsky remain towering figures in the intellectual development of European modernity. Maia Johnson-Stepenberg's accessible new introduction to these philosophers compares their writings on key topics such as criminality, Christianity, and the figure of the "e;outsider"e; to reveal the urgency and contemporary resonance of their shared struggle against nihilism. Against Nihilism also considers nihilism in the context of current political and social struggles, placing Nietzsche and Dostoevsky's contributions at the heart of important contemporary debates regarding community, identity, and meaning. Inspired by class discussions with her students and aimed at first-team readers of Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, Against Nihilism provides an accessible, unique comparative study of these two key thinkers.

Nietzsche's Philosophy of Religion

Nietzsche's Philosophy of Religion PDF Author: Julian Young
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107320879
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 4

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Book Description
In his first book, The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche observes that Greek tragedy gathered people together as a community in the sight of their gods, and argues that modernity can be rescued from 'nihilism' only through the revival of such a festival. This is commonly thought to be a view which did not survive the termination of Nietzsche's early Wagnerianism, but Julian Young argues, on the basis of an examination of all of Nietzsche's published works, that his religious communitarianism in fact persists through all his writings. What follows, it is argued, is that the mature Nietzsche is neither an 'atheist', an 'individualist', nor an 'immoralist': he is a German philosopher belonging to a German tradition of conservative communitarianism - though to claim him as a proto-Nazi is radically mistaken. This important reassessment will be of interest to all Nietzsche scholars and to a wide range of readers in German philosophy.

Between Nihilism and Politics

Between Nihilism and Politics PDF Author: Silvia Benso
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438432860
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
Essays describe Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo’s unique and radical hermeneutic philosophy.

Genealogy of Nihilism

Genealogy of Nihilism PDF Author: Conor Cunningham
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134474008
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
This text re-reads Western history in the light of nihilistic logic, which pervades two millennia of Western thought. From Parmenides to Alain Badiou, via Plotinus, Avicenna, Duns Scotus, Ockham, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, Sartre, Lacan, Deleuze and Derrida, a genealogy of nothingness can be witnessed in development, with devastating consequences for the way we live.

The Sunny Nihilist

The Sunny Nihilist PDF Author: Wendy Syfret
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781788167031
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description


Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith

Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith PDF Author: Gianni Vattimo
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231520417
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
The debate over the place of religion in secular, democratic societies dominates philosophical and intellectual discourse. These arguments often polarize around simplistic reductions, making efforts at reconciliation impossible. Yet more rational stances do exist, positions that broker a peace between relativism and religion in people's public, private, and ethical lives. Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith advances just such a dialogue, featuring the collaboration of two major philosophers known for their progressive approach to this issue. Seeking unity over difference, Gianni Vattimo and René Girard turn to Max Weber, Eric Auerbach, and Marcel Gauchet, among others, in their exploration of truth and liberty, relativism and faith, and the tensions of a world filled with new forms of religiously inspired violence. Vattimo and Girard ultimately conclude that secularism and the involvement (or lack thereof) of religion in governance are, in essence, produced by Christianity. In other words, Christianity is "the religion of the exit from religion," and democracy, civil rights, the free market, and individual freedoms are all facilitated by Christian culture. Through an exchange that is both intimate and enlightening, Vattimo and Girard share their unparalleled insight into the relationships among religion, modernity, and the role of Christianity, especially as it exists in our multicultural world.

Philosophy in a Meaningless Life

Philosophy in a Meaningless Life PDF Author: James Tartaglia
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474247687
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Philosophy in a Meaningless Life provides an account of the nature of philosophy which is rooted in the question of the meaning of life. It makes a powerful and vivid case for believing that this question is neither obscure nor obsolete, but reflects a quintessentially human concern to which other traditional philosophical problems can be readily related; allowing them to be reconnected with natural interest, and providing a diagnosis of the typical lines of opposition across philosophy's debates. James Tartaglia looks at the various ways philosophers have tried to avoid the conclusion that life is meaningless, and in the process have distanced philosophy from the concept of transcendence. Rejecting all of this, Tartaglia embraces nihilism ('we are here with nothing to do'), and uses transcendence both to provide a new solution to the problem of consciousness, and to explain away perplexities about time and universals. He concludes that with more self-awareness, philosophy can attain higher status within a culture increasingly in need of it.