The New Nihilism

The New Nihilism PDF Author: Costantino Esposito
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268208018
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
In this highly engaging book, Costantino Esposito argues that nihilism is not merely the loss of the classic values of the Western tradition—rather, it presents a critical opportunity to ask pertinent, timely questions about the meaning of self and the world. Nihilism is a problem that has troubled the culture, philosophy, and worldview of people and societies for more than a century—a problem that seemed, thanks to the advance of cultural relativism, to have become an obvious and globally shared condition. However, in recent years, the conversation around nihilism has begun to change. The questions that nihilism once declared impossible to answer—questions about the ultimate meaning of self and reality, the truth of the person and history, our desire to understand ourselves in relation to the infinite—are reemerging in today’s culture and proving to be profound, reasonable, and of vital importance. In its classical form, nihilism is the loss of values and ideals, but its modern iteration manifests as an irreducible need: more basic but far more challenging. Esposito suggests that rather than being an obstacle, nihilism can become an opportunity to search for true meaning for our experiences in the world. With philosophical rigor, he intercepts and narrates this new phenomenon, focusing on social trends, poetic voices, philosophical and scientific visions, ethical problems, and aesthetic experiences. The New Nihilism unravels and makes sense of the real stakes of the existential crisis of our time.

The New Nihilism

The New Nihilism PDF Author: Costantino Esposito
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268208018
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 168

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this highly engaging book, Costantino Esposito argues that nihilism is not merely the loss of the classic values of the Western tradition—rather, it presents a critical opportunity to ask pertinent, timely questions about the meaning of self and the world. Nihilism is a problem that has troubled the culture, philosophy, and worldview of people and societies for more than a century—a problem that seemed, thanks to the advance of cultural relativism, to have become an obvious and globally shared condition. However, in recent years, the conversation around nihilism has begun to change. The questions that nihilism once declared impossible to answer—questions about the ultimate meaning of self and reality, the truth of the person and history, our desire to understand ourselves in relation to the infinite—are reemerging in today’s culture and proving to be profound, reasonable, and of vital importance. In its classical form, nihilism is the loss of values and ideals, but its modern iteration manifests as an irreducible need: more basic but far more challenging. Esposito suggests that rather than being an obstacle, nihilism can become an opportunity to search for true meaning for our experiences in the world. With philosophical rigor, he intercepts and narrates this new phenomenon, focusing on social trends, poetic voices, philosophical and scientific visions, ethical problems, and aesthetic experiences. The New Nihilism unravels and makes sense of the real stakes of the existential crisis of our time.

The New Nihilism

The New Nihilism PDF Author: Peter Lamborn Wilson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781937073725
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
The New Nihilism is a group of 13 essays by anarchist author Peter Lamborn Wilson that discusses anarchy, medicine, crime, ecological sustainability, consciousness, modernity & Celtic revival.

Nihilism

Nihilism PDF Author: Bulent Diken
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113405582X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
This book addresses the genealogy and consequences of nihilism, attempts at 'sociologizing' the concept of nihilism by relating nihilism to capitalism, post-politics and terrorism, and considers the possibilities of overcoming nihilism.

Nihilism

Nihilism PDF Author: Nolen Gertz
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262537176
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
An examination of the meaning of meaninglessness: why it matters that nothing matters. When someone is labeled a nihilist, it's not usually meant as a compliment. Most of us associate nihilism with destructiveness and violence. Nihilism means, literally, “an ideology of nothing. “ Is nihilism, then, believing in nothing? Or is it the belief that life is nothing? Or the belief that the beliefs we have amount to nothing? If we can learn to recognize the many varieties of nihilism, Nolen Gertz writes, then we can learn to distinguish what is meaningful from what is meaningless. In this addition to the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Gertz traces the history of nihilism in Western philosophy from Socrates through Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre. Although the term “nihilism” was first used by Friedrich Jacobi to criticize the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, Gertz shows that the concept can illuminate the thinking of Socrates, Descartes, and others. It is Nietzsche, however, who is most associated with nihilism, and Gertz focuses on Nietzsche's thought. Gertz goes on to consider what is not nihilism—pessimism, cynicism, and apathy—and why; he explores theories of nihilism, including those associated with Existentialism and Postmodernism; he considers nihilism as a way of understanding aspects of everyday life, calling on Adorno, Arendt, Marx, and prestige television, among other sources; and he reflects on the future of nihilism. We need to understand nihilism not only from an individual perspective, Gertz tells us, but also from a political one.

The Banalization of Nihilism

The Banalization of Nihilism PDF Author: Karen L. Carr
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791408346
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
After a historical and conceptual overview of the changing face of nihilism in the last century, Carr examines Nietzsche’s diagnosis of nihilism as modernity’s major crisis. She then compares the responses to nihilism given by the early Karl Barth and by Richard Rorty. To some, nihilism is losing its crisis connotations and becoming simply an unobjectionable characteristic of human life. Carr argues that this transformation ultimately absolutizes community preference and reflects an increasing inability to criticize and change the existing structures of thought. The author contends that the uncritical acceptance of nihilism, which characterizes much of postmodernism, ironically culminates in its complete opposite—dogmatism.

The Sunny Nihilist

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

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Book Description


Laughing at Nothing

Laughing at Nothing PDF Author: John Marmysz
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791486281
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Disputing the common misconception that nihilism is wholly negative and necessarily damaging to the human spirit, John Marmysz offers a clear and complete definition to argue that it is compatible, and indeed preferably responded to, with an attitude of good humor. He carefully scrutinizes the phenomenon of nihilism as it appears in the works, lives, and actions of key figures in the history of philosophy, literature, politics, and theology, including Nietzsche, Heidegger, Camus, and Mishima. While suggesting that there ultimately is no solution to the problem of nihilism, Marmysz proposes a way of utilizing the anxiety and despair that is associated with the problem as a spur toward liveliness, activity, and the celebration of life.

Dawn of Political Nihilism

Dawn of Political Nihilism PDF Author: David Ohana
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781845195663
Category : Nihilism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In the turbulent period between 1870 and 1930, the contours on modernity were taking shape, especially the connections between technology, politics and aesthetics. The trilogy The Nihilist Order traces the genealogy of the nihilist-totalitarian syndrome. Until now, nihilism and totalitarianism were considered opposites: one an orderless state of affairs, the other a strict regimented order. On closer scrutiny, however, a surprising affinity can be found between these two concepts that dominated the history of the first half of the twentieth century. Starting with Nietzsche's philosophy, this book traces the development of an intellectual school characterized by the paradoxical dual purpose of a wish to destroy, coupled with a strong desire to create imposing structures. This explosive combination of nihilist leanings together with a craving for totalitarianism was an ideal of philosophers, cultural critics, political theorists, engineers, architects and aesthetes long before it materialized in flesh and blood, not only in technology, but also in fascism, Nazism, bolshevism and radical European political movements. Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Sorel, the Italian Futurists, led by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and Ernst J nger were all well-known intellectual and cultural figures. Here they are seen and understood in a different light, as creators of a modern political mythology that became a source of inspiration for belligerent ideological camps. Among the ideas propagated by this school, and later adopted by totalitarian regimes, were historical nihilism, a revolt against the rationalistic and universalistic pretensions of the Enlightenment, an affirmation of the dynamism of modern life, and the replacement of the traditional Judeo-Christian values of good and evil by other dualities such as authenticity and decadence. Concurrently there took place affirmation of the technological era, the creation of a 'new man' and a violent order, and the birth of a new political style in place of traditional world-views. When channeled into the political sphere, these aesthetic nihilist ideas paved the way for the rise of totalitarianism.

Nihilism Before Nietzsche

Nihilism Before Nietzsche PDF Author: Michael Allen Gillespie
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226293483
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
In the twentieth century, we often think of Nietzsche, nihilism, and the death of God as inextricably connected. But, in this pathbreaking work, Michael Gillespie argues that Nietzsche, in fact, misunderstood nihilism, and that his misunderstanding has misled nearly all succeeding thought about the subject. Reconstructing nihilism's intellectual and spiritual origins before it was given its determinitive definition by Nietzsche, Gillespie focuses on the crucial turning points in the development of nihilism, from Ockham and the nominalist revolution to Descartes, Fichte, the German Romantics, the Russian nihilists and Nietzsche himself. His analysis shows that nihilism is not the result of the death of God, as Nietzsche believed; but the consequence of a new idea of God as a God of will who overturns all eternal standards of truth and justice. To understand nihilism, one has to understand how this notion of God came to inform a new notion of man and nature, one that puts will in place of reason, and freedom in place of necessity and order.

The Revolution Of Nihilism Warning To The West

The Revolution Of Nihilism Warning To The West PDF Author: Hermann Rausching
Publisher: Legare Street Press
ISBN: 9781015605268
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.