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Literature Philosophy Nihilism
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Book Synopsis Literature, Philosophy, Nihilism by : Shane Weller
Download or read book Literature, Philosophy, Nihilism written by Shane Weller and published by Springer. This book was released on 2008-09-11 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book charts the history of the concept of nihilism in some of the most important philosophers and literary theorists of the modern and postmodern periods, including Heidegger, Adorno, Blanchot, Derrida, and Vattimo. Weller offers the first in-depth analysis of nihilism's key role in the thinking of the aesthetic since Nietzsche.
Download or read book Nihilism: written by James Biser Whisker and published by Nova Science Publishers. This book was released on 2021 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nihilism is a highly negative system of thought with roots in early Greek philosophy. It came into prominence as a major movement with Friedrich Nietzsche's unparalleled assault on Christianity and Christian morality. It became a dominant theme in the dark philosophical system known as existentialism, and thus became an important force in nineteenth century literature and in twentieth century ideologies. It seeks destruction of one or more aspects of society without offering a viable alternative, frequently assuming that the better world will automatically appear after the old world is obliterated. Loathing the building blocks of the present system, nihilism asserts that the better world will be composed of new, but unspecified, components.French philosophy during and after the French Revolution, and virtually all nineteenth century Russian literature, was dominated by nihilism. German Nazism had a nihilistic base which was carefully concealed by racist rantings. Marxism, with so many of its ideas stolen from Russian and French nihilists, proclaimed that faulty economics brought about misery and poverty which would be eradicated by the new but unspecified and undescribed socialist ethic.Revolutionary systems in the twentieth century have delved heavily into the rich trove of nihilist literature to promote, describe, and espouse revolutions which have marked much of that century. Few contemporary nihilists have offered any new insights into reality, choosing only to manipulate the basic concepts heretofore advanced. But the earlier nihilistic ideas have become an all-inspiring training primer for nihilists of future polities. To understand the philosophy of nihilism is to understand the revolutions that have continued to challenge modern societies.
Book Synopsis Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World by : Iddo Landau
Download or read book Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World written by Iddo Landau and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does life have meaning? Is it possible for life to be meaningful when the world is filled with suffering and when so much depends merely upon chance? Even if there is meaning, is there enough to justify living? These questions are difficult to resolve. There are times in which we face the mundane, the illogically cruel, and the tragic, which leave us to question the value of our lives. However, Iddo Landau argues, our lives often are, or could be made, meaningfulwe've just been setting the bar too high for evaluating what meaning there is. When it comes to meaning in life, Landau explains, we have let perfect become the enemy of the good. We have failed to find life perfectly meaningful, and therefore have failed to see any meaning in our lives. We must attune ourselves to enhancing and appreciating the meaning in our lives, and Landau shows us how to do that. In this warmly written book, rich with examples from the author's life, film, literature, and history, Landau offers new theories and practical advice that awaken us to the meaning already present in our lives and demonstrates how we can enhance it. He confronts prevailing nihilist ideas that undermine our existence, and the questions that dog us no matter what we believe. While exposing the weaknesses of ideas that lead many to despair, he builds a strong case for maintaining more hope. Along the way, he faces provocative questions: Would we choose to live forever if we could? Does death render life meaningless? If we examine it in the context of the immensity of the whole universe, can we consider life meaningful? If we feel empty once we achieve our goals, and the pursuit of these goals is what gives us a sense of meaning, then what can we do? Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World is likely to alter the way you understand your life.
Book Synopsis The Essence of Nihilism by : Emanuele Severino
Download or read book The Essence of Nihilism written by Emanuele Severino and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1969, Emanuele Severino underwent a Vatican trial for the 'fundamental incompatibility' between his thought and the Christian doctrine, and was removed from his position as professor of philosophy at the Catholic University in Milan. The Essence of Nihilism published in 1972, was the first book to follow his expulsion, and to firmly establish Severino's preeminent position within the constellation of contemporary philosophy. In this groundbreaking book, Severino reinterprets the history of Western philosophy as the unfolding of 'the greatest folly', that is, of the belief that 'things come out of nothing and fall back into nothing'. According to Severino, such a typically Western understanding of reality has produced a belief in the radical 'nothingness' of things. This, in turn has justified the treatment of the world as an object of exploitation, degradation and destruction. To move beyond Western nihilism, suggests Severino, we must first of all 'return to Parmenides'. Joining forces with the most venerable of Greek philosophers, Severino confutes the 'path of night' of nihilism, and develops a new philosophy grounded on the principle of the eternity of reality and of every single existent.
Download or read book Nihilism written by Nolen Gertz and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-09-10 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Book Synopsis Philosophy in a Meaningless Life by : James Tartaglia
Download or read book Philosophy in a Meaningless Life written by James Tartaglia and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-12-17 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Book Synopsis Against Nihilism by : Stepenberg Maia Stepenberg
Download or read book Against Nihilism written by Stepenberg Maia Stepenberg and published by Black Rose Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Book Synopsis Nietzsche, Nihilism and the Philosophy of the Future by : Jeffrey Metzger
Download or read book Nietzsche, Nihilism and the Philosophy of the Future written by Jeffrey Metzger and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2009-11-15 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An important collection of essays examining Nietzsche's response to contemporary nihilism.
Book Synopsis The Specter of the Absurd by : Donald A. Crosby
Download or read book The Specter of the Absurd written by Donald A. Crosby and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2016-03-22 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is our century's most comprehensive and wise treatment of nihilism in all of its guises, comparing favorably with Rosen, Cavell, and indeed with Spengler. Crosby argues that our culture is genuinely haunted by nihilism expressing itself in the fideism of fundamentalism as well as in the debilitating alienation from all orientation. This results from a one-sided development of Western culture. Unlike most writers on this topic, Crosby acknowledges many sources colluding to frame the culture of nihilism, including "the death of God," the objectification of nature, the meaninglessness of suffering in a mechanical universe, the ephemerality of time in a world where value does not accumulate, the arbitrariness of historicized reason, the reduction of value to will, and the alienation of the Cartesian ego. These sources are reviewed in the first two parts of the book with the result that the phenomenon of nihilism becomes understandable. In its third and fourth parts, Crosby provides a critical analysis of the religious and philosophical forces leading to nihilism by discussing authors from the early modern period through Dostoyevsky, Sartre, Russell, and Derrida. He shows that these forces are skewed and impoverished and should not be allowed to determine our situation. The comprehensive attention to detail and the multi-perspectival interpretation demonstrates as well as asserts the richness of the culture that puts nihilism in its place. Part Five, finally, rephrases the criticism of the sources of nihilism in positive ways. Part Four in particular is a tour de force of philosophical argument. Its richness of nuance, plurality of views examined, and adroitness of critical interpretation provide cumulatively a powerful, non-nihilistic reading of the philosophic tradition. The force of the argument derives from its comprehensive, cumulative character. Crosby distinguishes and relates five areas of nihilism: political, moral, epistemological, cosmic, and existential. Throughout the book, he illustrates and examines these as they are expressed in literature and art, in daily life and practical affairs, and in philosophy. The book is richly erudite in its marshalling of consciousness from so many domains.
Book Synopsis Nietzsche and Modernism by : Stewart Smith
Download or read book Nietzsche and Modernism written by Stewart Smith and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-05-03 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reconfiguring Nietzsche’s seminal impact on modernist literature and culture, this book presents a distinctive new reading of modernism by exploring his sustained philosophical engagement with nihilism and its inextricable tie to pain and sickness. Arguing that modernist texts dramatize the frailty of the ill, the impotent, and the traumatised modern subject unable to render suffering significant through traditional religious means, it uses the Nietzschean diagnoses of nihilism and what he calls 'ressentiment', the entwined feelings of powerlessness and vindictiveness, as heuristic tools to remap the fictional landscapes of Lawrence, Kafka, and Beckett. Lucid, authoritative and accessible, this book will appeal internationally to literature and philosophy scholars and undergraduates as well as to readers in medical and sociological fields.
Book Synopsis The Philosophy of Nietzsche by : Rex Welson
Download or read book The Philosophy of Nietzsche written by Rex Welson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important new introduction to Nietzsche's philosophical work provides readers with an excellent framework for understanding the central concerns of his philosophical and cultural writings. It shows how Nietzsche's ideas have had a profound influence on European philosophy and why, in recent years, Nietzsche scholarship has become the battleground for debates between the analytic and continental traditions over philosophical method. The book is divided into three parts. In the first part, the author discusses morality, religion and nihilism to show why Nietzsche rejects certain components of the Western philosophical and religious traditions as well as the implications of this rejection. In the second part, the author explores Nietzsche's ambivalent and sophisticated reflections on some of philosophy's biggest questions. These include his criticisms of metaphysics, his analysis of truth and knowledge, and his reflections on the self and consciousness. In the final section, Welshon discusses some of the ways in which Nietzsche transcends, or is thought to transcend, the Western philosophical tradition, with chapters on the will to power, politics, and the flourishing life.
Book Synopsis Laughing at Nothing by : John Marmysz
Download or read book Laughing at Nothing written by John Marmysz and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Book Synopsis Nihilism and the Sublime Postmodern by : William Slocombe
Download or read book Nihilism and the Sublime Postmodern written by William Slocombe and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the relationship between nihilism and postmodernism in relation to the sublime, and is divided into three parts: history, theory, and praxis. Arguing against the simplistic division in literary criticism between nihilism and the sublime, the book demonstrates that both are clearly implicated with the Enlightenment. Postmodernism, as a product of the Enlightenment, is therefore implicitly related to both nihilism and the sublime, despite the fact that it is often characterised as either nihilistic or sublime. Whereas prior forms of nihilism are 'modernist' because they seek to codify reality, postmodernism creates a new formulation of nihilism - 'postmodern nihilism' - that is itself sublime. This is explored in relation to a broad survey of postmodern literature in two chapters, the first on aesthetics and the second on ethics. It offers a coherent thesis for reappraising the relationship between nihilism and the sublime, and grounds this argument with frequent references to postmodern literature, making it a book suitable for both researchers and those more generally interested in postmodern literature.
Download or read book Eco-Nihilism written by Wendy Lynne Lee and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-02-22 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If we were to ask what is the root cause of our current and unprecedented environmental crisis, climate change, many, particularly on the progressive Left, would refer to the excesses of capitalism—and they’d be right. In Eco-Nihilism: The Philosophical Geopolitics of the Climate Change Apocalypse, Wendy Lynne Lee demonstrates that there are no versions of conquest capital compatible with the fact of a finite planet and that a logic whose operating premise is growth is destined to not only exhaust our planetary resources, but also generate profound social injustice and geopolitical violence in its pursuit. Nonetheless, it is clear that the violence and injustice of capital is selective—some benefit greatly while others are subjugated to its pathological drive to profit. Hence, Lee argues that any comprehensive analysis of what Jason Moore has dubbed the Capitalocene must include an equally probing account of human chauvinism, that is, the axes along which capital is supplied with resources and labor. Defined in terms of race, sex, gender, and species, these axes come ready-made to the advantage of capitalist commodification. Without an understanding of how and why, humanity will remain doomed to settling for a sustainably unjust world as opposed to realizing a just and desirable one. Indeed, on our current trajectory, we may not even achieve the sustainable. The introduction of climate change into the mix of environmental deterioration, the ever-widening economic gap between global North and global South, and the accelerating violence of terrorism, civil war, and human slavery make of a warming planet a combustible world. The only way out requires ending the myth of endless resources, a rejection of climate change denial, and a radical re-valuation of human-centeredness, not as a locus of power, but as an opportunity to take moral and epistemic responsibility for a world whose biotic diversity and ecological integrity make the struggle to realize it worthwhile. This solution demands not only an end to capitalism, but the deliberate reclamation of value—aesthetic, moral, and civic—and a radical transformation of both personal and collective conscience. Lee appeals to the experiential aesthetics of John Dewey and the feminist concept of the standpoint of the subjugated. She argues for a version of the precautionary principle informed by an environmentally and socially responsible concept of the desirable future as the clearest path away from the precipice.
Book Synopsis Genealogy of Nihilism by : Conor Cunningham
Download or read book Genealogy of Nihilism written by Conor Cunningham and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-06-29 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Book Synopsis Fashionable Nihilism by : Bruce Wilshire
Download or read book Fashionable Nihilism written by Bruce Wilshire and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thoreau wrote that we have professors of philosophy but no philosophers. Can't we have both? Why doesn't philosophy hold a more central place in our lives? Why should it? Eloquently opposing the analytic thrust of philosophy in academia, noted pluralist philosopher Bruce Wilshire answers these questions and more in an effort to make philosophy more meaningful to our everyday lives. Writing in an accessible style he resurrects classic yet neglected forms of inquiring and communicating. In a series of personal essays, Wilshire describes what is wrong with the current state of philosophy in American higher education, namely the cozy but ultimately suffocating confinements of professionalism. He reclaims the role of the philosopher as one who, like Socrates, would goad us out of self-contentedness into a more authentic way of being and knowing.
Book Synopsis The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism by : Keiji Nishitani
Download or read book The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism written by Keiji Nishitani and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1990-10-02 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first English translation (by Graham Parker, with Setsuko Aihara) of a forty-year-old Japanese classic--Nishitani's treatment of the problem of nihilism, with particular reference to Nietzsche's philosophical ideas, and from a perspective influenced by Buddhist thought. Paper edition (unseen), $14.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
