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Williston, Byron. "The problem of nihilism in the philosophy of Nietzsche." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/10203.
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Hernandez, Brian. "Nihilism and the Formulation of a Philosophy of Art." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2011. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67991/.
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Nihilism is often associated with feelings of despair, hopelessness and meaningless. It is certainly true that once the implications of this philosophy become apparent that these feelings are valid. However, this reaction is merely the first stage of dealing with nihilism and stopping here fails to examine the various types of nihilism that deal specifically with knowledge, ethics, metaphysics, truth, and art. Nihilism at its base is a philosophy that recognizes the history of human thought and what it means to be and to think. My focus is the way in which a completed nihilism is in fact an emancipatory act and the implications it has for art and the artist in the 21st century.
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Olivier, Marco René. "Manifestations of nihilism in selected contemporary media." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/437.
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This study focuses on the concept or phenomenon of nihilism, given the regularity with which it manifests itself (to anyone who is aware of it in more or less theoretical or philosophical terms) in all kinds of cultural artifacts such as films, television shows or series, books such as novels or philosophical texts, and magazines. Most of these artifacts can be grouped together under the heading of the media in the present era. The objective of the study is to use the concept of nihilism to identify and analyse selected cases in contemporary media -- in the form of films and television series – to answer the question, with what kinds of nihilism people would come face to face if they knew how to recognize them. The study begins with an outline of a theoretical framework concerning the concept of nihilism. A number of thinkers’ work is used to come to grips with the complex phenomenon, but mostly it is Nietzsche whose thought seems to be valuable for present purposes. In the second chapter the spotlight falls on what is called (in this study) ‘capitalist nihilism’, which seems to belong with what Nietzsche called ‘passive nihilism’, but also seems to exhibit some aspects of ‘active nihilism’. The third chapter is an examination of nihilism in a foreign (Japanese) culture by concentrating on Japanese anime, to test the differences between Western (historically Christian) culture and one with a different cultural and religious history. The last chapter consists of the analysis of a specific (Western) film, I ‘heart’ Huckabees, which was selected because of the variety of ‘nihilisms’ found in it. The study seems to confirm that nihilism is indeed widespread in contemporary, postmodern culture.
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Jonsson, Jonathan. "Argumenterar Jonathan Tallant framgångsrikt mot mereologisk nihilism?" Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-187520.
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Proponents of mereological nihilism attempt to achieve a simpler metaphysical ideology,a more parsimonious ontology and a solution to paradoxes of composition by denyingthat composition occurs. There are no objects with proper parts, only mereologicalsimples. One criticism of nihilism is that it appears to render propositions in scientificand ordinary language false, such as ‘there is a chair here’. van Inwagen offers usparaphrases of the form ‘there are some simples here arranged chair-wise’ that allowour ordinary language to express a true statement, albeit ontologically imprecise.Bennet argues that this does not really answer the question of composition, it merelymoves it into another one. Instead of ‘when do the xs compose a y?’, the questionbecomes ‘what does the world have to be like for some xs to be arranged y-wise?’Tallant builds on her argument to make the stronger claim that nihilism ultimately fails.This essay examines his argument and contrasts it with Sider’s positive case fornihilism, finding that while Tallant poses a serious challenge to nihilism, it can be met.However, Sider’s replacement of composition with mathematical sets does not doenough to fully answer the challenge of Tallant.
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Boulding, Jacqueline. "Engendering the Overman: On Woman and Nihilism in Nietzsche." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/37196.
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This thesis examines the role of woman within Nietzsche’s late-middle period, through The Gay Science and Thus Spoke Zarathustra, as well as interrogating the more social or political elements of nihilism, in order to conceptualize a novel reading of Nietzsche’s figure of the Overman. The motivation for this project is to create an understanding of the Overman that stands in stark contrast to those interpretations of Nietzsche advanced and deployed by those on the far-right of the political spectrum, who historically have used Nietzsche’s ideas to justify acts of cruelty and violence through an appeal to preservation of the self and of the same. I begin with the idea that woman is representative of truth for Nietzsche through her embodiment of difference, both internal to herself and within her relationship to man. This view of woman within the thesis is led by the work of Luce Irigaray in her work Marine Lover of Friedrich Nietzsche, and a reading of her work alongside Nietzsche’s Gay Science comprise the first chapter. In the second chapter, I chart different typologies of nihilism as advanced by Gilles Deleuze and Alenka Zupančič in order to probe their status as “universal”. I also delve into the eternal return as the process through which nihilism is overcome and the Overman emerges, as perhaps an eternal return of the different rather than the same. In the final chapter, the lessons from the beginning of the thesis are applied to a reading of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra in order to read difference into that text toward the overcoming of nihilism and the birth of the Overman.
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Morrison, Robert Gerard. "Nihilism and Nietzsche's Buddha : a study of ironic affinities." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.333890.
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Johnson, Devon Ralston. "A Philosophical Analysis of Nihilism and Antiblack Racism." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2013. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/242733.
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PhilosophyPh.D.
This dissertation offers a philosophical analysis of nihilism and antiblack racism. I argue that nihilism, the phenomenon espoused by Friedrich Nietzsche, is an implicit feature of antiblack racism. As a result of the implicit nihilism involved in antiblack racism, black existential life occupies a black nihilistic situation. In response to the black nihilistic situation, one can respond either weakly, as I argue is the case with Cornel West and Derrick Bell, or strongly, as I argue is the case with Frantz Fanon. I conclude that strong black nihilism is a healthy response to nihilism and antiblack racism because it is a trans-valuation of traditional forms of antiblack racist valuing, which exemplifies a commitment to the language and action of constructing non-decadent human worlds premised upon the existential freedom and responsibility of all human beings.
Temple University--Theses
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Wallenstein, Sven-Olov. "Nihilism, Art, and Technology." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Filosofiska institutionen, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-38737.
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The thesis investigates the role of technology in the formation of the artistic avant-garde, along with various forms of philosophical reflection on this development, with a particular emphasis on Heidegger. Setting out from an analysis of three paradigmatic cases in the interplay between art and technology—the invention of photography, the shift from Futurism to Constructivism, and the interpretation of technology in debates on architectural theory in the 1920s and ’30s—it proceeds to a discussion of three philosophical responses to this development, those found in Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, and Ernst Jünger, all of which share a certain avant-garde sensibility and a notion of art as a response to nihilism. In Heidegger’s postwar writings we see a retreat from the positions of the mid 1930s, and in his reflections on technology a different answer emerges to the question of whether “great art” is still possible: great art is an art that exists precisely by making the founding of a world into something problematic. The fourth part confronts Heidegger’s analysis of technology with the work of an individual artist, the architect Mies van der Rohe, and asks how the “silence”—the withdrawal of language, sense, aesthetic perception, etc.—that is often understood as a precondition for the critical potential of his work should in fact be understood. By examining interpretations that draw on Heidegger via comparisons with other types of critical theory, a different understanding emerges of the relation among nihilism, art, and technology. They form a field of constant modulation, which implies that the concepts that have been the foundation of critical theory, nature, subjectivity, experience, even “being” in Heidegger’s sense, must be subjected to a historical analysis that acknowledges them as ongoing processes of construction, and that also accounts for the capacity of technologies and artistic practices to intervene in the formation of philosophical concepts.The chapters 5, 6 and 7 in the monograph Essays, Lectures for a part of the Ph.D.thesis.
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Ansell-Pearson, K. J. "Nihilism and the will : A study of Nietzsche's moral and political philosophy." Thesis, University of Sussex, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.381594.
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Johnson, Steven Mark. "Was Nietzsche a nihilist?" Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2000. http://www.tren.com.
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Altman, Megan Emily. "Heidegger and the Problem of Modern Moral Philosophy." Scholar Commons, 2015. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5845.
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The guiding question of this project is, "Why does it count as a critique of Heidegger that he does not defend a particular moral position?" A standard criticism levied against Heidegger is that, since he has nothing positive to say about post-Enlightenment moral theory, he has nothing to contribute to moral philosophy, and this marks his greatest shortcoming as a philosopher. Why is there a demand for Heidegger, or any other philosopher, to theorize about morality, when we do not have this expectation for, say, aesthetics, theology, or various other regional domains of human life? Why should we expect Heidegger to theorize about what humans must be like in order to care about and engage in moral thought? Answering these questions involves an extended discussion of ways of understanding ethics in Western philosophical thought, as well as, Heidegger's own view of ethics.
I begin with a detailed exposition of the paradigmatic shift from premodern ethics, as it is based on an understanding of ethos (a form of life with its practical and normative dimensions), to modern conceptions of ethics based on Enlightenment (1750-1850) individualism and the fact-value distinction. This account of the history of ethics in philosophy attempts to demonstrate that the transition to modernity is marked by a schism between Being (ontology) and Ought (ethics) which makes any post-Enlightenment justification of ethics impossible (and helps us see why Heidegger always scoffs at the project of working out an ethics). My primary goal is to prove that Heidegger's appropriation of Aristotle's thought not only challenges the underlying metaphysical assumptions of mainstream moral philosophy, but also shows us a way back to the unity of ethics and ontology. My claim is that Being and Time is an ethics in the same way Nicomachean Ethics is an ethics: both are based on an understanding of the human ethos and attempt to show what is characteristic of a life that is structured by the "ought." This argument sets the stage for uncovering the underlying presuppositions governing two prominent objections raised against Heidegger: the existentialist and nihilistic critiques. I find that these critiques are grounded on the assumption of "ontological individualism." In contrast to this individualistic ontology of the social world, I argue that, for Heidegger, individuality is not an ontological or biological given; rather, it is a relatively rare accomplishment of members of a linguistic community. What is important, in Heidegger's view, is that the ethos is the ontological bedrock of ethics. The ethos does not offer us universal principles or morals rules of the kind modern morality seeks, but it does provide paths, ways of being, and possibilities for living meaningful lives. In the end, all we have are understandings of life in certain domains (art, religion, love, etc.) that provide character ideals that, together with meaningful goals and projects for the whole of our lives, make possible a flourishing ethos.
My secondary goal is to demonstrate that Heidegger undercuts the uncritical presuppositions of much of mainstream moral philosophy and provides an alternative account of ethics that picks up the stick from the other end. I formulate my thesis as an extension of the recent scholarship on Heidegger's work, arguing that Heidegger's emphasis on the human ethos puts forth a proper way of dwelling and Being-at-home within the current of the historical essence of a community. What is original about Heidegger's post-humanist ethics is that it denies the modern Being-Ought distinction and calls us to be ready and prepared to be claimed by Being. Refusing to give an absolute position to anthropomorphism, Heidegger's ethics serves as an attempt to specify what it is to be fully human in the sense of being a respondent who receives an understanding of Being and has to own up to the task of being claimed by Being. If I am correct, then it is a mistake to judge Heidegger's ethics according to whether he succeeds at formulating a list of responsibilities, rights, and obligations of individuals. Whereas modern moral theory is concerned with providing impartial and value-free guidelines and principles for individual behavior, Heidegger is asking about the conditions for the possibility of transforming how one lives. This puts the burden of proof on those who think there is something important about moral theory. The onus of proof rests with those who want to claim that a right way to be human exists and that there is an absolute, unchanging, timeless ground for understanding the right.
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Wolfson, Kevin. "Existential Doubt, The Burden of Choice, and Contemporary Nihilism in the 21st Century." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2017. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1663.
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This thesis seeks to identify, explain, and differentiate the problems of existential doubt and the burden of choice in today’s world versus the previous epochs of human existence. It will attempt to discern the relevant differences in the types of existential doubt, illustrate how these differences came about, and analyze the strength of a potential solution to these problems. My aim is to critique Dreyfus and Kelly’s portrayal and solution to these problems in a way that can further promulgate discussion on an increasingly relevant topic in philosophy, mental health, and science. The conclusion will provide a novel understanding of contemporary nihilism that might be of use in combating this epidemic.
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Pires, de Oliveira Dias Gustavo. "A Philosophically Appealing Nietzschean Theory of Value." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1252.
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This thesis is an attempt to bring forth a novel and philosophically appealing reading of Nietzsche, especially as it pertains to his theory of value. I define philosophically appealing as the view with the least amount of inconsistencies that still reaches a simple and logical conclusion. I explore questions regarding Nietzsche’s nihilism, his normative and metaphysical claims, as well as his view on human nature. I aim to satisfy sophisticated readers by investigating complex philosophical issues related to my interpretation of Nietzsche. I also aim to satisfy less sophisticated readers by explaining how my view is applicable, and beneficial, to one’s life. Given that there’s no widespread agreement as to what reading of Nietzsche is correct, the goal of my thesis is to contribute meaningfully to this ongoing debate.
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Chu, Tai-Shing Nicky. "The religious and nihilism : a theory of culture in Benjamin, Gadamer, Levinas and Charles Taylor." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.337436.
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Sheets, Andrew. "Kierkegaard's Nihilistic Leveling and the Internet." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2017. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1733.
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In the 1840s, Søren Kierkegaard argued that the creation of impersonal media through the newspaper would level down human possibilities by turning every action into a spectacle for publicity. Nearly 200 years later, with smartphones whipped out to capture the most meaningful and trivial events as soon as they begin, we can ask the question—was Kierkegaard right to be worried?
This essay will construct a Kierkegaardian analytic argument that our society has been leveled derived from Kierkegaard’s views as expressed in his philosophical analysis of leveling and the present age contained in Two Ages: A Literary Review. After arguing that our society is leveled, I will give an account of how leveling has developed and briefly explain Kierkegaard’s solution to leveling. Lastly, I will extrapolate Kierkegaard’s views of the press to the Internet and argue that the Internet presents new technological developments that force him to hold contradictory views on impersonal media.
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Catone, Giuseppina. "Vattimo e Severino. Sulle tracce del nichilismo nietzscheano." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/399923.
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El proyecto se ha propuesto investigar la obra de dos filósofos contemporáneos, Emanuele Severino y Gianni Vattimo, siguiendo el hilo rojo de la suspensión que domina el pensamiento en general y el pensamiento nihilista en particular a partir de la reflexión nietzscheana. En primer lugar, era necesario comprender el porqué y el cómo de esta suspensión. Y también el porqué y el cómo de la suspensión heideggeriana.
Se han detectado las consecuencias más evidentes de esta evolución del pensamiento y se ha observado, a través de una investigación a fondo de la obra de estos autores, cómo ambos filósofos han reaccionado a esta situación o extremización del discurso occidental.
Investigar la trayectoria de los dos filósofos y detenerse en la forma en que ellos se relacionan con los cambios fundamentales que han embestido y siguen embistiendo el conocimiento contemporáneo. Reconocer en ambos una nueva metodología de investigación que los conecta, por un lado, directamente con la "genealogía" nietzscheana, y los pone, por el otro, como innovadores de ideas y de referencias históricas / temporales.
Para terminar, el proyecto se ha propuesto (y se propone, en cuanto primera fase de un continuum de investigaciones y profundizaciones futuras) comparar las investigaciones (especialmente los puntos de acuerdo y de desacuerdo) de los dos pensadores contemporáneos, con el fin de lograr una evaluación coherente y clara del camino recorrido, sin olvidar su "origen"; un origen que se ha demostrado fundamental y estructurante a lo largo de todo el camino.In agreement to Nietzschean’s genealogy method and to hermeneutics of Heidegger, this research project propose to investigate the phenomenon of the crisis of western philosophical thought trough two contemporary thinkers: Gianni Vattimo and Emanuele Severino. These not only interpret the crisis of modernity with the history of modern sceptical-nichilistic inclination but also as an incontrovertible destiny of the all European metaphysical thought from Plato to the scientific revolution of the centuries XVI-XVII and from the last one to technological end of the modern age. Both Vattimo and Severino agree with Nietsche and Heidegger but they, as representatives of post-modernity philosophy, propose a joint solution; to dissolve the rigidities of epistemic thought and return it to the right balance between scientific certainty and be like becoming. Historicizing the analysis of Nietzsche and Heidegger, Vattimo’s and Severino’s philosophies deliver us back to the real doubt and the paradox of the expression.
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Simmons, Scott M. "Nihilism and Argumentation: a Weakly Pragmatic Defense of Authoritatively Normative Reasons." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1589996802190052.
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Fox, Devon. "Kierkegaard’s Solution to the Problem of Nihilism: Inwardness and The Paradox of Faith." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2018. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1745.
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The study of history and philosophy reveals that there have been as many systems of morality as there have been distinct civilizations, and that doubts about morality are inevitable. From growing apathy towards political life to increasing cultural acceptance and toleration of what might be considered immorality in every aspect of society, in today’s modern world it is difficult not to notice these doubts creeping into our way of life. This vacuum of values and tendency towards a weariness and indifference towards life is what is generally called Nihilism. Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy illustrated perhaps the clearest expression of what he calls “the great danger to mankind . . . a retrospective weariness, the will turning against life, the tender and sorrowful signs of the ultimate illness . . . nihilism” (3). The problem that Nietzsche sets up can be responded to in many ways, however one of the most common is the Hegelian solution that suggests we can imbue content into our values through our universal recognition and our social life. Despite the appeal of this approach, the problem of nihilism remains intact given the contradictions within Hegelian idealism that Nietzsche’s broader theories make apparent. The most promising resolution of the problem of nihilism in fact comes from Soren Kierkegaard, who is able to respond to Nietzsche’s challenges, as well as solve the issues inherent in the Hegelian solution. Kierkegaard’s emphasis on the paradox of faith and on existence creates the basis for his conclusion. He ultimately claims that through a passionate embrace of the paradoxical infinite (faith), which constitutes the essential nature of his conception of inwardness, our values can indeed be real, meaningful, and can give our lives purpose: thereby saving humanity from the nefarious threat of nihilism.
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Werner, Griffin. "Nishitani Keiji’s Solution to the Problem of Nihilism: The Way to Emptiness." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1585400605200888.
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Schimmoeller, Ethan. "Palliating Nihilism by Physician Aid-in-Dying: On Compassion, Autonomy, and the Question of Suicide." The Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1594485758002202.
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Gingras, Gisèle. "Le nihilisme nietzschéen dans la philosophie de la religion de Nishitani Keiji /." Thesis, McGill University, 1993. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=69614.
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Two texts by Nishitani, written ten years apart, reflect a very different position on the nietzschean question of the overcoming of nihilism. Although a student of Heidegger's at Freiburg between 1936 and 1939, Nishitani shows no evidence of a heideggerian influence in The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism. In this period (1949), he considers, contrary to Heidegger, that the affirmative aspects of nietzschean philosophy constitute a radical overcoming of nihilism. It is only in What is Religion? (1961) which appears in 1982 as Religion and Nothingness (English translation) that his view changes, reflecting more closely a heideggerian position. Nietzsche's concept of the Will to Power is evidence for Nishitani that Nietzsche enmeshed still in a philosophy of "Being", remains within traditional Western metaphysics. Because in Nishitani's view, Western metaphysics is nihilist, he finally concludes that Nietzsche did not overcome nihilism.This development in Nishitani's thought is considered, in a concluding perspective of the present text, as evidence of the markedly more profound influence of Heidegger on the later, more mature work of Nishitani.
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Jolly, Edouard. "Les ombres du monde: Anders et le refus du nihilisme." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/209306.
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Bani, Nayère. "The eclipse of being : Heidegger on the question of being and nothing and the ground of nihilism." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2002. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/3037/.
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This thesis explores Heidegger’s philosophy of Being and Nothing in the context of the problem of nihilism. Nietzsche diagnosed the present age as an age of nihilism in the sense of a ‘devaluation of the highest values’. Heidegger argues that Nietzsches’s diagnosis suffers from a fundamental failure to question the meaning of ‘nihil’ in ‘nihilism’. This failure is, according to Heidegger, shared by the history of metaphysics which Nietzsche brings to completion, and it is closely connected with the failure of metaphysics to address the question of Being as such. We shall examine the emergence of Heidegger’s early phenomenological approach to the question of Being in his engagement and confrontation with Husserl’s phenomenology, and trace its subsequent development in major writings of his. It will be argued that Heidegger’s philosophy of Being permits for the first time a more adequate understanding of the problem of Nothing. Throughout the thesis, the horizon of the discussion is the question of the meaning and the ground of nihilism, which will also be addressed explicitly through an examination of Heidegger’s confrontation with Nietzsche.
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Mortson, Darrin Douglas. "Neither nihilism nor absolutism : on comparing the middle paths of Nāgārjuna and Derrida." Thesis, McGill University, 2004. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=83133.
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The current study examines several recent comparisons made between the writings of Nagarjuna and Derrida. The main question under examination is why in particular should such a comparison of two widely different thinkers hold obvious appeal for contemporary scholars? In an attempt to answer this question the comparisons of Robert Magliola, David Loy, Harold Coward and others are analysed as are critiques of this type of comparison presented by Richard Hayes, A. Bharati and others. It is concluded that the basis for these comparisons is a strong concern for a "middle way" perspective between forms of absolutism and nihilism in contemporary Western culture.
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Frascati, Marta. "The kenosis of feminism : an exploration of Christian feminist theology with special reference to Gianni Vattimo." Thesis, McGill University, 1996. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=40123.
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In current discussion among feminists in general and feminist theologians in particular the status of theory, especially concerning essentialism and foundationalism, is a critical question. This study examines the issues pertaining to this question through reference to Nancy Fraser and Linda Nicholson, Susan Thistlethwaite, Sheila Davaney, Rebecca Chopp, and Morny Joy.In order to situate this critical question and its implications for feminist theology, the work of the Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo (1936-$ ...)$ is explored. Vattimo's work is analyzed in relation to three central aspects of his thought: Vattimo's genuine interpretation of the relation of Martin Heidegger to Friedrich Nietzsche, Vattimo's own approach to nihilism, Vattimo's interpretation of Heidegger's notion of ontological difference compared to Jacques Derrida's differance.
Questions of gender and of sexual difference are rarely addressed by Vattimo. Vattimo's silence on these questions is queried with the help of the work of Carol Bigwood, a Heideggerean ecofeminist, and through the writings of Derrida on sexual diffcrence. It is argued that Vattimo implicitly understands sexual difference in terms of emancipation emerging today in communication technology and the mass media. The link between sexual difference and technology is related to the work of Donna Haraway to indicate some features of today's feminism with regard to technology.
Vattimo's philosophical perspective is related to questions of feminist theology through Heidegger's notion of Verwindung understood by Vattimo as closely related to secularization and the biblical notion of kenosis. This study concludes with an analysis and a critique of the work of Rebecca Chopp, Sallie McFague, and Rosemary Radford Ruether, and it emphasizes the secularizing, kenotic dimension of their thought as the most promising approach to central issues of today's feminism.
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Fehrman, Franklin. "Negative Dialectics and the Aesthetic Redemption of the Postmodern Subject." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2017. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/honors_theses/89.
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The last half of the twentieth century into the twenty-first century, in the West, has been referred to as postmodern. Postmodernity represents a stage in a society after having passed through a nihilism, itself produced by the universal commodification inherent in late stage capitalism. Here we explore the progress of devaluation through Adorno’s negative dialects to ascertain the potential for truth and authenticity in the object. Informing Adorno’s negative dialectics, were Kant, Hegel, and Marx. Through their dialectics, Adorno postulated the effect of commodities, as objects, within the first part of the 20th century, and how the lack of potential for truth and freedom in these objects anticipated the nihilism of both the late capitalism period, into the postmodern period. This nihilism itself, was anticipated by Nietzsche. Further, this entire focus on and influence of commodities on the individual, from the early twentieth century to the present is referred to as the commodity structure and itself can be equated to Heidegger’s falling prey. Once the subject has had the valuation or meaning of their lives stripped via this universal commodification of the commodity structure, this paper will argue through the works of Heidegger and Nietzsche and the role of the aesthetic, only then can the subject in the postmodern period reclaim qua participation in one’s own becoming towards both truth and authenticity, as well as freedom.
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Kyzer, Dan. "Beyond Nothingness: A Broader Nihilism in Cinema Paradiso by Stephen Goss." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2019. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1538670/.
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Stephen Goss composed Cinema Paradiso, a six-movement suite for solo guitar, as an homage to films and film directors. Goss cites nihilism as a theme in Dogville, the film that inspires the fourth movement, "Mandalay," but I assert that all the films and many musical devices throughout the piece can be read through the lens of nihilism. The first movement, "Paris, Texas," depicts the stark landscape of the opening scene of the 1984 Wim Wenders film of the same name. "Modern Times" chronicles Charlie Chaplin's slapstick-laden descent from the factory to the insane asylum in the opening sequence of his 1936 Modern Times. "Noir" is a tribute to the procedures of film noir: violent storylines that depict the harshness of life, dim lighting, and anti-hero characters, all accompanied by jazz. Lars von Trier's Dogville provides the movement "Mandalay" with its nihilistic meaning, but Goss writes that he invokes the musical style of Kurt Weill's opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Just as the book people of François Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 had to pass on books orally, Goss has burned the score for his "451," forcing guitarists to learn it by watching a video and listening to a recording. Finally, the chaotic tarantella, "Tarantino" depicts Uma Thurman's heroin overdose scene in Quinten Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. By analyzing Fredrich Nietzsche's writings to form a broader definition of nihilism and applying that definition first to each film and then to corresponding musical elements in each movement, this paper argues that nihilism acts as a connecting theme throughout Cinema Paradiso.
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Hoag, Trevor L. "The Free Spirit: A Critique of Things in Themselves as a Nihilistic Movement." Ohio : Ohio University, 2007. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1179433492.
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Elamin, Ali. "Nietzsche on truth in the contexts of nihilism and health." Thesis, [College Station, Tex. : Texas A&M University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2108.
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Skirl, Miguel. "Politik - Wesen, Wiederkehr, Entlastung." Berlin : Duncker & Humblot, 2005. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/60116167.html.
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Cavendish-Jones, Colin. "Pavilioned on nothing : nihilism and its counterforces in the works of Oscar Wilde." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/3515.
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This thesis explores the role of Nihilism in Oscar Wilde's thought and writing, beginning with the depiction of Russian Political Nihilism in Wilde's first play; Vera, or the Nihilists and tracing the engagement with philosophical Nihilism in his fiction, drama and essays, up to and including De Profundis. It is argued that Russian Political Nihilism derives from the same sources and expresses the same concerns as the philosophical Nihilism discussed by Nietzsche in The Will to Power, and that Nietzsche and Wilde, working independently, came to a strikingly similar understanding of Nihilism. Philosophical Nihilism is defined in two ways; as the complete absence of values (Absolute Nihilism) and as a sense that, while absolute values may exist, they are unattainable, unknowable or inexpressible (Relative Nihilism). Wilde uses his writing to express Nihilism while simultaneously seeking aesthetic and ethical counterforces to it, eventually coming to see Art and the life of the Artist as the ultimate forms of resistance to Nihilism. Wilde's philosophical views are examined in the context of his time, and in the light of his exceptionally wide reading. He is compared and contrasted with Nietzsche, the philosopher who has done most to shape our view of what Nihilism means, in his ethical and aesthetic response to Nihilism. The conclusion also considers the reception of Wilde's expression of Nihilism and his employment of Art as the only superior counterforce in the first half of the twentieth century, with particular reference to the works of Gide and Proust. Their engagement with Nihilism is explored both in historical context and as a way of addressing a problem which has become uniquely pervasive and pressing in the modern era.
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Chagas, José Soares das 1983. "A arte e o niilismo : Albert Camus e o ethos do absurdo e da revolta /." São Paulo, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/180364.
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Orientador: Mario Fernando BolognesiBanca: Anderson de Souza Zanetti
Banca: Alessandro Rodrigues Pimenta
Banca: Karylleila dos Santos Andrade
Banca: Paulo Sérgio Gomes Soares
Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar o niilismo que permeia as produções culturais e o pensamento contemporâneos, a partir dos conceitos de absurdo e revolta de Albert Camus (1913-1960), como ethos possível de uma vida que não se nega a si mesma e se faz semelhante à arte, a saber: criadora. Trata-se de buscar compreender a época das duas guerras mundiais (primeira metade do século XX), em que assassinatos e crueldades receberam estatuto de inocência e razoabilidade por parte da filosofia e da ciência. Neste cenário, a arte compartilha do espírito hodierno da revolta. Mas, ao mesmo tempo, serve de parâmetro de uma ação que busca a unidade na criação, sem cair na negação niilista do suicídio, do assassinato ou de regimes totalitários. Para esta análise, a metodologia hermenêutica empregada consiste numa imersão na obra ensaística, romanesca e dramatúrgica de Camus que busca, ao longo de seus textos, individuar e discutir a problemática niilista em relação com a arte, dentro das preocupações estéticas e poéticas, as quais constituem o horizonte reflexivo do autor. Também lançamos mão das reflexões de Nietzsche como obra de apoio para desenvolver o significado, a origem e a história do niilismo. A partir disso, dividimos a nossa tese em três capítulos: 1 - diagnóstico histórico do niilismo com base no pensamento nietzschiano e na apropriação que o franco-argelino fez do pensador alemão; 2 - a abordagem da relação entre o conceito de niilismo e absurdo e como este se torna um mod... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo)
Abstract: The has the obj ective of this work is to analyze the nihilism that permeates contemporary cultural production, from the concepts of absurdity and rebellion of Albert Camus (1913 - 1960), as possible ethos of a life that does not deny itself and makes it similar to art, nam ely: creative. It is a question of understanding the time of the two world wars (f irst half of the 20th century ), when murders and cruelties were given innocent and reasonable status by philosophy and science. In this scenario, an art shared by the current spirit of revolt. However, at the same time, serve s as a parameter of an action that seeks the production, without suicide, of suicide, murder or totalitarian regimes. For this analysis, the hermeneutic methodology employed consists of an immersion in the essays, romanesca and dramaturgica work of Camu s that searches, throughout in their texts, to identify and discuss the nihilistic problematic in relation to art, within the aesthetic and poetic concerns, which constitute the reflective horizon of t he auth or. We also use Nietzsche's reflections as a support to develop the meaning, an origin and a history of nihilism . From this, we divide our thesis into three chapters : 1 - historical diagnosis of nihilism on the basis of Nietzschean thought and the a ppropri ation that the Franco - Algerian made of the German thinker; 2 - the approach of the relationship between the concept of nihilism and absurdity and how this becomes a model of life and ar... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)
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Groenewald, Andre Johannes. "Nietzsche's impulse towards the development of a concept of God that transcends modern atheism and theism a philosophical theological study /." Pretoria : [s.n.], 2004. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-10052004-065904/.
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Schellino, Andrea. "Le concept de décadence de Baudelaire à Nietzsche." Thesis, Paris 4, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017PA040153.
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Vouée à la diffusion de la décadence littéraire, la fin du siècle s’est forgée une généalogie tutélaire. Par le biais des essais que Barbey d’Aurevilly, Théophile Gautier et Paul Bourget lui ont consacrés, Baudelaire est devenu le poète de la décadence. Mais alors que cette postérité décadente a suscité plusieurs études, il manquait un travail de synthèse sur le sens que le concept de décadence prend sous la plume de Baudelaire. Accusé de propager la décadence, le poète s’en est défendu, en appliquant cette même catégorie à l’idéologie du progrès, puis à l’« art philosophique ». Malgré cette ambiguïté constitutive, la décadence est aussi pour Baudelaire un objet de fascination : c’est ainsi qu’il l’allégorise à travers le couchant du soleil, source de poésie et image d’une civilisation vieillissante. Cette thèse se propose d’aller aux sources de la pensée de l’histoire de Baudelaire. Nous associons ensuite à l’hétérodoxie philosophique du poète un autre versant de la réflexion sur la décadence au XIXe siècle : imprégné de culture française, conforté par les critiques de son époque, Nietzsche élève Baudelaire au rang d’alter ego littéraire de Wagner, chez qui modernité et décadence s’amalgament. Tour à tour rapprochée du pessimisme et du nihilisme, profondément renouvelée, la décadence, loi fatale ou métaphysique, redécouvre ainsi toutes ses nuancesThe fin de siècle assured its own lasting genealogy by contributing to the diffusion of literary decadence. Through the essays that Barbey d’Aurevilly, Théophile Gautier and Paul Bourget devoted to him, Baudelaire became the poet of decadence. While this legacy of decadence gave rise to several studies, no work has exhaustively addressed the meaning that this concept takes on in Baudelaire’s works. Accused of propagating decadence, the poet attempted to defend himself by applying this aesthetic category to the ideology of progress and to « philosophical art ». Despite his constitutive ambiguity, decadence nonetheless fascinated Baudelaire. The poet allegorized decadence in the image of the sunset, which served both as a source of poetic inspiration and evoked an ageing civilization. This thesis proposes to trace the sources of Baudelaire’s historical thinking. It then attempts to associate another side of the reflection on decadence in the nineteenth century with the philosophical heterodoxy of the poet. Nietzsche, who was impregnated with French culture and supported by many critics of his time, elevated Baudelaire to the rank of a literary alter ego of Wagner, since like the composer, the poet brought together modernity and decadence. Reconciling with both pessimism and nihilism, the concept of decadence emerges as deeply renewed, a fatal or metaphysical law that exposes all of its nuances
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Mouna, Mazen. "Attraction du vide et du nihilisme dans l'oeuvre de Maurice Blanchot." Thesis, Mulhouse, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2011MULH4413.
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Nous avons opté pour l’étude du vide et du nihilisme dans l’œuvre de Maurice Blanchot, un écrivain-penseur qui suscite actuellement un intérêt grandissant tant en France qu’à l’étranger. En effet, notre présente étude recouvre une période très riche de mutations politiques, historiques, économiques, sociales, culturelles s’étendant de la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle jusqu’à la fin de ce qu’on appelle l’époque postmoderne. Au sein de ces mutations qui ont marqué l’histoire de l’Occident à cette époque, l’homme occidental se trouve en crise, étonné, choqué par ce désordre qui commence à s’infiltrer dans sa vie, il a recours à l’enfermement et à la solitude pour pouvoir oublier ce drame qui a déjà pris part dans sa vie personnelle, il est soumis devant le vide qui l’écrase et le nihilisme qui n’hésite pas à porter atteinte à sa quiétude. Il commence alors à ressentir un vide existentiel qui le mène à poser des questions infinies : pourquoi suis-je là ? À quoi sert ma vie ? Pourquoi vivre alors que la mort nous attend à la fin et que la vie ne vaut pas la peine d’être vécue ? La scène se révèle tragique et la vie renvoie alors à l’inanité et à l’absurditéWe chose the study of the void and the nihilism in the writing of Maurice Blanchot, a writer-thinker who currently arouses an interest growing both in France and abroad. Indeed, our present study covers a very rich period with political, historical, economic, social and cultural changes extending from the second half of the XIXth century until the end of the postmodern time. In order to be able to analyze the presence of the nihilism and the void in the novels and the accounts of Maurice Blanchot, our research will be related to the prints of modernity in its writs as well as the questioning of the author by some of his contemporaries (writers or philosophers) and its engagement to the cultural and political life of its time. Within these changes, which marked the western history that time, the Western man was in crisis, astonished, shocked by this disorder which started to infiltrate during this period, it led to insulation and loneliness that to forget the drama which already took a share in his personal life, it had been subjected, in front of the void, which crushed it, and the nihilism which didn’t not hesitate to carry reached to its quietude. Then, it started to feel existential empty, which carries out to raise infinite questions: why am I there? For what is used my life? Why live whereas death waits us at the end and until the life is not worth the sorrow to be lived? The scene appears tragic and the life returns then to the inanity and the nonsense
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Roodt, Vasti. "Amor fati, amor mundi : Nietzsche and Arendt on overcoming modernity." Thesis, Link to the online version, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1230.
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Oyarzún, Montes Luis Felipe. "El nihilismo tecnológico y los desafíos del pensamiento crítico contemporáneo. Una macrofilosofía del presente." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/673899.
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Esta tesis doctoral tiene como propósito principal desarrollar una macrofilosofía crítica del presente, a partir de la cual explorar nuevos centros de gravedad que reactiven la potencia de un pensamiento crítico y creativo que hace frente al «nihilismo tecnológico», como reto amenazador y situación inexorable. Para ello, se traza hasta él una genealogía de la actitud crítica, tomando a Kant como hito inaugural.
En el mundo global llamado, mal o bien, posmoderno, está teniendo lugar una aguda tensión del espíritu, consecuencia subterránea del fracaso de los proyectos metafísicos y modernos y el advenimiento del nihilismo como huésped inquietante. Por un lado, la crisis de los motivos, cánones y sentidos vitales «suprasensibles» que dieron significado, importancia y dignidad a la cultura occidental, ha puesto al principio de optimización en el corazón de un mundo organizado en las tramas unidimensionales del sistema tecnológico. Este se comprende básicamente como un sistema simbólico, cuyo nervio es la «voluntad de poder», tensada por una teleología del «siempre más» que hace de la movilización total un fin en sí mismo. El sistema tecnológico se comprende, así, como la administración espectacular del vacío (de motivos vitales), que moviliza todas las existencias huyendo de su propia insignificancia. El sistema tecnológico y la sociedad de rendimiento - en tanto concreción cultural, económica y social - son profundamente nihilistas, pues no quieren ni pueden saber «nada de su propia nada», preocupado exclusivamente de su conservación y crecimiento sin fin, meta ni límites.
Sin embargo, por el otro lado, las mismas dinámicas auto-destructivas del sistema tecnológico han llevado a la cultura occidental a constatar la ausencia de todo proyecto sustentado en algún fundamento incondicional, lo que la enfrenta a su «falta de» origen y destino, en sentido metafísico. Este des-encubrimiento experiencial de su base, le abre la singular posibilidad de hacer de su propio desfondamiento un punto de arranque fecundo y creativo para explorar formas de abrazar, sentir y comprender «de otro modo» este vacío que alumbra la situación contingente y vulnerable de la vida humana (y no-humana). Por lo mismo, si acaso no sabemos (ni sabremos nunca del todo) cómo es que tenemos que vivir, ni
sabemos quiénes somos, esta constatación, lejos de constituir irremediablemente una frustración cosmológica, es la oportunidad de volver a pensar nuevas esperanzas enraizadas en centros de gravedad posmetafísicos, sorteando la ontología de la guerra que hoy se cree hegemónica, incuestionable y de sentido común. Es cierto que ya no podemos creer sin más que el pensamiento crítico va a conducir a un mundo «cada vez mejor» en el sentido que lo veía el proyecto crítico moderno. Pero tampoco cabe sólo resistir, dando por sentado que nuestra suerte ya está echada. También es de vital importancia cultivar nuevas líneas de pensamiento, insistiendo en que el infierno no es la única alternativa que nos queda. Para esto, el desarrollo de una poética de la amabilidad resulta clave.The main purpose of this doctoral dissertation is to develop a critical macro- philosophy of the present, from which to explore new centers of gravity that reactivate the power of critical and creative thinking that faces «technological nihilism», as a threatening challenge and inexorable situation. In doing so, a genealogy of the critical attitude line is drawn which traces a path towards «technological nihilism», taking Kant as the inaugural milestone. In the global world, wrongly or well named postmodern, an acute tension of the spirit is taking place, as a consequence of the failure of modern and metaphysical projects and the advent of nihilism as the «uncanniest of all guests». On one hand, the crisis of the «supersensible» motives, canons and vital reasons that gave meaning, importance and dignity to Western culture, has placed the principle of optimization at the heart of the Technological System. This is basically understood as a symbolic system, whose nerve is the «will to power», strained by a teleology of «always more» that makes total mobilization an end in itself. The Technological System is understood, thus, as the spectacular administration of the void (of vital motives), which mobilizes all existences escaping from their own insignificance. The Technological System and the Society of Performance - as a cultural, economic and social concretion - are profoundly nihilistic, since they do not want and cannot know «nothing of their own nothing», concerned exclusively with its conservation and growth without end, goal or limits. However, on the other hand, the same self-destructive dynamics of the Technological System have led Western culture to verify the absence of any project based on some unconditional foundation, which at the same time leads this Western Culture to confront it with its «lack of» origin and destination, in a metaphysical sense. This experiential uncovering of its base opens up the unique possibility of making of its own groundlessness a fertile and creative starting point to explore other ways of embracing, approaching and understanding this void that reveals the actual and vulnerable human (and non-human) existence. For the same reason, if we do not know (nor will we ever fully know) how to live, neither who we are this finding, far from being irremediably a cosmological frustration, is the opportunity to rethink new hopes rooted in centers of post-metaphysical gravity, circumventing the ontology of war that today is believed to be hegemonic, unquestionable and common sense. It is true that we can no longer simply believe that critical thinking will lead us to an «increasingly better life» in the sense that the modern critical project saw it. But we should not just withstand this situation as if assuming that our fate has already been thrown. It is also vitally important to cultivate new lines of thought, insisting that hell is not the only alternative we have left. For this, the development of a poetics of kindness is key.
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Sehlberg, Johan. "Det Otidsenliga : Om tid och tänkande hos Gilles Deleuze." Thesis, Södertörn University College, School of Culture and Communication, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-2486.
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Through the notions of the untimely (l'intempestif) and untimeliness (intempestif) this paper seeks to gain a better understanding of the problematic surrounding and determining the concept of time in Deleuze. By tracing Deleuze's development of the concept of the untimely through Nietzsche and Kant, we are allowed to concretize the concept of time as pertaining to an experience of modernity (modern life), thus enabling us to better determine the place it holds within the philosophy of Deleuze itself - as a constitutive and productive problematic relating directly to the activity of thinking and being philosophically.
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Newman, Jay M. "Dear Goth." Youngstown State University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1433505706.
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Oulahbib, Lucien-Samir. "Éthique et épistémologie du nihilisme : les meurtriers du sens /." Paris ; Budapest ; Torino : l'Harmattan, 2002. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb38894781f.
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Gladh, Karin. "Nietzsches avvikelse från Schopenhauer : En analys av Nietzsches Tragedins födelse och Schopenhauers Världen som Vilja och Föreställning." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Culture and Communication, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-18797.
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Denna c-uppsats behandlar Nietzsches avvikelse från Schopenhauers Världen som Vilja och Föreställning i verket Tragedins födelse. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka varför det för Nietzsche är möjligt att förena det apolliniska och det dionysiska medan det för Schopenhauer inte är möjligt att förena vilja och föreställning.
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Gladh, Karin. "Nietzsches avvikelse från Schopenhauer : En analys av Nietzsches Tragedins födelse och Schopenhauers Världen som Vilja och Föreställning." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för kultur och kommunikation, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-18797.
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Denna c-uppsats behandlar Nietzsches avvikelse från Schopenhauers Världen som Vilja och Föreställning i verket Tragedins födelse. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka varför det för Nietzsche är möjligt att förena det apolliniska och det dionysiska medan det för Schopenhauer inte är möjligt att förena vilja och föreställning.
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Nallis, Stephane. "Production, vie matérielle, éternité : enquête sur les modalités théologico-politiques du nihilisme contemporain et sur la possibilité d'un monde." Thesis, Toulouse 2, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018TOU20013.
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Partant du constat que l’homme est ce vivant qui a à créer son propre milieu de vie, nous nous interrogeons ici sur ce que le rapport (sémiotique) des hommes à leur environnement présuppose comme rapport (symbolique) des hommes entre eux. Plus précisément, nous cherchons à cerner comment la technoscience façonne un milieu adéquat à la perpétuation des rapports sociaux capitalistes, en particulier en ce qui concerne sa dimension temporelle. Comme le soutenait la Théorie critique, les progrès de la rationalité s’accomplissent paradoxalement dans une parfaite mystification de la logique sociale qui nous domine. Cependant, selon nous, il s’agit moins d’une conséquence du développement dans l’histoire de l’abstraction scientifique que d’une manière sociale-historique de constituer objectivement un certain rapport au temps. Aussi nous étudions sous cet aspect les effets réels de l’abstraction, c’est-à-dire les effets fétichistes et mutilants d’une violence sociale qui se présente à nous sous l’allure d’un destin. La norme inscrite dans le fait nous pousse ainsi à devenir conforme à ce que le « décret divin » a prévu pour nous. La valeur de l’existence de chacun se mesure alors au seul impératif de valorisation infinie du capital inscrit dans l’ordre même des choses, et où renoncer à être devient la condition pour avoir un monde. Notre liberté de sujet autonome a donc pour condition cette domination indirecte qui met en jeu rien moins que notre possibilité d’être. Aussi, faire être ceux qui du point de vue d’un tel monde ne sont rien implique la possibilité de rompre un tel destin et d’envisager la justice dans son rapport à ce temps désajusté, désormais en crise, et hanté du spectre de ceux qui refusent de renoncerConsidering that man, as a living creature, has to create his own environment, we ask here about the kind of relations are presupposed between the (semiotical) link man has with his environment and the (symbolical) link existing among men themselves. More specifically, we try to determine how technoscience is shaping the adaquate context to perpetuate capitalists social relationships, in particular concerning temporal dimension. As claimed by the Critical Theory, progress of rationality paradoxically accomplish itself in the pure mystified domination of social relationships. However, for us, this is less the consequence of the historical development of abstraction than a socio-historical manner to objectify a certain link to time. Hence, under this consideration, we are here analysing the real effect of abstraction, that is, the fetishistics and mutilating effets of a social violence that appears to us in the form of a destiny. Norms incorporated in facts thus lead us to become compliant to the « divine decree » that has been planned for us. The value of each existence is therefore estimated according the unique imperative of capital infinite valuation inscribed in the nature of things, and where renouncing to be is the condition to have a world to live in. Our freedom, as an autonomous subject, hence depends on this indirect domination involving nothing less than the possibility to be. Unable the existence of those who in this world are nothing implies thus the possibility of breaking that destiny, envisaging justice in its link to this time « out of joint », now in crisis, and haunted by all those who refuse to waive
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Laborie, Karine. "Métaphysique et politique à l'épreuve du nihilisme." Thesis, Grenoble, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2011GRENP003/document.
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Cette thèse ne propose pas une variation sur la thématique de la mort de Dieu et ses retombées, mais une enquête sur un mode de penser disqualifié, le nihilisme, susceptible de renouveler un diagnostic sur la crise de la modernité. La menace du nihilisme prend consistance dès l'émergence du scepticisme en Grèce ancienne. Passée au crible de l'histoire de la métaphysique et de la prise de pouvoir des mouvements totalitaires, la mise en équivalence nihilisme-scepticisme mérite d'être interrogée. Elle n'est recevable que si les formes anciennes et modernes prises par le scepticisme sont autant de précédents nihilistes et si, inversement, la crise qui scelle la fin de la modernité est interprétable en termes sceptiques. Une approche dynamique de la métaphysique (comme tension et apparentement entre dogmatisme et scepticisme), rend une reconstruction nihiliste du scepticisme sujette à caution. Penser suspensif dans ses formes anciennes, porteur de vacillement à l'époque moderne, le scepticisme se démarque du nihilisme. Ce dernier évide et néantise toutes les différences et consiste, lui, en une négation du fonds commun entre dogmatisme et scepticisme. Quelle que soit la portée créatrice du nihilisme d'un point de vue spéculatif, c'est sa seule dimension destructrice qui s'impose avec l'instauration d'une politique totalitaire. La modernité s'ouvre bien sur un défi de type sceptique : où asseoir sa créance ? Cependant, avec la mort de Dieu, cette question ne se pose plus en termes de vacillement mais de perte définitive de toute assise. S'il en ressort une crise du but dans le cadre métaphysique,l'institutionnalisation du nihilisme donne lieu, quant à elle, à une crise du sens. Le scepticisme contemporain, emporté dans la tourmente, semble disqualifié par sa compromission supposée avec des politiques nihilistes. Forcé d'engager un auto-examen inédit, ne peut-il pas encore être une ressource pour notre temps ?This thesis does not present a supplementary approach about the death of God and its effects but a study of nihilism, a disqualified way of thought, which could renew a diagnosis on the crisis of modernity. Nihilsm becomes really a threat as soon as scepticism takes shape in Ancient Greece. It is worth questioning stetting nihilism and scepticism as equivalent when considered through the history of metaphysics and rising of totalitarian regimes. This could be accepted only if one considers the ancient and modern forms of scepticism as proceeding from nihilism, and, on the other hand, if the crisis putting an end to modernity can be interpreted from a sceptical point of view. A dynamic approach to metaphysics (as tension and link between dogmatism and scepticism) casts a doubt upon a nihilist interpretation of scepticism. Suspensive thought in its ancient ways, carrying indecision in modern times, scepticism separates from nihilism. The latest eliminates all differences ; by itself, it is the abolition of the common ground between dogmatism and scepticism. Whatever the creative potential of nihilism from a speculative point of view, in the foundation of totalitarian politics, only its destructive aspect stands out. Indeed, modernity opens on a challenge of a sceptic type : which basis for one's belief ? Yet, after the death of God, this question witnesses no longer a state of indecision but truly as the permanent loss of foundation. While it leads to a crisis of the goal from a metaphysical scope, the institutionalization of nihilism provides a crisis of meaning. Contemporary scepticism, caught in the turmoil, appears as discredited because of its presumed involvement with nihilist politics. Could it still be a resource in our time when forced to pratice an original self-examination ?
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Ajerar, Hassane. "Nihilisme et métaphysique." Rouen, 1989. http://www.theses.fr/1989ROUEL072.
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Le spectacle du monde d'aujourd'hui, vide de valeurs et où les signes codés des médias remplacent de plus en plus une communication vivante, contrôle les pires appréhensions des penseurs de la crise de l'Occident, Schopenhauer ou Nietzsche, ou Heidegger. L'expérience nihiliste se caractérise à la fois par le refus d'entreprendre et par le refus d’espérance. N'est-il pas possible de contredire ce rien mondain en y lisant la négation qui, dans la pensée plotinienne, renverse les apparences et nous projette vers l'absolu? La première partie de la thèse s'efforce d'analyser le ressort de l'apophase comme moyen d'approche métaphysique et d'élucider les problèmes qui s'y rattachent, création ex nihilo, déité abstraite ou personnalité, etc. . . Peu à peu l'apophase apparait comme l'ossature commune des trois religions abrahamiques, le lien positif de la tradition occidentale. Mais en même temps la nécessité d'une démarche descendante, la cataphase, s'affirme. La deuxième partie montre que les prophètes ont incarne cette démarche. L'auteur se refuse lui-même à tout prophétisme et à tout programme. Il vise à élucider les conditions d'une restauration des valeursWatching the world as it appears nowdays, without anything valuable worth mentioning, a world in which the coded signs of the media have been increasingly taking over from genuine pessimistic apprehensions of the analysts of the crisis in the western world, namely Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, or else Heidegger. The nihilistic experience consists both in refusing to undertake anything an rejecting any hope whatsoever. Couldn't we possibly refute such mundane nil by finding out in it the negative attitude that, in plotin's outlook, will discupt appearences, so thrusting us toward the absolute. The former part of the thesis tries to analyse the spirit of apophasis as a means of metaphysical approach, thus clearing up the problems connected withe it, say ex nihilo creation, abstract deity er personality, to mention, but some of them. Gradually, apophasis appears as the very framework common to the three abrahamic religions, the effective link within western tradition. Yet together with that, a downward process, cataphasis, beomes a must. The latter part shows that prophets have embodied the process. The author himself rejects any form of prophesizing or programming. What he aims at is settling the conditions for a restoration of values
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Kessler, Mathieu. "Le nihilisme et l'esthetique de nietzsche." Paris 4, 1997. http://www.theses.fr/1997PA040154.
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La presente recherche appartient principalement a deux specialites : l'esthetique et l'histoire de la philosophie contemporaine. On trouvera egalement des developpements importants appartenant a la philosophie morale et a d'autres disciplines exposees non pour elles-memes, mais dans la mesure ou la philosophie de nietzsche aborde egalement des questions de politique, de philosophie de la connaissance ou meme d'histoire des arts. Des references a la philosophie moderne ne seront pas non plus absentes, dans la mesure ou il convenait parfois d'exposer des notions kantiennes et schopenhaueriennes pour mieux comprendre le sens des critiques dirigees contre ces systemes philosophiques anterieurs. De maniere generale nous avons pris le parti d'etudier la pensee nietzscheenne en privilegiant la perspective esthetique. Ainsi la morale, la physiologie et la metaphysique, trois disciplines considerees comme des perspectives majeures dans la philosophie de nietzsche, sont principalement etudiees en fonction de celle-ci. Le nihilisme et l'esthetique de nietzsche pourrait aussi bien s'appeler l'anti-nihilisme esthetique de nietzsche, car il s'agit de demontrer que l'entreprise nietzscheenne de depassement de la metaphysique ne peut etre consideree comme reussie autrement qu'en ramenant toute sa philosophie a une esthetique generalisee, dont l'esthetique specialisee - l'esthetique des oeuvres d'art - n'est qu'une partie au meme titre qu'une autre. En ce sens, la formule supreme de la transmutation des valeurs voulue par nietzsche consisterait a etre intellectuellement en mesure d'ecrire le mot d'esthetique a chaque fois que les philosophes traditionnels etaient tentes, naguere, de placer le nom de metaphysique. Renouer le lien distendu de l'affectivite et de la raison consiste en la pratique effective d'une pensee qui s'enracine dans un reseau hermeneutique tout autre que celui du nihilisme. Cette methodologie exprime la destination et le sens de la philosophie de nietzsche. C'est pourquoi, etudier la verite du nihilisme et de l'esthetique de nietzsche nous a semble la seule facon rigoureuse de rendre compte a la fois de l'un et de l'autreThe following research mainly parlakes in two special fields of knowledge : aesthetics and contemporary philosophy. The emphasis will be widely put on questions dealing with moral philosophy and other disciplines, not for their own sake, but in so far as nietzsche's philosophy has to do with politics, the philosophy of knowledge or even art history. References to modern philosophy will also be made since it was sometimes necessary to give an overview of kant's and schopenhauer's ideas in order to have greater insight into the meaning of the criticism aimed at these earlier philosophical systems. Generaly speaking, we have chosen to study nietzsche's thought by focusing mainly on aesthetics. Consequently, moral philosophy, physiology and metaphysics, which are considered as three major perspectives in nietzsche's philosophy, will be studied in the light of aesthetics. Nihilism and nietzsche's aesthetics could have also been called nietzsche's aesthetics anti- nihilism in so far as the purpose here is to demonstrate that nietzsche's endeavour to go beyond metaphysics could not be achieved without considering his whole philosophy as a generalized aesthetics, the aesthetical branch of which - namely the aesthetics of the works of art - is only a part of it, among others. In this respect, the ultimate definition of the transvaluation of values, as nietzsche willed it, would consist in being intellectually ready to write the world aesthetics each time traditional philosophers were tempted to use the word metaphysics, as they formerly did. Since the link that binds affectivity and reason is loose, chances are that we may tie it up again through the actual practice of a thought deeply implanted in a hermeneutic network which would not be nihilism, in any way. This methodology expresses the direction and the meaning of nietzsche's philosophy. That's why studying the truth of nihilism and nietzsche's aesthetics seems to us the only rigorous way of accounting for both of them
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Kuhn, Elisabeth. "Friedrich Nietzsches Philosophie des europäischen Nihilismus /." Berlin : W. de Gruyter, 1992. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb357131234.
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Larivière, Jean. "L'analyse du nihilisme chez Nietzsche." Thesis, Université Laval, 2007. http://www.theses.ulaval.ca/2007/24756/24756.pdf.
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Carlson, Brian Matthew. "NIHILIST PERDURANTISM: A NEW ONTOLOGY OF MATERIAL OBJECTS." UKnowledge, 2017. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/philosophy_etds/17.
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Ordinary material objects, such as guitars and houses, do not seem to pose any serious philosophical problems. However, the nature of the material objects and their part-whole relation raises serious questions about fundamental ontologies. Furthermore, part-whole relations are not necessarily spatial; they can be temporal as well.
My dissertation investigates the problems posed by ordinary material objects, and the different ontological views that attempt to provide answers to these problems. I then present a new and radical view, which I call Nihilist Perdurantism (NP). NP claims that objects have temporal parts, but not spatial parts. I arrive at this view by first exploring and arguing against different views on composition, with a focus on arguments against common sense ontologies of ordinary objects. I then discuss the nature of mereological simples and argue against several views that claim that qualitatively heterogeneous simples are possible (Markosian and McDaniel). Next, I present my arguments against perdurantist, endurantist, and presentist view of persistence. I especially focus on endurantism, and use the aforementioned argument against the possibility of qualitatively heterogeneous simples to construct a similar argument against endurantism. Finally, I argue in favor of my view, NP. This view combines a mereological nihilist view (defended at various times by Unger, Van Inwagen, Merricks, and Sider) about spatial parts with a perdurantist view (defended at various times by Lewis, Hawley, Heller, and Sider) of temporal parts. Therefore, according to NP, there are no guitars, trees, or houses.
The only objects that exist are NP objects; these are line-shaped objects that extend through spacetime. With respect to the three spatial dimensions, these objects have no parts. However, with respect to the temporal dimension, NP objects do have parts in the form of points and line segments. My work shows that NP has better solutions to many of the puzzles and problems posed by material objects, such as the puzzle of change, over the three standard views. Hinchliff argues that change is puzzling because in order for there to be real change, then the following four intuitions must be true: (1) The candle persists through the change. It existed when it was straight, and it exists now when it is bent…(2) Shapes are properties not relations. They are one-placed, not many-placed…(3) The candle itself has the shapes. Not just a part but the candle itself was straight, and not just a part but the candle itself is bent…(4) The shapes are incompatible. If the shapes were compatible, there need not have been a change. The puzzle of change is the mutual inconsistency of these four intuitions. I argue that perdurantists must deny intuition (3), endurantists must deny intuition (2), and presentists must deny intuition (1). I then argue that only NP can accommodate all four intuitions about both macroscopic and microscopic change while resolving the inconsistency of the four intuitions.
My dissertation presents a new view that provides a fresh perspective on the debate about the nature of material objects. My development of NP touches on a number of other philosophical problems. In Chapter One, I discuss the role of intuitions in metaphysics, and argue that many supposedly “common sense” intuitions are already philosophical positions. In Chapter 2, I argue against Korman’s and Markosian’s common sense ontologies of ordinary objects. In Chapter 3, I argue that the endurantist view of persistence is inconsistent and should be rejected. In addition to making the case for NP and its solution to the puzzle of change in Chapter 4, I also argue that NP can solve the problem of motion in a homogenous substance. Finally, in Chapter Five, I argue against the possibility of both gunky and junky material objects.
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Choi, Soon-Young. "Friedrich Nietzsches Moralkritik." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Philosophische Fakultät I, 2002. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/14694.
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Meine Doktorarbeit behandelt hauptsächlich den todfeindlichen Kampf zwischen Nietzsches Philosophie und Jesus Lehre, im Nietzsches Worte, Judda gegen Rom, Rom gegen Judda. Ich habe versucht, die Quelle dieses Kampfes begrifflich zu erklären. Dafür habe ich den Begriff 'Inkompatibilität' verwendet und ich habe auch versucht, den scheinbaren Widerspruch der Begriffe von Nietzsche zu erklären, z. B., die Kritik an Willensfreiheit und die Freiheit des freien Geistes, der scheinbare Widerspruch zwischen Wille zur Macht und ewiger Wiederkehr des Gleichen und die begriffliche Beziehung zwischen Philosophie und Wissenschaft. Man kann nur einen Standpunkt von Judda gegen Rom haben, weil dieser Kampf keinen Kompromiß erlaubt.My PhD thesis treat mainly deadly battle between Nietzschean philosophy and christian doctrine, in Nietzschean concept, Jew against Rome, Rome against Jew. The source of this battle has been conceptually explained. The incompatibility describes the source of that deadly battle. The seeming inconsistency of Nietzschean concepts has been explained on entire context of Nietzschean philosophy, for example, the critique of the freedom of will and the freedom of free spirit, the seeming contradiction between will to power and eternal recurrence and conceptual relationship between philosophy and science. Just one standpoint can be chosen between Jew against Rome, because this battle doesn't allow any compromise between them.