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1
Wade, Jeffrey Jacob. "Nihilism Unbound: Strauss, Nietzsche and Foucault as Nihilist Thinkers." PDXScholar, 2010. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/396.
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Many of the writings of Leo Strauss were dedicated to combating the "crisis of modernity". This crisis was for him the advent and acceptance of nihilism--a state of being wherein any principle one dare dream is allowed and judgment must be withheld. He claimed that the promotion of nihilism at the hands of modern social scientists would lead to the downfall of civilization. Yet, this work seeks to show that all of these claims are made by Strauss in an attempt to hide the "truth" of nihilism from the masses and that Strauss, in fact, is a nihilist thinker. The introductory chapter of this work introduces the problem of nihilism as outlined by Strauss. It also briefly explains the positions of two other nihilist thinkers, Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault, in order to establish the thought which Strauss seems to be arguing against in his works. It then explains the writing style of Strauss as being esoteric. The following chapter will deal with the Strauss' argument for the causes of nihilism. Chapter three will be dedicated to the two solutions that Strauss presents for combating nihilism. The exoteric solution calls for a return to the teachings of the classics, specifically the three types of teaching that he recognizes--Socratic-Platonic, Aristotelian, and Thomistic. The esoteric solution, however, is to use the Platonic conception of the "noble lie" in order to hide the "truth" of nihilism. Chapters four and five will compare Strauss' nihilism to that of Nietzsche and Foucault, respectively. Each chapter will expand on the discussion already presented in the first chapter to further elucidate each thinker's version of nihilism. Finally, I will outline the conception of these three thinkers as a continuum for nihilist thought. I will also discuss how the only definitive difference between the three thinkers is their outlook on the human condition. For example, Strauss and his hidden nihilism is a direct result of his pessimistic view of the masses; whereas Nietzsche's Übermensch nihilism is brought about by his outlook on the prospect for development beyond humanity and Foucault's pure nihilism is drawn out from his notion of power/knowledge. In this way, this work will not only show Strauss as a closet nihilist but also show his integral role in understanding the full range of nihilist thought.
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Vesely-Manning, Josee. "Magic Nihilism." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/20025.
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Magic Nihilism conceptually alludes to a present encounter with current geo-political and environmental crisis, global hegemony and the material ruins and waste of late capitalism (and its political precedents) with ontological direction led by the emerging movement of New Materialism, theories on the Anthropocene and the ongoing post-human dialectics in relation to contemporary art practice. In this paper I discuss how within this framework and in my art practice associations with "magic nihilism" are implied through the correlation and intersection with matter as both a physical and metaphysical referent. Central in this exploration, a Nietzschian concept of nihilism, to allow for more obscure and enigmatic outcomes, is key. In this paper I also reference current artists working today who, whilst relating to the discursive of post minimalism and conceptual practice, place an emphasis of on the performative, immersive, and a new envisioning of what I propose as "magic nihilism" which also posits collectivity, interchangeability and dynamism in the equation;; not residing in “bodies or things” but all encompassing and constantly in flux. I also use examples of this engagement in contemporary art practice which makes vivid this “effluvia”: climates, electric currents, mist, sound vibrations, gas, magnets, vapour, perfume, charges, telepathy, surges, conduits, odour, osmosis, atmosphere and (meta) physics which I also argue characteristically both reflects and defies the oxymoronic proposition of the thesis title.
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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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Gilbert, Brian. "Nietzsche and nihilism." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0005/NQ41070.pdf.
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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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Slocombe, Will. "Postmodern nihilism : theory and literature." Thesis, Aberystwyth University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/2160/740d7998-8998-4ef7-9514-4174d05cec4a.
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This thesis examines the relationship between nihilism and postmodernism in relation to the sublime, and is divided into two parts: theory and literature. Beginning with histories of nihilism and the sublime, the Enlightenment is constructed as a conflict between the two. Rather than promote a simple binarism, however, nihilism is constructed as a temporally-displaced form of sublimity that is merely labelled as nihilism because of the dominant ideologies at the time. 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 through a series of interconnected themes. These themes – apocalypse, the absurd, absence, and space – arise from the debates presented in the theoretical chapters of this thesis, and demonstrate the ways in which nihilism and the sublime interact within postmodern literature. Because of the theoretical and literary debates presented within it, this thesis concludes that it cannot be a thesis at all.
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Smith, Toby. "Nihilism in Nietzsche, Heidegger and Levinas." Thesis, Durham University, 2006. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2652/.
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This thesis presents an account of nihilism in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, and a critical response to it using the philosophies of Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas. Chapter one gives an account of the three different types of nihilism in Nietzsche’s writings, and of how the latest outbreak of nihilism, modern European, came about. Chapter two presents Nietzsche's own responses to modern European nihilism, focusing on the overman, the will to power, the eternal recurrence and his view of truth, and points out the disturbing ethical implications of Nietzsche's responses to nihilism. Chapter three places Nietzsche’s philosophy within the context of Heidegger's account of nihilism as 'forgetfulness of Being', and considers Heidegger's critique of Nietzsche and the notion of 'values', Heidegger's account of the philosophical tradition since Plato, and his reflection on our ‘technological' understanding of Being as an inevitable result of the 'forgetfulness of Being’. Chapter four discusses how Being and Time and its critique of Descartes and the subject-object distinction can be seen as a response to nihilism as the 'forgetfulness of Being՝, and as an implicit part of Heidegger's critique of Nietzsche. Chapter five considers Heidegger’s response to nihilism in terms of his writings on authenticity, art, language, and thinking, and shows how all of these features of Heidegger's thought aim to attune us to Being as the mysterious 'source' of all particular understandings of being, a source to which we are beholden for the sense we are able to make in our lives. The potentially dangerous features of this picture of human life are then addressed, as is the lack of an explicitly ethical dimension to Heidegger's response to Nietzsche's explicitly ethical account of nihilism. Chapter six gives an account of Levinas's phenomenology of ethics and his critique of Heidegger and the philosophical tradition as 'philosophies of the Same'. It presents Levinas's theses concerning the importance of the other person in giving philosophical accounts of language, truth, and objectivity, and the heteronomous nature of the moral subject, as a way of making good the lack of an explicitly ethical response to Nietzschean nihilism in Heidegger’s philosophy.
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І, Diachuk M. "MANIFESTATIONS OF NIHILISM IN MODERN SOCIETY." Thesis, Національний авіаційний університет, 2017. http://er.nau.edu.ua/handle/NAU/28067.
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Snowball, Arryn. "Delineating Nihilism: Colin McCahon's Last Paintings." Thesis, Griffith University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/368119.
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This thesis analyses a series of text paintings by New Zealand artist Colin McCahon,
and proposes that by delineating nihilism, they resist being nihilistic. All four
paintings, The Emptiness of All Endeavour: Triptych, Is There Anything of Which One
Can Say, Look This Is New?, I Applied My Mind, and I Considered All the Acts of
Oppression (painted between 1980 and 1982), draw their text from ‘The Book of
Ecclesiastes’, as translated in the New English Bible (1970). While previous
discussions of the works have tended to emphasise the biographical element of the
works (i.e., McCahon’s life and his struggle with faith), I argue, this denies a full
understanding of the work’s subtleties. As a counter to this, I closely analyse the text
in the paintings, comparing it to its Biblical source, and drawing on theological
criticism of Ecclesiastes.
In so doing, I situate McCahon’s paintings in relation to arguments surrounding
contemporary nihilism and the death of painting, while also elucidating the
theological relationships expressed in the works. Drawing upon Simon Critchley’s
(2004) model for delineating nihilism, I propose that, as an act of stark and yet
uncompromising resistance, the works manage to offer a ‘continuing’ in the face of a
meaningless and futile world. As McCahon’s work has not previously been discussed
in relation to the discourse on nihilism, this thesis offers an original contribution to
the growing body of writing on McCahon. Moreover, through considering his works’
materiality and content, I suggest McCahon’s practice may offer a model for
contemporary painting to engage with difficult questions of meaning and belief.
This is to certify that ‘Delineating Nihilism: Colin McCahon’s last paintings’ has not
been previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of
my knowledge and belief, this research paper contains no material previously
published or written by another person except where due reference is made within the
paper itself.Thesis (Professional Doctorate)
Doctor of Visual Arts (DVA)
Queensland College of Art
Arts, Education and Law
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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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Craig, Benjamin Taylor. "The aesthetic turn in the face of nihilism." Texas A&M University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/85954.
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This thesis outlines one's overcoming of nihilism by consulting two figures,
Martin Heidegger and John Dewey. Each thinker holds a pivotal role for art, such that, a
turn to the aesthetic allows the individual to overcome this nihilistic age. I intend to
show that Heidegger and Dewey mutually inform each other's project. Heidegger is
able to shed light on Dewey's project; however, Dewey ultimately takes Heidegger's
thought a step further. Heidegger understands the current age to be overcome with
nihilism as a consequence of modern technological enframing as well the end of
classical religious sensibilities. Heidegger, like Dewey, relies on aesthetics to correct
this dilemma. Because of Heidegger's diagnosis of the problem, we can see a new
context for Dewey's thought. Dewey does not speak in the language of nihilism,
however, through Heidegger, we can see that they share a similar concern. Where
Dewey takes Heidegger's thought a step forward is in regard to Dewey's emphasis on
personal experience. This emphasis shifts the responsibility of overcoming nihilism
away from Heidegger's poet and onto the individual. Dewey understands aesthetics to
be a process of experience and art to be the culmination of this experience. This shift in
responsibility is placed upon the individual because the individual is the arbiter of their doings and sole recipient of their undergoings. Consequently, the individual bears the
consequences, and therefore the responsibility, of their experiences. Meaning, each
individual holds the tools necessary to overcome nihilism inherent in one's own
experience. The name for the process of properly weathering one's doings and
undergoings is called the aesthetic life. The turn to personal responsibility, in the
aesthetic life, allows the people to be the genesis of change rather than necessitating a
leader, or poet. A community of people engaged in the aesthetic life is understood as
democracy. Dewey's formulation of democracy, then, is not only a work of art but it
also prevents the return of nihilism through the creation of a society always creating
more possibility for its citizens.
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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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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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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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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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Glassford, John. "Nihilism and modernity : political response in a godless age." Thesis, Open University, 1999. http://oro.open.ac.uk/57953/.
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In this thesis I argue that following Hegel's commitment to both political philosophy and political theory, Max Stirner, Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche take flight from doing political theory in the 'Western' tradition. I demonstrate that Stirner, Marx and Nietzsche all use their own respective notions of political philosophy to criticise the very idea of doing political theory per . re. The evidence for this is to be found in both their refusal to do political theory and in their notions of prophetic agency. I further argue that this development is bound-up with their particular responses to the post-Hegelian milieu of which they were a part. As such, Stirner, Marx and Nietzsche all subscribed to a novel form of secularised eschatology. Although there have been studies of this secularisation thesis before, most notably by Karl Löwith, and groundbreaking though this study is, it is related to the difficult period in which in was written (the 1930's and 40's). Löwith for example, is concerned with the impact that eschatological thought has on the formation of totalitarian regimes more generally. As a result, such studies, which might encapsulate Hegel's own thought, are often rejected as but a species of the kind of eschatological literature which are also held to be necessarily repressive. However, in this thesis I point to an important cleavage between Hegel and his followers: Hegel, despite his eschatological outlook, remains firmly tied to the traditional 'Western' canon in so far as we see his commitment and application to doing political theory, whether descriptive or normative, and as such it is also demonstrably supported by his own political philosophy. Whereas in the case of Stirner, Marx and Nietzsche, their own eschatological projects respectively, are used as weapons in the war against political theory. I demonstrate that this historic cleavage occurs because Stirner, Marx and Nietzsche read eschatology as primarily prophetic and forward looking while Hegel's own eschatology remains ex events. The former look to legitimating particular historical agencies of change while Hegel continues to regard the potential multiplicity's of all political agency from within the most promising liberal institutions of modern society.
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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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Qiu, Kui. "Heroic nihilism: Buddhism in the work of Nikos Kazantzakis." The Ohio State University, 1992. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392113274.
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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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Glassford, John. "Nihilism and modernity : political response in a Godless age." n.p, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/.
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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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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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Kim, Kevin D. "Nihilism, American Style: The Americanization of the Idea of Culture." Thesis, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/7075.
Full textAbstract:
There are at least three major moments of nihilism in American intellectual history. Against European tradition, Emerson had advanced a conception of culture that was radically interpretive, pluralistic and anti-foundationalist, and this eventually worked its way back into the United States through the social sciences (via Nietzsche and then Weber). Likewise, American pragmatist philosophy, conceiving science as serving plural values rooted in human needs, originated with Emerson. The various European conceptions of value had always conceived value as objective and transcendent, and this was reflected in the European ideas of culture; the chasm between subject and object was a feature of the Western intellectual tradition. This notion of transcendent value was discredited, it led in the European tradition to a crisis of nihilism. In contrast, the early American culture idea united (subjectivity) values and culture with objectivity (science and technique); this revolutionary conception conceived value as immanent and not transcendent, and some critics felt that this was a nihilistic betrayal of eternal truths and ideals. By the middle of the twentieth century, especially in the United States, the close union of subject and object characteristic of early twentieth-century American academic theory led to a new kind of nihilism, in the form of the technocratic subordination of values to technique and the negation of existential meaning by rationality in American thought and society. The early balance between an interacting subject and object was lost in positivist pragmatism and in the functionalist social sciences. Since the 1960s, the response to this crisis was ultimately counter-cultural protest, and consisted of undermining the legitimacy of the technocracy by attacking rationality in general. On the theoretical level, this was accomplished primarily by collapsing the distinction between subject (culture) and object (science). However, this libertarian rebellion drew its values of self-expression and self-fulfillment largely from consumerism, and in its quest for greater individual empowerment laid the groundwork for the information age by equating technology with personal creativity. This is an ambiguous victory over the technocracy.xxiii, 357 leaves
25
Caves, Richard Laurence John. "Metaontology, emergence and theory choice : in defence of Mereological Nihilism." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/8298/.
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This thesis offers detailed remarks on debates in metametaphysics, the question of ontological emergence and the merits of extra-empirical theory choice criteria, such as ontological and ideological parsimony, in the course of defending Mereological Nihilism (nihilism). Part I is primarily a discussion of the metaontology of the composition debate and how nihilism begins to look like a more attractive theory once a certain metaontological framework is adopted. §0. provides an overview of the background assumptions of my thesis and outlines the dialectical strategy I will be employing. §1. Explains why a strategy is needed to reconcile revisionary ontological claims, such as nihilism, with common sense: I argue for the Ontologese Strategy (OS) over the more established neo-Quinean paraphrase strategy. §2. Elucidates OS and defends it from objections, while §3. discusses the status of non-fundamental existential claims on OS and responds to further objections. §4. Employs OS to defend nihilism from epistemic dismissivism, which threatens to undercut the prima facie theoretical advantages of nihilism— demonstrating the utility of OS in advancing the first order debate. In Part II I defend nihilism from what I take to be the major challenge to the theory once certain metaontological assumptions are in place: the epistemic possibility of ontological emergence. §5. sets out the main line of defence – a strategy employing plural instantiation. §6. explores alternative strategies such as entanglement relations, fundamental indeterminacy and extended simples. §7. Looks at arguments for monism vs. pluralism in light of putative emergence from quantum mechanics and argues there is conceptual room for a third way – Local Holism. §8. Tries to bolster the assumption of this thesis that parsimony considerations are relevant to the composition debate. In §9. I make some concluding remarks for the thesis as a whole.
26
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
27
Herrero, Senés Joan. "Nihilismo y literatura de entreguerras en España (1918-1936)." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/7432.
Full textAbstract:
En esta tesis se interpreta a través del prisma conceptual del nihilismo el desarrollo de la literatura española de entreguerras, y el papel central de los escritores en el reconocimiento de desorientación del hombre moderno. Primero se analiza teóricamente el concepto de nihilismo; luego se proporciona una descripción del contexto ideológico-estético de entreguerras, la coyuntura de la literatura de vanguardia y la cuestión de la jovialidad del Arte Nuevo ante una profunda crisis de valores. Posteriormente se atiende diacrónicamente a las interrelaciones del Arte Nuevo con el nihilismo, se analiza el cambio de sensibilidad de la actitud vanguardista en revolucionaria y se presenta el horizonte de las distintas alternativas ideológicas que afectan al escritor: liberalismo, pensamiento religioso y propuestas ideológicas "totales" como son el fascismo y el bolchevismo. Finalmente se estudia la ideología estética del novelista Benjamín Jarnés, cuya evolución ejemplifica la tarea de la práctica artística como modo de resistencia frente al nihilismo.
This research interprets through the concept of nihilism the evolution of the Spanish interwar literature (1918-1936) and the central role of writers in recognizing the essential disorientation of modern man.
First there is the analysis of the concept of nihilism. Then it is provided a description of the ideological and aesthetical context of interwar years, and it is discussed the position of avant-garde literature and the question of the joyfulness of the new art before a deep crisis of values. After that, I try to explain the interactions between new literature and nihilism and I analyze the change of sensibility from avant-gardism to revolution, and how writers react to several ideological alternatives: liberalism, religious thought and especially total proposals such as Fascism and Bolchevism. Finally I focus on the aesthetic ideology of the novelist Benjamín Jarnés, whose evolution shows how the artistic praxis posits itself as a mode of resistance to nihilism.
28
Tattersall, Mason. "The concept of authenticity in Heidegger's Being and Time: thoughts and revisions on a critical theme." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/350.
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Addressing the meaning of Martin Heidegger's much-discussed concept of 'authenticity',this study challenges the view, put forward by Charles Guignon and others, that that concept chiefly concerns the significance that an individual life can acquire. Emphasizing the crucial distinction between relational and transcendant meaning, the study sees that distinction as critical to Heidegger's treatment of authenticity, and, more broadly, to the manner in which authenticity figures in the situating of Being and Time in the general context of nihilism and belief Drawing on arguments put forward by Hubert Dreyfus, and especially attuned to Kierkegaard's influence on Heidegger, the study repositions the concept at the point where Heidegger's existential analytic and the all too human desire for deeper meaning meet. The result serves at once to clarify the concept and refine understanding of its place in larger histories.
29
Duman, Musa. "The Growing Desert: Nihilism And Metaphysics In Martin Heidegger'." Phd thesis, METU, 2009. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12610512/index.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
ABSTRACT
THE GROWING DESERT: NIHILISM AND METAPHYSICS
IN HEIDEGGER&rsquoS THOUGHT Duman, Musa Ph. D., Department of Philosophy Supervisor : Prof. Dr. Ahmet inam March 2009, 209 pages In this study, we explore Heidegger&rsquo
s understanding of nihilism as the essential dimension of metaphysics, of metaphysical experience of Being, and in the following, we address his responses to it. Heidegger takes nihilism as rooted in the metaphysical way of thinking, hence metaphysics and nihilism standing in a primordial identity. Such metaphysical way of thinking as a framework in which Being is experinced and articulated, explicitly or implicitly in all areas of Western culture, from art to science, gives us the deep history or movement of Western tradition. Heidegger considers such movement to be presenting an ever growing threat, indeed as something to be consummated in the eeriest possibility of world history, that is, total destruction of human essence as an openness for the disclosure of Being. He points out to this underlying phenomenon with various designations: forgetfullnesss of Being, abandonment of Being, darkening of the world, Gestell and devestation are some of them. In this tradition, Being, from Plato and Aristotle onwards, becomes nothing at all, that is, excluded from any thoughtful consideration, reduced to a mere abstraction. Anything nihilistic, if fully delved into, would prove to conceal at its heart an alienation to the true sense of Being. Therefore, we need to develop a way of thinking outside the dominion of metaphysics, which should not only discover No-thing as the concealment dimension of Being, thus be deeply open to our finitude, but also learn to respond thoughtfully and thankfully to the gift of Being in, through and towards which we ex-sist as human beings. Vis-a-vis the futural potentials of nihilism in this long end of Western history, the futural character of Heidegger&rsquo
s thinking, his search for a new way of thinking that would incipate the other beginning, harbours a strange Tension that is characteristic of his whole philosophy.
30
Bull, Jeoffrey Steven. "Trying nothing, appraisals on nihilism in American fiction of the 1970s." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp02/NQ27883.pdf.
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31
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/.
Full textAbstract:
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.
32
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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Collins, Peter. "Some contemporary atheist and Christian responses to moral nihilism and amoralism." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2018. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d4c208c4-eef0-4d14-973a-f64adf90c7e9.
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If the universe and our lives within it exist for no purpose and are destined to be annihilated for ever in death, perhaps nothing much matters including how we live and treat others. In particular, we may never have good reason to make substantial, enduring and uncompensated sacrifices of our own interests here and now in order to secure the interests of others. This is especially so in seeking realise our ambitions through pursiuing fame and fortune in competitive careers. Part One sets out three challenges to any morality which requires some unselfishness: from the perennial facts about the human condition; from the extreme pluralism of contemporary secular society; and from an updated Machiavellianism in relation to ambition. Part Two explores the answers to these challenges offered by three versions of contemporary atheist ethics: Isaiah Berlin's, Daniel Dennett's and Derek Parfit's. Part three builds on the work of the Christian ethicists Keith Ward and Charles Taylor to show how a Christian ethics grounded in the theological virtues, in the virtiue of humility, and the concept of vocations offers more attractive and inspiring answers to the challenges of moral nihilism and amoralism than is available to atheists, who also need forms of faith if they are to rebut these challenges.
34
Catone, Giuseppina. "Vattimo e Severino. Sulle tracce del nichilismo nietzscheano." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/399923.
Full textAbstract:
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.
35
Starrs, Roy. "The mask and the hammer : nihilism in the novels of Mishima Yukio." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27201.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis offers an analysis of some of the major novels of Mishima Yukio in the light of their underlying nihilist world-view. There are primarily three different levels to the analysis: philosophical, psychological and moral/political, to each of which a chapter is devoted. In the treatment of each of these "levels" the focus is not merely on the nihilism per se but on the aesthetic consequences of the nihilism in Mishima's art of fiction. An attempt is also made to place Mishima, as a "nihilist writer", within the international context of the nihilist literary/philosophical tradition, a tradition whose origins may be traced back to mid-nineteenth-century Europe.
The analysis centres on what are, in the writer's view, Mishima's three major works—which also represent, coincidentally, the three separate decades of his literary career: Confessions of a Mask (Kamen no kokuhaku, 1949), The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji, 1956) and The Sea of Fertility (Ho jo no umi, 1965-70), a total of six novels, since the latter work is a tetralogy. The study aims not to provide an all-inclusive survey of Mishima's career but to penetrate to the very core of his inspiration through an in-depth study of his most important works.
Chapter One, "The Tragic Mask", begins with a general consideration of the relation between philosophy and the novel, or ideas and the novel, and offers a brief taxonomy of the "philosophical novel". Using this taxonomy, a description is then given of Mishima as a philosophic novelist whose central philosophy is nihilism. The main body of the chapter then offers an analysis of each of his three main works in terms of their nihilist philosophy, paying particular attention to its expression in "experiences of nothingness" which form the climaxes of the novels, and to the structural discipline which his use of this philosophy confers on the novels.
Chapter Two, "The Void Behind the Mask", opens with a general discussion of the relation between nihilism and psychology, and then proceeds to a consideration of Mishima's own "nihilist psychology" and the "nihilist psychology" of his novels. Each of his major novels, whether explicitly "autobiographical" or more apparently "fictional", is found to be primarily an expression of the author's own "nihilist psychology". The active/passive tensions which characterize this psychology are analysed in Freudian, Adlerian and peculiarly Japanese terms.
Chapter Three, "Hammer to Mask", opens with a general consideration of nihilist morality and politics, especially in terms of the "active nihilist" tradition which may be traced from Nietzsche down to 20th century fascism and terrorism. Mishima's own right-wing extremism and his glorification of terrorist violence place him squarely in this "active nihilist" moral/political tradition. But his "active nihilist" side was also continually in danger of being undermined by his "passive nihilist" side, his sense of the futility of all action. The resultant tensions are found to form the basis of the moral/political dialectic of his major novels.Arts, Faculty of
Asian Studies, Department of
Graduate
36
Birrell, Ross John. "The theatre of destruction : anarchism, nihilism & the avant-garde, 1909-1945." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2002. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2912/.
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This thesis argues that theatricalization is an appropriate paradigm to employ in a political reassessment of the historical avant-garde moments of Futurism, Dada and Surrealism. Through an analysis of the performativity and theatricality of the manifestos and manifestations of these successive avant-garde, it is suggested that each avant-garde moment self-dramatizes a destructive character. An argument is then developed that the destructive character of the avant-garde demonstrates and displays a libertarian-barbarian dialectic which emerges from within the discourses of anarchism and nihilism, in particular from Michael Bakunin’s maxim: ‘the passion for destruction is a creative passion, too’. The destructive character of the avant-garde is manifest most clearly in the manifestos which announce and perform a desire for the destruction of the institution of art and the re-integration of art and life, as advanced by Peter Bürger. Identifying a parallel between the discourses of theatricalization and aestheticization in Symbolist drama, I argue that the paradigm of theatricalization necessitates a critical re-assessment of the polarity which Walter Benjamin advances, between the aestheticization of politics and the politicization of art. Further, it is suggested, we must also re-examine the polarity which Bürger asserts between Aestheticism and the avant-garde with respect to the question of autonomy in art. Thus, from Bakunin’s initial breakdown of the opposition between destruction/creation we embark upon a re-examination of the polarity between key terms of the avant-garde: libertarian/barbarian; incarnation/integration; aestheticization/politicization; theatricality/performativity. The theatricalization of avant-garde manifesto is then articulated in the context of Habermas’ study of the structural transformation of the public sphere from feudalism (theatricalization) to capitalism (literalization).
37
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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Brimhall, Kristen A. "Processing Nihilism: The Struggle for Valuative Supremacy in Javier Marías' Berta Isla." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2021. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/8964.
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Nihilism is a popular and heavily studied topic which is prominently displayed in Javier Marías' novel Berta Isla. In this article, both Nietzschean and Heideggerian concepts of nihilism will be identified and analyzed within the context of Marías's novel. Through textual analysis, the origin of nihilism will be explored as it relates to the will to power and valuative schema of the individual. It will be suggested that nihilism stems from valuative thinking induced by the herd-mentality of a community and that the fulfillment of such is the acceptance of absolute truth grounded in being and becoming.
39
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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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.
41
Sealey, David. "The worldview of Oliver Heaviside." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.302434.
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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.
43
Yilmaz, Victoria Bilge. "Nietzschean Nihilism And The Ways To Overcome It In Tom Murphy'." Master's thesis, METU, 2008. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12609712/index.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Nietzschean epistemology involved many subversive elements and, thus, posed a challenge to the Christian epistemology and to other traditional frames of references which appeared after the Enlightenment. With his philosophy Nietzsche problematised many of the traditional givens like the master signifier (God), the other organising principles, and the traditional binary oppositions on which the Western metaphysics was based. He shattered the previous parameters of existence irraparably when he disconnected the individual from his/her illusions by laying bare a decentered universe devoid of any form of meaning, and the result was nihilism in the beginning. Interestingly enough, Nietzschean epistemology also offered ways to overcome this nihilistic stage in an individual&rsquos struggle for a meaningful existence. This thesis is based on the analysis of two plays by Tom Murphy, &ldquo
Bailegangaire&rdquo
and &ldquo
The Sanctuary Lamp&rdquo
, against the background of Nietzschean philosophy and attempts to discover the parallelisms between Murphy&rsquo
s characters and Nietzschean elements in their search for the essence of existence and their desire for a meaningful life. In the plays, self-realisation of an individual, that is, overcoming nihilism, is mainly achieved by means of art and one&rsquo
s individual strength, which is characterised by the ability to endure abyss, affirm life as it is, forget and forgive one&rsquo
s enemies, follow instincts, employ one&rsquo
s will to power, acquire the power and the position of God in one&rsquo
s personal zone, and combine destruction and creation. The playwright conveys an individual&rsquo
s loss of purpose and the inevitable chaos in the aftermath of the death of God and, also, the methods to surmount this nihilistic condition. The study comes to the conclusion that all the above Nietzschean elements build a solid background for Murphy&rsquo
s drama, where the dramatist draws a picture of systematicity of existence of an individual who struggles to attain meaning.
44
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.
Full textAbstract:
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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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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Chamberlain, Franc. "Embodying the spirit : Nihilism and spiritual renovation in the European theatre (1890-1914)." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.317568.
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CASTRO, MARIA EDUARDA OLIVEIRA. "MODERN NIHILISM AND CONSUMMATION OF THE METHAPHYSICS: A HEIDEGGERIAN`S READING OF NIETZSCHE." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2012. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=22333@1.
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PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIROCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO
Aquilo que Martin Heidegger considera o niilismo moderno e a consu-mação da metafísica constituiriam, segundo ele, dois dos grandes fundamentos do pensamento nietzschiano e do que seria uma época moderna. A filosofia de Nietzsche é a que melhor reflete os rumos da metafísica, no sentido do resgate de sua essência no mundo grego, e da descoberta, aí, de seu caráter eminentemente niilista. Isto pressupõe uma consumação, um esgotamento da metafísica, mas também o descortinar de um outro início a partir do significado do ser. Hei-degger desenvolve seu argumento com base no que diz ser os cinco títulos cen-trais da metafísica nietzschiana; são eles: vontade de poder, eterno retorno do mesmo, transvaloração de todos os valores até aqui, além-do-homem e o próprio niilismo. Torna-se inevitável, porém, em meio ao aprofundamento de tais temas, a descoberta de que as conclusões sobre a filosofia de Nietzsche aca-bam por falar muito do próprio pensamento heideggeriano e, indo mais à fundo, de sua história de filiação à ideologia nazista.
What Martin Heidegger considers nihilism and the consummation of the methaphysics would constitute, according to him, two of the big fundamen-tals of nietzsche`s thinking and the modern era. Nietzsche’s philosophy reflect the course of metaphysics on its way from the recovery of its greek world essence, as eminently nihilist. This assumes a consummation, a fulfillment os metaphys-ics, but also the unveiling of another beginning based on the meaning of the being. Heidegger develops his concepts according to what he calls Nietzsche’s main five titles; they are: will power, eternal return of the same, transvalu-ation of all values, beyond man and the nihilism itself. Becomes inevitable, however, with the deepening of such issues, the discovery that the conclusions about Nietzsche reveal`s a lot of the heideggerian’s thinking itself, and, going further, ist history of affiliation with the Nazi ideology.
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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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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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Jutila, Alexander Lee. ""An Abyss of Anarchy, Nihilism, and Despair"| Historical Representations of Anarchists in Britain." Thesis, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=13419186.
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Studies on historical representations of anarchists tend to focus on terrorist depictions and how they compare to the actual activities of the anarchist movement. Using British print media, this thesis explores other political, cultural, and social representations of anarchists in an effort to expand the field beyond a strict focus on terrorism. In addition, this thesis will also investigate the ways Cesare Lombroso and Havelock Ellis shaped discussions of anarchists in the British public sphere.