The Sunny Nihilist

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

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Book Description

The Sunny Nihilist

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

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Book Description


The Essence of Nihilism

The Essence of Nihilism PDF Author: Emanuele Severino
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1784786128
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
In 1969, Emanuele Severino underwent a Vatican trial for the 'fundamental incompatibility' between his thought and the Christian doctrine, and was removed from his position as professor of philosophy at the Catholic University in Milan. The Essence of Nihilism published in 1972, was the first book to follow his expulsion, and to firmly establish Severino's preeminent position within the constellation of contemporary philosophy. In this groundbreaking book, Severino reinterprets the history of Western philosophy as the unfolding of 'the greatest folly', that is, of the belief that 'things come out of nothing and fall back into nothing'. According to Severino, such a typically Western understanding of reality has produced a belief in the radical 'nothingness' of things. This, in turn has justified the treatment of the world as an object of exploitation, degradation and destruction. To move beyond Western nihilism, suggests Severino, we must first of all 'return to Parmenides'. Joining forces with the most venerable of Greek philosophers, Severino confutes the 'path of night' of nihilism, and develops a new philosophy grounded on the principle of the eternity of reality and of every single existent.

Medical Nihilism

Medical Nihilism PDF Author: Jacob Stegenga
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198747047
Category : MEDICAL
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
"Medical nihilism is the view that we should have little confidence in the effectiveness of medical interventions. This book argues that medical nihilism is a compelling view of modern medicine. If we consider the frequency of failed medical interventions, the extent of misleading evidence in medical research, the thin theoretical basis of many interventions, and the malleability of empirical methods in medicine, and if we employ our best inductive framework, then our confidence in the effectiveness of medical interventions ought to be low" --

Positive Nihilism

Positive Nihilism PDF Author: Hartmut Lange
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262534266
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 95

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Book Description
A German writer's aphoristic, poetic, and difficult reflections on Heidegger's Being and Time. There is a beyond of reason and unreason. It is the human psyche. —Positive Nihilism Like many German intellectuals, Hartmut Lange has long grappled with Heidegger. Positive Nihilism is the result of a lifetime of reading Being and Time and offers a series of reflections that are aphoristic, poetic, and (appropriately, considering his object of study) difficult. Lange begins with an abyss (“There is an abyss of the finite. It is temporality”) and proceeds almost immediately to extremity: “The twentieth century was governed by psychopaths. They collapsed the boundaries of moral reason and refuted Kant's analysis of consciousness.” He reflects further: “But who shall punish whom? One man's virtue is another man's crime. Thus Hitler could feel unwaveringly, as he wiped out entire populations, the starry sky above him and the moral law within him, as stipulated by Kant.” He considers the concept of civilization (“misleading”; “how should one oppose the remedies of civilization to the egomania, the murderous appetites of such outright psychopaths as Stalin or Pol Pot?”), the act of thinking (a fata morgana), the psyche, and Heidegger's Dasein. Positive Nihilism can be considered a pocket companion to Being and Time. “Heidegger's understanding of Being is nihilistic,” Lange writes, and then explains his assertion. He draws on Kant, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Shakespeare's Othello for supporting arguments and illustrations. “Everyone is possessed of the courage to have angst about death. The question is whether this courage necessarily secures those vital advantages Heidegger alleges”–that “self-understanding [is] the mental anticipation of death.” Lange wrestles with Heidegger's position, calling on Tolstoy, Georg Trakl, Herman Bang, and Heinrich von Kleist to argue against it.

Nihilism and Technology

Nihilism and Technology PDF Author: Nolen Gertz
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1786607042
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
Heidegger, Marcuse, and Ellul warned against the rise of a technological mass culture. Philosophy of technology has since turned away from such dystopic views, promoting instead the view that we shape technologies just as technologies shape us. Yet the rise of Big Data has exceeded our worst fears about Big Brother, leading us to again question whether technologies are empowering us or enslaving us. Rather than engage in endless debates about whether technologies are making us better or making us worse, Nolen Gertz investigates what we think “better” and “worse” mean, and what role this thinking has played in the creation of our technological world. This investigation is carried out by using Nietzsche’s philosophy of nihilism in order to explore the ways in which our values mediate how we design technologies and how we use technologies. Examining our technological practices—practices ranging from Netflix and Chill to Fitbit and Move to Twitter and Rage—reveals how our nihilism and our technologies have become intertwined, creating a world of techno-hypnosis, data-driven activity, pleasure economics, herd networking, and orgies of clicking.

Nihilism

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

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

Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World

Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World PDF Author: Iddo Landau
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190657685
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Does life have meaning? Is it possible for life to be meaningful when the world is filled with suffering and when so much depends merely upon chance? Even if there is meaning, is there enough to justify living? These questions are difficult to resolve. There are times in which we face the mundane, the illogically cruel, and the tragic, which leave us to question the value of our lives. However, Iddo Landau argues, our lives often are, or could be made, meaningfulwe've just been setting the bar too high for evaluating what meaning there is. When it comes to meaning in life, Landau explains, we have let perfect become the enemy of the good. We have failed to find life perfectly meaningful, and therefore have failed to see any meaning in our lives. We must attune ourselves to enhancing and appreciating the meaning in our lives, and Landau shows us how to do that. In this warmly written book, rich with examples from the author's life, film, literature, and history, Landau offers new theories and practical advice that awaken us to the meaning already present in our lives and demonstrates how we can enhance it. He confronts prevailing nihilist ideas that undermine our existence, and the questions that dog us no matter what we believe. While exposing the weaknesses of ideas that lead many to despair, he builds a strong case for maintaining more hope. Along the way, he faces provocative questions: Would we choose to live forever if we could? Does death render life meaningless? If we examine it in the context of the immensity of the whole universe, can we consider life meaningful? If we feel empty once we achieve our goals, and the pursuit of these goals is what gives us a sense of meaning, then what can we do? Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World is likely to alter the way you understand your life.

Against Nihilism

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

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

Beyond Nihilism

Beyond Nihilism PDF Author: Ofelia Schutte
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226741413
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Nietzsche is regarded by some as a great liberator, a thinker far more radical than Marx. For others, he is an ideologue of power, a spokesman for domination, a protofascist. Ofelia Schutte holds that these conflicting assessments result from a failure to distinguish between two paradigms of power found in Nietzsche's work: power as recurring energy and power as domination. Schutte uses this fundamental distinction to analyze comprehensively Nietzsche's metaphysics, ethics, and politics. She addresses both the positive and the negative in the whole of his thought, seeking to read Nietzsche 'without masks'--without the cultural and intellectual biases of many of his previous interpreters.

Nihilism:

Nihilism: PDF Author: James Biser Whisker
Publisher: Nova Science Publishers
ISBN: 9781536198027
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Nihilism is a highly negative system of thought with roots in early Greek philosophy. It came into prominence as a major movement with Friedrich Nietzsche's unparalleled assault on Christianity and Christian morality. It became a dominant theme in the dark philosophical system known as existentialism, and thus became an important force in nineteenth century literature and in twentieth century ideologies. It seeks destruction of one or more aspects of society without offering a viable alternative, frequently assuming that the better world will automatically appear after the old world is obliterated. Loathing the building blocks of the present system, nihilism asserts that the better world will be composed of new, but unspecified, components.French philosophy during and after the French Revolution, and virtually all nineteenth century Russian literature, was dominated by nihilism. German Nazism had a nihilistic base which was carefully concealed by racist rantings. Marxism, with so many of its ideas stolen from Russian and French nihilists, proclaimed that faulty economics brought about misery and poverty which would be eradicated by the new but unspecified and undescribed socialist ethic.Revolutionary systems in the twentieth century have delved heavily into the rich trove of nihilist literature to promote, describe, and espouse revolutions which have marked much of that century. Few contemporary nihilists have offered any new insights into reality, choosing only to manipulate the basic concepts heretofore advanced. But the earlier nihilistic ideas have become an all-inspiring training primer for nihilists of future polities. To understand the philosophy of nihilism is to understand the revolutions that have continued to challenge modern societies.