Nihilism Before Nietzsche
University of Chicago Press (1995)
| Abstract | In the twentieth century, we often think of Nietzsche, nihilism, and the death of God as inextricably connected. But, in this pathbreaking work, Michael Gillespie argues that Nietzsche, in fact, misunderstood nihilism, and that his misunderstanding has misled nearly all succeeding thought about the subject. Reconstructing nihilism's intellectual and spiritual origins before it was given its determinitive definition by Nietzsche, Gillespie focuses on the crucial turning points in the development of nihilism, from Ockham and the nominalist revolution to Descartes, Fichte, the German Romantics, the Russian nihilists and Nietzsche himself. His analysis shows that nihilism is not the result of the death of God, as Nietzsche believed but the consequence of a new idea of God as a God of will who overturns all eternal standards of truth and justice. To understand nihilism, one has to understand how this notion of God came to inform a new notion of man and nature, one that puts will in place of reason, and freedom in place of necessity and order. | |||||||||
| Keywords | Nihilism (Philosophy | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Buy the book | $24.77 new (18% off) $28.50 direct from Amazon (5% off) Amazon page | |||||||||
| Call number | B828.3.G55 1995 | |||||||||
| ISBN(s) | 0226293483 9780226293486 | |||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,875 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesJon Fennell (1999). Bloom and His Critics: Nietzsche, Nihilism, and the Aims of Education. Studies in Philosophy and Education 18 (6):405-434.
Stanley Corngold (2009). Nietzsche : Nihilism and Neo-Gnosticism. In Jeffrey A. Metzger (ed.), Nietzsche, Nihilism, and the Philosophy of the Future. Continuum.
Stanley Rosen (2009). Nietzsche's Double Rhetoric : Which Nihilism. In Jeffrey A. Metzger (ed.), Nietzsche, Nihilism, and the Philosophy of the Future. Continuum.
Geoff Waite (2009). Nietzsche Rhetoric Nihilism : Every Name in History, Every Style, Everything Permitted? (A Political Philology of the Last Letter). In Jeffrey A. Metzger (ed.), Nietzsche, Nihilism, and the Philosophy of the Future. Continuum.
Nadeem J. Z. Hussain (2012). Metaethics and Nihilism in Reginster's THE AFFIRMATION OF LIFE. Journal of Nietzsche Studies 43 (1):99-117.
Jeffrey Metzger (2009). How Deep Are the Roots of Nihilism? : Nietzsche on the Creative Power of Nature and Morality. In Jeffrey A. Metzger (ed.), Nietzsche, Nihilism, and the Philosophy of the Future. Continuum.
Ashley Woodward (2011). Camus and Nihilism. Sophia 50 (4):543-559.
Ashley Woodward (2002). Nihilism and the Postmodern in Vattimo's Nietzsche. Minerva - An Internet Journal of Philosophy 6:51-67.
Robert G. Morrison (1997). Nietzsche and Buddhism: A Study in Nihilism and Ironic Affinities. Oxford University Press.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads41 ( #28,500 of 556,895 )Recent downloads (6 months)2 ( #39,122 of 556,895 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
