Nihilism and Metaphysics: The Third VoyageAn assessment and reevaluation of nihilism s ascendency over metaphysics. Challenging the idea that nihilism has supplanted metaphysics, Vittorio Possenti finds in this philosophical turn the grounds for a mature renewal of metaphysics. Possenti takes the reader on a third voyage that goes beyond the second voyage indicated by Plato in the Phaedo. He traces the ascendancy of nihilism in philosophy, offering critical examinations of Nietzsche, Gentile, Heidegger, Habermas, Husserl, Gadamer, Ricoeur, and Vattimo. With penetrating accounts of philosophical movements such as hermeneutics and logical empiricism, rich with both historical and theoretical insights, Possenti provides a compelling defense of the power of human reason to apprehend the most obvious but also the most profound aspect of things: that they exist. By exploring the ubiquity of nihilism and probing its philosophical roots, Possenti clears the way for a fresh reformulation of metaphysics. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 The Question of Nihilism and the Knowledge of Being | 13 |
2 Metaphysical Knowledge of Existence | 39 |
3 Being Intellect and Abstractive Intuition | 61 |
4 The Status of First Principles | 87 |
5 Speculative Nihilism | 105 |
6 Heidegger | 131 |
7 Eight Theses on Postmetaphysical Thinking | 155 |
13 The Third Voyage | 255 |
14 Ontological Humanism and the Person | 279 |
15 Between the Present and the Future | 297 |
Antirealism and the Schism between Man and Reality | 317 |
Texts of Thomas Aquinas without Comment | 321 |
Intellectual Intuition Anticipation and Judgment in Karl Rahner | 325 |
More on Intellectual Intuition | 333 |
The Appeal to the Experience of Self as a Type of Natural Mysticism | 335 |
8 The Two Roads of Hermeneutics | 171 |
9 Logical Empiricism and Analytic Philosophy | 189 |
10 Consequences of Nihilism | 211 |
11 Toward the Determination of Practical Nihilism | 223 |
12 Progress in Philosophy? | 239 |
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Common terms and phrases
absolute abstraction according actus affirmation analytic philosophy antirealism Aquinas Aristotle assertion assumption becoming causality Christian cognitive completely concept constitutes critique Dasein Descartes dialectic doctrine epistemology essence essential eternal ethics existence existential experience expressed fact Fides et Ratio finite forgetting fundamental Gentile Gentile’s gnoseology grasp Hegel Heidegger Heidegger’s hermeneutics human Ibid idea identity insofar intellect intellectual intuition intelligible interpretation Jacques Maritain judgment Kant Kant’s Kantian Karl Löwith Kierkegaard knowing knowledge language linguistic logic Martin Heidegger meaning metaphysics modern moral nature neopositivism Nietzsche Nietzsche’s nihilistic notion object ontology person phenomenology philosophy of history Plato Possenti possible postmetaphysical predicate principle priori problem propositions pure question quod radical raison d’être rationalism reach realism reality realm reason seems sense sensible speculative spirit structure Summa theologiae theology theoretical nihilism thing thinking third voyage thought tion trans transcendental truth understanding understood unity universal