| Nihilism Before Nietzsche Contributor(s): Gillespie, Michael Allen (Author) |
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ISBN: 0226293483 ISBN-13: 9780226293486 Publisher: University of Chicago Press OUR PRICE: $36.63 Product Type: Paperback Published: October 1996 Annotation: 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. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Philosophy | History & Surveys - General |
| Dewey: 149.8 |
| LCCN: 94012205 |
| Series: Phoenix Poets (Paperback) |
| Physical Information: 0.79" H x 6.11" W x 9.02" (0.98 lbs) 336 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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. |
Contributor Bio(s): Gillespie, Michael Allen: - Michael Allen Gillespie is professor of political science and philosophy at Duke University. |