Explores the concept of nihilism and argues that it need not imply despair, but can be responded to positively.
Disputing the common misconception that nihilism is wholly negative and necessarily damaging to the human spirit, John Marmysz offers a clear and complete definition to argue that it is compatible, and indeed preferably responded to, with an attitude of good humor. He carefully scrutinizes the phenomenon of nihilism as it appears in the works, lives, and actions of key figures in the history of philosophy, literature, politics, and theology, including Nietzsche, Heidegger, Camus, and Mishima. While suggesting that there ultimately is no solution to the problem of nihilism, Marmysz proposes a way of utilizing the anxiety and despair that is associated with the problem as a spur toward liveliness, activity, and the celebration of life.
Tabella dei contenuti
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Problem of Nihilism
PART I: Scrutinizing Nihilism
1. German and Russian Nihilism
German Nihilism
Russian Nihilism
2. Nietzschean Nihilism
The Christian, the Anarchist, and Socrates
Apollo and Dionysus
Healthy Culture and the Well-Ordered Society
Ascent, Decline, and the Eternal Return of the Same
Heidegger and Nietzsche
3. World-War and Postwar Nihilism
The National Socialists
Camus and the Existentialists
Yukio Mishima and Asian Nihilism
Nihilism in America
4. Nihilistic Incongruity
The Descriptive, Normative, and Fatalistic Premises of Nihilism
The Historical Complication
Pyrrho, Stirner, Rorty, and Skeptical Pragmatism
PART II: Decline, Ascent, and Humor
5. Decline, Decay, and Falling Away
6. Ambition, Aspiration, and Ascent
7. Humor and Incongruity
Jokes
Comedy
Humor
Conclusion: Humor as a Response to Nihilism
Postscript
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Circa l’autore
John Marmysz teaches Philosophy at Corning Community College.
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