Innehållsförteckning
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