Philosophy discussion
Books and Authors
>
Looking for Books on Nihilism
date
newest »

message 1:
by
Shadid
(new)
Apr 21, 2013 11:07PM

reply
|
flag

"Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction" by Ray Brassier
A modernist embracing nihilistic consequences of the Enlightenment in the West. Takes a unique perspective in arguing philosophers should embrace and explore the kind of nihilism which results from the scientific image of the world, i.e., the world without human value or values, purely quantitative, lacking any meaning of significance. Brassier criticizes phenomenology and hermeneutics, including Heidegger, for attempting to keep human meaning, or meaning at all, center-stage. He draws on and critiques Heidegger.
"Nihilism" by Stanley Rosen
A classicist arguing for a retrieval of themes from ancient thought. Rosen is a philosopher in the vein of Leo Strauss and Anna Harendt, viz., one who argues that modern philosophy, Cartesian, subject-centered, anti-teleological, scientistic, was a 'wrong turn' from the ancient Greek beginnings, and has led to the nihilism of the postmodern. Therefore we need to return to Plato and Aristotle with fresh eyes and ears for how to renew philosophy. Heidegger is also a big factor here, in Rosen's view the most significant villain of recent philosophy.
"A Farewell to Truth" by Gianni Vattimo
A postmodernist bringing the hard news to modern humanists and secular evangelists that we are entering a thoroughly post-Enlightenment world. Just as Nietzsche diagnosed the 'Death of God' and its implications for Western civilization, Vattimo argues we are now undergoing the correlated 'Death of Truth', viz., the death of modern science's metaphysical stand-in for God, the assumption of a single, unitary Objectively True Reading of The World. Gianni is like Rorty, a friend, in exploring how liberals might embrace and navigate this environment without sacrificing their hopes.

