Download or read book The Age of Nihilism written by Curtis R. McManus and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2018 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Age of Nihilism explores the ruinous philosophies currently underwriting the devastating slow-motion implosion of Western civilization. Most Western democracies structure their social and political orders around a vague, poorly defined body of ideas called “progressive” and whose stated goal is “social justice.” But using sources as powerful and diverse as Plato, Friedrich Nietzsche, Herman Melville, and Albert Camus, McManus explodes the myth of progress and unmasks the falsehood of social justice. He argues instead for cycles of history, and in doing so, McManus reveals that the citizens of twenty-first century Western democracies exist in the fast-fading twilight of an increasingly distempered civilization whose fate was always determined. We designate as “progress” the cultural and social changes of the past thirty years. But it is not progress. It is nihilism. And it is the presence of nihilism itself that informs us that we are living at the end of an age.
Download or read book Education in an Age of Nihilism written by Nigel Blake and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses concerns about educational and moral standards in a world increasingly characterised by nihilism. On the one hand there is widespread anxiety that standards are falling; on the other, new machinery of accountability and inspection to show that they are not. The authors in this book state that we cannot avoid nihilism if we are simply laissez-faire about values, neither can we reduce them to standards of performance, nor must we return to traditional values. They state that we need to create a new set of values based on a critical assessment of contemporary practice in the light of a number of philosophical texts that address the question of nihilism, including the work of Nietzsche.
Download or read book Nihilism written by Seraphim Rose and published by St. Xenia Skete Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In 1962, the young Eugene Rose undertook to write a monumental chronicle of the abandonment of Truth in the modern age. Of the hundreds of pages of material he compiled for this work, only the present essay, on Nihilism, has come down to us in completed form. Here Eugene reveals the core of all modern thought and life--the belief that all truth is relative--and shows how this belief has been translated into action in our era. Today, nearly half a century after he wrote it, this essay is more timely than ever. It clearly explains why contemporary ideas, values, and attitudes--the "spirit of the age"--are shifting so rapidly in the direction of moral anarchy, as the philosophy of Nihilism enters more deeply into the fiber of society. Nietszche was right when he predicted that the twentieth century would usher in "the triumph of Nihilism."--Back cover.
Download or read book Friedrich Nietzsche and European Nihilism written by Paul van Tongeren and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2018-11-14 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a thorough study of Nietzsche’s thoughts on nihilism, the history of the concept, the different ways in which he tries to explain his ideas on nihilism, the way these ideas were received in the 20th century, and, ultimately, what these ideas should mean to us. It begins with an exploration of how we can understand the strange situation that Nietzsche, about 130 years ago, predicted that nihilism would break through one or two centuries from then, and why, despite the philosopher describing it as the greatest catastrophe that could befall humankind, we hardly seem to be aware of it, let alone be frightened by it. The book shows that most of us are still living within the old frameworks of faith, and, therefore, can hardly imagine what it would mean if the idea of God (as the summit and summary of all our epistemic, moral, and esthetic beliefs) would become unbelievable. The comfortable situation in which we live allows us to conceive of such a possibility in a rather harmless way: while distancing ourselves from explicit religiosity, we still maintain the old framework in our scientific and humanistic ideals. This book highlights that contemporary science and humanism are not alternatives to, but rather variations of the old metaphysical and Christian faith. The inconceivability of real nihilism is elaborated by showing that people either do not take it seriously enough to feel its threat, or – when it is considered properly – suffer from the threat, and by this very suffering prove to be attached to the old nihilistic structures. Because of this paradoxical situation, this text suggests that the literary imagination might bring us closer to the experience of nihilism than philosophy ever could. This is further elaborated with the help of a novel by Juli Zeh and a play by Samuel Beckett. In the final chapter of the book, Nietzsche’s life and philosophy are themselves interpreted as a kind of literary metaphorical presentation of the answer to the question of how to live in an age of nihilism.
Download or read book Against Nihilism written by Stepenberg Maia Stepenberg and published by Black Rose Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Described by Thomas Mann as "e;brothers in spirit, but tragically grotesque companions in misfortune,"e; Nietzsche and Dostoevsky remain towering figures in the intellectual development of European modernity. Maia Johnson-Stepenberg's accessible new introduction to these philosophers compares their writings on key topics such as criminality, Christianity, and the figure of the "e;outsider"e; to reveal the urgency and contemporary resonance of their shared struggle against nihilism. Against Nihilism also considers nihilism in the context of current political and social struggles, placing Nietzsche and Dostoevsky's contributions at the heart of important contemporary debates regarding community, identity, and meaning. Inspired by class discussions with her students and aimed at first-team readers of Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, Against Nihilism provides an accessible, unique comparative study of these two key thinkers.
Download or read book Digital Nihilism written by Ryan Night and published by . This book was released on 2019-11-09 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you feel lost? Going through life without meaning or purpose? Slaving away at a desk job... for what? Yearning for an answer to life's biggest questions: why am I here? Where do I belong? What should I do? Digital Nihilism provides the answers for the dreariness of the modern age, and the consuming anomie that so many currently experience. ---------------------------------------------------------- In this book, the philosophies of various forms of nihilism (passive & active nihilism, optimistic nihilism, existentialism, absurdism) are introduced and tied together with man's quest for meaning. This is the book that describes and introduces what you need to know to join in the Digital Nihilism movement, which is spreading rapidly across the internet. You will be introduced to the concepts of Digital & Spiritual Nihilism, including layman introductions to nihilism (Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus), Jungian psychology (Jung, Campbell), various forms of spirituality (Kabbalah, Buddhism, Hinduism). You will learn about the goals of Digital & Spiritual Nihilism -- deep space exploration, radical self-expression, breaking reality, autonomy over time and freedom of access. You will learn about the metaphysics and quantum physics that describe the future Digital Nihilism hopes to achieve. Finally, you will learn about the symbols commonly used by those associated with the Digital Nihilism movement.
Download or read book Nihilism written by Nolen Gertz and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-09-10 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of the meaning of meaninglessness: why it matters that nothing matters. When someone is labeled a nihilist, it's not usually meant as a compliment. Most of us associate nihilism with destructiveness and violence. Nihilism means, literally, “an ideology of nothing. “ Is nihilism, then, believing in nothing? Or is it the belief that life is nothing? Or the belief that the beliefs we have amount to nothing? If we can learn to recognize the many varieties of nihilism, Nolen Gertz writes, then we can learn to distinguish what is meaningful from what is meaningless. In this addition to the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Gertz traces the history of nihilism in Western philosophy from Socrates through Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre. Although the term “nihilism” was first used by Friedrich Jacobi to criticize the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, Gertz shows that the concept can illuminate the thinking of Socrates, Descartes, and others. It is Nietzsche, however, who is most associated with nihilism, and Gertz focuses on Nietzsche's thought. Gertz goes on to consider what is not nihilism—pessimism, cynicism, and apathy—and why; he explores theories of nihilism, including those associated with Existentialism and Postmodernism; he considers nihilism as a way of understanding aspects of everyday life, calling on Adorno, Arendt, Marx, and prestige television, among other sources; and he reflects on the future of nihilism. We need to understand nihilism not only from an individual perspective, Gertz tells us, but also from a political one.
Download or read book Nihilism Emancipation written by Gianni Vattimo and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2007-02-27 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Features essays on ethics, politics, and law. This book re-evaluates the meaning, values, and the idea of freedom in Western culture. A daring marriage of philosophical theory and practical politics, this collection is the first of Gianni Vattimo's many books to combine his intellectual pursuits with his public and political life. Vattimo is a paradoxical figure, at once a believing Christian and a vociferous critic of the Catholic Church, an outspoken liberal but not a former communist, and a recognized authority on Nietzsche and Heidegger as well as a prominent public intellectual and member of the European parliament.
Download or read book Plain Sense of Things written by James C. Edwards and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edwards (philosophy, Furman U.) describes a religious way of living that relies on neither religion's traditional power nor the current enthusiasm for values. He first provides an historical introduction, paying special attention to Kierkegaard and the early work of Heidegger. He then analyzes Heidegger's notion of "poetic dwelling on the earth as a mortal," and shows how this notion is exemplified in Thoreau's Walden, Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire, and Wallace Stevens' poem "The Plain Sense of Things." Paper edition (unseen), $17.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book The Age of Paradise written by John Strickland and published by Ancient Faith Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Before there was a West, there was Christendom. This book tells the story of how both came to be." (from the Introduction) The Age of Paradise is the first of a projected four-volume history of Christendom, a civilization with a supporting culture that gave rise to what we now call the West. At a time of renewed interest in the future of Western culture, author John Strickland-an Orthodox scholar, professor, and priest-offers a vision rooted in the deep past of the first millennium. At the heart of his story is the early Church's "culture of paradise," an experience of the world in which the kingdom of heaven was tangible and familiar. Drawing not only on worship and theology but statecraft and the arts, the author reveals the remarkably affirmative character Western culture once had under the influence of Christianity-in particular, of Eastern Christendom, which served the West not only as a cradle but as a tutor and guardian as well.
Download or read book Nihilism written by Brett Stevens and published by . This book was released on 2016-08-03 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A work of philosophy in the continental tradition, Nihilism examines the human relationship with philosophical doubt through a series of essays designed to stimulate the ancient knowledge within us of what is right and what is real.
Download or read book The Age of Division written by John Strickland and published by Ancient Faith Publishing. This book was released on 2020-11-15 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you have ever wondered exactly how we got from the Christian society of the early centuries, united in its faithfulness to apostolic tradition, to the fragmented and secular state of the West today, The Age of Division will answer all your questions and more. In this second of a four-volume cultural history of Christendom, author John Strickland applies insights from the Orthodox Church to trace the decline and disintegration of both East and West after the momentous but often neglected Great Schism. For five centuries, a divided Christendom was led further and further from the culture of paradise that defined its first millennium, resulting in the Protestant Reformation and the secularization that defines our society today.
Download or read book Medical Nihilism written by Jacob Stegenga and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medical nihilism is the view that we should have little confidence in the effectiveness of medical interventions. Jacob Stegenga argues persuasively that this is how we should see modern medicine, and suggests that medical research must be modified, clinical practice should be less aggressive, and regulatory standards should be enhanced.
Download or read book The Age of Utopia written by John Strickland and published by Ancient Faith Publishing. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Continuing the epic of Christendom told in earlier volumes, The Age of Paradise and The Age of Division, the author explains how, between the Italian Renaissance of the fourteenth century and the Russian Revolution of the twentieth, secular humanism displaced Christianity to become the source of modern culture. The result was some of the most illustrious music, science, philosophy, and literature ever produced. But the cultural reorientation from paradise to utopia-from an experience of the kingdom of heaven to one bound exclusively by this world-all but eradicated the traditional culture of the West, leaving it at the beginning of the twentieth century without roots in anything transcendent.
Download or read book The Banalization of Nihilism written by Karen L. Carr and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1992-02-06 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After a historical and conceptual overview of the changing face of nihilism in the last century, Carr examines Nietzsches diagnosis of nihilism as modernitys major crisis. She then compares the responses to nihilism given by the early Karl Barth and by Richard Rorty. To some, nihilism is losing its crisis connotations and becoming simply an unobjectionable characteristic of human life. Carr argues that this transformation ultimately absolutizes community preference and reflects an increasing inability to criticize and change the existing structures of thought. The author contends that the uncritical acceptance of nihilism, which characterizes much of postmodernism, ironically culminates in its complete oppositedogmatism.
Download or read book All Things Shining written by Hubert Dreyfus and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inspirational book that is “a smart, sweeping run through the history of Western philosophy. Important for the way it illuminates life today and for the controversial advice it offers on how to live” (The New York Times). “What constitutes human excellence?” and “What is the best way to live a life?” These are questions that human beings have been asking since the beginning of time. In their critically acclaimed book, All Things Shining, Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly argue that our search for meaning was once fulfilled by our responsiveness to forces greater than ourselves, whether one God or many. These forces drew us in and imbued the ordinary moments of life with wonder and gratitude. Dreyfus and Kelly argue in this thought-provoking work that as we began to rely on the power of our own independent will we lost our skill for encountering the sacred. Through their original and transformative discussion of some of the greatest works of Western literature, from Homer’s Odyssey to Melville’s Moby Dick, Dreyfus and Kelly reveal how we have lost our passionate engagement with the things that gave our lives purpose, and show how, by reading our culture’s classics anew, we can once again be drawn into intense involvement with the wonder and beauty of the world. Well on its way to becoming a classic itself, this inspirational book will change the way we understand our culture, our history, our sacred practices, and ourselves.
Download or read book Nihilism Art Technology written by Sven-Olov Wallenstein and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning in an analysis of three paradigmatic instances of the encounter between art and technology in modernism, this work analyzes three philosophical responses to the question of nihilism--those of Walter Benjamin, Ernst Jnger, and Martin Heidegger--all of which are characterized by an avant-garde sensibility that looks to art as a way to counter the crisis of modernity.