The Agonist

Nihilism Beyond Margins: Towards A Reorganization of Forces

Marinete Araujo da Silva Fobister — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Nietzsche diagnosed nihilism as a “European problem” that would unfold into different kinds, such as reactive, negative, affirmative. In this paper, I intend to look at some current events of our time under the lens of the nihilism diagnosed by Nietzsche and discussed by Vattimo. My aim is to problematize some questions related to such events and sustain an argument that nihilism is no longer a European event but a global one. I intend to look at specifics of migration in our time in Europe that may reveal that the European nihilism alluded by Nietzsche has spread to other continents, particularly in countries that were previously European colonies. Such countries inherited European values that were imposed onto local cultures, causing the eradication of groups, ways of life, languages, and the disappearance of local epistemologies in which the world disclosed itself in certain ways.

This caused a violent detachment of local individuals, cultures and values that previously sustained their ways of life. However, since the values that were imposed by Europeans during colonization have lost their meaning, what does the flux of non-European migrants happening in Europe may reveal in relation to the current unfolding of nihilism and what possibilities may it bring for the overcoming of these corrosive forces? Adding to this complex scenario, Europe (as well as the whole world) is experiencing significant changes in climate that affect directly our interaction with the immanent world. Europeans are already experiencing some of the climate changes that cause displacement in other areas of the world bringing vulnerabilities to areas that previously experienced more steady and controlled environments. The idea here is to analyse how the confusion that nihilism brings to our time, particularly on the issue of migration and also change in climate, exposes all beings to a kind of vulnerability and, at the same time, if we look carefully, it also could expose strengths of those who have been previous excluded. This, I argue, may lead to a reorganisation of forces.

Translating Nietzsche's Atheism(s)

Dirk Johnson — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The paper will examine Kaufmann’s translation of Genealogy of Morals (GM), specifically a section of GM III §27, where the translator’s choice of a single word skews an important insight of Nietzsche’s on the question of modern atheism. Kaufmann’s influential translation, highly regarded for its stylistic refinement, has served as the starting point for most English translations that followed, and so his rendering of this section continues to impact the current Anglo-American reception of Nietzsche’s work. By challenging Kaufmann’s rendering of an important section of GM III §27, the paper will extrapolate a more nuanced understanding of atheism from Nietzsche’s position. This awareness problematizes current attempts to equate Nietzsche with a scientific naturalist program.

Nietzsche and the Politics of Nihilism

Kyle Pooley — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This essay aims to provide another perspective on how the problem of nihilism operates within Nietzsche’s works by reading him against the thought of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, one of the first philosophers to introduce the classical modern sense of nihilism. Since Nietzsche makes no mention of Jacobi, this essay reads Nietzsche’s analysis of nihilism as a silent reply to the founding problem of nihilism as Jacobi conceived it, namely the crisis of piety, and against the historical backdrop from which Nietzsche first truly encountered nihilism as a phenomenon, namely the 1881 assassination of Russian Tsar Alexander II. This essay will, additionally, briefly outline the various sources (historical, literary) Nietzsche had access to and contributed to his knowledge of nihilism.

At Noon: (Post)Nihilistic Temporalities in The Age of Machine-Learning Algorithms That Speak

Talha Can İşsevenler — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This article recapitulates and develops the attempts in the Nietzschean traditions to address and overcome the proliferation of nihilism that Nietzsche predicted to unfold in the next 200 years (WP 2). Nietzsche approached nihilism not merely as a psychology but as a labyrinthic and pervasive historical process whereby the highest values of culture and founding assumptions of philosophical thought prevented the further flourishing of life. Therefore, he thought nihilism had to be encountered and experienced on many, often opposing, fronts to be fully consumed and left behind. Thus, just as Nietzsche captured the subtle reinventions of nihilism in new forms in his time, in the new doers assumed behind new deeds (WP 488), this article focuses on the contemporary tectonic shifts brought by digital technology and challenges subjectivation and narrativization of algorithmic will to power in human-like interfaces such as ChatGPT. Having identified philosophers and himself as the most advanced nihilists in their overvaluation of truth, in the 4th part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche grappled with the difficult, perhaps impossible, temporality of post-nihilistic historicity that oscillates between highest creativity and highest truths, especially in the sections entitled The Shadow and At Noon whereby he explored new temporal techniques to evade the relapses into temporal nihilisms of the notions of linear progress or eternity (TSZ, 4). By drawing on this juncture, this article offers ways to address transfigurations of nihilism behind new technological performances of subjectivity. The article points toward creative temporalities beyond narrativity and subjectivity insofar as the statistical operations and probabilistic estimations of language-models exceed grammatical construction of meaning. This multifaceted application of his thought on the contemporary ontic reality is necessary to perceive our comet's incalculable movement as a veritable ray of sunshine.

Front Matter

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Donovan Miyasaki, Nietzsche’s Immoralism. Politics as First Philosophy & Donovan Miyasaki, Politics After Morality. Toward a Nietzschean Left.

Michael Steinmann — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This is a review of:

Donovan Miyasaki, Nietzsche’s Immoralism. Politics as First Philosophy. Palgrave McMillan, 2022, 298 pp.

Donovan Miyasaki, Politics After Morality. Toward a Nietzschean Left. Palgrave McMillan, 2022, 324 pp.

By Michael Steinmann