How Did Nietzche Influence Western Civilization
Nietzche, Nihilism and Its Impact/Influence on Western Civilization
Jocelyn Disselkoen
XYZ University
April 12, 2017
Background
Friedrich Nietzche, born in 1844 and died in 1900, was a German classical scholar, philosopher, and critique of culture, becoming one of the most-influential of all modern thinkers. Throughout his active years of career, Nietzche tried to unmask the motives behind traditional western religion, morality, and philosophy that widely affected generations of philosophers, theologians, psychologists, poets, playwrights and novelists. Nietzche was Europe’s most celebrated intellectuals after his death, following his idea of consequences of the triumph of the enlightenment’s secularism he expressed to religion.
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This idea is meant to answer the question of existence by basing its answer on extreme pessimism in a meaningless universe. According to Magnus (2014), Nietzche believed that in the age he lived, there was no awareness that religious and philosophical absolutes had dissolved in the emergence of the 19th century positivism. Nietzche thought that metaphysical and theological foundations and sanctions for traditional morality had collapsed, and only a pervasive sense of purposelessness and meaninglessness would remain. In questioning existence, nihilism (existential) stands with the idea that since the world is without purpose or meaning, existence itself- all action, suffering, and feeling – is ultimately senseless and empty (Pratt, 2017). Further, Nietzche thought that with the emergence of nationalism in the wake of triumph of meaninglessness - nihilism, the nation-state would be invested with transcendent value and …show more content…
The impact of nihilism on culture and values has been pervasive, and it is impractical to eventually work through nihilism by simply surviving the process of destroying all the interpretations of the world in pursuit of discovering the correct course of mankind (Pratt, 2017). Woodward (2002) alludes that according to postmodernity nihilism; the way of “overcoming” the negative effects of nihilism is not overcoming nihilism itself but by changing one’s attitude towards it. However, the reality is, overcoming nihilism is by embracing externalism, and life will have a purpose and a meaning.
References
Cunningham, C. (2002). Genealogy of Nihilism, Radical Orthodoxy.
Francis, A. M. (2015). Nihilism: Philosophy of Nothingness. Lulu.com.
Magnus B. (2015). Friedrich Nietzche. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Friedrich-Nietzsche [Accessed on April 12, 2017]
Metzger, J. (Ed.). (2009). Nietzsche, Nihilism and the Philosophy of the Future. Bloomsbury
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Pratt A. (2017). Nihilism. Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/nihilism/ [Accessed on April 12, 2017]
Smith K. E (2010). Today’s Nihilism. Retrieved from https://posthistorical.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/today%E2%80%99s-nihilism-the-sound-and-fury-of-apathy/ [Accessed on April 12, 2017]
Woodward A. (2002). Nihilism and The Portmodern
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