An essay on nihilism in Nietzsche: lack of historical sense, necessity and overcoming and reception

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Abstract

With This article is part of a broader study of Nietzsche's considerations on history, in which we examine the question of historical meaning, taking into account its relationship with nihilism and genealogy. Regarding the relationship between nihilism and historical sense, we investigate Nietzsche's considerations about history, based on his writings in which the criticism of culture is narrated from the lack of historical sense and its nihilistic state that allow us to clarify the ideas with which the philosopher: on the one hand - from the texts of his youth - radically undermines historicism, above all, its notions of progress (Fortschritt), finality (Zweck) and excessive attachment to the past; and on the other hand, he elaborates a narrative of history, without these notions, from the philosophical concept of nihilism - which appears from 1881 onwards in his work. The hidden theme of these writings is the historicity of man, or rather, the realization that there is a state of degeneration of humanity, revealed in its historical process that substantially compromises human destiny. However, the idea of ​​nihilism in Nietzsche goes beyond the historical domain, it is also thought under the aegis of other spheres, such as psychology and physiology that will only be addressed, in our analysis, indirectly, subordinated to the theme of history. For now, we only intend to analyze how Nietzsche, in possession of the concept of nihilism, establishes a broader and better elaborated notion of his critical narrative about history, shedding light on what he understands, from the intermediate works, as being a “historical philosophy” that focuses its assault on the most fundamental values ​​from which human history was conducted, also rehearsing a way out or overcoming the state of degeneration that this narrative seems to point to. In this way, we still return to an old polemic, perhaps dated, about the theme of overcoming or not nihilism in a certain reception of the Nietzsche's philosophy, we defend a new understanding of overcoming and its organic relationship with nihilism.

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Author Biography

José Nicolao Julião, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ)

Doutor em Filosofia pela Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Professor Titular da Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro e pesquisador do CNPq (PQ2).

Published

2022-08-22

How to Cite

Julião, J. N. (2022). An essay on nihilism in Nietzsche: lack of historical sense, necessity and overcoming and reception. Revista De Filosofia Aurora, 34(62). Retrieved from https://periodicos.pucpr.br/aurora/article/view/29350