Much had been made of Nietzsche’s predictions of the coming nihilism. As a result of the death of the Christian God, Europe is bound for a crisis of values, in which nothing can any longer give us a goal beyond ourselves and our own happiness, and people search for this meaning or justification in all sorts of other spheres of human life: morality, reason, h ... Show More
Aug 19
The Gay Science #16 (IV.276-288)
Continuing with The Gay Science, and beginning with book IV, "Sanctus Januarius". Here, we encounter some of the most famous aphorisms: For the New Year, Preparatory Men ("Live Dangerously!") and Excelsior. Exciting times!Episode art: View of Genoa under the Snow - Eugenio Olivar ... Show More
1h 56m
Aug 12
120: Erich Heller, The Disinherited Mind, pt 2 - Burckhardt, Nietzsche & History
The conclusion of our two-parter on Erich Heller, and the conclusion to season five! We discuss Nietzsche's friendship with Jacob Burckhardt, and how Burckhardt's view of history can inform our understanding of Nietzsche's divergence from him. We also consider Goethe's four ages ... Show More
1h 44m
Aug 5
119: Erich Heller, The Disinherited Mind, pt 1 - Goethe, Schiller & The Symbol
Something happened to the human mind around the birth of modernity: the divorce of reality and the symbol. Once unified in eucharist, the symbolic and the real are now separate spheres of the human mind, and while it initially seemed that art and science might benefit by this sep ... Show More
1h 39m
Mar 2022
Nihilism | Encounter with Nothingness
Nothingness is generally considered to be analogous with death and extinction which every healthy living instinct wants to avoid. Many find the notion of nothingness unfathomable.
Japanese philosopher Keiji Nishitani, however, was convinced that the way out of nihilism, that w ... Show More
20m 59s
Nov 2020
The Absurd – Camus, Kierkegaard & Dostoevsky | Existentialism
This episode explores the concept of The Absurd of Camus, Kierkegaard, and Dostoevsky as well as the differences between these three existentialists.
Camus defined the Absurd as: "The conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life, and the human ... Show More
12 m