PHIL 3476 - Nietzsche - Nihilism as Possibility

In the lecture today, the word "Nihilism" was described as the one word which encapsulate Nietzsche's entire philosophy. But as Professor Jowett reassured us, Nietzsche himself was not "prescribing Nihilism but diagnosing it".

I considered this interpretation seriously and turned to the passages that were said to illustrate the point. In the famous aphorism 125 titled "The Madman" from the Gay Science, Nihilism only came to light when light went out. This cryptic answer of my own hand is in part a reference to the lantern that was broken by the madman. Let me first explain what brought me there. In my experience in university, and the countless reading and rereading of this same passage, I have never once heard a professor remark about how passively the people were spoken about. While this may run contrary to the "herd mentatily" and the superiority or elitism of the Übermensch morality, the people's view of God was as evident as finding one's way. As far as they were concerned, their beliefs in God were decided and the matter was settled. Nihilism is only introduced during the silence that followed the madman's speech about the death of God. The people did not witness that death themselves. They did not hear the sound of a struggle or the cry of agony as God died. Their silence was one of many possible reactions and one that the madman had come to terms with long ago. After the piercing glares and grilling questions such as "How did we do this?", "How shall we comfort ourselves?", and "Who will wipe this blood off us?", silence was the only response the people gave. It was at that moment that the madman dropped the lantern that had revealed so much. It was then that the people were cast into darkness. It was then that impossibility of God's death became possible.

The enlightenment operated under the supposition that things are discovered and brought to light. But when light is eliminated all together, when the will that seeks resigns for the night, that is when Nihilism is present. Though we might come to describe Nihilism as the belief in nothing, it is not nothing itself. It is a form of critical thinking that questions all of what we call "things" It observes how we value and categorize things. How we find a place in our lives. Nihilism simply asks questions of pragmatics and what can be said to be in existence. But we may then ask the Nihilist, is existence everything that is worth considering?

In pointing to the death of God, Nietzsche reductively suggests just how unpragmatic and dependant the faithful are. How does one, in the absence of God, begin to speak again about the enormous task of constructing the world again? How could we live without the assurance of daily reminders that God's eyes are watching from above? What are we to do with the penance and sacrifice that are offered but no longer offer redemption? It seems that with the death of God a vast possibility of being would be lost. With the death of God all have been forced to face the burden of being accountable to themselves. Would this have come to pass without the small gad flies like Nietzsche whose pestering stirred humanity out of its idleness and into another direction? Shall we crown him "anti-Christ" over all that had followed before and those to follow after him?

While I am somewhat dismissive of the death of God and Nietzsche's responsibility for it, I am compelled to at least admit that Nihilism is one way to truth among others. While Nietzsche is critical of tradition and religion he failed to recognize that the conventional knowledge he strongly opposed both supports and applies force to his own ideas - the belief in God is a mode of being that is otherworldy oriented. Moreover, not all individuals who are receptive to convention knowledge are at every moment fully committed to it and one cannot expect to be separated complete from the same patrimony that permeates many aspects of our lives.

Both Dogma and Nihilism are not absolutes.

Nietzsche himself would say that the belief in God is already a form of Nihilism, a claim that is for him absolute. And yet it is still quite profound to make the claim that "God is dead" for in doing so one opens up the possibility for it to be considered. What other God or gods will take its place? How will we fill the silence that remains? All of these questions and more can be entertained.

The only limitation to thought is having none at all.