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July 7, 2004
Nihilism as a philosophical concept was given its most definitive form by Nietzsche's The Will To Power. There he defined it as the hollowing out of our highest values.
Nietzsche is the prime theorist of nihilism in modernity—as well as being one of the prime precursors of postmodern theory in the philosophical tradition. Nietzsche’s thought contains large elements of what—in retrospect—may be called "postmodern." It also suggests that to a certain extent his theory of modernity may in fact be prophetic of postmodernity. Nietzsche is an ambiguous thinker, and his theory of nihilism is open to multiple interpretations and extrapolations. It is possible to read Nietzsche in a modernist and postmodern way.
His concern is the modern European age. Nihilsim affects European society and culture generally. In the Will To Power he says that what he relates "is the history of the next two centuries. I describe what is coming, what can no longer come differently: the advent of nihilism’ (Nietzsche 1968, p.3). For Nietzsche, nihilism has its roots in history and extends into the future, is ambiguous and manifests itself in various forms that may bacve differentpossibilities in its historical development.
Nietzsche identifies the historical origins of nihilism in a particular interpretation of the world: the Christian-moral interpretation of the world. For Nietzsche, most of philosophy is also part of the Christian-moral interpretation of the world. Platonic philosophy posits a "true world," that lies behind this physical world of mere appearances. This "metaphysical" interpretation, while providing value in one way, is nihilistic because it devalues this world, the world in which we live, by understanding it as only having value in relation to another, better world.
What would a modernist and postmodernist interpretation look like? This article has some useful suggestions.
The modernist form of nihilism would employ a unilinear interpretation of history. It tells a single story, specifically about European man, as if it were the story of the destiny of the entire human race. A modernist interpretation of nihilism is a progressive history with the accomplishment and overcoming of nihilism as the goal. Nihilism overcome is analogous to a state of emancipation in a future enlightened world.
The modernist one is that has been tacitly presented here. In contrast a postmodernist interpretation would problematise:
"the concept of "overcoming," the very concept which has been such an integral part of the modernist interpretation of his theory of nihilism. Nietzsche is concerned with the decadence of modernity, and how this cultural ill might be cured. Overcoming modernity, however, cannot be a viable solution. Modernity itself is defined in terms of constant overcoming; that is, creation of the new that overcomes the old. This overcoming is essentially bound up with the modern narrative of progress; by overcoming the old history moves towards a future state of enlightenment."
In postmodernity this kind of unilinear because history has ended. the West has lost its grounds for historical meaning. We have the pluralistic proliferation of alternative knowledges, beliefs and values coincides with a breakdown of any shared meanings and values to act as a common social ground.
A postmodern Nietzsche would interpret the "overcoming" of nihilism as taking a different attitude towards the nihilistic interpretation of the world itself. In postmodernity, while we may in a sense be stuck with a complete nihilism, this nihilism is not one of despair and life-negation, but of joyous affirmation.
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