Nietzsche and Postmodernist Nihilism

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• Philosophie et théologie

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• Publié par: apyhiqyl
• Nombre de lectures: 58
• Langue: English

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Nietzsche and Postmodernist Nihilism

By Douglas Groothuis

A study of recent publications addressing postmodernism yields a myriad of

materials and a panoply of perspectives. When did we or will we “cross the postmodern

divide”? Is modernity really dead or only wounded? What identifies, if anything, the

postmodernist posture? Although postmodernist philosophy is too diverse to corral into a

tidy definition, one way of understanding it and assessing some of its common themes is

to look to the thought of a predecessor, Friedrich Nietzsche.

Nietzsche, once hailed as a father of existentialism, has now become a kind of

posthumous prophet for postmodernism, which often deems him a pioneering voice for

its suspicion of universal rationality, morality, objectivity, and Western Christian

sensibilities in general. Postmodernists also find in him an emphasis on the

conventionality and contingency of all institutions and moralities, which, when

deconstructed (

a la

Michel Foucault) end up as no more than self justifying arrangements

of power. Thinkers such as Richard Rorty look to Nietzsche as an inspiration for their

escape from the orbit of modernity, especially from its emphasis on objective truth and

meaning that exists apart from evaluating agents.

Nietzsche’s thought, though invigorating in its boldness and passion, is often

enigmatic and difficult to form into a coherent whole. Therefore, we find no

overwhelming consensus on the real Nietzsche. The interpretative difficulties arise from

his frequently aphoristic style, scorn of systematizing, development as an author,

radicality of conceptions, and use of intentionally inflammatory and hyperbolic language.

Hermeneutical matters are not improved by Nietzsche’s esotericism. Nietzsche wrote for

the worthy few. “My writings are very well protected: whoever, having no right to such

books, takes them and thereby mistakes them immediately makes himself rediculous.”

This preemptive strike against potential critics clouds matters considerably. Obscuring

things further is Nietzsche’s questioning of the basic laws of logic as descriptive of

reality. If loosed from these strictures, contradictions are no longer stigmatized and

anything can follow. Post modernists following their mentor may defend their opacities

as esoteric profundities.

Although Christians and Jews have been ill-disposed toward Nietzsche, given

his denunciations of the “slave morality” of the Bible and his heralding of the “death of

God,” some frequently invoked charges against him have little substance. Nietzsche is

often regarded as a key ideological source for Nazi anti-Semitism. Scholars such as

Walter Kauffmann, however, have given plausible textual arguments defending Nietzsche

against this charge. Much of Nietzsche’s supposed hostility to the Jews appears to have

been a product of his sister Elizabeth’s tampering with his writings during his years of

derangement and after his death.

However, Nietzsche may not be defended against all criticisms of his ethics.

And these charges,

mutatis mutandis,

are applicable to many of his postmodernist

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