Nihilism and Metaphysics

Vittorio Possenti, Daniel B. Gallagher

Description

Challenging the idea that nihilism has supplanted metaphysics, Vittorio Possenti finds in this philosophical turn the grounds for a mature renewal of metaphysics. Possenti takes the reader on a "third voyage" that goes beyond the "second voyage" indicated by Plato in the Phaedo. He traces the ascendancy of nihilism in philosophy, offering critical examinations of Nietzsche, Gentile, Heidegger, Habermas, Husserl, Gadamer, Ricoeur, and Vattimo. With penetrating accounts of philosophical movements such as hermeneutics and logical empiricism, rich with both historical and theoretical insights, Possenti provides a compelling defense of the power of human reason to apprehend the most obvious but also the most profound aspect of things: that they exist. By exploring the ubiquity of nihilism and probing its philosophical roots, Possenti clears the way for a fresh reformulation of metaphysics.
Foreword
Translator’s Introduction and Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. The Question of Nihilism and the Knowledge of Being

2. Metaphysical Knowledge of Existence

3. Being, Intellect, and Abstractive Intuition

4. The Status of First Principles

5. Speculative Nihilism: Nietzsche and Gentile

6. Heidegger

7. Eight Theses on Postmetaphysical Thinking: Jürgen Habermas

8. The Two Roads of Hermeneutics

9. Logical Empiricism and Analytic Philosophy

10. Consequences of Nihilism

11. Toward the Determination of Practical Nihilism

12. Progress in Philosophy?

13. The Third Voyage

14. Ontological Humanism and the Person

15. Between the Present and the Future

Appendix 1: Antirealism and the Schism between Man and Reality
Appendix 2: Texts of Thomas Aquinas without Comment
Appendix 3: Intellectual Intuition, “Anticipation,” and Judgment in Karl Rahner
Appendix 4: More on Intellectual Intuition
Appendix 5: The Appeal to the Experience of Self as a Type of Natural Mysticism
Appendix 6: The Critique of Onto-theology
Appendix 7: What Is Nihilism? A Look at the Encyclical Fides et Ratio

Notes
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Métaphysique
• Épistémologie
• Metaphysics
• Philosophy
• Epistémologie
• Epistémologie
• Epistémologie

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 10 avril 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438452081
• Langue: English

Extrait

Nihilism and Metaphysics
SUNY SERIES IN C ONTEMPORARY I TALIAN P HILOSOPHY
Silvia Benso and Brian Schroeder, editors
Nihilism and Metaphysics

T HE T HIRD V OYAGE
VITTORIO POSSENTI
Translated by
D ANIEL B. G ALLAGHER
Foreword by
B RIAN S CHROEDER
Published by STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS Albany
© 1998, 2004 Armando Editore Terza navigazione: Nichilismo e metafisica
© 2014 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press www.sunypress.edu
Production, Laurie Searl Marketing, Kate McDonnell
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Possenti, Vittorio.
[Nichilismo e metafisica. English]
Nihilism and metaphysics : the third voyage / Vittorio Possenti ; translated by Daniel Gallagher ; foreword by Brian Schroeder. pages cm. — (Suny series in contemporary Italian philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5207-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Nihilism (Philosophy)—History. 2. Knowledge, Theory of—History—19th century. 3. Knowledge, Theory of—History—20th century. 4. Metaphysics—History—19th century. 5. Metaphysics—History—20th century. I. Possenti, Vittorio. Terza navigazione. II. Title.
B828.3.P6613 2014
149 .8—dc23
2013028929
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Foreword
Translator’s Introduction and Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Question of Nihilism and the Knowledge of Being
2. Metaphysical Knowledge of Existence
3. Being, Intellect, and Abstractive Intuition
4. The Status of First Principles
5. Speculative Nihilism: Nietzsche and Gentile
6. Heidegger
7. Eight Theses on Postmetaphysical Thinking: Jürgen Habermas
8. The Two Roads of Hermeneutics
9. Logical Empiricism and Analytic Philosophy
10. Consequences of Nihilism
11. Toward the Determination of Practical Nihilism
12. Progress in Philosophy?
13. The Third Voyage
14. Ontological Humanism and the Person
15. Between the Present and the Future
Appendix 1: Antirealism and the Schism between Man and Reality
Appendix 2: Texts of Thomas Aquinas without Comment
Appendix 3: Intellectual Intuition, “Anticipation,” and Judgment in Karl Rahner
Appendix 4: More on Intellectual Intuition
Appendix 5: The Appeal to the Experience of Self as a Type of Natural Mysticism
Appendix 6: The Critique of Onto-theology
Appendix 7: What Is Nihilism? A Look at the Encyclical Fides et Ratio
Notes
Index
Foreword
In the current age of so-called postmodern reconfiguration, perhaps no issue has recurred so much in philosophical thinking as the question of nihilism. Whether or not one considers his philosophy an expression of nihilism (and this is a highly contested claim), Nietzsche is correct in identifying nihilism as the central problem of the modern era. On his account, nihilism is the unfolding of the internal logic of Greek metaphysics, which reaches its culmination in Christian onto-theology, which both discloses and conceals the most extreme (and yet for Nietzsche, the most liberating) event of nihilism—namely, the “death of God.” Twentieth-century philosophy identified itself, particularly in its continental expressions, by its responses to this thesis, both in affirmation and rejection of it. Arguably the most significant consequence, however, of these variegated responses, whether from the continental or Anglo-American perspectives, is the general demise of metaphysics.
“Nihilism has appeared among us,” Dostoevsky wrote in his diary, “because we are all nihilists.” If this controversial claim is indeed accurate, it is only because we cannot simply escape nihilism by refusing to acknowledge, much less engage it in our thinking. The attempt to overcome or move beyond the standpoint of nihilism has come from many different quarters, but in general, it is fair to say, it has entailed a movement that refuses or bypasses metaphysics precisely because metaphysics has been so thoroughly implicated in its alleged identity or at least complicity with nihilism.
The work of Vittorio Possenti challenges this viewpoint and offers a position that is simultaneously original and yet grounded in the history of philosophical and theological ideas. His Nihilism and Metaphysics: The Third Voyage takes the informed reader on a veritable sojourn, navigating the Sargasso Sea of the history of metaphysics, ably steering through much unrecoverable wreckage while securing in tow philosophical ideas that many have deemed lost and forgotten. Whether one follows ultimately the course charted by Possenti, the journey is one that must be initially embarked on if one is to find the way past the Scylla and Charybdis of “theoretical nihilism.”
In response to Heidegger’s argument that the meaning of Being has been forgotten, Possenti writes, “In principle, the third voyage saves philosophy from the forgetting of being.” Unlike Heidegger though, who returns to the Presocratics in an effort to recover the original meaning of being and determine an other beginning (being as Ereignis ) Possenti looks to the openness of the ontology of Seinphilosophie to metaphysics by “a return to being and therefore a recovery of the philosophy of being within new historical, spiritual, and cultural contexts by means of an ongoing engagement with the other.” In this regard, Possenti embodies what is a strong and rather singular feature of contemporary Italian philosophy—namely, the advancement of current thinking via a full engagement with the history of ideas mediated by the world of theological reflection. Masterfully taking up Western philosophy from its ancient, medieval, modern through contemporary expressions, Nihilism and Metaphysics represents the culmination of years of sustained reflection on the question of theoretical nihilism, and by association other contingent forms of nihilism such as practical, ethical, and legal. Assisted by Daniel B. Gallagher’s excellent translation and equally fine Introduction, this is a work that is sure to provoke much discussion and contribute to the critical concern of addressing and overcoming nihilism. Whether this overcoming can be divorced from the simultaneous overcoming of metaphysics is precisely the quest that Vittorio Possenti sets out upon—and the voyage that he invites us to take along with him.
Brian Schroeder Rochester Institute of Technology
Translator’s Introduction and Acknowledgments
Vittorio Possenti, professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, is one of the most recognized names in contemporary Italian philosophy. His prodigious output includes nearly thirty books and scores of articles in metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, and practical philosophy appearing in ten different languages. The present volume is an introduction to the speculative dimension of his thought and, consequently, does not delve into specific moral and political issues. Readers interested in those areas will find plenty of titles in a bibliography of his works. 1
At the age of twenty, Possenti encountered the writings of Jacques Maritain, Thomas Aquinas, and Aristotle, all of whom continue to exert a strong influence on his thinking. Reading these figures prompted him to question his attachment to Giambattista Vico’s New Science and Albert Einstein’s way of linking science to philosophy. Maritain and Aquinas opened up new horizons of speculative thinking to him and gave him a deep appreciation for the historical dimension of metaphysics. His reading of other philosophers ranging from Kant to Nietzsche, Bergson to Heidegger, Gentile to Popper, and Ricoeur to Husserl allowed for rich and multifaceted comparisons of different philosophical viewpoints. He places himself within the tradition of the “philosophy of being” ( Seinphilosophie ) and extols its ongoing openness to metaphysical discourse, its inherent realism, and the attention it gives to being from which thinking begins and to which it constantly returns.
Possenti’s thinking has largely focused on three fundamental fissures that have opened up in the course of modern philosophy: the metaphysical and gnoseological dualism between mind and reality evident in the forgetfulness of being and antirealism, the anthropological break between soul and body and the denial of the substantial character of the human person, and the cultural break between religion and society, faith and politics. The present book hinges on the problem of nihilism—particularly theoretical nihilism—and its opposition to the metaphysics of being. It seeks to build an approach that takes seriously the tension between metaphysics on the one hand and nihilism on the other, viewing them as two opposite poles of the speculative investigation into the real. His driving aim is to identify the meaning and significance of “theoretical nihilism.” Theoretical nihilism, he believes, is an attempt to overturn metaphysics (“No more metaphysics!”) and to do away with the idea of truth as conformity. Possenti is convinced that the 150-year-old march of nihilism has not yet ended. Indeed, he believes the anti-nihilistic movement of the twentieth century failed to ascertain sufficiently the nature of theoretical nihilism considered as the first among many types of nihilism including practical, moral, and legal.
But just what is theoretical nihilism?
Possenti explains that this fundamental form of nihilism consists of several dense, conceptual nuclei: the forgetting/oblivion of being, the crisis of the idea of truth as conformity, the denial of any form of intellectual intuition and the primacy of will, and the pro