Names Of Nihil

by Arvydas Šliogeris

In this book, probably for the first time in Western philosophy, an attempt has been made to point out and systematically explicate the problem scope of the Nothing (which is called Nihil in the book) and to try to explain the springhead of the excessive negativity, inherent only in the human being, or in other words, the springhead of the human's natural nihilism. Nihilism is treated here not as a posture, pose, or an ideological attitude, but as the spread of the human metaphysical nucleus, of Nihil. Nihilistic annihilation, manifesting itself as the road of the naming of Nihil and of the production of thingly crystals (artificial world) as a result of that naming, usually is called "history." Names of Nihil (language phenomena), being the antithesis of Nihil, falsify and cover up Nihil itself, turning it into "supreme" being, e.g. into "the One," "God," "Substance," "Matter," "Spirit," "ad infinitum." This book should be interesting not only to philosophers or humanitarians, but also to all those who concern themselves with the total human condition.

Genres: Philosophy

148 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 1997

About the author

Arvydas Šliogeris – filosofas, vokiečių egzistencializmo tyrinėtojas, filosofinių tekstų vertėjas, eseistas, Vilniaus universiteto profesorius.

Gimė ir užaugo mokytojų šeimoje. 1962–1967 m. studijavo Kauno politechnikos institute Cheminės technologijos fakultete. 1973 m. Vilniaus universiteto Filosofijos katedroje studijavo aspirantūroje. Nuo 1973 m. dėsto filosofiją VU.

Reviews

[Darius · Rating 4 out of 5]

The slogan "back to nature" may be not Sliogeris's creation, but the way he radicalizes it, is something new. The author urges people to return to their "spiritual nature", defining it as the comeback to the Beginnings or to the Origins. According to him, there are two of them which define every person, even if he/she doesn't understand this or attempts to escape from it. Sliogeris believes that the Beginning has a three part structure, which influences the evolution of every society or organization, going through all of the stages of this structure in history of humankind. One of the two Beginnings is negative and called the Nihil (Nothing), which is both the fate and the curse of every human being, since it introduces all forms of evil into the world. Culture and technologies may disguise the Nihil, however in any case it acts destroying our fragile world (for instance, in the forms of technologies and industry). In the book "Names of Nihil" A. Sliogeris contemplates the human reality from the point of view of the Nihil, which, falsifying itself, disguises as the forms of Spirit and culture; therefore it is necessary to bring it out into the daylight. To free ourselves from the Nihil as the Begining, the best strategy is to carry over the emphasis to the Isness (Being), destroying all falsimulated savage, cultural and technological forms. A. Sliogeris believes that this is the only way to confront the real, pure world, annihilating all the idols of language and reason which obstruct it. This may be the very time start everything all over again for our civilization...