A History of Nihilism in the Nineteenth Century

Confrontations with Nothingness

Jon Stewart

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009266727
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Modern Philosophy

Nihilism – the belief that life is meaningless – is frequently associated with twentieth-century movements such as existentialism, postmodernism and Dadaism, and thought to result from the shocking experiences of the two World Wars and the Holocaust. In his rich and expansive new book, Jon Stewart shows that nihilism's beginnings in fact go back much further to the first half of the nineteenth century. He argues that the true origin of modern nihilism was the rapid development of Enlightenment science, which established a secular worldview. This radically diminished the importance of human beings so that, in the vastness of space and time, individuals now seemed completely insignificant within the universe. The author's panoramic exploration of how nihilism developed – not only in philosophy, but also in religion, poetry and literature – shows what an urgent topic it was for thinkers of all kinds, and how it has continued powerfully to shape intellectual debates ever since.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Jean Paul’s Vision of Nihilism and Plea for the Doctrine of Immortality
• 2 Klingemann and the Absurdity of Nothingness in The Nightwatches
• 3 Nihilism in English Romanticism
• 4 Schopenhauer’s Theory of Human Suffering and Lack of Meaning
• 5 Büchner’s Account of the Reign of Terror as a Mirror of Human Existence
• 6 Poul Martin Møller’s Criticism of Hegelianism and the Danish Discussion of Nihilism
• 7 Kierkegaard and the Indefinability and Inexplicability of Death
• 8 Turgenev’s Portrait of a Nihilist
• 9 Nietzsche’s Vision of the Past and the Future of Nihilism
• 10 The Importance of Nihilism in the Nineteenth Century
• Selected Bibliography on Nihilism
• Name Index
• Subject Index