No. 70 (2024): Septiembre-diciembre
Articles

The Counterintuitive Logic of the Nothing and the Gift of Nihilism: A Reading of Heidegger

PDF XML
  • Martin Stephan Becker Lorca
Martin Stephan Becker Lorca
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21555/top.v700.2761

Published 2024-08-15

Keywords

How to Cite

Becker Lorca, M. S. (2024). The Counterintuitive Logic of the Nothing and the Gift of Nihilism: A Reading of Heidegger. Tópicos, Revista De Filosofía, (70), 221–249. https://doi.org/10.21555/top.v700.2761

Copyright (c) 2024 Tópicos, Revista de Filosofía

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Altmetrics

Citas

Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

Abstract

This paper presents an interpretation of nihilism based on the logic of nothingness. In the first part, I explore the mode of manifestation of nothingness, arguing that it resides at the core of the negative mode in which the Being of beings reveals itself: its withdrawal is precisely its mode of giving itself to us. To examine this obscure mode of disclosure, I distinguish between two different meanings of nothingness: nothingness as the total other of beings and Being as nothing. Following the latter and the negative and counterintuitive logic that it implies, in the second part, I offer an interpretation of nihilism. If in the age of nihilism “there is nothing to Being itself”—as Heidegger claimed—one may argue—with Heidegger—that this “denial itself had to become the highest and most austere revealing of Being.” This interpretation of nihilism may contradict Heidegger’s own often reactionary views on modernity.

PDF XML

References

  1. Ávila, R. (2007). Heidegger y el problema de la nada: La crítica a la posición de Nietzsche. Pensamiento, 63(235), 59-79.
  2. Biemel, W. (1992). Heidegger im Gespräch mit Hegel: Zur Negativität bei Hegel. Man and World, 25, 271-280.
  3. Carman, T. (2022). Heidegger´s Nietzsche. Inquiry, 63(1), 104-116.
  4. Dahlstrom, D. (2011). Thinking of Nothing: Heidegger´s Criticism of Hegel´s Conception of Negativity. In S. Houlgate & Michael Baur (eds.), A Companion to Hegel. (pp. 519-536). Blackwell Publishing.
  5. De la Maza, M. (2021). Hegel y la filosofía hermenéutica: hacia una hermenéutica especulativa. Ediciones UC.
  6. Derrida, J. (1978). Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences. In J. Derrida, Writing and Difference. (pp. 278-293). A. Bass (trans.). The University of Chicago Press.
  7. Hegel, G. W. F. (1969). Science of Logic. A. V. Miller (trans.). Humanity Books.
  8. Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and Time. J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson (trans.). Blackwell.
  9. Heidegger, M. (1977a). The Age of the World Picture. In M. Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. (pp. 115-154). W. Lovitt (trans.). Harper Perennial.
  10. Heidegger, M. (1977b). The Word of Nietzsche: God is Dead. In M. Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. (pp. 53-112). W. Lovitt (trans.). Harper Perennial.
  11. Heidegger, M. (1985). Schelling’s Treatise on the Essence of Human Freedom. J. Stambaugh (trans.). Ohio University Press.
  12. Heidegger, M. (1988). Gesamtausgabe. II. Abteilung: Vorlesungen 1919-1944. Band 42. Schelling: Vom Wesen Der Menschlichen Freiheit (1809). Vittorio Klostermann.
  13. Heidegger, M. (1991a). European Nihilism. In M. Heidegger, Nietzsche: Volumes Three and Four. J. Stambaugh, D. F. Krell & F. A. Capuzzi (trans.). (pp. 3-196). HarperCollins Publishers.
  14. Heidegger, M. (1991b). Nihilism as Determined by the History of Being. In M. Heidegger, Nietzsche: Volumes Three and Four. J. Stambaugh, D. F. Krell & F. A. Capuzzi (trans.). (pp. 197-250). HarperCollins Publishers.
  15. Heidegger, M. (1993). Gesamtausgabe. III. Abteilung: Unveröffentlichte Abhandlungen / Vorträge – Gedachtes. Band 68. Hegel. Vittorio Klostermann.
  16. Heidegger, M. (1994). Basic Questions of Philosophy: Selected “Problems” of “Logic.” R. Rojcewicz & A. Schuwer (trans.). Indiana University Press.
  17. Heidegger, M. (1998a). Gesamtausgabe. III. Abteilung: Unveröffentlichte Abhandlungen / Vorträge – Gedachtes. Band 69. Die Geschichte Des Seyns. Vittorio Klostermann.
  18. Heidegger, M. (1998b). On the Essence of Ground. In M. Heidegger, Pathmarks. (pp. 97-135). W. McNeill (trans.). Cambridge University Press.
  19. Heidegger, M. (1998c). On the Question of Being. In M. Heidegger, Pathmarks. (pp. 291-322). W. McNeill (trans.). Cambridge University Press.
  20. Heidegger, M. (1998d). Postscript to “What is Metaphysics?” In M. Heidegger, Pathmarks. (pp. 231-238). W. McNeill (trans.). Cambridge University Press.
  21. Heidegger, M. (1998e). What Is Metaphysics? In M. Heidegger, Pathmarks. (pp. 82-96). W. McNeill (trans.). Cambridge University Press.
  22. Heidegger, M. (2000). Introduction to Metaphysics. G. Fried & R. Polt (trans.). Yale University Press.
  23. Heidegger, M. (2003a). Four Seminars. A. J. Mitchell & F. Raffoul (trans.). Indiana University Press.
  24. Heidegger, M. (2003b). Overcoming Metaphysics. In M. Heidegger, The End of Philosophy. (pp. 84-110). J. Stambaugh (trans.). The University of Chicago Press.
  25. Heidegger, M. (2003c). Sketches for a History of Being as Metaphysics. In M. Heidegger, The End of Philosophy. (pp. 55-74). J. Stambaugh (trans.). The University of Chicago Press.
  26. Heidegger, M. (2012a). Bremen and Freiburg Lectures. A. J. Mitchell (trans.). Indiana University Press.
  27. Heidegger, M. (2012b). Contributions to Philosophy (of the Event). R. Rojcewicz & D. Vallega-Neu (trans.). Indiana University Press.
  28. Hemming, L. P., Costea, B. & Amiridis, K. (2011). The Movement of Nihilism: Heidegger’s Thinking after Nietzsche. Continuum.
  29. Janicaud, D. (1999). Heidegger-Hegel: An Impossible ‘Dialogue’? In R. Comay & J. McCumber (eds.), Endings: Questions of Memory in Hegel and Heidegger. (pp. 26-44). Northwestern University.
  30. Kant, I. (2000). Critique of Pure Reason. P. Guyer & A. W. Wood (trans.). Cambridge University Press.
  31. Lindberg, S. (2013). Reading against Hegel. In P. Baur, B. Bösel & D. Mersch (ed.), Die Stile Martin Heideggers. Verlag Karl Alber.
  32. Marion, J. (1996). Nothing and Nothing Else. In R. Lilly (ed.), The Ancients and the Moderns. (pp. 183-195). Indiana University Press.
  33. Marion, J. (1998). Reduction and Givenness: Investigations of Husserl, Heidegger, and Phenomenology. T A. Carlson (trans.). Northwestern University Press.
  34. Marion, J. (2003). The ‘End of Metaphysics’ as a Possibility. In M. A. Wrathall (ed.), Religion after Metaphysics. (pp. 166-189). Cambridge University Press.
  35. Marx, K. & Engels, F. (2011). The Communist Manifesto. S. Moore (trans.). Penguin Books.
  36. Nietzsche, F. (1968). The Will to Power. W. Kaufmann & R. J. Hollingdale (trans.). Vintage Books Edition.
  37. Marion, J. (1989). On the Genealogy of Morals. W. Kaufmann (trans.). Vintage Books Edition.
  38. Peng, F. (1998). Das Nichten des Nichts: Zur Kernfrage des Denkwegs Martin Heidegger. Peter Lang.
  39. Pippin, R. (2015). Heidegger on Nietzsche on Nihilism. Interanimations: Receiving Modern German Philosophy. University of Chicago Press.
  40. Schneeberger, G. (1962). Nachlese zu Heidegger: Dokumente zu seinem Leben und Denken. Author [self-published]. URL: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-224429.
  41. Sheehan, T. (1999). Nihilism: Heidegger/Jünger/Aristotle. In B. C. Hopknis (ed.), Phenomenology: Japanese and American Perspectives. (pp. 273-316). Kluwer Academic Publishers.
  42. Thomson, I. (2021). Nothing (Nichts). In M. A. Wrathall (ed.), The Cambridge Heidegger Lexicon. (pp. 520-528). Cambridge University Press.
  43. Vattimo, Gi. (1988). The End of Modernity. J. R. Snyder (trans.). The John Hopkins University Press.
  44. Volpi, F. (2012). El nihilismo. C. I. del Rosso & A. G. Vigo (trans.). Siruela.