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The Banalization of Nihilism: Twentieth-Century Responses to Meaninglessness

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This is not only the best work that I have ever seen on the difficult subject of nihilism, but it is possibly the most well-written work of non-fiction that I have ever read.

Carr begins by describing how nihilism became conceptualized and articulated with the onset of modernity. She then carefully defines her terms, clearly differentiating aspects or modes of nihilism (alethiological, epistemological, moral, metaphysical, and existential), in anticipation of what follows: a carefully considered analysis of the conceptual development of nihilism, as traced through the thinking of Friederich Nietzsche (for whom nihilism was the great crisis of the modern world, a terrific disease that threatened civilization, yet offered the opportunity for a genuine affirmation of life by wiping out false and outmoded valuations); theologian Karl Barth (for whom nihilism was the shattering precondition of faith and genuine religiousity); and contemporary post-modernist critic Richard Rorty (for whom nihilism would seem to be a welcome means of undermining or dissolving the oppressive power structures of the status quo). Carr concludes by convincingly arguing that the contemporary willingness to embrace nihilism wholesale as a liberating conception, without careful consideration of its more harmful potentials, ultimately undermines whatever liberating potentials it may hold, and, ultimately and ironically, reinforces the status quo rather than undermining it.

Carr manages to make a good deal of sense out of extremely difficult material; her work is highly readable and well presented. Recommended reading for anyone with an interest in modern western intellectual history or contemporary cultural criticism. If you are about to throw the baby out with the bathwater, this book will make you think twice.