
Nihilism and Metaphysics
The Third Voyage
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An assessment and reevaluation of nihilism’s ascendency over metaphysics.
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.
Vittorio Possent is Professor of Political Philosophy at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice in Italy and the author of many other books. Daniel B. Gallagher is an Official in the Latin Section of the Vatican Secretariat of State.
Reviews
"…offers the reader a bold thrust to the heart of theoretical nihilism from the standpoint of Thomism, perceived as the bulwark of the perennial philosophy of being. " — Maritain Studies