Essay on Two Brands of Nihilism

There will always be philosophical interpretations that will create universal truths for many generations to come. In addition, these literary works enriches the audiences’ understanding of these texts as supremely important cultural and historical documents, for audiences who embrace their universal truths. Both generational audiences’ spiritual interpretations seemed to have, collectively, developed a text of extraordinary literary works that are overflowing with philosophical and truth-seeking richness.

A man will find in himself a perfect comprehension. The world is his for who can see through its pretension.

In the first discourse we learn about the excellence and singularity of the sacred mystery of the incarnation. The author states that the most important lesson that we are taught in the school of wisdom and salvation it the hole mystery of Incarnation. This mystery is so powerful that it exceeds even the highest thought of men

You will hardly come upon your first view within the pages of this book without realizing that you have been brought into contact with something altogether new, something new and at variance with the traditions of other days. If you are like most of us, you will wonder if the future is to look like this, and, if it does, what your place is to be in it.

“We learn that a sage recognizes a sage, whereas an ordinary man cannot recognize a sage. The ordinary man sees nothing but the outer form of a beggar, while the sage has a penetrating eye able to recognize the hidden essence.” (77)

Nietzsche does not dispute the influence that Socrates has imposed on the world. Rather, Nietzsche disputes the philosophy that he has imposed on the world, believing it to be detrimental to humankind. In this paper, I argue that Nietzsche finds Socrates and his philosophy to be life-negating and causal of decline, while any form of existence should be life-affirming and empowering, though such a form has yet to exist in the modern era. In order to prove this, I will first examine his critique of Socrates, demonstrating that Socrates, as an individual, belonged to the lowest level of society in Athens as a consequence of his repulsive figure, and therefore, created his philosophy not with the intent of enlightenment, but as a ressentiment (i.e. resentment) towards the Athenian aristocracy. Second, I will examine

In his essay “Existentialism”, Jean Paul Sartre discusses the main beliefs of existentialism. Perhaps the most important belief of existentialism is that there is no human nature, and there is no God. This means that each individual man has control of his own destiny. The definition of each individual man is the sum of his life and all he has accomplished in his life. He is also responsible for all the choices and actions he makes in his life. These types of choices and actions can be seen in the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel. This book is a story about a boy, Wiesel, who is taken to a concentration camp with his family. It follows him and his father through their trials and movement from Auschwitz

This world was made for man, and man for the world as it is.”(Doc. 2)

Humanity revolves around the basis of one concept: knowledge. The acquisition of knowledge has driven humanity’s progress and will continue to propel man into new heights. There comes a point where the want for knowledge becomes dangerous. The novelette, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, tells the tale of a man meddling in the affairs of another, who dwells in macabre, in order to gain insight. Man lives for knowledge, but sometimes it is that knowledge that quenches man’s ability to live.

“You will find the world in your own eyes, if they learn how to see; in your own heart if it learns how to feel; and in your own fingers if they learn how to touch.” (Dunham 188).

In his Allegory Plato shows us how a man ascends from the darkness of a cave to the light of the outside world. In this ascent Plato’s man passes through four distinct stages of cognition: from imagination, to belief, understanding, and finally knowledge.

Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;

Perhaps the most telling symptom of existentialist philosophers is their ever-divergent theories on the fundamental characteristics of human life and their steadfast refusal to assign an explicit meaning or reason to our existence at all. Contrary to criticism which therefore labels the movement cynically nihilistic, existentialism justifies life with reasoning similar to that of Zen Buddhism. Specifically, the notions of hopelessness and absurdity can be gleaned from Buddhism in a manner helpful to the understanding of existentialist viewpoints on the same.

To this effect, I shall explore this text’s connections to Nietzsche's key intellectual influences. First, I shall address the impact of the Schopenhauerian view of the world on The Birth of Tragedy, in particular as regards the opposition between Apollo and Dionysus and the nature and goal of tragic art. Subsequently, I shall refer to the influence of Richard Wagner's thought in order to explore the relationship between metaphysics and art as humanity's "true metaphysical

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century's, the Enlightenment was a term designated to the increasing amount of scientificic discovery's debunking religious theology. With humanity's loss of their once certified objectivity, the individual and his society sunk into the chaotic realm of insecurity revealing the seeds of a postmodern world. The German philosopher Nietzsche, deeming "God is dead", saw the collapse of these collective truths of objectivity, showing the meaningless of the universe. Hence he located meaning and truth to be relative to the individual with his ability to surpass his chaotic existence through the will to power.