Concepts of Modernity I: Nihilism

In the 1885 Preface to his unfinished work The Will to Power, Nietzsche declared: "For some time now, our whole European culture has been moving as toward a catastrophe, restlessly, violently, headlong, like a river that wants to reach the end, that no longer reflects, that is afraid to reflect." Nietzsche called the movement "nihilism." This course will reflect on major theories of nihilism as a way of reflecting on the conceptual foundations of modernity. Authors include: Kant, Hegel, Leopardi, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Simone Weil, Emile Cioran, Aimé Césaire, Monica Sjöö & Barbara Mor, and Mark Fisher