[lit-ideas] Nihilism & Its Discontents
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:02:23 EST
And by Discontents: I mean "Helm".
Geary.
>What is 'positive' philosophy? I don't know what that means -- or
negative
>philosophy for that matter.
Hear, Hear.
Or for those who are tired of Emile Comte and what _he_ thought was
positivistic. I note that the OED has a couple of Victorian quotes for
'positivism'
as a philosophy:
1846 G. H. LEWES Biogr. Hist. Philos. IV. 262
The course we should recommend the student to pursue is first to read M.
Littré's pamphlet De la Philosophie Positivea masterly exposition of the object
and tendencies of positivism.
1854 G. BRIMLEY Ess. (1858) xi. 330
We are obliged to conclude, then, that positivism in M. Comte's hands, while
pretending to take upon itself the regulation of human conduct, fails to
furnish a guiding principle for either individuals or societies.
1866 J. GROTE Exam. Utilit. Philos. (1870) 2
A way of thinking about morals, which may be roughly called by the name
Positivism; by which I mean the line of thought which endeavours to construct
a
system of morals..from observation and experience of fact alone.
1892 Monist 2 261
Positivism i.e. the representation of facts without any admixture of theory
or mythology, is an ideal which in its purity perhaps will never be realised.
Now, the quotes for 'negativism' are more on the ironical side, including
one reference to Popper!
1824 in F. Perthes Mem. (1856) II. xx. 295
The superlative of positivism is a bedlamite: of negativism a cipher.
1865 Athenæum No. 1949. 312/3
The negativism which Comte calls positivism.
1872 J. MORLEY Voltaire v. 208
The inundation of Europe by the literature of negativism and repudiation.
1946 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 51 409/1
Its distinguishing feature was a general rebelliousness, expressed in
various shades of negativism, from mildly cynical humor to scathing
denunciation.
1963 B. FRIEDAN Feminine Mystique viii. 188
It's easy for the professional social critic to blame the younger
generation..for the empty negativism of beatnikery.
1975 New Left Rev. Nov.-Dec. 48
Popper's philosophy could be described as ‘negativism’.
1990 Daily Tel. 14 Nov. 20/1 Our future must lie with Europe and..there is
a ‘middle way’ between the grandiose federalism of M Delors and the
negativism of Mrs Thatcher.
---- Perhaps what L. K. Helm has in mind though is NIHILISM, which is a very
respected brand of a philosophical school. Mostly German, but what are you
'gonna' do about it.
NIHILISM, re-defined a la Helm:
"If there is nothing you want to die for, you are a damned nihilist."
I would agree.
But what shall we call someone for who there is nothing to _live_ for?
Pathetic, that's what I'd call her.
And I rather be a nihilist than a perypathetic.
Cheers,
JL
----
1842 W. HAMILTON Diss. in T. Reid Wks. I. 129/2 Is the acknowledged result
of the Fichtean dogmatism less a nihilism than the scepticism of Hume?
1856 W. HAMILTON Lect. Metaphysics (1859) I. xvi. 294 Of positive or dogmatic
Nihilism there is no example in modern philosophy.
1857 F. MAX MÜLLER Chips (1880) I. xi. 284 Buddhism..cannot be freed from
the charge of Nihilism.
1887 W. PATER Imaginary Portraits 128 Actually proud at times of his
curious, well-reasoned nihilism.
1909 A. M. LUDOVICI tr. Nietzsche Will to Power I. 16 The extremest form
of Nihilism would mean that all <NOBRall assumption of assuis false: because
no real world is at hand.
1964 P. ROUBICZEK Existentialism vii. 125 Thus it is no cause for surprise
that Sartre lands himself in complete nihilism.
1994 Philos. & Phenomenol. Res. 54 509 (Phenomenalistic) idealism occupies
the ontologically middle ground between the extremes of nihilism and realism.
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