Search the repository

A+ | A- | | SLO | ENG

Abstract: The Untimely Situation of Philosophy in the Epoch of Nihilism --- The starting point of the paper is the assumption that the self-understanding of philosophy today is epochally shaped by the announcement of the “uncanniest of all guests”—nihilism. This presents us with the task of determining the untimeliness of philosophy in the age of nihilism, for which a critical examination of philosophy’s current position in the academic, cultural, social, and informational environment is far from sufficient. It is worth pointing out that it is precisely the exaggerated overpreoccupation and obsession with the actual and the activistic today that is a signal of the nihilism at work here. Philosophy’s proper response to this is to remain and persevere in its untimeliness. Only in this way can it perhaps succeed in keeping open the question of the measure of time in the epoch of nihilism.
Keywords: nihilism, philosophy, time, (post)modernity, epoch
Published in DiRROS: 09.01.2025; Views: 54; Downloads: 22
Full text (552,87 KB)

Abstract: Orientation as a Response to Nihilism. Philosophical Reorientation with Nietzsche --- Friedrich Nietzsche did not create the term “nihilism,” but he certainly coined it. Nihilism is often associated with the sentence “nothing is true, everything is permitted,” which seems to involve complete uncertainty, rulelessness, destructiveness, and violence. Nietzsche himself also emphasized its abysmal character. Therefore, for a long time, under the predominant impact of Martin Heidegger’s interpretation, one tried to “overcome” nihilism. But Nietzsche, in his late notes, spoke of “the most fundamental nihilism” as “a normal state” that cannot be overcome. We must and we can live with it. We do this by abstaining from final “truths,” which we, as already Kant pointed out, cannot “have” anyway. Instead, we always “orient ourselves” provisionally and for time. In doing so, in all fields, but in different ways, we usually gain certainty in our orientation to an extent that we can act successfully, exist circumspectly and prudently, and create adequate structures of coexistence. From the approach out of the human orientation, a new humanism and a new ethics arise as well.
Keywords: nihilism, orientation, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Luhmann
Published in DiRROS: 09.01.2025; Views: 56; Downloads: 16
Full text (460,17 KB)

Abstract: Artificially generated images open up new ethical issues. Since it is no longer easy to understand and discern the true from the false, we can adopt a consciously critical view or a nihilistic view. In the field of information, the criterion of visual truth has become abolished. Artificial images are “nontransparent,” subject to a potentially endless process of transformation; they are, moreover, replete with biases that make it difficult to understand the meaning of the image. The crisis of truth, the personalization of visual data, the enclosure into knowledge bubbles, machine learning systems, their conveyance and reception, question the very existence of visual information. The risk is the process of “defacticization” of reality, a loss of trust in the facts being told. This can lead to a kind of informational nihilism and the extinction of trust in “the other.” Therefore, it is necessary to reflect on an ethics that overcomes the devaluation of the meaning of today’s visual signs and allows them to be rehabilitated as bearers of informational, but also social, cultural, and anthropological meaning.
Keywords: artificial images, defacticization, nihilism, regulation, visual information
Published in DiRROS: 09.01.2025; Views: 50; Downloads: 15
Full text (480,55 KB)

Abstract: Language and Nihilism. A Critique of the Homogenization of Language --- If language is understood not only as a simple way of communicating, but also and fundamentally as an experience, in which man opens himself to the world, to other men and their works, and to things (Heidegger), then the loss of linguistic diversity can mean nothing less than the death of the multiplicity of worlds, in which the spiritual diversity of cultures is expressed. It is therefore not unreasonable to think that this decline could consequently lead to an identity devoid of difference, and thus to the predominance of identity over diversity. This pre-eminence of identity would, in this sense, be the culmination (die Vollendung) of the emptiness inherent in the nihilistic phenomenon that characterizes the contemporary world—its tendency towards uniformity and identity without difference (die Gleichheit). This is the meeting point of language and nihilism, and the thesis of this paper. Sociological studies on glotophagy, hegemony, and linguistic imperialism help to concretize this Heideggerian reflection.
Keywords: language, nihilism, linguistic imperialism, Heidegger
Published in DiRROS: 09.01.2025; Views: 57; Downloads: 20
Full text (462,13 KB)

Abstract: In the paper, the author subjects the narrative of “interculturality” to a critique from an intercultural perspective, invoking the critical potential of Intercultural Philosophy in contrast to a culturalist “interculturality” light. The background of this analysis is the epistemic violence exercised by the West in the fields of knowledge, science, and education. This violence is particularly noticeable in the case of philosophy, leading to a sort of “philosophical homicide” (philosophicide) with respect to indigenous philosophies, such as the Andean one in the case of Abya Yala. The paper concludes with some guidelines for the challenges that a critical Intercultural Philosophy must face in the 21st century.
Keywords: intercultural philosophy, Andean philosophy, epistemicide, Abya Yala, philosophicide
Published in DiRROS: 09.01.2025; Views: 68; Downloads: 20
Full text (502,58 KB)