71: The History of European Nihilism

There was much ado about Spinoza, at least amongst the German rationalists and romantics. In this episode, we're going beyond the metaphysics to talk about the entire purpose of Spinoza's Ethics: the path to human freedom, in which a human being can become liberated from dominati ...  Show more

In the conclusion to the daemonic series, we're looking at Stefan Zweig's Struggle with the Daemon - specifically, the section on Nietzsche. Particularly helpful for our analysis will be Zweig's comparison and contrast of Nietzsche with Goethe: both men contain the daemoniacal dr ...  Show more

Doestoevsky vs Nietzsche - where do we find meaning in life?

Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes

Dostoevsky and N ...

“Our Western heritage is reason—reason, analysis, action, progress!” –Settembrini the organ-grinder in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. HIST 271/HUMS 339: European Intellectual History since Nietzsche is a survey course designed to introduce students to the dominant trends in mo ...  Show more

“Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself.”—Jean-Paul Sartre, “Existentialism is a Humanism.” HIST 271/HUMS 339: European Intellectual History since Nietzsche is a survey course designed to introduce students to the dominant trends in modern European intellectual hi ...  Show more

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), a man who suffered greatly from bodily ills, considered himself somewhat of a physician. Yet, his remedies were not aimed towards physical conditions of the body, but rather the personal and societal ills of his time. Nietzsche, often poeticall ...