The Politics of Nihilism From the Nineteenth Century to Contemporary Israel

by Lebovic, Nitzan; Ben-Shai, Roy

• ISBN13: 9781623562564
• ISBN10: 1623562562
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-09-25
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Contemporary politics is faced, on the one hand, with political stagnation and lack of a progressive vision on the side of formal, institutional politics, and, on the other, with various social movements that venture to challenge modern understandings of representation, participation,and democracy. Interestingly, both institutional and anti-institutional sides of this antagonism tend to accuse each other of "nihilism", namely, of mere oppositional destructiveness and failure to offer a constructive, positive alternative to the status quo. Nihilism seems, then, all engulfing.

In order to better understand this political situation and ourselves within it,The Politics of Nihilism proposes a thorough theoretical examination of the concept of nihilism and its historical development followed by critical studies of Israeli politics and culture. The authors show that, rather than a mark of mutual opposition and despair, nihilism is a fruitful category for tracing and exploring the limits of political critique, rendering them less rigid and opening up a space of potentiality for thought, action, and creation.

Author Biography

Roy Ben Shai is Professor of Continuing Studies at New School for Public Engagement in New York. He has taught ethics and modern philosophy in New York, Iceland, and Mexico and has published articles in The European Legacy and Telos. His dissertation, titled "Moral Pathology," is the first book length philosophical study of the writing of Holocaust Survivor and essayist Jean Amery. It won the Hans Jonas Memorial Award for best dissertation in philosophy and he is currently preparing it for publication as a book.

Nitzan Lebovic is Assistant Professor of History and the Apter Chair of Holocaust Studies and Ethical Values at Lehigh University, US. He has published articles on German Jewish culture,philosophy, film, and literature, and edited special issues of the New German Critique, Zmanim: The Tel-Aviv Journal of History, Rethinking History, and the political blogs HaOkets and HaEmori. He has written books about the history and theory of German philosophy of life and "The German-Jewish Time."

Table of Contents

Part I: The Concept of Nihilism: Past, Present, and Future
Nihilism and the Limits of Political Critique: A Historical Overview, Nitzan Lebovic, LeHigh University
Three Concepts of Nihilism in Nietzsche, Michael Gillespie, Duke University
Otto Weininger as Symbol of his Time, Bettina Bergo, Montreal University
Nihilisms, Vertical and Horizontal: On the Evolving Conception and Critique of Nihilism from Nietzsche through Heidegger to Stanley Rosen, Roy Ben-Shai, City University of New York
From Nihilism to Death Drive: Hegel and the Unsecular Condition, Luca DiBlasi, ICI Berlin
Nihilism: The Spectacle and Revolt, Bulent Diken, Lancaster University
Nihilism: A Possible Concept, Adi Ophir, Tel-Aviv University
Part II: The Limits of Political Critique:Nihilism in the Context of Israeli Culture
The Silence of the Madman and the State of Absence, Noam Yuran, Ben-Gurion University
Checkpoint Lessons: Military Ethics and the Technopolitics of Nihilism, Tal Arbel, Harvard University
Between Comedy and Tragedy: Zionism and Sh.Y Agnon's Nihilistic Belief, Yuval Kremnitzer, Columbia University
Legalism, Nihilism and Critique: Carl Schmitt, Yoram Kaniuk, and the Possibility of Judgment, Itamar Mann, Yale University
Tobe at Home: Spaces of Citizenship in the Community Settlements, Fatina Abreek-Zubiedat, Israel Institute of Technology, and Ronnen Ben-Arie, University of Haifa
Genuine Israelis Overcome Nihilism: The Figure of the Israeli Patriot at a Historical Crossroads, Lin Chalozin-Dovrat, Sorbonne / Tel-Aviv University
Bibliography
Index