Absolute Devaluation: Friedrich Nietzsche

Abstract

If the term ‘nihilism’ (Nihilismus) enters the discourse of Western philosophy in 1799 as a charge directed against Fichtean idealism, it is in Nietzsche’s later works (1886–8), and in the notes, drafts, and fragments published posthumously in The Will to Power (1901; expanded edition, 1906), that the concept of nihilism undergoes its first radically inflating redetermination.¹ There is undoubtedly some truth to Michael Allen Gillespie’s claim that the perceived centrality of the concept of nihilism in Nietzsche’s thought is owing principally to the privilege accorded to it by the editors of The Will to Power and to the widespread misperception of that work as Nietzsche’s magnum opus, fulfilling the promise made in On the Genealogy of Morals (1887) regarding the ‘meaning of the ascetic ideal’ for the contemporary world: ‘I shall probe these things more thoroughly and severely in another connection (under the title “On the History of European Nihilism”; it will be continued in a work in progress: The Will to Power: Attempt at a Revaluation of All Values)’ (Nietzsche 1989: 159–60). Certainly, Heidegger’s 1940 lecture course European Nihilism, first published in 1961, and his essay ‘The Word of Nietzsche: “God Is Dead”’ (1943), rely almost entirely on The Will to Power for their interpretation of Nietzsche’s conception of nihilism.