The book makes a new contribution to the contemporary debates on nihilism and the sacred. Drawing on an original interpretation of Richard Rorty's writings, it challenges the orthodox treatment of nihilism as a malaise that human beings must overcome.
The book makes a new contribution to the contemporary debates on nihilism and the sacred. Drawing on an original interpretation of Richard Rorty's writings, it challenges the orthodox treatment of nihilism as a malaise that human beings must overcome. Instead, nihilism should be framed as a problem for human culture to outgrow through pragmatism.
Tracy Llanera is Assistant Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut and faculty affiliate at the UConn Asian and Asian American Studies Institute. She works at the intersection of philosophy of religion, social and political philosophy, and pragmatism, specializing on the topics of nihilism, conversion, and the politics of language.
1. The Great Debate
Why Rorty?
The SpiritualSpiritual Disjointedness
The Book
2. Overcoming Nihilism
Nietzsche: The Uncanniest of All Guests
Heidegger: When the Hammer Breaks
Taylor: Modern Moral Sources
Dreyfus and Kelly: Whooshing Up
Rorty the Nihilist?
Three Cases
Conclusion
3. The Concept of Redemption
Essentialism and Edification
Romantic Polytheism
The Religious Impulse
Rise of the Literary Culture
Liberal Democracy
A New Self-Image
Religious Nostalgia
Conclusion
4. Averting Nihilism
Egotism
The Private-Public Distinction
Self-Creation and Solidarity
Self-Enlargement
Nihilism and Egotism
Post-Metaphysical Redemption
Conclusion
5. Pragmatist Transcendence
The Ambition to Transcendence
Vertical Transcendence and the Onto-Theological Tradition
Horizontal Transcendence and Pragmatism
Strong and Weak Transcendence
Three Concerns
Conclusion
6. The Nihilisms of Our Time