Names of nihil / / Arvydas Sliogeris ; translated from Lithuanian by Robertas Beinartas; preface by Leonidas Donskis.

• Superior document: On the boundary of two worlds : identity, freedom, and moral imagination in the Baltics ; 14
• Author: Sliogeris, Arvydas.
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: On the boundary of two worlds ; 14.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (147 p.)
• Notes: Translation of: Niekio vardai.

In this book, probably for the first time in Western philosophy, an attempt has been made to point out and systematically explicate the problem scope of the Nothing (which is called Nihil in the book) and to try to explain the springhead of the excessive negativity, inherent only in the human being, or in other words, the springhead of the human’s natural nihilism. Nihilism is treated here not as a posture, pose, or an ideological attitude, but as the spread of the human metaphysical nucleus, of Nihil. Nihilistic annihilation, manifesting itself as the road of the naming of Nihil and of the production of thingly crystals (artificial world) as a result of that naming, usually is called “history”. Names of Nihil (language phenomena), being the antithesis of Nihil, falsify and cover up Nihil itself, turning it into “supreme” being, e.g. into “the One”, “God”, “Substance”, “Matter”, “Spirit”, ad infinitum . This book should be interesting not only to philosophers or humanitarians, but also to all those who concern themselves with the total human condition.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Author’s Word -- The Beginning and Language -- Dedications -- An Interpretation -- Notes.