Challenging the Absolute

Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Europe’s Struggle Against Fundamentalism

Simon F. Oliai

Our contemporary world presents a seemingly inexplicable paradox. It is a world where interaction among societies of different cultural traditions has never been easier. A world in which modern technology has visibly overcome the physical barriers that had long condemned the majority of men to relative isolation from one another. Yet, our world is also one in which the illusion of a lost “original” cultural or religious identity, grounded by a metaphysical absolute, pits men against one another. A physically more accessible world has thus become an increasingly fundamentalist one. In this book, written in the wake of such influential European thinkers as Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida, and Vattimo, Simon Oliai analyzes the conceptual underpinnings of this paradox and argues that, unless the “European” affirmation of man’s finite existence becomes universal, we shall never rid ourselves, to echo Nietzsche, of the repressive shadow of a long dead metaphysical idol.

University Press of America

Pages: 170 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9¼

978-0-7618-6515-5 • Hardback • December 2014 • $88.00 • (£68.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Metaphysics, Religion / Fundamentalism, Religion / Philosophy, Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Philosophy / Movements / Rationalism, Philosophy / Comparative Philosophy, Social Science / Social Theory

Challenging the Absolute

Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Europe’s Struggle Against Fundamentalism

Hardback

Summary

Our contemporary world presents a seemingly inexplicable paradox. It is a world where interaction among societies of different cultural traditions has never been easier. A world in which modern technology has visibly overcome the physical barriers that had long condemned the majority of men to relative isolation from one another. Yet, our world is also one in which the illusion of a lost “original” cultural or religious identity, grounded by a metaphysical absolute, pits men against one another. A physically more accessible world has thus become an increasingly fundamentalist one. In this book, written in the wake of such influential European thinkers as Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida, and Vattimo, Simon Oliai analyzes the conceptual underpinnings of this paradox and argues that, unless the “European” affirmation of man’s finite existence becomes universal, we shall never rid ourselves, to echo Nietzsche, of the repressive shadow of a long dead metaphysical idol.

Details

University Press of America

Pages: 170 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9¼

978-0-7618-6515-5 • Hardback • December 2014 • $88.00 • (£68.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Metaphysics, Religion / Fundamentalism, Religion / Philosophy, Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Philosophy / Movements / Rationalism, Philosophy / Comparative Philosophy, Social Science / Social Theory

Author

Simon F. Oliai is a former UNESCO adviser on the worldwide promotion of the humanities, as well as a philosopher of history who has studied and lectured in the United States, France, and Iran. He has organized several noted international seminars in Europe and the Middle East and is the editor of the landmark international anniversary dossier on the Martin Heidegger, which was published by the French review Portique in 2006.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
An Inevitably Endless Introduction
Part I: The Use and the Danger of Heidegger for Contemporary Thought
Chapter 1: On the Contemporary Pertinence of Heidegger’s Philosophical Questioning
Chapter 2: Safeguarding “Being” from Its Fundamentalist Self-Persecution
Part II: Nietzsche, Heidegger, and the Historical Destiny of “European” Thought
Chapter 3: Nietzsche on the Art of Resistance to Onto-Theology
Chapter 4: On “Be-coming European Today”
Chapter 5: Heidegger on the Promise of Art at the Twilight of Philosophy
Part III: On “Europe’s” Endless Struggle Against “Fundamentalisms”
Chapter 6: On Europe’s Enlightening Example
Chapter 7: Thinking the Essence of Neo-Fundamentalism
Chapter 8: Only a “God-Artist” Can Save Us: Religion as the “European” Art of Safeguarding the Earth with Others

Reviews

I am strongly convinced that the crucial analysis of the metaphysical underpinnings of all manner of contemporary fundamentalism by Simon Oliai shall have not only contributed to elaborating a more precise definition of the current role of Western philosophy, but, more significantly, shed light on the universal function of all critical thought in our world.
— Gianni Vattimo, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Turin

Ever since its first efforts at integration were undertaken, Europe has constituted, historically that is, a space for reconciliation. Moreover, Europe has been founded on values among which tolerance and acceptance of differences occupy a privileged position. Simon Oliai is thus right in underscoring this line of thought whilst insisting on the need for its constant application.
— Michel Rocard, former prime minister of France and senior member of the European Parliament

Very few people have such a profound and intellectual appreciation of the cultural history
and significance of Europe and Persia whilst also having lived in and experienced North America.
— Lord David Owen, CH, former British foreign secretary and EU envoy to Yugoslavia