Nihilism and Objectivism: Key Concepts and Historical Context
Nihilism
Nihilism is a historical movement in Western culture. It passes through several phases:
- Nihilism begins with the denial of the real world in favor of a higher world. He regards Plato as the first nihilist. This negative nihilism will be characterized as anything. Real life with its suffering, errors, and contradictions is denied and scorned, and before it stands the realm of good, truth, and beauty.
- A reaction to the supersensible world which denies any value: the fall of the higher values. The nihilist denies God, the higher values, good, etc., and is left alone with a life devoid of values and a sense of purpose.
- Reactive nihilism leads to the passive nihilism of the last man. The last man is the descendant of the murderer of God. Values change over history; what remains is a nihilistic perspective presiding over history.
- For nihilism to be complete and not survive the decadent values, Nietzsche speaks of an active nihilism, realized, that terminates and destroys such values.
Superman
The Superman is the man who accepts life in a spirit of power, who is faithful to the earth and all beyond dispute. The revaluation of moral values, with the construction of new ones to get man out of his nihilism, is the Superman’s task. This is opposed to the “last man,” the mediocre modern man. Superman is one who creates himself, and his features are worldliness, the rejection of any claim beyond the world and the sensitive field.
The Eternal Return
Along with the will to power, it is the mainstay of his intellectual reflection in his last creative period. The Eternal Return converts all future repetition; it represents the element of infinity that is embodied in everything finite. It is the highest love towards life, the acceptance of its eternal worldly dimension.
Objectivism
The first stage of thought goes from the publication of “Glosses” (1902) until his first book, Meditations on Don Quixote (1914), which already belongs to the next stage. Its starting point is the Spanish situation. Spain is outdated socially, politically, technically, and culturally in relation to Europe. Facing the serious, somewhat pessimistic solutions proposed, another solution is offered: to flourish and take root in our country the intellectual attitudes that have made possible the development of Europe. What are these attitudes? Science and theory. Science is the result of an intellectual discipline that has its roots in what Ortega called objectivism. This has made possible the development of this discipline: method, critical and rational habit. The lack of method is the only legacy we have received from our ancestors. This is the first obstacle to overcome. By exercising asceticism, look up definitions to demarcate some other issues. If we get to the truth and do science, we have no choice but to do it from a rigorous method. But it is not enough. We need a critical habit. This leads us to compare any doctrine with truth and reason. Rationality. The rationale appears to be corrective. You must remove any irrationality. It is not unique to any people, race, or social group but of all men. There can be no human activity, either theoretical or practical, that escapes the contrast with how things are with reality. The last word is had by things. Man cannot deal with things from a purely intellectual innocence since they must be polished to express what they are. The tool that allows us to polish reality is the theoretical activity of man. Objectivism is just an attempt to solve the problem of Spain: its delay with respect to Europe.