European Nihilism and Its Overcome: Nietzsche and Heidegger

Abstract

In essence, nihilism is the negation of traditional western metaphysics and the negation of the western civilization. Nietzsche’s understanding of nihilism firstly was to associate the nihilism with the Platonism which was the origins of western metaphysics, and then he pointed out that the final result of Platonism was nihilism. On this basis, Nietzsche criticized the previous all values in hierarchy and set up the new highest value namely the will to power, in order to overcome the European nihilism. However, the highest value which is called the will to power by Nietzsche still fell into the stereotype of metaphysics of subjectivity. By questioning the being, Heidegger overcame the traditional metaphysics and nihilism, but his philosophy only strengthened the metaphysics of subjectivity at a higher level in essence, so Heidegger did not fundamentally overcame the traditional metaphysics and European nihilism. In the context of western philosophy, only abandoning itself by the metaphysics of subjectivity, it could fundamentally overcome the problems of nihilism.