Genealogy of Nihilism: Philosophies of Nothing and the Difference Of
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GENEALOGY OF NIHILISM Nihilism is the logic of nothing as something, which claims that Nothing Is. Its unmaking of things, and its forming of formless things, strain the fundamental terms of existence: what it is to be, to know, to be known. But nihilism, the antithesis of God, is also like theology. Where nihilism creates nothingness, condenses it to substance, God also makes nothingness creative. Negotiating the borders of spirit and substance, theology can ask the questions of nihilism that other disciplines do not ask: Where is it? What is it made of? Why is it so destructive? How can it be made holy, or overcome? Genealogy of Nihilism rereads Western history in the light of nihilistic logic, which pervades two millennia of Western thought and is coming to fruition in our present age in a virulently dangerous manner. From Parmenides to Alain Badiou, via Plotinus, Avicenna, Duns Scotus, Ockham, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, Sartre, Lacan, Deleuze and Derrida, a genealogy of nothingness can be witnessed in development, with devastating consequences for the way we live. As a dualistic logic, nihilism has come to ground existence not in life but in the absences beyond it. We who are, are no longer the living, but rather the living dead; in the death-wielding modern approach to knowledge, we are all reduced to cadavers. The Trinitarian theology of Genealogy of Nihilism offers a counterargument that is sustained by nihilism even as it defeats it. In Christ’s ontological synthesis of divine spirit and incarnation, and in the miraculous logic of the resurrection, theology reunites presence with absence, non-being with being. Seeing things in their actual complexity and incongruity, it allows for real difference. Conor Cunningham’s elaborate and sophisticated theology, spanning the disciplines of philosophy, science and popular culture, permits us to see not simply how modernity has formulated its philosophies of nothing, but how these philosophies might be transfigured by the crucial difference theology makes, and so be reconcilable with life, and the living – with the very gift which being is. Conor Cunningham is a doctor of theology and teacher of divinity at the University of Cambridge. His previous academic interests have included the study of Law, Social Science and Philosophy, and he was among the original contributors to Radical Orthodoxy: A New Theology (Routledge, 1999). RADICAL ORTHODOXY SERIES Edited by John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock and Graham Ward Radical orthodoxy combines a sophisticated understanding of contem- porary thought, modern and postmodern, with a theological perspective that looks back to the origins of the Church. It is the most talked-about development in contemporary theology. RADICAL ORTHODOXY edited by John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock and Graham Ward DIVINE ECONOMY D. Stephen Long TRUTH IN AQUINAS John Milbank and Catherine Pickstock CITIES OF GOD Graham Ward LIBERATION THEOLOGY AFTER THE END OF HISTORY Daniel M. Bell, Jr GENEALOGY OF NIHILISM Conor Cunningham SPEECH AND THEOLOGY James K. A. Smith GENEALOGY OF NIHILISM Philosophies of nothing and the difference of theology Conor Cunningham London and New York First published 2002 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor and Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2002 Conor Cunningham All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-99531-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0–415–27693–4 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–27694–2 (pbk) For my mother, Rachael, who teaches me the logics of eternity ‘It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.’ (Bilbo Baggins, from The Hobbit, as quoted by J. R. R. Tolkien) CONTENTS Acknowledgements xi Preface xii PART I Philosophies of nothing 1 1 Towards nothing: Plotinus, Avicenna, Ghent, Scotus and Ockham 3 Audacity: to be without being 3 To need: Nothing 5 One: Audacity 6 Avicenna needs nothing 9 God: Without essence 12 Henry of Ghent: the possibility of nothing 13 Duns Scotus and William of Ockham: univocity of Non-Being 16 Ockham 17 Possibly: Nothing 20 To Be: Nowhere 22 Ens infinitum: ens univocum 26 Infinity 28 A small infinity 29 2 Scotus and Ockham: intuitive cognition – to cognise nothing 44 3 Spinoza: Pan(a)theistic acosmism 59 Introduction 59 vii CONTENTS There is only One of Us 59 Substance: None 60 Attributes: None 61 Nothing: Much 62 For the Love of God 63 I did it: Because 64 I Am: Not 65 Desiring: Nothing 66 To Not Be: Saved 67 One voice: Naturally 68 4 Kant: Causing all to disappear 74 Introduction 74 To Say: Nothing 75 To Do: Nothing 84 To See: Nothing 86 To Be: Nothing 90 5 Hegel’s consummate philosophy: The univocity of Geist 100 To vanish 100 Hegel’s univocity of Geist 101 Collapsing dualisms: Nothing is Something 105 I am: Nothing 108 I am Thinking: Nothing 111 I am: Speculation 113 I am: Counterfactual 118 I am: Vanishing 121 6 On the line: Martin Heidegger and Paul Celan 131 Introduction 131 Ladies and Gentlemen, Martin Heidegger: taking care of Being 132 Being: ready and present 133 Phenomenologically speaking 136 Being and Nothing: Time and Death 137 Language: to say nothing 139 Language: of the Stone 142 Flowers: for no one 145 Waiting: In Line 146 viii CONTENTS 7 Derrida: Spinozistic Plotinianism 155 Nothing is outside: the text 155 Outside: in 156 There is: nothing inside the text 157 Derrida’s Spinozistic Plotinianism 158 Inside: out 161 PART II The difference of theology 167 8 To speak, to do, to see: Analogy, participation, divine ideas and the idea of beauty 169 The choice: of nihilism 169 The form of nihilism 171 Those who are made to disappear 174 Approaching nihilism 178 To speak, to do, to see 179 Analogically: speaking 181 Ideas: of the Divine 189 Beautiful ideas: the idea of beauty 192 The language of difference 197 9 The difference knowledge makes: Creation out of love 219 Proper knowledge 219 Being: incomprehensible 220 Any change? 223 Knowing me, knowing you: An aporetic heuristics 225 Traditionally speaking 229 10 Philosophies of nothing and the difference of theology: Sartre, Lacan, Deleuze, Badiou and creation out of no-one 235 Introduction 235 An aporia, so to speak 235 Nihilism: the consummate philosophy? 238 The moving desert 238 Postapocalyptic 238 To crown anarchy 240 To provide nothing: Nihilism as genuine creation 241 Passers-by 247 ix CONTENTS Absolute beginnings 248 A-voiding One: creation from No-One 251 I – who is not – am – so will not be 253 The stain of existence: An indivisible remainder 255 Devil of the Gaps 256 The stamen of existence: An irreducible reminder 258 Created creators: such is love’s difference 260 Conclusion: strange forms 273 Bibliography 276 Index 304 x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The work presented here has been funded by the following: The British Academy; The Burney Fund (Faculty of Divinity); Rachael Cunningham; The Methodist Church – Belfast Central Mission; Martha McCormick; the estate of the late Revd Peter Good; E. O’Neill; Dr Robin Hutton; Louise Hutton (Snr); Graeme Paxton; M. Johnston; Murray Bell of 20:20 Architects. I would also like to thank the following for the various ways in which each has contributed to my work: Phillip Blond; Anne Bottomley; Michael Devon; Dr Petà Dunstan (angel of the Divinity Faculty, whose messages were always lighter than they should have been); Dr Michael Hanby; Janet Hutton; Edwin Middleton-Weaver; Professor David McLellan; V. K. Millar; the Revd John Montag; Natasha Pearce; Professor Denys Turner; Dr James Williams; the Right Reverend Rowan Williams; and John Young. Most of all I would like to thank: Crystal Cunningham; Sara Cunningham-Bell; Professor John Milbank; Dr Catherine Pickstock; the Revd Dr Michael Robson; and the Revd Professor Graham Ward. They have all given me the gift of their unfailing generosity and faith, intellectual and otherwise, and for that I am more than grateful. xi PREFACE This book does not seek to present a complete historical genealogy of nihilism, even though there is a loose chronology directing the progression of the chapters. What is rather offered is a genealogy which endeavours, first of all, to isolate certain crucial historical moments in the history of nihilism, moments which at time reveal clearly an intermittent development of prior influences. In the second place, I seek to isolate in all these moments a certain peculiar logic at work. What am I to do, what shall I do, what should I do, in my situation, how proceed? By aporia pure and simple.1 (Samuel Beckett, The Unnamable) There is, I suggest, an aporia involved in finitude. How do we know that to think is significant? Or rather, how do we know that thought thinks? It seems we require a ‘thought of thinking’. However, if thought requires its own thought, then it can either be another thought or something other than thought.