Annihilation of Nothing?

Abstract

The article examines the relation between Nietzsche’s and Hegel’s concepts of nothing and negativity. Both concepts have to be understood as two radical answers to the metaphysical constitution of reality. Namely, if metaphysics constitutes reality through the exclusion of nothing from being, then for Hegel it is actually impossible to recognize reality if it hasn’t been understood in its equality with negation, or in other words, if being hasn’t been beheld in its sameness with nothing. On the other hand, the essence of Nietzsche’s critique of metaphysics lies exactly in the accusation that metaphysics remains unable not to think of being as nothing. There are several reasons for this incapacity, the crucial aspect can however only be grasped through an analysis of Nietzsche’s "double affirmation" as an answer to Hegel’s "negation of negation".