Nietzsche and the Nothingness

Abstract

Starting from the famous Nietzschean distinction between not willing and willing Nothing itself, the paper explores the status of nothingness and negativity in Nietzsche's philosophy. It suggests that Nietzsche is not simply hostile to negativity as such, but rather attempts to find a singular articulation of negativity, different from the one that is at stake in “nihilism”. This singular articulation of negativity is to be found in Nietzsche's theory of “double affirmation”, where negativity is no longer the inevitable obverse side of every positiveness, but rather takes the form of the difference or “boundary” between two things. The paper then goes on to demonstrate how this form of negativity plays an important part in Nietzsche's theory of truth.