I found Novak's central arguments compelling and wellresearched but he often lost me in his roundabout, somewhat convoluted train of thought.
i clung to this book when my father died, i was. it helped to know that alienation, isolation and meaninglessness could be a peak spiritual experience, In The Experience of Nothingness, Michael Novak has two objectives, First, he shows the paths by which the experience of nothingness is becoming common among all those who live in free societies.
Second, he details the various experiences that lead to the nothingness point of view, Most discussions of these matters have been so implicated in the European experience that the term "nihilism" has a European ring.
Novak, however, articulates this experience of formlessness in an American context,
In his new introduction, the author lists four requirements that must be met by an individual in order for the experience of nothingness to emerge: a commitment to honesty, a commitment to courage, recognition of how widespread the experience of nothingness is, and a virtue of will.
Novak writes that these principles are what guide selfdescribed philosophical nihilists, But many people simply borrow the nihilistic conclusions without observing the moral commitments to them, For this reason Novak believes that nihilism is fraudulent as a theory intended to explain the experience of nothingness.
Nihilism in practice, he maintains, often results in a form of intolerance, The Experience of Nothingness is a work that will cause many scholars to rethink their beliefs.
It should be read by philosophers, theologians,
sociologists, political theorists, and cultural historians, "The experience of nothingness teaches a man the poverty and the limitations of all symbols, It teaches him to look with skepticism upon perceptions and values that others take for granted, Thus those who have shared the experience of nothingness are the most profoundly subversive of all dissenters for they deny, not this or that institutional arrangement, but the prevailing sense of reality.
Their conscience is out of tune with the conscience of the dominant elites, as well as out of tune with the corresponding conscience of those ordinary people who still have faith in the elites.
"
A really interesting read that speaks to a subject that tends to elude description,
"The experience of nothingness arms a man against his own puritanism, his desire to be perfect, and his despair at not being able to be honest, courageous, free, or brotherly.
Who is he who is at his center nothing to be dismayed because his actions prove his worthlessness The self is not at the center of the universe.
The sun shines no less brilliantly, the skies are no more thickly gray because he has betrayed his resolve.
" First, before discussing this, let's agree on the author's use of the term Nothingness, His use of the term and he says so in the book is synonymous with nihilism, Nihilism in this context is the belief that life and the universe has no objective, purpose or instrinsic meaning to it.
The experience of nihilism, how it effects people and society in general is an interesting topic.
But that's precisely what you don't get in this book, I will admit that there is the occasional interesting passage on Nothingness, But this quickly degenerates in to page after page of meaningless drivel which is just the authors personal opinions.
No attempt is made to justify, reason or argue anything in this meaningless book, In addition, the author's opinions quickly gravitate to the whole "everything is shit" point of view, Nothing is spared from this relentless scathing torrent, Which again would be all very well if some justification for these ideas were offered
In many areas it drifts rather obviously to the postmodern theories, where everything is "just a story".
The author uses the words "myths", but the idea is the same,
While i basically agree that life is without any external meaning, I think it's interesting that Science has revealed so much about the universe around us.
Why is that What is special about science What is wrong with focussing on ordering our own human society, in order to bring as much happiness as possible to people The cynicism of this book is relentless, and after a few chapters I found myself skimming it.
I guess it's my fault for choosing a book like this, but in my opinion there are better books on nihilism.
You probably think, having read the title, this book is a complete downer, Maybe it is. Depends on your point of view, For me, it was actually rather uplifting, It's kind of like a handbook for rebranding existentialism, Or, how to reframe emptiness as fullness, How's that for twisted optimism
If this quote speaks to you, it might be worth a real read:
"The choice to remain faithful to the drive to question the fertile source of the experience of nothingness brings with it an obscure joy.
For to be faithful to that drive, . . is to be constantly expanding one's horizon, constantly losing one's life, and constantly regaining it, It is to be as alert to other persons, to situations, and to events as one can: to their fragility and terror, as well as to their obscure coherence and often veiled beauty.
To be faithful to the drive to question is to accept despair as one's due, to accept risk as one's condition, and to accept the crumbs of discovery as joy.
The darkness is habitable Those who accept the darkness as their lot are instantly secure, not through some newfound solidity but through the perception that insecurity is man's natural state, a truthful state, a healthy state.
" I enjoyed this book, mainly because Novak did a good job of capturing emotions and thoughts I've been grappling with for some time now.
He made arguments about democracy and capitalism, and its effects on American society, i, e. , the effects it has on us morally and intellectually, This topic seems to have been in fashion during thes, He evinced the importance of Aristotelian ethics in contemporary society as a palliative for his diagnosis of American culture.
Diagnosis: we have fallen prey to technological abstractions, and the guise of equality, which have limited our ability to act on our beliefs and evaluate our beliefs, wholeheartedly.
This, along with the innate 'drive to question' that all humans possess, plainly stated, is where 'the experience of nothingness' is born.
He contends that apathy generally follows from the powerlessness that one experiences upon realizing that the political and cultural machines that affect our lives, and erroneously concluding that our ability to shape the world around us, even our very lives, is limited to the point of immobility.
What we ought do, is use the experience of nothingness in tandem with the drive to question as impetuses to foster a sense of self that is conscientious, courageous, and craves honesty when dealing with all levels of human society, e.
g. individual, group, institutional, governmental. .