ABSTRACT
In J. Derrida’s account, part of his civil yet thoroughgoing critique of M. Heidegger’s interpretation of Friedrich Nietzsche, nihilism is both benevolent and malevolent; both poison and remedy. Influential manifestations of it are the Platonic and Judaeo-Christian ideologies that for Nietzsche engulf the totality of Western culture, including secularism. Nietzsche’s method for seeing through the hollowness of metaphysical claims is philology, a discipline that in his hands sheds its conventional stuffiness and becomes a weapon of demystification. For Nietzsche, ‘health’ – or that trendy word beloved of the corporate world, wellness – is a much poorer ally in the exploration of psyche than sickness. In a notebook entry of autumn 1887, Nietzsche draws a clear distinction between active nihilism, which he sees as a “sign of increased power of the spirit”, and passive nihilism which is characterized by the “decline and retreat of the spirit’s power”. Active nihilism, as portrayed by Nietzsche, is a very different kettle of fish.
