Between the history of nihilism and the nihilism of history

Komel, Dean (author)

The paper considers the nihilism of history in relation to the concepts of the “crisis of modernity”, “the end of history” and our “contemporary situation”. The problem is that the disposedness of nihilism itself determines our existential and coexistential situation, since it erases its historical horizon. On the other hand, the pressure of the situation demands that we adopt an open attitude towards our own contemporaneity, which includes not only ourselves but also the world between and around us. Finally, in relation to Hegel’s introduction to his Lectures on the History of Philosophy, the question of the immanent historicity of philosophy and the nihilism of history is raised. In this context, I also discuss some of the assumptions of Jon Stewart’s historical-philosophical consideration of nihilism in his book The History of Nihilism in the Nineteenth Century from 2023.

• Language: English
• Keywords: nihilism, modernity, history, contemporaneity, philosophy
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 634-642
• Numbering: Vol. 35, no. 4
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-189476
• UDC: 1
• ISSN on article: 1337-401X
• DOI: 10.1515/humaff-2025-0047
• COBISS.SI-ID: 261021699
• Publication date in RUL: 07.10.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Human affairs
• Shortened title: Hum. affairs
• Publisher: De Gruyter, De Gruyter Brill, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute for Research in Social Communication
• ISSN: 1337-401X
• COBISS.SI-ID: 518435609

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: filozofija

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0341
• Name: Humanistika in smisel humanosti v vidikih zgodovinskosti in sodobnosti

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J7-4631
• Name: Hermenevtični problem razumevanja človeške eksistence in koeksistence v epohi nihilizma