Buddhism, nothingness, and pessimism : from Schopenhauer to Nietzsche

Nelson, Eric S. (author)

The present contribution excavates a pivotal shift in the history of European Buddhism. It outlines the conceptual-historical entanglements of “Buddhist nothingness” with nineteenth-century German philosophy from Schopenhauer to Nietzsche. While Buddhism was primarily interpreted as a philosophy and practice of nothingness (as in Hegel) and as ascetic and nihilistic (as in Nietzsche), pessimist interpretations of Buddhist nothingness, negation, nirvāṇa, and the unconscious articulated other possibilities that helped promote a more receptive, at times enthusiastic, attitude toward Buddhist thought and practice. Nietzsche’s critique of “European Buddhism” as nihilism in his late works and fragments occurs in the context of this shift. Nietzsche’s interpretation is not only a continuation of earlier European suspicions concerning Buddhist nothingness. He intentionally deployed a variety of ideas and images drawn from South Asian Buddhist sources to confront and question European modernity as well as Buddhism itself. Works attributed to the Buddha and Nāgārjuna are discussed at points to help contextualize and assess the significance of these discourses.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Buddhism, emptiness (śūnyatā), nihilism, nothingness, pessimism
• 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. 13-32
• Numbering: Vol. 13, no. 3
• ISSN on article: 2232-5131
• DOI: 10.4312/as.2025.13.3.13-32
• Publication date in RUL: 05.11.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Asian studies = Azijske študije
• Publisher: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 265206272

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Budizem, nič in pesimizem : od Schopenhauerja do Nietzscheja

Abstract

Pričujoči prispevek obravnava ključni premik v zgodovini evropskega budizma. Opisuje konceptualno-zgodovinsko prepletenost »budističnega niča« z nemško filozofijo devetnajstega stoletja od Schopenhauerja do Nietzscheja. Medtem ko je bil budizem predstavljen predvsem kot filozofija in praksa niča (kot pri Heglu) ter kot asketski in nihilistični pristop (kot pri Nietzscheju), so pesimistične interpretacije budističnega niča, negacije, nirvāṇe in nezavednega artikulirale tudi druge možnosti, ki so pripomogle k bolj sprejemljivemu ter včasih bolj navdušenemu odnosu do budistične misli in prakse. Nietzschejeva kritika »evropskega budizma« kot nihilizma, zlasti v njegovih poznih delih in fragmentih, se pojavlja v kontekstu tega premika. Nietzschejeva interpretacija pa ni le nadaljevanje zgodnejših evropskih zadržkov v odnosu do budističnega niča. Nietzsche je uporabil vrsto različnih idej in podob, ki jih je črpal iz južnoazijskih budističnih virov z namenom, da bi se soočil z evropsko modernostjo, kakor tudi samim budizmom, in ju postavil pod vprašaj. Prispevek mestoma obravnava tudi dela, ki jih pripisujejo Buddhi in Nāgārjuni, da bi tako bolje kontekstualiziral ter ocenil pomen teh diskurzov.

• Keywords: budizem, praznina (śūnyatā), nihilizem, nič, pesimizem