"Nihilism, that is, the belief in the existence of becoming – and therefore the entire history of the West – is not the only possible form of negation of destiny, and yet it is the dominant negation. In its unconscious, this belief is the persuasion that being is nothing. This persuasion is the essence of nihilism. By denying the non-nothingness of being, it is therefore a denial of itself. But in the Western belief, destiny does not appear; it does not stand before it, but behind it. Western philosophy “sees” (that is, believes it sees) the becoming of being. Behind it is destiny, which “sees” that the affirmation of the becoming of being is, in its own unexpressed unconscious, the affirmation that being is nothing. It is in the eyes of destiny that Western faith appears as a denial of destiny and as nihilism, that is, as a denial of itself. (chap. XXXIX, pp. 363-364)"
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Emanuele Severino
Emanuele Severino (26 February 1929 – 17 January 2020) was an Italian philosopher, a disciple of Gustavo Bontadini.
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