NIETZSCHE AND GNOSTICISM: THE PARADOXES OF LIFE AFFIRMATION

Abstract

In this article, I investigate Nietzsche’s philosophical efforts in favor of affirming life, with an emphasis on the works Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Antichrist. Although he only touches on Gnosticism a few times, the dualistic Gnostic view of the world is a latent challenge to his affirmative task. By dis­regarding Manichean dualism and prioritizing Platonic metaphysical dualism, the author of Zarathustra becomes entangled in paradoxes that are difficult to overcome, as I will show in one specific case (from The Antichrist). Starting from the admission that Nietzsche himself operated with metaphysical-dualist schemes in his youthful work, we will analyze his later attempts to radically affirm life, on the level of a radical immanence to the world. The more he seeks to unconditionally affirm the world, without metaphysical oppositions, the more Nietzsche plunges into the opposite consideration of the world, nihilistic and gnostic, namely the will to nothingness, embedded in the human condition, which installs itself as a threat to all human types.

Palavras-chave: Gnosticism. Nihilism. Paradox. Afirmation. Life.