The Question of Nihilism in the Philosophy of Ivan Urbančič

Abstract The article deals with the treatment of nihilism in the philosophical oeuvre of Ivan Urbančič, which has lasted nearly 50 years. In the first part I try to show how Urbančič’s early consideration of nihilism in the 1960s and the 1970s is closely connected with confrontation with socialist ideology in the former Yugoslavia. This situation, which required him to take a personal philosophical standpoint, had a considerable impact on Urbančič’s reflection upon the contemporary position of philosophy in general. In the second part of the article, I turn to Urbančič’s extensive project, started in the 1990s, which deals with the problem of nihilism in the context of the entire legacy of philosophy. The key conclusion is that in the gap of scientific, capital, and political domination of the world, the presence of nihilism remains obscured, but therefore even more determining for the understanding of the meaning of humanity today.