In nihilistische tijden. Geschiedenis, vergankelijkheid en geweld bij Benjamin, Scholem en Weber

In modern history after Nietzsche, it has proven difficult within philosophy of history to come to terms with the notion of historical transience. This is to some degree the case because the substance out of which modern philosophy of history originated is that of eschatology, in which history is interpreted in terms of a transhistorical structure. While the nature of historical time, as opposed to for example mythical time, is generally presented as transient, it is still largely understood through pursuits of meaningful structure. However, while substantive or speculative philosophy of history may no longer be possible, to some extent it is still required, in order to avoid a situation in which the only thing that can be said about history is that things happen. In other words, in the philosophy of history, the transient nature of history is not only an epistemological, but also a moral problem. This dissertation then asks whether there can be such a thing as a philosophy of history of transience, and on what grounds. It is an attempt to theorize the transient nature of history in a morally significant way, both on its own terms and on the grounds of the tradition of philosophy of history, by dialectically looking at the religious and mythical material out of which the idea of history is formed, so as to arrive at negative and immanent critiques of the value of transience. The dissertation combines this philosophical line of questioning with a intellectual-historical study, and attempts to formulate answers through the study of the early work of Walter Benjamin, in a critical dialogue with Gershom Scholem and Max Weber. These thinkers have sought to position themselves in morally significant ways in the world through a critique of its transhistorical meaning. They have presented the idea of history as both nihilistic and ethically significant on the basis of critiques of the prevalence of myth within history and of (secularized) eschatological motifs for historical understanding.