Nietzsche famously announced the ‘death of God’ and prophesied the inevitable onset of an age of nihilism in which ‘everything lacks meaning’ and ‘our “why” finds no answer. The SMN has long been concerned with this issue and has debated from various points of view the possibility of a new paradigm or worldview ‘beyond nihilism’. The talk will address this issue by examining Nietzsche’s own ‘answer’ which involves transforming our traditional values and a new understanding of humanity and our place in nature.
Prof JOHN CLARKE has taught philosophy and the history of ideas at the universities of McGill, Singapore and Kingston. In his earlier academic writings he specialized in the ideas of C.G. Jung and the philosophical dialogue between Eastern and Western traditions, and in his most recent book The Self-Creating Universe: the Making of a Worldview he explores the broad implications of emergentist theory, about which he spoke some years ago at the London Group. He is a Vice-President of the SMN.
