Nihil Unbound: Naturalism and Anti-Phenomenological Realism

Where much contemporary philosophy seeks to stave off the "threat" of nihilism by safeguarding the experience of meaning--characterized as the defining feature of human existence--from the Enlightenment logic of disenchantment, this book attempts to push nihilism to its ultimate conclusion by forging a link between revisionary naturalism in Anglo-American philosophy and anti-phenomenological realism in recent French philosophy. Contrary to an emerging "post-analytic" consensus which would bridge the analytic-continental divide by uniting Heidegger and Wittgenstein against the twin perils of scientism and skepticism, this book short-circuits both traditions by plugging eliminative materialism directly into speculative realism.

RAY BRASSIER is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Research for Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University, London, UK.

Introduction * PART I: DESTROYING THE MANIFEST IMAGE * Eliminative Materialism and Scientific Realism * Being No-One * The Thanatosis of Enlightenment * The Enigma of Realism * PART II: THE ANATOMY OF NEGATION * The Anti-Phenomenon * Being-Nothing * PART III: THE END OF TIME * The Pure and Empty Form of Death * Solar Catastrophe * Conclusion