Niilismo, fanatismo e terror : uma leitura do fundamentalismo a partir de Friedrich Nietzsche

Abstract

Sectarian violence and the fanatical discourses of intolerance and hatred propagated by fundamentalists of various religions represent serious dilemmas for modern democracies around the world. By insisting on the obstinate defense of their truths against secular principles and institutions, fundamentalisms spare no efforts in order to impose their particular practices and values to the rest of the world. Moreover, the refusal of such groups to open themselves to dialogue and peaceful negotiation with non-fundamentalists leaves few options for addressing this problem, and the use of violence has historically proved to be a catastrophic alternative because, instead of eliminating or mitigating the destructive fury of fundamentalists, aggression ends up strengthening the willingness for martyrdom among these fanatics, which further intensifies the problem. However, insofar as they recognize that the end of modernity brought the abandonment of the traditional values and religious truths of old, fundamentalist discourses seem to talk directly with the philosophical reflections of Friedrich Nietzsche, particularly in relation to the diagnosis formulated by the philosopher about a global phenomenon of devaluation of the traditional canons of truth and value, both of which were inherited from the Socratic-platonic-Christian thought. Gathered around the term nihilism, such reflections are a topic of fundamental importance in the work of this German philosopher, being present in his writings from about 1880 to his last works. In addition to simply establish the existence of a phenomenon that was already visible since the middle of the second half of the nineteenth century, Nietzsche also reflects upon the physiopsychological consequences of the collapse of this set of ethical, political, metaphysical and epistemological principles that hitherto represented the main source of support, of certainty and security to the Western civilization. Insecurity, fear and disorientation towards nihilism would be, according to the philosopher, the result of a deep psychic and instinctual disturbance towards the disintegration of the foundations that once guaranteed the truth and security for the world, which in turn, would result directly from the fact that most of humanity has come to be deliberately educated to link the meaning of existence to something outside of life itself. In light of these considerations, this research aims to develop an interpretive hypothesis that starts from the perspective opened up by the reflections of Friedrich Nietzsche about nihilism in order to clarify how and if it would be possible to understand the emergence of different modalities of religious fundamentalisms throughout the twentieth century as forms of reaction against the deepening of the crisis of values through which passes the West.