How Philosophy Kills You

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OUR ANALYSES:
▶ Beyond Good and Evil:    • NIETZSCHE Explained: Beyond Good and ...  
▶ The Antichrist:    • NIETZSCHE Explained: The Antichrist (...  
▶ Genealogy of Morals:    • NIETZSCHE Explained: The Genealogy of...  
▶ Twilight of the Idols:    • NIETZSCHE Explained: Twilight of the ...  
▶ The Will to Power:    • NIETZSCHE: Will to Power Explained (a...  
▶ Daybreak:    • NIETZSCHE Explained: DAYBREAK - Thoug...  
▶ The Joyful Science:    • NIETZSCHE Explained: The Joyful Scien...  

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Introduction
00:35: Heinrich von Kleist
02:53 Immanuel Kant
05:12 Kant the All-Destroyer
08:11 Kleist and Kant
14:26 Now what?

Heinrich von Kleist was a German writer who engaged with Kant’s philosophy. Convinced that metaphysics, and thus meaning, were impossible, he ended his life. “My sole and highest aim has vanished. Now I have none.”

In 1801, German writer and playwright Heinrich von Kleist first came into contact with the Kantian philosophy. His critique of reason and its limits made a lasting impression on him. The young Kleist had been obsessed with finding the answers to the great questions of life, and in the Age of Enlightenment, Reason seemed to conquer all.

However, Immanuel Kant published his Critique of Pure Reason in 1791, and argued that we cannot make definite judgements about the world-in-itself. Our knowledge must be confined to the phenomenon, not the noumenon. For Kleist, this was an admission that humanity’s highest goal would forever be out of reach: the answer to the meaning of life.

Life seemed meaningless to him now, truth impossible, hope useless. In his despair, he ended his life.