Towards absolute nothingness of Philipp Mainländer

By Vladislav Luchianov

When Diogenes Laertius walked through the streets of the ancient Greek city and was asked why he went about with a lamp in a broad daylight, the philosopher confessed, “I am looking for an honest man.” With the same success, we can try to find translated into English works of the 19th-century German philosopher Philipp Mainländer, whose philosophical and poetic writings are distinguished by such a rare thing nowadays as intellectual honesty and uncompromising ideas. There is absolute nothing about this thinker translated into English.

Perhaps Arthur Schopenhauer was right mercilessly criticizing the university philosophy and methods of its teaching. He also harbored little hope for future change in this area. As we can see in our times, when even criticizing the modern ultra optimism is almost a blasphemous phenomenon, it is a daunting task to become familiar with views of alternative thinkers.

In the case of Mainländer, the island of freedom (sorry Cuba), still unclouded completely by delusions of human “progress” towards never-ending happiness, appeared to be in Italy, where in 2006 was published a book Verso l'assoluto nulla. La filosofia della redenzione di Philipp Mainländer (Towards absolute nothingness. The philosophy of redemption of Philipp Mainländer) written by Fabio Ciracì, a philosophy professor at the University of Salento.

Philipp Mainländer in his youth

The author of this article met with the monograph of professor Ciracì only this fall, and the strong interest in Philipp Mainländer and his Die Philosophie der Erlösung (The Philosophy of Redemption) came after reading a book The Conspiracy against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti, another writer with a strong possession of intellectual honesty.

Fabio Ciracì did a tremendous amount of great work, translating, analyzing and providing his critical commentaries on the main work of Offenbach philosopher. One of his main objectives is to give a reader a historical and philosophical overview of Mainländer, his life, work and tragic death, pointing out parallels with other thinkers and making a comparative analysis between the ambiguous and complicated philosophical problems raised in the main work of the German philosopher.

So what’s the deal with Mainländer’s philosophy? He believed that indefinable god (as a metaphor, just like in versions of Big Bang theory) existed before the world. Before disappearing, “it gave rise to the universe.” The latter has become a means to achieve complete non-existence. The ordinary man is afraid of the prospects of nothingness, but "a wise man looks directly and happily into the eyes of the absolute destruction" because it corresponds to the purpose of the life of each individual human being in particular and to the law of entropy in general.

Mainländer built a unique philosophical system, which focuses pessimism of his predecessor Schopenhauer: negative ontology and metaphysics, based on the principle that "better never to have been." By the way, the modern philosopher David Benatar in his book of the same name stands for the same principle, resulting in strong and elaborate arguments in favor of the aforementioned conclusion.

Philipp Mainländer in his mature years

Like Schopenhauer, Mainländer was convinced that the world, as perceived by us, is only a representation. However, if Schopenhauer’s thing in itself is the will to live, which is thought as a blind, multi-purpose, superindividual force, then, in terms of Mainländer it is the will to die. In a sense, Mainländer anticipated Freud's "death drive", as well as Nietzsche's idea that God is dead. Interesting that according to the posthumous diaries of Nietzsche he was familiar with the philosophy of the Offenbach thinker.

Why there is a will to die? Mainländer offers a bold theological-metaphysical assumption: it is born out of the process by which the divine original substance, a condition that he takes from Spinoza, moves from its inherent unity to the multiplicity of the world. He states: "God is dead, and his death gave the life of this world." God-unity, as a concept, transformed into the world of multiplicity, that also includes humanity, which is also dying in order to completely move from existence to non-existence.

Philipp Mainländer argued that the world is a result of the cosmic act that serves the manifestation of the will to non-being. This is performed by movement from the basic unity to the world of multiplicity and finally, to the absolute nothingness. By achieving nothingness, where man is not suffering anymore, everyone gets what Mainländer calls redemption.

The book of Fabio Ciracì is divided into several different thematic units, which is a faithful reproduction of Mainländer’s key points of the original two volumes Philosophy of Redemption: Analytics of the cognitive faculties of Philosophie der Erlösung, Physics, Aesthetics, Ethics, Politics, and Metaphysics.

But there is not very good news for the English-speaking audience – at the moment, the book exists only in the Italian version, unfortunately. But if your knowledge of the Italian approach the level of the pre-intermediate and your interest in Philipp Mainländer’s philosophy is high enough, then I’m sure you will successfully overcome the language barrier, even if the help of the Italian-English dictionary on your tablet will be needed. Just trust me, this exceptional volume worth the effort.

In this article, I touched only the main thoughts of Offenbach thinker. His Philosophie der Erlösung contains many ideas that are still very actual for any modern inquisitive mind having the quality of critical thinking. As we all know, not every philosopher lived and died in accordance with the principles of his own philosophy. Philipp Mainländer is a great exception of this.

P.S. If you know Spanish, I can recommend you Filosofía De La Redención, a translation by Carlos Javier Gonzalez Serrano written in cooperation with Manuel Pérez Cornejo as well as Diario de un Poeta, which is a bilingual book of Mainländer’s poetry.