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"Gnawing to be Naught": Beckett and Pre-Socratic Nihilism

Weller, Shane (2008) "Gnawing to be Naught": Beckett and Pre-Socratic Nihilism. In: Engelberts, M. and de Ruyter, D. and Germoni, K. and Penet-Astbury, H., eds. Des Elements aux Traces: Elements and Traces. Today/Aujourd'hui (20). Rodopi, pp. 321-333. ISBN 978-90-420-2514-1. (doi:10.1163/18757405-020001026) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:2784)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
https://doi.org/10.1163/18757405-020001026

Abstract

This essay re-examines Beckett's relation to nihilism in the light of his 1930s reading notes on pre-Socratic philosophy, in particular Democritus, Gorgias and Thrasymachos. Focusing on the distinction between "cosmological nihilism" and "ethical nihilism" in John Burnet's Greek Philosophy, I chart Beckett's abiding concern with the "nothing" conceived both ontologically and ethically, and assess the importance for him of Archibald Alexander's phrasing of the atomist paradox and the cosmological nihilism of Gorgias

Item Type: Book section
DOI/Identification number: 10.1163/18757405-020001026
Subjects: P Language and Literature
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Shane Weller
Date Deposited: 14 Apr 2009 12:40 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Mar 2023 11:29 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/2784 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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