Conor Cunningham

The Veritas Series brings to market original volumes engaging in critical questions of pressing concern to theologians as well as philosophers, biologists, economists, and representatives of other disciplines. Transcendence and Phenomenology presents a definitive collection of essays discussing the much debated ‘turn to theology’ in philosophy, most evident in phenomenology. Arguably the most pressing debate at the interface of philosophy and theology, this collection of essays makes a significant intervention in the on-going argument, gathering together some of the finest phenomenologists writing today. It also presents major criticisms of phenomenology in relation to theology, especially from John Milbank.

This is an interview with Conor Cunningham, who is the associate Professor in Theology and Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Nottingham, by Zhu Yiming. The Interview focus on Nihilism in the tension between philosophies of nothing and the difference of theology, consisting of 7 parts: 1. Introduction, 2. What is Nihilism, 3. Nihilism: The Consummate Philosophy, 4. An Alternative Way of Understanding Heidegger, 5. Between Philosophy and Theology, 6. Where Would be the Position for Darwinism, 7.Conclusion - 16 questions in all. Part Two is the core of this text. By reinterpreting Plato’s thinking, Conor Cunningham brings the notion of ‘beyond’ to readers’ attention in this interview, developing his counterarguments on the philosophies of ‘nothing’ presented in Genealogy of Nihilism - for him, philosophy is a certain logic of nothing, yet theology begins from directly admitting ‘something’, God - which has never been so terrible till the postmodern culture. In his remarkable interpretation on Plato’s mikton, Conor is trying to mend the significant differences between the limit and the unlimited, the ‘One’ and the ‘Many’, which would leads to Nihilism. And then, by Conor, Aristotle’s idea of subalternation is also interpreted as a form of mixt, or weaving, thereby echoing Plato. Similarly, he elucidates Aquinas’ concept of ‘esse’, which refers to the act of being, in a consistent manner. In short, he believes that transcendence and immanence are precisely and necessarily not in competition, not in a zero-sum game, but are always already woven together. Instead, all progeny of Nihilism affords only nominal or formal aggregations. He asks us to admit the excessive directly in the activities themselves of to say, to do, and to see. These activities inherently embody and exhibit a positive excess, a transcendence that is not directed towards an otherworldly realm, nor achieved through negation or self-emptying. Echoing the title of this interview, Conor’s answer should be described as participating in(methexis) rather than imitating nor copying(mimesis) God. To riff on ‘Nothing’, it’s an ersatz substitute for this, particularly evident in the domain of philosophy, yet abundance remains undisturbed. In this section, another crucial point is that, unlike disregarding for Nietzsche’s philosophy in Genealogy of Nihilism, Conor Cunningham discusses the rise of an all-encompassing materialism by which regarding it were influenced and inspired by the claim that God is dead, as a wider consequence of the advent of nihilism. He endeavors to demonstrate that this radical fundamentalism materialism does not transcend the boundaries of Cartesian dualism—between res cogitans (mind) and res extensa (matter)—but rather, takes root within it. Materialist monism is dualism. It’s in this way that Conor responds to his unique definition of Nihilism logic in Genealogy of Nihilism again. More importantly, in Conor’s opinion, for these atomism, reductionism, materialism’s ontology and so on, we are in danger of ‘nothing, here representative of evil, becoming substantialised’ - the famous trouble of St Augustine prevails again. When ‘matter’ becoming a stand-alone term, no longer a relative term, a flat Earth ontology prevailing, not only the Heavens are under the threat, but also there is no person on Earth. Regarding the remaining parts, part one serves as an introduction. We delve into Conor Cunningham’s journey, which led him to embark on the study of Nihilism. And for him, the precipice or indeed vertigo that nihilism presents can form part of a metaphysical grammar affording us the possibility to speak once again. In part three, he distinguishes the philosophy and ideology - a real philosophy must reach the necessary thing: transcendence. In its the very positive form, Nihilism is the consummate philosophy. In the same way, postmodernism was useful for a spell, but it has always been disconnected from reality through nominal aggregation. Hence, Conor asserts that, any talk of a pure nothing, negation or any further efforts of emptying something, always arrives in the middle, and is thereby intrinsically dependent and therefore parasitic, feeding of a prior gift. Furthermore, he elucidates the difference between the limits of philosophy and the ending of philosophy. In part four, Conor talks about the stresses and strains of phenomenological methods, and an alternative way of understanding Heidegger. In part five, firstly, Conor provides an answer to the question ‘What is radical Orthodoxy?’ - ‘Radical’ just means root, to get to the root of things and nihilism helps us get to the root. RO seeks to recapture the sheer vertigo, fragility yet girth of creation in all its hues: The miracle of the quotidian, the sacrament in ordinary, to echo Hopkins again. Meanwhile, he expresses alarm about a strict dualism between philosophy and theology, for that would tempt both to become a caricature of their selves, and again to reside in a form of almost hermetic isolationism. Last, Conor criticizes the questioning way about ‘body’ in prevailing ideologies. From a theological perspective, he explains once again how to understand the marriage of transcendence and immanence, soul and body, time and eternity. Part six shows us a continuity between Conor’s first monograph Genealogy of Nihilism and his second one Darwin’s Pious Idea. Against scientific Nihilism, he deconstructs and then reconstructs science moving it from being a largely degenerate research program to being a regenerative one that is now in better communion with its sibling disciplines. The last part is a conclusion. Firstly, Conor Cunningham provides some effective methods to engage with his books. Secondly, he discusses Nihilism in the cultural differences between China and Western countries. Finally, he is invited to present some details about his new three-volume book and to offer some advice for young students.

Using the work of Lacan but with reference to a number of other philosophers, this article argues eight main theses: first of all, that non-Platonic philosophical construction follows after a foundational destruction; second, that philosophy generally has a nothing outside its text, one that allows for the formation of that text—for example, Kant forms the text of phenomena only by way of the noumena; third, that this transcendental nothing renders all identities ideal, however that is conceived—an example being Badiou’s notion of “belonging,” one derived from the work of Georg Cantor and Paul Cohen; fourth, that a consequence of this ideality is mereological nihilism; fifth, due to this mereological nihilism any existent is only ever an aggregate, that is, an aggregate of some base element, or “stuff ”—a position that returns such philosophy to that of the ancients; sixth, this collapses idealism and materialism into each other, a collapse marked by what is referred to throughout as an impossible monism. Moreover, this impossible monism is a result of philosophy’s constant production of a bastard trinity—a dual monism, as it were. Seventh, that there are two models of difference evident in non-Platonic philosophy: the first is that of a block, with difference cut into it—like Swiss cheese, as it were—while the second is a flux which we seek to arrest with local regimes of stability. Eighth, and finally, that theology, in line with Plato, suggests the possibility of another difference, namely, a peaceable one.

Nihilism is the logic of nothing as something, which claims that Nothing Is. Its unmaking of things, and its forming of formless things, strain the fundamental terms of existence: what it is to be, to know, to be known. But nihilism, the antithesis of God, is also like theology. Where nihilism creates nothingness, condenses it to substance, God also makes nothingness creative. Negotiating the borders of spirit and substance, theology can ask the questions of nihilism that other disciplines do not ask: Where is it? What is it made of? Why is it so destructive? How can it be made holy, or overcome? Genealogy of Nihilism rereads Western history in the light of nihilistic logic, which pervades two millennia of Western thought and is coming to fruition in our present age in a virulently dangerous manner. From Parmenides to Alain Badiou, via Plotinus, Avicenna, Duns Scotus, Ockham, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, Sartre, Lacan, Deleuze and Derrida, a genealogy of nothingness can be witnessed in development, with devastating consequences for the way we live. Conor Cunningham's elaborate and sophisticated theology, spanning the disciplines of philosophy, science and popular culture, permits us to see not simply how modernity has formulated its philosophies of nothing, but how these philosophies might be transfigures by the crucial difference theology makes, and so be reconcilable with life and the living - with the very gift which being is.