Nietzsche and the nothingness

Starting from the famous Nietzschean distinction between not willing and wi lling Nothing itself, the paper explores the status of nothingness and nega tivity in Nietzsche's philosophy. It suggests that Nietzsche is not simply hostile to negativity as such, but rather attempts to find a singular artic ulation of negativity, different from the one that is at stake in "nihilism ." This singular articulation of negativity is to be found in Nietzsche's t heory of "double affirmation," where negativity is no longer the inevitable obverse side of every positiveness, but rather takes the form of the diffe rence or "boundary" between two things. The paper then goes on to demonstra te how this form of negativity plays an important part in Nietzsche's theor y of truth.