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The Nothing Project

The Nothing Project

Wed 7 Oct · 18:30

Room G.43, Paterson's Land

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About This Event

**Keiji Nishitani — *Religion and Nothingness*** **Jean-Paul Sartre — *Being and Nothingness*** **Wed 7 Oct << note the change of date!!** **Paterson's Land, room G43** Our next long reading project takes on the challenge posed by nihilism, via major works by Keiji Nishitani and Jean-Paul Sartre. During this first week, we're setting up the whole project - what do we mean by nihilism, what threat does it pose, and how do the works that we're planning to read take it on? We'll base a lot of this intro session in a re-reading of some key texts that we've already covered: section 125 on the [Death of God](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YsTl7bfL4FUiVMlyWCZB1UC2_ZRCL5My/view?usp=sharing) from *The Gay Science* by Friedrich Nietzsche (& also [section 343](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JSEAEjjojMDQk-c-peZNNRiHWwi1N5Kt/view?usp=sharing) on the same subject) - the short section called ["How the True World Finally Became a Fable"](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ijklj6TgaCJ8ksz0rzaZDPPLDe3FJ_Nc/view?usp=sharing) from Nietzsche's *Twilight of the Idols* \- and [section 40](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BBqxk2ukcejYZYwmZhGnvCAKckGwZQnP/view?usp=sharing) on Dasein's anxiety from Martin Heidegger's *Being and Time*. By bringing those sections together, we can see how a (mis?)reading of Nietzsche and Heidegger threatens to pull out the carpet from under the sense of solidity and certainty that much of European philosophy had been relying on until that point. Next week, we'll kick off our reading of the Nishitani. It's a big book, so that will likely take us through until after Christmas - then we'll start on the Sartre early in the new year. **Who are we?** We're a reading group that welcomes all - young, old, completely new to philosophy or well versed, from keen students to those who've never darkened the door of a lecture room. We read both long & short texts, but you don't need to join at the very start of our longer reads - you can come along at any stage of the jour

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Frequently asked questions

The Nothing Project takes place on Wednesday, 7 October 2026 at 18:30.

The Nothing Project is held at Room G.43, Paterson's Land in Edinburgh (Holyrood Road, Edinburgh).

The forecast for The Nothing Project is Partly cloudy · 11°C.

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Tickets for The Nothing Project can be booked via meetup.com using the "Check Tickets & Live Prices" button on this page, which opens the official booking site in a new tab.