"The Last Messiah" () is a 1933 essay by the Norwegian philosopher Peter Wessel Zapffe. One of his most significant works, this approximately 10-page-long essay would later be expanded upon in Zapffe's book On the Tragic, and, as a theory, describes a reinterpretation of Friedrich Nietzsche's Übermensch. Zapffe believed that existential crisis or angst in humanity was the result of an overly evolved intellect, and that people overcome this by "artificially limiting the content of consciousness".
The human condition
Zapffe views the human condition as tragically overdeveloped, calling it "a biological paradox, an abomination, an absurdity, an exaggeration of disastrous nature".
In Vladimir Odoyevsky's Russian Nights (1840), there was a story titled "The Last Suicide", with a similar ending, where "[T]hen, at last he came, the Messiah of despair! His look was cold, his voice was loud, and his words dispersed the last remnants of ancient beliefs." However, unlike in Zapffe's story, the last Messiah's message was accepted by humanity, which proceeded to explode the entire earth.
Influence
In his book The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, horror writer and philosopher Thomas Ligotti refers frequently to The Last Messiah and quotes sections of the essay, using Zapffe's work as an example of philosophical pessimism.
See also
- Antinatalism
- Nihilism
- Philosophical pessimism
Notes
External links
- Peter Wessel Zapffe. "The Last Messiah", trans. Gisle R. Tangenes.
- Peter Wessel Zapffe. "The Last Messiah", trans. Peter Reed & David Rothenberg.