Abstract

The aim of this paper is to elucidate the relationship between Karl Löwith's construction of the history of modern philosophy and his own philosophical concerns. Löwith constructs the history of modern thought as a process of "destruction" of "Cristian humanism" culminating in the decisionism of Carl Schmitt and Heidegger. Löwith conceives this process on the one hand as disastrous, and on the other hand as necessary and liberating. The result is therefore a structural ambivalence, which reflects itself in Löwith's ambigous relationships, especially with Nietzsche.