Joseph Chapman

(he/him)

BA and MA AFHEA

Overview

I joined Cardiff University as a full-time Postgraduate Researcher in October 2022. Since October 2023, I have also worked as a Graduate Tutor. I am supervised by Dr Patrick Hassan and benefiting greatly from his expertise on the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, the tradition of philosophical pessimism, and 19th century European thought more broadly. 

I am working on Nietzsche's philosophy of nihilism. My research attempts to render his genealogy of nihilism conceptually and historically plausible by reconstructing his justificatory account of what he, and Schopenhauer before him, called the ‘metaphysical need’. On my interpretation, the different forms of nihilism Nietzsche identifies (e.g., Platonism, Asceticism, Christianity, Pessimism, and several other contemporary forms of nihilism), are all products of an historically contingent, evolving, but nevertheless persistent psychological need for transcendent metaphysical beliefs. This has led me to engage with a wide range of philosophical perspectives both historic and contemporary.

Beyond this research, I am particularly interested in applications of (variations of) the genealogical method. As well as existential phenomenology (e.g. Heidegger, French Existentialism) and its application in existential psychotherapy. I also have a much more casual interest in ancient history.