Empedocles in the Face of Mythological Deities. A Reading of Nietzsche’s Dramatic Drafts. This article examines Nietzsche’s interest in Empedocles. Less prominent in Nietzsche’s thought than other pre-Socratic philosophers, Empedocles is difficult to classify. He is characterized by his tensions and ambivalence. By examining Nietzsche’s various drafts for a drama about the death of the philosopher from Agrigento, I will show how philological studies combine with Nietzsche’s philosophical thinking to question Empedocles’ ambivalence toward mythological divinities. Art of staging, excessive desire (...) for knowledge, expression of disgust with existence, recognition of the true measure of the living: the death of Empedocles is as ambiguous for Nietzsche as his conception of nature, torn between wonder, demystification and poetic fervor. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the relations among critique, destruction and negation, on the one hand, and creation, affirmation, love, and care on the other, in Nietzsche’s writings from Daybreak to Zarathustra. In doing this, it traces a movement in Nietzsche's thought that can be understood as an integration of critique in the process of affirmation, which consolidates in Nietzsche’s project of self-overcoming. In contrast to readings that use the metaphor of art and the creativity of the artist, this paper presents (...) pregnancy as a cipher to understand Nietzsche’s project as well as the dynamics that are involved. A key issue addressed throughout the entire paper concerns the way in which Zarathustra says that he loves those who want their own downfall (Untergang) and go “zu Grunde” (or perish). To fully grasp the meaning of these rather puzzling utterances, the paper analyzes Nietzsche's engagement with Pascal (as a very particular case of “going under”). (shrink)

The Birth of the Philologist from the Spirit of Schopenhauer’s Philosophy. Nietzsche’s Inaugural Lecture On the Personality of Homer. This essay highlights Schopenhauer’s decisive and unexplored role in Nietzsche’s Über die Persönlichkeit Homers. Following Schopenhauer’s negative assessment of the study of history, Nietzsche criticizes F. A. Wolf’s organic systematization of the sciences of antiquity and foregrounds the aesthetic dimension of philology. Contrary to Wolf, Nietzsche believes that historical investigation is subordinate to the essential pedagogical function of philology; and only through (...) its aesthetic component can philology establish which literary works of antiquity are to be considered truly “classical.” The debate on the Homeric question after the publication of Wolf’s Prolegomena ad Homerum illustrates that philologists have paradoxically become opponents and “destroyers” of the ideal of antiquity. Nietzsche shows how a methodological approach inspired by Schopenhauer’s philosophy can revive the relationship between philology and art. Nietzsche’s arguments to counter Wolf’s thesis about the problem of Homer’s personality implicitly rest on Schopenhauer’s aesthetics. In particular, through Schopenhauer’s conception of genius, Nietzsche rehabilitates the individuality of the poetic author of the Iliad and Odyssey, even though this poet does not correspond to the one referred to as “Homer” in antiquity. (shrink)

Nietzsche believes that we do not know our own actions, nor their real motives. This belief, however, is but a consequence of his assuming a quite general skepticism about introspection. The main aim of this paper is to offer a reading of this last view, which I shall call the Inner Opacity (IO) view. In the first part of the paper I show that a strong motivation behind IO lies in Nietzsche’s claim that self-knowledge exploits the same set of cognitive (...) capacities as well as the same folk-psychological framework involved in outward-directed mind-reading. In the second part I turn to Nietzsche’s view of agency and argue that he sees a fundamental discrepancy between the conscious attitudes we have introspective access to, on the one hand, and the subpersonal processes and states occurring at the unconscious level of the drives, on the other hand. (shrink)

Affectivity and the Hermeneutics of Power: A Commentary on Aphorism 13 ofThe Gay Science.Section 13 ofThe Gay Scienceis devoted to the doctrine of the feeling of power, which recapitulates Nietzsche’s main ideas of the previous years and already presents them in the form of a doctrine that does not yet bear the name “will to power.” Hence, GS 13 is a turning point in the development of Nietzsche’s philosophy of power, which, from the perspective of feeling, points to two essential (...) components of all power: affect and hermeneutics. This article retraces the structure of the section and the main features of the feeling of power with special attention to the progression of the first twelve sections. It provides a better understanding ofThe Gay Scienceand of Nietzsche’s philosophy of power by paying due consideration to a severely underestimated concept, which most commentators have reduced to a mere psychological and draft version of the famous later concept of “will to power.” Although the purpose of this article is not to confront both formulations, some analyses (e. g., on vanity, sacrifice, hedonism, on the continuity and complementarity of strong and weak natures as well as of their moralities) will prove useful to gain a better insight into Nietzsche’s overall conception of power. (shrink)

Olga Plümacher (1839–1895) published a book entitled Der Pessimismus in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart in 1884. It was an influential book: Nietzsche owned a copy, and there are clear cases where he borrowed phraseology from Plümacher. Plümacher specifies philosophical pessimism as comprising two propositions: ‘The sum of displeasure outweighs the sum of pleasure’ and ‘Consequently the non-being of the world would be better than its being’. Plümacher cites Schopenhauer as the first proponent of this position, and Eduard von Hartmann as the (...) thinker who has developed it to its fullest potential. She heavily criticizes Schopenhauer in many respects, not for being a pessimist, but rather for not achieving as good a pessimism as he might have done, on the following major grounds: that his account of pleasure as merely privative is implausible, that he has a confused account of individuation, that his retention of a Christian notion of guilt is gratuitous, that he lapses into the self-pitying subjectivity of the condition she calls Weltschmerz, and that his philosophy leads to quietism, and is thus inferior to von Hartmann’s combination of pessimism and optimism, which allows for social progress. (shrink)

At first glance, Fichte and Nietzsche might strike us as intellectual contraries. This impression is reinforced by Nietzsche’s disparaging remarks about Fichte. The dearth of critical literature comparing the two thinkers also could easily lead us to believe that they are, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant to one another. In this paper, however, I argue that their theories of subjectivity are in many respects remarkably similar and worthy of comparison. But I further explain how, despite this convergence, their normative (...) philosophies end up so conspicuously at odds with one another. After examining the resemblance between their denials of the substantial self, I respectively analyse Fichte’s and Nietzsche’s positive accounts of subjectivity, self-cultivation, and the political preconditions of self-cultivation. I locate the conceptual juncture at which their practical outlooks begin to part ways in their divergent drive psychologies and in their distinct conceptions of conscience. These apparently minor theoretical differences generate a large-scale disagreement regarding the political systems they believe best enable self-cultivation, with Fichte favouring a democratic regime, while Nietzsche opts for a markedly more aristocratic one. I close by sketching a possible way out of this dilemma. (shrink)

Quid est veritas? Skeptical Implications of Ueber Wahrheit und Lüge im aussermoralischen Sinne. This paper aims to examine the reach of the question “Was ist also Wahrheit?” – which introduces the definition of truth given by Nietzsche in Ueber Wahrheit und Lüge im aussermoralischen Sinne (1873). The question has undoubtedly an analogy in the question with which Pilate responds to Jesus in the Gospel of John. Starting with an analysis of the direct and recognized sources of Nietzsche’s text, this contribution (...) shows how the Gospel background is, for Nietzsche, indirectly no less than directly, a crucial comparison that makes a decisive contribution to his conception of language. (shrink)

The presence of Persian sources in Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra has been a topic of debate for decades. This paper summarizes the main results of a comparative study of Nietzsche and the ancient Persian scripture Avestā. In addition to several secondary sources Nietzsche repeatedly encountered, there is strong evidence that he read Johann Friedrich Kleuker’s German translation of the Avestā texts reconstructed by Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron. Analyzing Nietzsche’s diverse sources of Zoroastrianism as well as his knowledge of this religion, this (...) paper shows that many metaphors, references and claims in both Thus Spoke Zarathustra and in Nietzsche’s notebooks can be traced back to Zoroastrianism. Taking these sources into consideration contributes significantly to our understanding of one of Nietzsche’s major works. (shrink)

Based on a review of the literature and historical evidence, I argue that the use of the methodological principle known as the priority principle in Anglo-American Nietzsche scholarship is inconsistent and irreconcilable with historical evidence. It attempts to demarcate between the published works and the Nachlass. However, there are no agreed upon necessary and sufficient conditions of a particular textual object being considered “Nachlass.” This absence leads to implicit and often tacit value demarcation criteria that can be broadly grouped into (...) four types of consideration: publication, authorization, publicness, and audience. Each of these criteria pick out a different set of texts as “Nachlass.” Thus, despite the veneer of agreement, the most broadly accepted methodological approach in the Anglo-American tradition of Nietzsche scholarship is applied inconsistently. I argue that we must either offer necessary and sufficient conditions for a piece of text being Nachlass, or we ought to abandon such abstract criteria altogether and embrace a contextual and historical approach. I then argue that the first option is impossible given historical evidence. I conclude this article by explicating several recent German approaches to the Nachlass which I think can offer a new possible approach. (shrink)

Nietzsche consistently valorizes artistic falsehoods. On standard interpretations, this is because art provides deceptive yet salutary fictions that help us affirm life. This reading conflicts, however, with Nietzsche’s insistence that life-affirmation requires untrammeled honesty. I present an alternative interpretation which navigates the interpretive impasse. With special attention to the influence of Friedrich Schiller, the paper argues for three claims: (1) Nietzsche does not hold that art is false because it “beautifies,” but because it produces mere semblances of, its objects; (2) (...) these semblances are essentially non-deceptive; (3) he values artistic illusions because they dispose us positively to illusion more generally. Such ‘evaluative reorientation,’ I argue, is not merely consistent with, but integral to, achieving Nietzsche’s ideal of honesty. (shrink)

Derrida Has Lost Nietzsche's Umbrella: On Philipp Felsch's Book Wie Nietzsche aus der Kälte kam. This essay discusses the story of the critical edition of Nietzsche’s complete works by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari as presented in Philipp Felsch’s book Wie Nietzsche aus der Kälte kam. The book, which is based on biographical material of the two editors, takes up an important episode in European intellectual history in its political, cultural historical context. However, it often presents a questionable use of (...) these sources. A closer examination of that the same source material would situate the history of the edition and its editors in a different context. Likewise, Felsch’s account of the history of Nietzsche’s reception in France, and his reception in the neighboring countries, lacks nuance and reveals some remarkable examples of misreading. Like in other genres of history, scholars of discourse history and intellectual history need to read sources closely and critically. When we talk of dealing with primary sources, the work that editors have done in commentaries and editions should be taken into account. Finally, I argue that we should not dismiss recent innovations in editing methods as confusing or “vulcano-like,” but we would do well to appreciate the opportunities offered by the digital humanities, both for a professional readership and a wider audience. (shrink)

In the “Whirl of Being.” The Birth of The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Friedrich Hebbel. As a result of dubious editorial policy, Nietzsche research has always dealt only with the text of the later editions of The Birth of Tragedy from 1874/78 and 1886, in the erroneous assumption that these largely resemble the first printing. Surprisingly, the 1872 edition is therefore virtually unknown. It does, however, show significant differences from the later editions, especially since it exhibits a (...) strong influence of Hebbel’s tragic worldview that is later obscured in favor of Wagner. The first edition is more nihilistic, poetic, and powerful; Nietzsche’s later revisions have rather diluted the Birth of Tragedy’s argument and given it a different direction. (shrink)

F. Nietzsche impartió unos seminarios sobre la obra Cuestiones académicas de Cicerón en la Universidad de Basilea en los semestres de verano de 1870 e invierno de 1870/71. En principio, su carácter era filológico, pues se enmarcaban en la Konjekturalkritik, una importante subdisciplina de la filología clásica decimonónica. Sin embargo, en los apuntes que hemos recibido con el título «Ciceros Academica» se pueden encontrar anotaciones filosóficas que trascienden esa dimensión técnica. Así, el artículo ensaya una lectura filosófica del escrito, con (...) especial atención al distanciamiento del filósofo de la ortodoxia académica y a su tensa renovación metodológica de la filología clásica. (shrink)

The multiple sources and functions of Heraclitus in Nietzsche’s writings should not be underestimated. Nietzsche’s early readings of Heraclitus are steeped in the Greek fragments, the doxographical tradition, and in philological scholarship. Hence, they are largely either fair interpretations of the extant fragments, clear translations of a select group of fragments into his own language, or improvisations based in part on a narrow subset of the spurious remarks set down in the doxographical tradition. Nietzsche’s later departures from this tradition articulate (...) an anti-metaphysical Heraclitus that he found in the Heraclitean fragments, which he takes to prefigure and later parrot his doctrines of becoming, the child, strife, chance, and eternal recurrence. For this reason, Nietzsche’s Heraclitus is necessarily no objective, individual historical person, but at various times and to various degrees a copy, an appropriative invention, and a personal-philological-philosophical archetype filtered through the lenses of ancient Greek understandings of how he must have lived, given what he said and what philosophy is; nineteenth-century German philological reconstructions of Heraclitean thought; and Nietzsche’s own need for such a precursor to voice his own doctrines and thereby lend them heft against the Platonic tradition of metaphysical philosophy. (shrink)

Malgré son discours critique bien connu sur les « généalogistes de la morale anglais », Nietzsche semble avoir pris très au sérieux l’essai de Walter Bagehot intitulé Physics and Politics, qu’il a découvert en traduction allemande au cours de la première moitié de la décennie 1870. Le présent article propose d’abord une brève présentation de l’ouvrage de Bagehot. J’étudie ensuite la réception nietzschéenne de ce livre dans Schopenhauer éducateur (1874) et surtout dans la Généalogie de la morale (1887). Ce faisant, (...) je soutiens que le lamarckisme culturel de Bagehot a non seulement influencé durablement la philosophie nietzschéenne de l’élevage (Züchtung), mais qu’il constitue vraisemblablement une source méconnue des réflexions du deuxième traité de la Généalogie sur la « conscience » et la « mauvaise conscience ». (shrink)

Zur Genealogie der Moral : la spécificité du titre de cette œuvre nietzschéenne a longtemps été atténuée subrepticement par une traduction commode, mais inexacte. « La » Généalogie de la morale : ce titre français ne fait pas droit à l’invitation exprimée par la préposition zu en allemand, qui note un travail de contribution, une tension vers une tâche, des éléments à verser au dossier. Car cette Généalogie de la morale, telle que l’a voulue son auteur, est une tâche, et (...) elle engage dans l’es... (shrink)

La Grèce de l’Antiquité fournit une toile de fond à l’entreprise de Nietzsche dans la Généalogie de la morale. La connaissance approfondie que le philologue en avait lui a donné accès à une pluralité de jugements de valeurs, antérieurs à la domination du christianisme et de la morale qui en est sortie. Au moyen d’une investigation de la poésie de Théognis, citée dans la Généalogie de la morale, mais aussi de la pensée sophistique et de la médecine hippocratique (absentes de (...) la Généalogie), on montre ici dans quelle mesure les perspectives ouvertes par Nietzsche sont fécondes pour la compréhension des questions morales dans l’Antiquité grecque. (shrink)

Es muy defendible afirmar que el volumen dedicado a Spinoza de la obra Historia de la filosofía moderna de Kuno Fischer es la mediación más importante –si bien no la única– para comprender la relación Spinoza-Nietzsche. A partir de la lectura de esta obra en 1881, Nietzsche reconoce a Spinoza como precursor e identifica una tendencia en común entre ambos: «hacer del conocimiento el afecto más potente». Los principales objetivos de este trabajo son destacar la exposición que Fischer lleva a (...) cabo de algunos de los contenidos de la filosofía spinociana para poder valorar mejor su influencia en Nietzsche y resaltar la importancia que tiene tulo 22 de la edición de 1865, titulado «La voluntad humana», donde se interpreta la voluntad como deseo consciente, lo que tendrá sus consecuencias en la recepción de Nietzsche de la filosofía spinociana, además de permitir una discusión respecto del rol no siempre atendido de la voluntad en Spinoza. (shrink)

When scholars inquire into the inspirational sources of Nietzschean perspectivism, they most often credit Leibniz's monadology. However, this overlooks the fact that Pascal — whose writings Leibniz had read — was the first person to introduce the idea of perspective into philosophy. Above all, it overlooks Nietzsche's own indications: he praises Pascal as one of those “good Europeans” who precipitate the devaluation of Christian values and, in particular, of truth, while on the contrary he considers Leibniz to be one of (...) the “greatest obstacles to intellectual probity in Europe.”. (shrink)

Which Books by Teichmüller Did Nietzsche Have Access to? An Attempt at a Reconstruction. The question of which books by Gustav Teichmüller Nietzsche had available has not been satisfactorily clarified to this day. Drawing on sources not considered so far, including the correspondence between Teichmüller and Franz Overbeck and a list that Teichmüller kept about copies of his writings he had sent to colleagues and friends found in his Nachlass, I conclude that Nietzsche only had four books by Teichmüller at (...) his disposal (apart from the opusculum Ueber die Reihenfolge der platonischen Dialoge). Three of these were loans: Aristotelische Forschungen I from the University Library of Basel in the summer semester of 1870, Die Wirkliche und die scheinbare Welt, from Overbeck between late summer 1882 (at the earliest) and November 1885, and the Neue Studien zur Geschichte der Begriffe III also from Overbeck from October 1883 to November 1885. Only the Aristotelischen Forschungen II seem to have been Nietzsche’s personal property (since 1869). Although it is often assumed that Nietzsche also read other books by Teichmüller – e. g., the Studien zur Geschichte der Begriffe, the Neue Studien zur Geschichte der Begriffe II, and the two volumes of the Literarische Fehden im vierten Jahrhundert v. Chr. – they were most likely not available to Nietzsche. (shrink)

Der Band gibt erstmals einen umfassenden Überblick über den lyrischen Nachlass des jungen Nietzsche aus den 1850er und -60er Jahren. Zusätzlich präsentiert Armin Thomas Müller eine Beispiel-Edition und historisch kontextualisierende Analyse des Manuskripthefts Mp I 22 von 1858. Somit trägt der Band grundlegend zur literatur-, philosophie- wie kulturgeschichtlichen Auseinandersetzung mit Nietzsche bei. Armin Thomas Müllers Arbeit nimmt den bislang in der literaturwissenschaftlichen wie auch philosophischen Auseinandersetzung mit Friedrich Nietzsche vernachlässigten lyrischen Nachlass aus der Zeit zwischen 1850 und 1869 in den (...) Blick. Anschließend an eine grundlegende Einführung in das Thema wird Nietzsches Jugendlyrik überblicksartig vorgestellt mit Schwerpunkten zur Editions- und Forschungsgeschichte, zu literaturgeschichtlichen Kontexten sowie zu den autoreflexiven Aufzeichnungen des jungen Nietzsche, die das Thema (lyrischer) Dichtung umkreisen. Die vorliegende Publikation enthält zudem eines heutigen materialorientierten Standards entsprechende Faksimile-Edition mit diplomatischer Transkription des Manuskripthefts Mp I 22 von 1858. Das kulturgeschichtliche Erkenntnispotenzial in Nietzsches Jugendgedichten wird abschließend in einer textgenetischen und historisch kontextualisierenden Analyse der edierten lyrischen Texte aus Mp I 22 deutlich. Auf dieser Grundlagenforschung werden weiterführende Auseinandersetzungen mit Nietzsche aufbauen können. (shrink)

El artículo sitúa los elementos de la fisiología del arte de los escritos de madurez dentro del proyecto de transformación del ser humano que persiste a lo largo su trayectoria intelectual. En el contexto de este proyecto, la expresión artística funciona como síntoma de fenómenos que tienen un profundo origen a nivel fisiológico y que nos informan de la condición del artista creador y del público que lo acoge. El diagnóstico que Nietzsche elaborar de Wagner no sólo afecta a Wagner, (...) sino, sobre todo, a sus espectadores, la cultura y sociedad moderna, como parte del fenómeno de la décadence y del poder ascético. Finalmente se estudia la concepción de la estética como fisiología aplicada, el componente adaptativo y colectivo de los juicios estéticos, así como su uso instrumental para la política. (shrink)