Nietzsche 2014

Dr Peter Kail

Nietzsche 1844-1900
A brief biography

Nietzsches Key Works

Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music (BT, 1872) Human All Too Human (HAH, 1878) Daybreak (D, 1881) Gay Science (GS, 1882) Thus Spake Zarathrustra (Z 83-6) Beyond Good and Evil (BGE, 1886) On the Genealogy of Morality (GM, 1887) Nietzsche Contra Wagner (NW), The Case of Wagner (CW), The AntiChrist (A) Twilight of the Idols (TI), Ecce Homo (EH, 1888 [1906]).

Nietzsche 1889-1900

Approaching Nietzsche: Some Issues

The Man, the Myth, Cult and Icon Misinformed prejudices and downright falsehoods Nietzsches Styles of Writing: its causal features, consequences and difficulties

Cult and Icon

Misinformed Prejudice
Nietzsche anti-science and anti-truth Nietzsche has no arguments Nietzsche is not a philosopher Nietzsche is crazy Nietzsche is a proto-nazi and anti-semite

Misinformed Prejudice
Nietzsche, the Nazis, and Anti-Semitism The Official Philosopher of the Nazis A sad tale of a sister

Nietzsches Styles of Writing

The root cause Non-technical and engaging Sometimes aphoristic and compressed - leads to bumper sticker appropriation Seemingly disorganized Language choice (slaves, blond beasts, will to power) Hyperbolic, strident and ad hominem (N an equal opportunities insulter)

Nietzsches Styles of Writing

BGE 252 - ..what is most offensive in even the most humane Englishman is his lack of musicjust watch the most beautiful Englishwomen walkfinally, listen to them sing! But I am asking too much

Nietzsches Styles of Writing

Not philosophy? Inconsistent? Rhetoric rather than argument? Spinoza, Plato and Wittgenstein Nietzsches philosophy, affects & Selfknowledge

Nietzsches Styles of Writing

Approach with care Be aware of the intentional rhetorical force Be aware of context Be aware the Nietzsches views change across time Rumination - GM Preface 8

The Will to Power and the Nachlass

Nietzsches unpublished notes and the WTP Lumpers, Splitters and Heidegger The Dubious History of the Will to Power Magnuss False Dilemma An Abandoned Project? BGE 36

The Will to Power and the Nachlass

Assuming that our world of desire and passions is the only given as realarent we allowed to make the attempt and pose the question as to whether something like this given isnt enough to render the so-called mechanistic (and thus material) world comprehensible as well? [We could] understand the mechanistic world as belonging to the same plane of reality as our affects themselves.In the end, we are not only allowed to make such an attempt: the conscience of method demands it. Multiple varieties of causation should not be postulated until the attempt to make do with a single one [has been exhausted]

Nietzsches Naturalism
Nietzsches positive and critical project is intimately linked to his naturalism Distinctive human phenomena, including evaluative practices, can be explained by appeal to more tractable materials which are continuous with animal nature To translate man back into nature (BGE 230) Rest on the idea that Nietzsches psychological claims are thought to be truemore on this

The Genealogy of Morality

Preface and its questions (GM Preface 3) under what conditions did man invent those those value judgments good and evil? and what value do they themselves have?

The Genealogy of Morality

GMs aim - the revaluation of all values Morality as the danger of dangers? A philosophy of the future - Nietzsche sees modern conceptions of self as false and potentially threatening

ECCE HOMO