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On the 100th anniversary of the death of the great philosopher, the de Gruyter Publishing House has joined with dtv to produce the complete works at a special price. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

exceptional
I have seen hardcover editions of Nietzsche's works go for $127 a book in some cases. I was urged by my thesis adviser to use either Colli's Kritische Studien Ausgabe (this product) or Kritische Gesamtausgabe as the standard edition of Nietzsche's works.

If you are a student of Nietzsche's philosophy in need of a comprehensive edition, this is an excellent opportunity that I'd recommend you take advantage of.

wonderful deal
This really is a fantastic opportunity to obtain Nietzsche's complete works. The hardback version from the publisher is well over $100 per volume. If you sign up for the Amazon Visa card, you can knock off another $30 if you use it to make this your first purchase. If you qualify for the A9 discount, the total is reduced a further $1.53. And this item qualifies for free shipping. That makes this collection available for about $6.40 per book.What an astonishing value!

If you're a serious student of Nietzsche, you should consider making this purchase.These volumes are hard to find, even in decent libraries.Much of the originally unpublished stuff has yet to be translated into English so you have the opportunity to access material available nowhere else.

oh my, serious students of nietzsche should invest in this!
Okay, this is THE edition of Nietzsche's work to have.To review this is to review it as a collection, rather than to review Nietzsche's individual works.If you want that, look for the works themselves.All I have to say is that for less than 130 bucks you can have the 15 volume collection of Nietzsche's published and unpublished material, given in what is considered the edition to have or use when studying Nietzsche.Thats insane!For 127 bucks.Thats like 8 dollars a book or something.Fantastic! ... Read more

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Praised for its rare combination of scholarly rigor and imaginative interpretation,Nietzsche and Philosophy has long been recognized as one of the most important analyses of Nietzsche. It is also one of the best introductions to Deleuze's thought, establishing many of his central philosophical positions.

InNietzsche and Philosophy, Deleuze identifies and explores three crucial concepts in Nietzschean thought-multiplicity, becoming, and affirmation-and clarifies Nietzsche's views regarding the will to power, eternal return, nihilism, and difference. For Deleuze, Nietzsche challenged conventional philosophical ideas and provided a means of escape from Hegel's dialectical thinking, which had come to dominate French philosophy. He also offered a path toward a politics of difference. In this new edition, Michael Hardt's foreword examines the profound influence of Deleuze's provocative interpretations on the study of Nietzsche, which opened a whole new avenue in postwar thought.

Customer Reviews (11)

This one started it all
I was putting together my thesis on Nietzsche and, after pouring through the traditional secondary texts, was directed to Deleuze.Roughly twelve years later, I finally felt like I was able to make some sense of the damn thing.

Nietzsche wrote "for those with ears to hear".Deleuze heard and wrote in the same voice.Or, at least, with the same timbre.Brilliant, insightful, powerful, dense, abstract, chock-full of enough neologisms to make Webster blush.This book might be a complete departure from Nietzsche.But that is the point.While many might read closer to the letter of Nietzsche, no-one evokes the spirit.Not even close.

It is one of those ultra-rare literary experiences that challenges you to your utmost limit - never giving you a step of ground, but always hinting (seductively) at the glory at the top of the mountain.

If you read Nietzsche and felt that somehow all of the commentaries were a little "off", a little simplistic, then buy this book and give it a read.

one of the greatest books i have ever read
i firstpicked up nietzsche and philosophy in 1989and couldnt make it past the first chapter which discusses theories of forces,semiotics, and other unintelligable things..i regarded the bookas 'hyper abstract'..
I returned again to it in 1996 after reading deleuze's interviews, and, with a more general understanding of his ideas,the book became a revelation for me.
Deleuze presents a systematic and coherent philosophy for nietzsche, one which grounds hisrather paradoxical and sometimes enigmatic writings. deleuze clearly expresses nietzsche's core concerns, showing the sanity and genius ofthis sometimes denigrated 'mad' philosopher.
Its a pity this book will never find itself in the self help section because thats where it belongs..Feeling depressed and worthless? A bit burnt out or indifferent? read this book!Whilemost philosophy falls to the side with abstractions, nietzsche and philosophy goes after life itself , attacking every nihilistic habit in our psychic, social, and cosmological repetoire. Deleuze tracesnietzsche's assertions on how we are reactive and despicablecreatures and goes on toshowwhy and how wecan overcome, well, all those things that make humanity "the skin disease of earth'.....
so...since we all suffer from nihilism and its ailments, Nietzsche and philosophy provides antidotes and cure for our human condition...

below are some less than praiseworthy comments on this book..deleuze appropriates nietzsche, for example...or deleuze says simple things in a complicated manner...this is nonsense..
readers, this is not an easy book to grasp..its takes a few readings to fully understand whats being said..people who dont like this book just simply fail to understand it...or havent read it through at least once..
that may be the books fault..but if simple ideas are what one seeks, then try simplistic books. ..this isnt one of them

Fine for people who know Nietzsche or philosophy
Nietzsche would be the primary example of a philosopher who produced his work without being subject to the limitations which a publisher who was aware of refined taste and the boundaries of public opinion might have imposed.Reading NIETZSCHE AND PHILOSOPHY by Gilles Deleuze in an English translation by Hugh Tomlinson, with a new Preface by Deleuze written for the translation in 1983 of a work originally published in French in 1962, serves as a reminder of the limits imposed on thoughts which are expressed within a scholarly milieu.Philosophy is a goal which can easily be imposed upon Nietzsche because Nietzsche's writings show an in depth knowledge of pre-Platonic and Schopenhauer's philosophies, and a meaning restricted to the confines of decent philosophical practice is entirely praiseworthy.

What else could Nietzsche show?Pornographic practices hardly fit well in a social setting, and Nietzsche's tendencies to show autoerotic mental patterns in his approach to what Deleuze designates as species activities and culture lie beyond the scope of anything considered in this book.Nietzsche might also be thought to emphasize jokes and laughter somewhat more than Deleuze, who is not afraid to devote sections of this book to The Essence of the Tragic, The Problem of Existence, Hierarchy, Will to Power and Feeling of Power, Against Pessimism and against Schopenhauer, Realisation of Critique, The Concept of Truth, Art, The Problem of Pain, Bad Conscience, Responsibility, Guilt, Nihilism, Analysis of Pity, Nihilism and Transmutation:the focal point, Affirmation and Negation, and even Dionysus and Zarathustra.In fantasy as in reality, Nietzsche's ideas are suitable for consideration in a book on philosophy because they are capable of operating on a high level where "the selection of being which constitutes Nietzsche's ontology:only that which becomes in the fullest sense of the word can return, is fit to return."(Preface to the English translation, p. xi).

Before proceeding to compare this book to the works of Nietzsche which it discusses, it behooves me to remind myself and others how I obtained knowledge of the market for books by building a collection of rejection slips for MY VIETNAM WAR JOKE BOOK, which culminated in a letter informing me that such a book was extralimital to the presses' goals, particularly in philosophy.Even NIETZSCHE AND PHILOSOPHY seems to be aware of the joke which made a free world attack on godless Communists ironic:

"Pluralism is the properly philosophical way of thinking, the one invented by philosophy :the only guarantor of freedom in the concrete spirit, the only principle of a violent atheism.The Gods are dead but they have died from laughing, on hearing one God claim to be the only one, `Is not precisely this godliness, that there are gods but no God?'(Z III `Of the Apostates', p. 201).And the death of this God, who claimed to be the only one, is itself plural;the death of God is an event with a multiple sense.This is why Nietzsche does not believe in resounding `great events', but in the silent plurality of senses of each event (Z II `Of Great Events').There is no event, no phenomenon, word or thought which does not have a multiple sense."(p. 4).

The very funny thing that separates Nietzsche from this totally philosophical reflection on his work is the declaration "and I have seen the truth naked, truly! barefoot to the neck."(Thus Spoke Zarathustra, II, "Of Great Events" translated by R. J. Hollingdale, p. 153).Considering this pornographic is a sign of the loss of appetite for further thinking along this line.Nietzsche appropriately saved this thought for after:

"And this is the tale of Zarathustra's conversation with the fire-dog:

"The earth (he said) has a skin; and this skin has diseases.One of these diseases, for example, is called `Man'.

"And another of these diseases is called `the fire-dog':men have told many lies and been told many lies about him."

The sense of condemnation that clings to experiences of this nature might be considered anti-social when applied to an existing society.Social activity is a narrow form of human endeavor, compared to which philosophy might be considered a vast wasteland, but one that is subject to considerable change.Comparing books about philosophers to the philosophers themselves, including the things which they did not say in their books, but sometimes only in their notebooks, is an activity fraught with confusion.Deleuze can be given credit for devoting much of his book to the philosophical context in which each philosopher has a unique self occupying a particular point in the grand sweep of ideas, but Deleuze and Nietzsche might not coincide in their views on particular individuals.The first example in the book, on "Nietzsche's twofold struggle:against those who remove values from criticism, contenting themselves with producing inventories of existing values or with criticising things in the name of established values (the `philosophical labourers', Kant and Schopenhauer, BGE 211)" (p. 2), does not mention the same philosophers as BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL section 211, in which Nietzsche observed:

"Those philosophical labourers after the noble exemplar of Kant and Hegel have to take some great fact of evaluation--that is to say, former assessments of value, creations of value which have become dominant and are for a while called `truths'--and identify them and reduce them to formulas, whether in the form of logic or of politics (morals) or of art."

Nietzsche sometimes considered Schopenhauer a better kind of philosopher, as in "it is they who determine the Wherefore and Whither of mankind," but subject to the question, "Are there such philosophers today?Have there been such philosophers?Must there not be such philosophers?"(BGE 211).

Politics and philosophy have much in common.As Deleuze wrote, "It is difficult in fact to stop the dialectic and history on the common slope down which they drag each other.Does Marx . . . ?"(p. 162).

Dire
There are two ways to read this book. It could be read as an attempt to present what Nietzsche thought, or the perhaps unconscious core of his thought, or it could be read as a statement of Deleuze's own philosophy. Considered as the former, it is worse than useless. Deleuze's methodology is poor; he quotes selectively, and relies too much on the posthumous notes published by Nietzsche's sister, ignoring those that explicitly refute his claims. For example, he denies that Nietzsche ever considered that the eternal recurrence might be a literal truth about the world; this ignores, amongst others, a note in which Nietzsche sat down to calculate that it must actually happen given a finite number of atoms in the universe that they find themselves in the same configuration again. Furthermore, he attempts to consider Nietzsche's entire oeuvre as a coherent whole, entirely forgetting the enormous changes it underwent as he developed his thought. He makes no attempt to discover what questions Nietzsche actually set out to answer. Therefore, as a contribution to the Nietzsche bibliography, it is eminently forgettable.

As a work of Deleuzean philosophy, one has to be accustomed to this style of writing. If you are the type of person who finds mystic writings and meditations on religious texts to your taste, you'll probably enjoy his barely-coherent style and habit of presenting simplistic truisms as though they give great insight into the universe. Equally, if you feel that sophistication is best demonstrated by cloaking your meaning in meaningless words and phrases just for the pretty effect of oxymorons, then you'll be happy here. Otherwise, don't waste your time.

The best book about Nietzsche
Nietzsche was not a systematic thinker and so it is very difficult to construct a book on his difficult thought.Deleuze has, however, successfully accomplished that.A combined reading of this work and Pierre Klossowski's "Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle" would provide an understanding of Nietzsche that is well beyond what is presented in most books on the author.It is sad, but we english speakers have collectively written most of the bad literature on Nietzsche.It was the french after WWII that picked-up the mantle set forth by Nietzsche after the embarrassing abuse of his thought by the Nazis. ... Read more

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Friedrich Nietzsche s The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music, published in 1872, is not only the first major work of the most provocative voice in modern philosophy but also the most important study of Greek tragedy since Aristotle s Poetics. In this remarkable essay Nietzsche announces his aggressive challenge to many of the most cherished philosophical assumptions of his own time, re-evaluates the development of classical Greek culture, and establishes aesthetic concepts which have had a decisive influence on modern discussions of art.The Greeks, Nietzsche argues, were in the period of their greatest achievements thoroughly pessimistic but found in artistic creativity the only possible justification for existence. As a result of this development they produced Greek tragedy, the noblest affirmation of human life. The later development of Greek culture, particularly the influence of Socrates and Euripides, was not, as so many modern classicists have maintained, the high point of Greek achievement, but a significant decline, the onset of a sickness from which the world is still suffering (a significant symptom of which is our preoccupation with morality, especially Christian morality and our faith in scientific scholarship).Central to Nietzsche s discussion is his analysis of the development of Greek tragedy as the result of the inherent tension between and ultimate reconciliation of two conflicting artistic impulses, the Apollonian and the Dionysian (corresponding to the two sources of artistic inspiration, dreams and intoxication, the former giving rise to the plastic arts and the latter to ecstatic visions and music). Only with the appropriate synthesis of these two drives could the highest form of life be attained.The Birth of Tragedy received a cool reception in Nietzsche s day, especially from the academic community, but it has since become a central document in modern aesthetics and has led to a significant reappraisal of the nature of Classical Greek culture. The book also serves as an eloquent introduction to the disturbing challenges Nietzsche issued to modern thinking.Ian Johnston s new translation captures the energy, eloquence, and power of Nietzsche s unique philosophical style in this extraordinary and influential work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (37)

Review of Kaufmann's Nietzsche
This is simple a great piece of scholarship. Kaufmann's translation are livid with Nietzsche's emotional character, and supplemented by extensive footnotes on the context of the work (especially helpful with the Case of Wagner). Each work is also given a very interesting introduction, mostly biographical. I happily recommend this to anyone interested in reading these works. Also, it should be noted that Kaufmann translates several pages of correspondence at the end of the two essays.

An excellent work
Because of the several other reviews already made, it really doesn't make any sense for me to write another. I will just say that this book holds a great majority of the roots of Nietzsche's thought and is actually a remarkable analysis on tragedy and its implications for the nature of our human spirit. This book deserves the full five stars.

Classic of Western Philosophy No Doubt
It's hard not to write about Friedrich Nietzsche with out sounding pretencious. But the thing is that his ideas were really succesful, and powerful ideas are interesting: that is almost a tautology.Any idea that people continue to find interesting over time is an interesting idea.If people stop caring, it's not interesting anymore.

The three facts to understand about Nietzsche is that he was a professor specializing in Greece, he was a huge fan of Schopenauer the philosopher and an even bigger fan of Richard Wagner.So if you don't understand the context of his work including: what Schopenauer thought about art, the music of Richard Wagner and the state of knowledge about ancient greece circa 1872.And, you need to know that the Birth of Tragedy was his first published book.Wow.Stunner.Still in print in 2009.Whatever you want to say about Nietzche, the ideas have staying power.

But what idea?Basically, in the birth of tragedy Nietzsche sets up a dialectic between "Apolline" and "Dionysiac" spirit and talks about the impact of these traditions on ancient Greek music and theater.What's funny about Nietzche is that he was a huge music fan.His view, dervied from Schopenauer, is that music is the salve for the human that apprends the artificality of existence (see Buddhism, Hinduism, Existenalism, Pre-Socratic Greek Philosophers).In other words "If you are someone who has seen through the essential meaninglessness of existence, the only way to endure is by the appreciation of music, which expresses the Dionysac spirit , as supposed to theater, which is largley Apolline."(Thanks Euripedes!)

In the Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche is arguing Buddhist style about escaping from the wheel of karma, but music (specifically Richard Wagner and german style classical music) replces of meditationand other such eastern practices.

excellent
outstanding review of Greek tragedy.eminating from the human condition itself / i wish that it might have included psychological analysis of human tragedy from which Greek tragedy theater evolved.

For Nietzsche, art is nothing less then a "life affirming force"
I read this book for a graduate seminar on the philosophy of art.Nietzsche's "Birth of Tragedy" and "On The Genealogy of Morality" begin to shape or force the latter character of his thought, which is an affirmation of life.An affirmation of life, even with its tragic character rather than an affirmation of life without tragedy.Nietzsche agrees with Schopenhauer about the nature of reality being dark.He accepts Plato's characterization about tragedy, but affirms tragedy instead of wanting to ban it like Plato argued for in his "Republic."He rejects Aristotle' formalism, Nietzsche rejects Kant's notion of disinterest, and its life denying implications, the whole idea that you have to be disinterested in art is a complete contradiction of the vitality of art.It betrays a kind of life denying implication, if the point of art is to find a zone to turn off ones interests, then why would you think that, that is valuable.Why would someone think that that is a good thing?Nietzsche accepts the idea of genius and like Hegel, although not in the same way as Hegel, Nietzsche elevates art to a high level, by saying that art and reality mirror each other, in that art is a kind of forming formlessness and that is the way reality is.Nietzsche had a big influence on 20th century art.

Nietzsche unlike Aristotle insists on a religious component in tragedy, the two main Greek myth currents is Apollo and Dionysus.By associating these two religious sects with tragedy, it is more historically true for Nietzsche.He observes Greek tragedy and Dionysian religion and its character.The image of Greek culture was one of being measured and civilized, however Nietzsche sees the Dionysian religion was dark and violent and irrational as well.Tragedies were performed at Dionysian festivals it is a "nature" based religion, celebrating the cycle of life, both birth and death.The world is like a restaurant, all living things live off other living things.Dionysian rites probably included animal sacrifices, maybe human as well.Dionysus was an unusual deity in Greece; he was the only one to suffer death and to be brought back to life, unlike other Olympian deities.Dionysian religion was very popular in Greece; Apollonian religion was very popular as well.Nietzsche says tragedy has something to do with Dionysius religions dark side.

One of the best sources of the Dionysian religion is Euripides in the "Bacchae."There is some question about his intent in writing the "Bacchae."Euripides turns against his Greek tragic tradition by showing the Greeks the absurdities and ironies in their tragic tradition with his plays, which also essentially recommend that Greeks turn away from their form of tragedy.Euripidean heroes are usually rebelling against the state rather than accommodating it.However, the "Bacchae" is an unusual play because it seems to be just the kind of portrayal of the Dionysian religion.It is a tragic satire of Dionysian religion by presenting its absurdities.

Nietzsche's point is that there is something very different about tragedies, they have measured constructions of beauty and form, and Aristotle is very good at pointing that out.Greek tragedys are not chaotic not just wild abandonment, they are beautifully constructed artistic works with plots and characters and story lines.This is often misunderstood, for Nietzsche Greek tragedy is not a purely Dionysian phenomenon.Apollo, the Apollonian religion is equally important to understand tragedy, and in fact, it is the Apollonian part that makes tragedy for Nietzsche not a life of pessimism art form.You could say the Dionysian and Apollonian religions were two powerful forces that are very different from each other.Nietzsche said they had different manifestations and often looked on each other with antagonism.Dionysian religion and Christianity has similarities, the dying God, sacrament of eating and drinking of the body.Nietzsche's tragic hero is done in by faith, for both.Big difference for Christianity is the resurrection.Nietzsche believes that what makes Greek tragedy special is that it is a joining of these two forces, the Apollonian form in representing measured power and the darker undoing power of the Dionysian religion.

Apollo represents form and Dionysus formlessness.Apollonian form is an artistic phenomenon it is not a rational form.Sometimes people read the Apollonian as a rational principle, but they do this because Socrates comes on the scene who represents what Plato wanted.The overcoming of the tragic by way of the conscious reflection and rational principles and so on.The Apollonian is always an artistic sensuous produced form.The Dionysian is the impulse to self-transcendence and by self-transcendence Nietzsche means the Greek word ecstasy, which literally means to stand outside oneself.It would be proper therefore to say that the Dionysian experiences were ecstatic in the literal sense because there was a loss of individualization a loss of self-consciousness and an emersion in these powerful natural forces.Therefore, the whole point of the Dionysian religion was to overcome the self.You can see that eroticism and killing are two forms of dismemberment.Killing is obviously the termination of life,but as every human culturalknows, the power of the erotic has its own kind of dismembering force in that it is a natural force that can easily undue the culture.Sex is always an enemy in some respects, and yet, no sex, no culture.The erotic is a natural force and all cultures have recognized the power of the erotic as a powerfully disintegrating force.It can lead people to abandon all decorum and measure and responsibility.Therefore, sex, birth, and death are the Dionysian religion in a nutshell.Dionysian's would argue no sex no culture, so why not give cultural expression to power of sex.This releases pent up depression.Nietzsche wants to understand tragedy as interdependent, yet the form of the one religion is dependent of the other religion.Dionysian part and Apollonian part are together in tragedy, but with dark theme but no wholly chaotic art form.Tragedy represents reconciling of the two religions.Nietzsche's point is we truly don't understand what tragedy meant to the Greeks.It wasn't simply a dark story of destruction.It had religious connotations.

From this religious cultural analysis, Nietzsche wants to form an art theory.In Nietzsche's "Birth of Tragedy" he sees things in the Greek world having a stimulus of thought starting philosophy.Regeneration of art world, was he thought, found in Richard Wagner's music.Nietzsche is a life philosopher.Nietzsche believes there is some life force tapped into by the creative person.Artists are "touched" by a force.Dionysian religion is a bit of this you lose yourself and are given over to something more powerful like Nietzsche's life force.Creativity has to be a little abnormal or as Nietzsche says dissatisfaction with the normal.Nietzsche argued that philosophy should contain artistic elements.One of the messages of Nietzsche's philosophy is that the problem arose when philosophy came on the scene and tried to organize and govern everything by rational concepts and methods and reflection and categorization and demonstration and logical arguments.That is the reason why Socrates and Plato found tragedy so offensive, so unwieldy and such a stimulation.But then again Nietzsche asks the question, before I get on board with this plan to overcome these terrible forces, I want to know why its so terrible, this is his constant method, which is to ask, prove to me why tragedy has to give way to philosophy.Part of Nietzsche's approach to philosophy itself is that philosophy should contain artistic elements.This is the reason for his writing style, which are elusive and not straightforward argumentations.

Remember, Schopenhauer who influenced Nietzsche's thinking said the ultimate nature of will is this formless chaotic energy, that we strive for meaning that we have here and there but in the end it is all taken away from us and that is the end of it and that is why life is meaningless.However, Nietzsche says the fact that the Greeks had this very same insight but did not turn away from life should not have been a puzzle to Schopenhauer it should have made Schopenhauer question his own argument.Instead, Schopenhauer argued that the Greeks didn't realize the full impact of tragic insight, they were naive.Nietzsche thought Schopenhauer was wrong about tragedy.Schopenhauer thought tragedy was a necessary insight into meaninglessness, which would lead to resignation.That is why the Apollonian is so important for Nietzsche; the Apollonian is what saves the human spirit from disintegration.Therefore, art has this saving power.However, the fact that the Greeks had in one form in tragedy, the two forces of Apollo and Dionysus interests Nietzsche.On the one hand, they recognize the limits of things, in the other hand they delighted in the artistic orientation of this dark story.How can there be pleasure from dark themes in art, in a way Nietzsche is giving his own version of it, for him it is inherently life affirming to actually render the dark in artistic form.There is a difference between coming to the insight that life is meaningless, and then saying that now guides all my thinking and all my dispositions.The very fact of tragedy as an artistic form is life saving element for the Greeks.The curious thing is that the Greeks could enjoy these tragic performances and yet the message was dark.

Therefore, it is important to note that Nietzsche insists that the Apollonian and Dionysian dyad are a characteristic of reality.One by themselves is not real.Form is by itself just an allusion of formal structure; an allusion of formal structure is what so many philosophers wanted, eternal being eternal structures, timeless truths that would be form.Formlessness by itself is too chaotic, no culture, no art, no creativity.Nietzsche was always a philosopher of culture, always pointing to his German culture that he thought needed to be renewed and revived.Nietzsche recognizes the force and reality of wildness, but it is the two together that make human life, the wild, and the cultured, both are unavoidable dualities the Apollonian and Dionysian.Greek tragedy brought them into focus; his philosophy tries to work from that and he says, yes that is how we should see existence.

So poetry and tragedy are both pre-conceptual artforms that start culture, no culture starts with philosophy, conceptual formations and definitions and axioms and truths.Culture begin with religion and art forms and habit and things that are not clarifying with conceptual structure.They have life to them and a culture lives them out.Although he values philosophy as higher form of thinking, he always insists that philosophy can't alienate itself from pre-conceptual world of art, (poetry), which he certainly thought Plato was saying when he wanted to ban poetry.Nietzsche would say there is an infinite relationship between poetry and philosophy and that means that those who might want to distinguish philosophy with having a higher value than just poetry are wrong.He thinks it is wrong that you can have a pure conceptual procedure on the one hand and have anything of deep value or that you can simply have a poetic genre on one hand all by itself.Thinking is important, not just poeticizing.However, Nietzsche argues we must have thinking with poeticizing.

I recommend this work for anyone interested in Nietzschean philosophy, philosophy of art, Greek tragedy, culture, and history.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Adds real meaning to what it covers
I have trouble keeping track of the aims of an author writing about Nietzsche because I have so many personal issues of my own, but a line in the introduction about trying to shake us free from the hypnotic vocabularies of propriety and responsibility that animate our thoughts on the self and its place in the world almost gives me hope that readers will realize how much the alternatives being offered for a gambling addiction that is bouncing around trying to pick a path to a spurious infinity are merely symptoms of those who are freaking out about maintaining economic growth in a world of billions of people that will never get the kind of medical attention that bankrupts whoever plans to pay our bills. This book might not have the vocabularies I am looking for, but it knows some people are really shook.

Conflict of Alternative Realities
This is a staggering commentary on the conflict of alternative realities as expressed in the visionary populism of Nietzsche and the homespun Americana and Unitarian-style individualism found in the writings of Emerson. The contrast of these two by the brilliant, but erratic, Professor Mikics IS one of the great misunderstood (not to mention unjustly ignored)intellects of our time and this book, so far, is his magnum opus. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (6)

Difficult, but interesting
This slim text on Nietzsche and Heidegger caused a storm in European Nietzsche circles when it was first released in 1978, and it is often cited today as evidence of Derrida's apparent command of Nietzsche's philosophy. In the text, Derrida primarily deals with the issue of women in Nietzsche, and brings his misogyny back to the problem of truth itself. This is a very rich and dense text, with issues as broad as Mauss' 'The Gift,' madness, and a very tight hermeneutic reading of Heidegger's Nietzsche work. Nevertheless, I am still left wondering what all the excitement is really about.

Only after Heidegger
One might wonder why Derrida focuses on Nietzsche's statements concerning women in this work. That focus only makes sense in light of Heidegger's reading of Nietzsche.
Derrida finds that even Heidegger's supposed totalizing reading of Nietzsche elides the word woman. What is at stake in this elision? That is the point of this work.
Precisely because that elision exists there can be no final philosophy. Philosophy is forever contingent. If you read this book for nothing else, it should be for the final 15 pages where Derrida discuses Nietzsche's umbrella, and the ridiculous loops hermeneuticians go through to understand this enigmatic philosopher.

The Reckless Endangerment of What Everybody Knows
My approach to the fame which Derrida enjoys is his daring in playing with the danger of disrupting what people think that they know.In his discussion of the final topic in this book, a note which Nietzsche wrotethat said, "I have forgotten my umbrella," he openly expresseshis philosophical doubt about its significance with what must be consideredhis standard stance, "The meaning and the signature that appropriatesit remain in principle inaccessible."(p. 125)Offering aninterpretation is like guessing what Nietzsche's umbrella might have beenmetaphorically, as one might consider the significance of religion, socialthought, conscience, or morality as it relates to a person's place in theworld.The interest in Derrida's examination of Nietzsche's style,"Hence the heterogeneity of the text," (p. 95) seems to begreatest in the consideration of alternative positions which Nietzscheoffers regarding women, truth, etc."It is not that it is necessaryto choose sides with the heterogeneous or the parody (which would onlyreduce them once again).Nor, given that the master sense, the soleinviolate sense, is irretrievable, does it necessarily follow thatNietzsche's mastery is infinite, his power impregnable, or his manipulationof the snare impeccable."(p. 99)This stuff is only obvious tothose whose ludicrous embrace of comic material does not exceed their graspof what a comic society consists of, the fools that mortals be.Don't getback to me on this: ask anybody.

Terse Verse
In having forgotten what I've read and read what I've forgotten, I am pleasantly bemused.Where to begin where this is no beginning but <> and no end but <> (and as I writethese words of Derrida the endless possibilties of ideas spur forth, fromnothing, from being, from woman essence, the essence of woman - and inthese phrases the kernel of a metaphysical enquiry).Perhaps at a distancefrom the text, can any thoughts be produced. this was some of the mostpleasant reading I've done in a while.I don't know how much I<> and <>, but it was fun.Ithink, though, reading Derrida is like reading poetry.So much is packedinto a dense space and such play of words, philosophies and language are atwork that at point I can only enjoy the literary quality of his writing.

Spurs:Nietzsche's Style
What is 'Truth' anyhow?In Spurs, this question is rigorously explored using Nietzsche's aphoristic writing style as an example of honesty in literature/philosophy.The reader weaves through the maze that is Spurs,searching for answers ('Truth') but only finding style and utterly visualmetaphors created by Nietzsche and polished by Derrida.Is 'Truth' a"veiled woman" or is it "Nietzsche's umbrella"?Bringyour interpretive seeds and sow them in the weave of Spurs--perhaps you'llfind an answer that will suit your, well....ahh....nevermind... ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Great Work only partially available to translation.
For many, Z is the cryptic centerpiece of N's production. Even for those, like me with limited German, this edition supplies the original beauties of his prose and so the ability to better understand the mysteries of this text. ... Read more

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In Nietzsche and the Origin of Virtue, Lester Hunt approaches Nietzsche not merely to discover what he stood for, but to discern whether his ideas are ones we should accept and use. Hunt examines the problems implicit in Nietzsche's own position, and explores in detail areas such as his views on human rights, his ``anti-political'' stance, and his novel use of the idea of ``experimentation'' as an ethical ideal. What emerges at the core of Nietzsche's work is a powerful and original ``ethics of virtue'' based entirely on his conception of good character. ... Read more

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LA MORALE MISE EN QUESTION
Cet oeuvre peut ?tre consid?r? comme un sommet de la derni?re "p?riode cr?ative" avant que Nietzsche tombait dans une maladie horrible jusqu'? son mort. IL A ECRIT CE LIVRE EN 3 SEMAINES, ENTRE LE 10 ET 30 JUILLET 1887 !!
Dans sa "G?n?alogie" il y a quelques conceptions de base, quelques principes de l'?thique, comme "le bien et le mal", "la culpabilit? et la conscience" ET SURTOUT "l'id?al de l'asc?tisme", qui tiennent LEUR PLACE CENTRALE partout dans cet oeuvre. MAIS l'auteur ne traite PAS du tout ces "notions", ces "conceptions" conform?ment l'usage dans la philosophie de la morale. Il n'est pas tellement int?ress? en ce qu'elles signifient, ont de valeur dans une certaine morale, NON PLUS en ce qui est leur valeur ou m?rite normative. MAIS BIEN DANS LEUR NAISSANCE, LEUR ORIGINE et en ce qui est leur fonction dans une soci?t? organis?e.

Il n'est pas important ce qui est la valeur d'une telle ou telle action: ce qui EST IMPORTANT pour lui EST LA VALEUR DE CETTE VALEUR MORALE MEME: "IL NOUS FAUT UN CRITIQUE DES VALEURS MORALES: TOUT D'ABORD LA VALEUR DES VALEURS DOIT ETRE MISE EN QUESTION.".
Selon Nietzsche il n'y existe pas quelque chose comme un d?veloppement lin?aire, voire progressif de la morale: elle est la r?sultante du combat perp?tuel entre "seigneurs et esclaves", entre "ceux qui r?gnent et ceux qui sont r?gn?s". Chacun de ces deux groupes essaie - TOUJOURS ET PARTOUT - d'acqu?rir autant de pouvoir vers l'autre.
LA MORALE EST L'INSTRUMENT LE PLUS IMPORTANT (m?me par excellence) DANS CE COMBAT, CE QUI RESULTE DE L'EMPORTEMENT, DE LA PASSION DE CHAQUE HOMME OU GROUPE: LA VOLONTE DE PUISSANCE.

Ce CHEF D'OEUVRE de la main de Nietzsche ne se laisse pas lire comme un joli roman, mais ce livre est SI IMPORTANT QUANT'AU PENSEES QUE L'AUTEUR DECRIT, m?me dissecte ici. PAS FACILE A LIRE NE VEUT PAS DIRE IMPOSSIBLE A LIRE! J'ose dire ici: gr?ce au talent litt?raire ?norme de Nietzsche, aux sujets et pens?es QUI TOUCHENT CHACUN DE NOUS.
POUR CHACUN qui conna?t l'importance de l'introspection et/ou qui VEUT SAVOIR beaucoup de plus quant ? L'ORIGINE DE "NOTRE MORALE", je recommende "La G?n?alogie" de tout coeur et raison. AUCUN LECTEUR NE REGRETTERA DE LIRE SOIT D'AVOIR LU CE LIVRE SI RICHE. ... Read more

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For more than forty years, Gianni Vattimo, one of Europe's most important and influential philosophers, has been a leading participant in the postwar turn that has brought Nietzsche back to the center of philosophical enquiry. In this collection of his essays on the subject, which is a dialogue both with Nietzsche and with the Nietzschean tradition, Vattimo explores the German philosopher's most important works and discusses his views on theUbermensch, time, history, truth, hermeneutics, ethics, and aesthetics. He also presents a different, more "Italian" Nietzsche, one that diverges from German and French characterizations. Many contemporary French and poststructuralist philosophers offer literary or aesthetic readings of Nietzsche's work that downplay its political import. Shaped by the revolutionary tradition of 1968, Vattimo's interpretations take Nietzsche seriously as a political philosopher and argue for and defend his relevance to projects for social and political change. He emphasizes the hermeneutic aspect of Nietzsche's philosophy, characterizing the Nietzschean project as a political hermeneutics.

Vattimo also grapples with Heidegger, a philosopher who has had a profound influence on the interpretation and understanding of Nietzsche. Vattimo examines Heidegger's philosophy through its complex relationship to Nietzsche's, and he produces a Heideggerian understanding of Nietzsche that paradoxically goes against Heidegger's own readings of Nietzsche's work. Heidegger believed Nietzsche was the ultimate metaphysician; Vattimo sees him as the founder of postmetaphysical philosophy.

Throughout these essays, Vattimo draws on and quotes extensively from fragments in Nietzsche's notebooks, many of which have never before been translated into English. His writing is clear, elegant, and accessible, and, for the first time, Vattimo's own intellectual developments, shifts, and continuities can be clearly discerned. The loyal testimony and unique perspective inDialogue with Nietzsche makes a convincing case for another orientation in Nietzsche scholarship.

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Recommended for philosophy libraries and scholars of Nietzsche's writings
Dialogue With Nietzsche is an anthology of essays by Gianni Vattimo, one of Europe's foremost philosophers, whose postwar thought has helped bring analysis of Nietzsche into the focus of postwar scrutiny. Essays presented include "Nihilism and the Problem of Temporality", "Philosophy as Ontological Activity", "Nietzsche and Contemporary Hermeneutics", "The Wisdom of the Superman", "The Gay Science", and many more. Themes explored in depth range from a comparison Heidegger's philosophy with Nietzsche's to the viability of Nietzsche's views of truth, ethics, aesthetics, and more. Vattimo often quotes fragments from Nietzsche's notebooks, many of which have never been previously translated into English. An extensive section of notes and an index make this scholarly and rigorous collection more accessible to lay readers as well as intermediate to advanced philosophy students. Especially recommended for philosophy libraries and scholars of Nietzsche's writings.
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First published in 1965, Danto's study argues that Nietzsche offers a systematic and coherent philosophy, anticipating many of the questions that define contemporary philosophy. Danto's commentaries helped canonize Nietzsche as a philosopher and continue to illuminate subtleties in Nietzsche's work as well as his immense contributions to the philosophies of science, language, and logic. This new edition, which includes five additional essays, not only further enhances our understanding of Nietzsche's philosophy; it responds to the misunderstandings that continue to muddy his intellectual reputation.

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A sober reading of Nietzsche
There are some wild readings of Nietzsche out there (nothing wrong with that), but in this book Danto works out of the British/American more conservative school of philosophy and tries to discover if there is alogical system to Nietzsche's works.Danto is one of the most readablephilosophers out there, and is sensitive to the problems of systemizingNietzsche.Overall a nice antidote to give to overzealous intellectualswho read a little Nietzsche and then feel qualified to start callingthemselves one of the ubermensch. ... Read more

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Presenting the entire German text of Nietzsche's lectures on rhetoric and language and his notes for them, as well as facing page English translations, this book fills an important gap in the philosopher's corpus. Until now unavailable or existing only in fragmentary form, the lectures represent a major portion of Nietzsche's achievement.Included are an extensive editors' introduction on the background of Nietzsche's understanding of rhetoric, and critical notes identifying his sources and independent contributions. ... Read more

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Continuum's "Guides for the Perplexed" are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to fathom, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material. Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the best known and most widely read of philosophers, whose work and ideas have proved influential to leading figures in all areas of cultural life. Yet, his ideas are also among the most challenging regularly encountered by students. His method and language can seem obscure and oblique, forcing the reader to struggle on his or her own and reflecting Nietzsche's desire that his readers form their own answers for themselves. "Nietzsche: A Guide for the Perplexed" is a clear and thorough account of Nietzsche's philosophy, his major works and ideas, providing an ideal guide to the important and complex thought of this key philosopher.The book covers the whole range of Nietzsche's work, offering a detailed review of his landmark text, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", together with examination of his early and later work. Geared towards the specific requirements of students who need to reach a sound understanding of Nietzsche's thought, the book also provides a cogent and reliable survey of the various, often profoundly different, interpretations of his work and ideas. This is the ideal companion to the study of this most influential and challenging of philosophers. ... Read more

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Nietzsche from an analytic perspective...
Nietzsche, the heavily mustachioed romanticized supreme philosopher, as famous for his insanity as for his ideas, has been cast in many molds. Some, like the ones cast by the Nazis and his Sister, were discarded as gross misunderstandings. Others, such as Walter Kaufmann's seminal commentary, show slight patination but nonetheless retain glints of original luster. Today, a virtual forest of Nietzsche exegesis has sprung. Books galore. Keeping track of these multitudinous and ever expanding interpretations would occupy a warehouse of intellectuals indefinitely. Curious readers, especially those with no philosophical background, will need more than machetes to hack through this dense verbiage. In fact, newcomers may actually have an easier time reading Nietzsche's own words than reading much of the vast secondary literature dedicated to his oeuvre.

"Nietzsche: A Guide for the Perplexed," despite its title, will challenge, and maybe frustrate, beginners and those with little or no knowledge of philosophy. As such, it would probably not serve as a good first introduction to Nietzsche. The book does make explicit mention of its intended demographic: "the advanced undergraduate, earlygraduate and educated lay reader." "Educated" should read "educated in Anglo-American philosophy." Those who don't fit in one of those categories should look elsewhere. Those with the requisite background will find a challenging and rewarding examination of one of history's most important thinkers.

The majority of this book casts Nietzsche in an analytic mold. Following an amazing delineation of Nietzsche's works and a mesmerizing reflection on nihilism and "the death of God," the major themes get put through the analytic filter. Anyone well versed in American or English academic philosophy will recognize the method. For example, the famous "will to power" gets decomposed into its constiuent linguistic elements, with references to the original German: "macht" (power) carries a sense of "make"; "wollen" can imply "want." A thick analysis follows, passing through Hume, psychology, biology, ability, Schopenhauer, and more, that results in the final interpretation of "will to power" as "creative transformation."

Concerning the "eternal recurrence," the book argues that Nietzsche sought to metaphysically justify the doctrine. In other words, it represented more than a mere "thought experiment." The term "enlightened empiricism" gets applied to Nietzsche's perceived epistemology. Opposite to a disinterested, detached, distant view of an object of knowledge, pespectivism adds a multiplicity of experiential knowledge that represents a thing from a variety of viewpoints. Via this interpretation, Nietzsche stands in an empirical tradition that culminates with Quine.

On morality the book delves into his notion of "nobility" (which relates to "The Overman") and anti-egalitarianist thought. Today, very few would classify Nietzsche as a political liberal. He believed in individual "greatness," as opposed to "herd mediocrity," that likely remains accessible only to a few. Moral genealogy, one of his most famous conceptions, flies in the face of "moral facts." One can "dig" into the foundations of a moral claim and find human all too human concerns, not eternal Platonic moral Forms. He uses this method to examine the origin of master/slave morality. The master comes to see the subjugated slave as "subhuman" while the slave brands the master as wicked, base, and evil. Nietzsche sees Christianity as such a "slave morality" and thus subverts human greatness. At some point in history, the slaves sold their morality to the masters. Weakness, according to Nietzsche, prevailed. The book, following pages of rigorous analysis, argues that these claims remain hopelessly speculative.

A final section dramatically changes focus to Continental Philosophy. Here Nietzsche gets cast in the molds of Heidegger, Derrida, Foucault, and Deleuze. Heidegger of course represents a challenge for even seasoned philosophers and this section spends a lot of time delineating his views for the purpose of delineating Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche. The book doesn't seem to find any of these Continental perspectives very convincing, particularly Derrida's psychoanalytic approach or Deleuze's characterization of Nietzsche as a response to Hegel. Given the incessant warring and name calling between analytics and Continentals, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Only Foucault escapes with some affirmations, though limited to his late "genealogical" work. Nonetheless, these sections introduce each thinker in a brief and accessible manner.

"Nietzsche: A Guide for the Perplexed" ultimately represents an intermediate/advanced introduction to a particular way of concieving of Nietzsche's thought. At times the square peg round hole syndrome seems to creep in, but these moments pass. In the end, the analytic method demonstrates one way to interpret Nietzsche. And not the only way. Readers must decide whether this method is the best or most felicitous interpretive method in this case. This book provides a great starting point for such a venture. ... Read more

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Friedrich Nietzsche's complex connection to Charles Darwin has been much explored, and both scholarly and popular opinions have tended to assume a convergence in their thinking. In this study, Dirk Johnson challenges that assumption and takes seriously Nietzsche's own explicitly stated "anti-Darwinism." He argues for the importance of Darwin for the development of Nietzsche's philosophy, but he places emphasis on the antagonistic character of their relationship and suggests that Nietzsche's mature critique against Darwin represents the key to understanding his broader (anti-)Darwinian position. He also offers an original reinterpretation of the Genealogy of Morals, a text long considered sympathetic to Darwinian naturalism, but which he argues should be taken as Nietzsche's most sophisticated critique of both Darwin and his followers. His book will appeal to all who are interested in the philosophy of Nietzsche and its cultural context. ... Read more

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In this revised edition of Nietzschean Parody the relationship between model and parody is still viewed from Nietzsche's own theoretical utterances and their relationship to the historical context of his time as well as from a number of parodic contexts. The author has added a new chapter on the function of a parodic rereading of Nietzsche's biography and made some minor stylistic changes to the earlier chapters (without altering their argument). ... Read more

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Friedrich Nietzsche haunts the modern world. His elusive writings with their characteristic combination of trenchant analysis of the modern predicament and suggestive but ambiguous proposals for dealing with it have fascinated generations of artists, scholars, critics, philosophers, and ordinary readers. Maudemarie Clark's highly original study gives a lucid and penetrating analytical account of all the central topics of Nietzsche's epistemology and metaphysics, including his views on truth and language, his perspectivism, and his doctrines of the will-to-power and the eternal recurrence. The Nietzsche who emerges from these pages is a subtle and sophisticated philosopher, whose highly articulated views are of continuing interest as contributions to a whole range of philosphical issues. This remarkable reading of Nietzsche will interest not only philosophers, but also readers in neighboring disciplines such as literature and intellectual history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Provocative, thought-provoking, but poorly argued
I really admire the ambitiousness and courageousness of Clark's highly controversial readings of Nietzsche.It takes guts--and hard work--to defend her more outlandish claims, and I even admire the undercurrent of unmitigated contrariness that seems to motivate this aspect of her work ("Well, if everybody's going to say Nietzsche's anti-democratic, I'll say he's pro-democracy!Yes, that's the ticket!)

Unfortunately, she just doesn't make a very good case for her more interesting views.Even when I agree with the conclusions, I find her arguments far-fetched or just silly.Take, e.g., her treatment of the puzzling and well-known section 36 of Beyond Good and Evil, where Nietzsche appears to seriously entertain the view that the world is the will to power.Clark's solution to this admittedly problematic passage is to argue that Nietzsche inserts an argument and conclusion into his text that he disagrees with in order to show that he disagrees with it.You'd think the best way to show that would be to actually say so--or better yet, never to bring it up in the first place.

In any case, Clark does make a brave attempt to back up this reading, but ultimately it requires far too much cherry picking, twisting, and torturing of the text.By way of comparison, did you know that Nietzsche believes in God?It's true, he says so! "I" (p.20) "believe" (p.430) "in" (p.27) "God" (p.388)

Ultimately, Clark's book suffers from the same problem as so many interpretations (particularly the po-mo ones) do: her interpretation begins with what she wants Nietzsche to be, then forces him to be it.

Too analytical/scholarly and misses the point
My main problem with this book is that Clark is too analytical. The book reads like a thesis. She often "intellectulizes" her way too a point that is either obvious or that she could have gotten to in a lot less time and with more straight forward language. Don't get me wrong - she does have some insights into Nietzsche but they are few and far between. I actually thought that her chapter on the Eternal Recurrence was the best in the whole book. Overall, not that great a read.

A book whose failings are as provocative as it's successes
I began this book with no small trepidation.I am not generally fond of Nietzsche, but have recently felt that he at least deserved to be engaged with systematically.I have been reading his works and I picked up this book on an off chance, knowing little about it except that Clark sought to systematically present Nietzsche as an anti-metaphysical author.And in doing this, she highlights his strengths and weaknesses.

I appreciate her sophisticated rebuttal of much current and past Nietzsche scholarship, especially the mis-reading of him by the so-called 'post-structuralists'/'deconstructionists'.Her critique of their absolute relativism, and Nietzsche's eventual rejection of that in favor of a radical perspectivism, which at bottom is founded on a kind of neo-Kantianism, won me over to the value of the book.And that kind of thing is necessary when you slog through the first two chapters, which may be necessary, but which are also ponderous.

The failure I find most interesting, however, ultimately undermines her own argument and releases Nietzsche from any kind of coherence in relation to truth.She basically premises her reading of Nietzsche at a key point contra Magnus on the question of whether Nietzsche is arguing against 'truth as the whole'.She argues that he is not and that Nietzsche was familiar with no philosopher who would have argued as such.It is here that I must reject her argument, for Hegel very much championed this notion of 'truth is the whole' and Nietzsche seems, contrary to Clark's otherwise well-thought out scholarship, not only familiar with Hegel, but also in debate with Hegel throughout much of his work.Hegel is the hidden text to Nietzsche as Aristotle is the hidden text to Hegel's Philosophy of Right.

In recognizing this, not only does Clark's reading of Nietzsche unravel, but, IMO since Clark is largely right in her reading of Nietzsche as a neo-Kantian, Nietzsche unravels.

Now, Nietzsche was infamously hostile to 'the craving for consistency' as a mark of the weak person, so the Nietzscheans out there will have a back door through which to escape.But that is their problem.

Secondarily, I think that this unraveling causes problems for Clark's argument that Will to Power and Eternal Recurrence are non-metaphysical, or at least consistently so.However, I appreciate the thoughtfulness of the argument, even when she is obliged to engage in gymanastics to sustain it.

Finally, this work really convinced me that the appropriation of Nietzsche by Deleuze, Guattari, Foucault, etc. is not based upon Nietzsche's philosophical heritage, since they stop at his earliest work and effectively gloss over the rest of what Nietzsche writes.Rather, Nietzsche provides a radical re-affirmation of the role of intellectuals as privileged specialists.But Guy Debord knew the value of such people better than most, and the obnoxious politics which follow from such self-glamorization of the would-be revaluers of values.

does Clark speak for Nietzsche on truth and philosophy?
While Nietzsche is certainly more known as a moral philosopher, or as some are certain to remark, an immoral philosopher, one finds a certain necessary connection between his moral philosophy and his epistemology (and naturally aesthetic, scientific, political thought too, its all very much connected).Thus it was with open eyes that I began this work, as I knew Clark to be so very critical of much that Kaufmann, Wilcox, Derrida, Nehamas, and Schacht had written on Nietzsche.The majority of the work was overtly analytic, which I shall neither condemn nor praise at the moment.Clark did her best to demonstrate the faults of the aforementioned Nietzsche scholars insofar as Nietzsche himself would allow.

Although there is much I could say regarding the opening chapters of the book, I shall refrain from such things, as I found them generally to be on target, insofar as Clark's exegetical work found what was necessary to support her claims.Whether or not I agree with them all is still under debate, for I question how much Nietzsche felt consistency was absolutely necessary for his early writings and ideas (look at The Birth of Tragedy or a later work like The Antichrist for examples of this, while each is brilliant in its own way they still lack scholarship all too often in exchange for Nietzsche's polemics).As Danto (I believe it was him) commented somewhere in his work though, one thing is certain with Nietzsche, you have truly not read him until you have found a contradiction to every statement he made.While this is not true in every case, there is a sense in which Nietzsche's maturing philosophy demonstrates this claim, which Clark seems to have dismissed at times.Granted, Clark does demonstrate that Nietzsche underwent such changes in his thought, as would be expected of a philosopher set on such an experimental way.

In taking Nietzsche to completely dismiss metaphysics Clark does herself a great injustice, for it forces her to radically reinterpret the will to power and the eternal recurrence.And in doing so she becomes guilty of a certain intellectual uncleanliness (as someone or another once called it).I wholeheartedly agree that the eternal recurrence is best understood not as a cosmological doctrine, but rather as something of an existential imperative (if such a thing exists). Nonetheless, as Nietzsche's Nachlass testifies, he may still have believed it to be demonstrable as a cosmological claim though he had yet to demonstrate it as such.But the will to power as anything but a metaphysical claim?As a theology professor of mine often said to me, thats just not happening.And it is within these two chapters, the last two of the book, that Clark gets sloppy in her work.At one point she simply dismisses the text of Zarathustra as too metaphorical (the second to last chapter) to cite in evidence, yet, come the last chapter of the work, lo and behold, the metaphorical problems Zarathustra posed in the previous chapter disappear - citations abound.Naturally one asks, why should she do this?To help reinforce her point perhaps?Or to help her point by not introducing certain textual problems with her reading?

As it is, do read the last two chapters, on the will to power and the eternal recurrence respectively, with a careful eye and such inconsistent readings will become apparent.It was here then that I found fault with the book, which makes me want to reread it and see how often this problem occurs.But that will have to wait until the semester ends.So, overall, a mostly consistent reading, with obvious faults, which, as Nietzsche himself would have said, reflects Clark's desires to make Nietzsche consistent.Is such consistency in Nietzsche possible though?Probably not, as his writings seem to attest, if not his experimental nature of going about his work.But then again, how much do I really know?To best understand Nietzsche, sit down with The Birth of Tragedy and read chronologically until you get to Ecce Homo, and then start all over again.

Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy by Maudemarie Clark
This is possibly the best overall book ever written about Nietzsche. Several others have brilliant insights such as Martin Heidegger's Nietzsche which gives a powerful interpretation of art as the only purpose andmeaning of life, and debunks the pseudo-concept of the 'superman' as themodern CEO of world technology, but completely misses Nietzsche's joke,which Clark does not, about the 'will to power' especially as acosmological doctrine (something he toyed with seriously ONLY in thenotebooks for years). Maudemarie Clark shows he made it into a trick uponthe reader (amongst many!) in BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL (pp.218-227, esp.221-2,of her book). She starts her book by destroying the Frenchdeconstructionist 'irrationalist' version of Nietzsche by demonstratingthat he dropped this irrationalism early starting with HUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN(originally dedicated to Voltaire), and coming to a completely rationalstance in THE GENEOLOGY OF MORALS. She makes the brilliantly obvious point(so obvious it makes you feel stupid, but definitely goes against the majortrend of Nietzsche interpretation)that THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA was a novel,not a philosophical treatise or religious tract. Walter Kaufman implicitelymade this same point by comparing it to ULYSSES and FINNEGAN'S WAKE. Thisessentially puts a logical question mark on 'eternal recurrence', 'will topower', and the 'superman' as distinct philosophical ideas and actuallymakes them literary concepts, a distinction postmodernists may entirelymiss. She also, after having undermined most American commentators -- NOTWalter Kaufman --on Nietzsche by destroying the basic tenant of the Frenchthrough applying the unimpeacheable arguments against scepticism andcynicism (essentially, as the Cretan philosopher said, "All Cretansare liars", one must step somehow into a higher order of reality forthat to be judged true or false)against Nehamas'perspectivism and Danto's,Schacht's, and Rorty's ultimately meaningless relativism. Nietzsche was inno way a relativist. But one must apprize from that something verydifferent Hegel's systematic absolutism. He knew the validity of reason andreality as an absolutely alone individual (singulare tantum)very much likeHeidegger. Maudemarie Clark has essentially brought Nietzsche back into thequestion mark he deliberately placed himself. But it is a meaningfulquestion that is rational. Maudemarie Clark makes part of this pointexplicitely clear when she states that on the one hand Neitszche says he isan immoralist and 'means' it, but on the other hand quotes him as saying,"Honesty is the only virtue". Honesty presupposes consistency.Consistency presupposes rationality. To end on an interesting sidenote AynRand also went through a similar evolution to Nietzsche's. In her firstedition of WE THE LIVING she preaches a populist version of Nietzsche's'immoralism', then renounces him later on as an irrationalist when shetakes up the primacy of reason herself. She never realized she stillfollowed his path to some extent even in ATLAS SHRUGGED. ... Read more

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Translated by Thomas Common, with notes by Anthony M. Ludovici. ... Read more

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Written at the height of the philosopher's intellectual powers, Friedrich Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals has become one of the key texts of recent Western philosophy. Its essayistic style affords a unique opportunity to observe many of Nietzsche's persisting concerns coming together in an illuminating constellation. A profound influence on psychoanalysis, antihistoricism, and poststructuralism and an abiding challenge to ethical theory, Nietzsche's book addresses many of the major philosophical problems and possibilities of modernity. In this unique collection focusing on the Genealogy, twenty-five notable philosophers offer diverse discussions of the book's central themes and concepts. They explore such notions as ressentiment, asceticism, "slave" and "master" moralities, and what Nietzsche calls "genealogy" and its relation to other forms of inquiry in his work. The author presents across-section of contemporary Nietzsche scholarship and philosophical investigation that is certain to interest philosophers, intellectual and cultural historians, and all those concerned with one of the master thinkers of the modern age. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The courage to attain "will to power"
I read On the Genealogy of Morals for a graduate seminar on ethics, and in particular his writings regarding the virtue of courage.I found Walter Kaufmann's translation the best of several I looked at.Often regarded in philosophical circles as the first "postmodern" philosopher, Nietzsche is very critical to all of modernity's philosophical attempts to create a scientific or rationally based approach to ethics.Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals is in part a refutation of Kant's ethical theory, arguing that Kantian ethics as well as other modern ethical theories were more interested in defining ethical values and not concerned with questioning their usefulness or whether they were derived from what Nietzsche believed were irrational psychological forces feeding people's illusions.Another purpose of the Genealogy is to examine the history of how morals were created in Western culture.Nietzsche's extensive philological studies of ancient Greek literature led him to argue that there needed to be a historical and psychological approach to understanding how ethical values came into existence.Thus, one of Nietzsche's goals in his Genealogy is to provide a critique of ethical values, such as courage, and to examine, "...the conditions and circumstances in which they grew, under which they evolved and changed."(456, GM I, 6).Another important aspect of Nietzsche's Genealogy is found in Nietzsche's ethical notions finding common ground with Aristotelian virtue ethics.Only Aristotelian virtue ethics can fit well with Nietzsche's moral ethics.Thus, I find that an interesting outcome of Nietzsche's examination of Greek culture leads him down a path back to the first evolutionary stage of the virtue of courage in particular, and to the classical Greek inception of virtue ethics in general.Nietzsche enthusiastically followed this path and reintroduced the world to the critical need for the classical Greek interpretation of the virtue of courage to help shape the "postmodern" world.

Nietzsche recognized in ancient Greek poetry that heroes are not content with just living, but are compelled to perform courageous acts even at the peril of their own lives.In fact, for Greek heroes, gaining fame and glory at the expense of often suffering a courageous death seemed to be their raison d'être.Nietzsche recognizes this phenomenon in Greek poetry, which alerts him to the notion that the ancient and classical Greek citizens accepted the idea that part of the nature of life was that it could be tragic, dark, and foreboding; however, the Greeks who were noble of character did not despair.This notion was readily accepted by Aristotle but not by Plato, who thought that Greek tragedy taught the citizenry the wrong lessons about life.They knew that to be virtuous was to engage in a constant agon or [contest] to overcome the pitfalls of life.This literary fact causes Nietzsche to understand that like the ancient Greeks, the best of contemporary society, such as philosophers and artists whom he calls the "masters," have to rely on their virtues, such as courage, to constantly struggle to overcome life's limits.Nietzsche's observation of Greek culture leads him to define a theory of master and slave morality, which lays the foundation for his notion of returning to the classical Greek virtue of courage.

Nietzsche understands master morality as the ideals of virtuous characteristics epitomized by the best of Greek aristocracy.On the other hand, slave morality according to Nietzsche, grew out of the Judeo-Christian ethic supporting love and justice over power.Master morality acknowledges "good" and "bad" in the world; while slave morality acknowledges "good" and "evil."Nietzsche recognized the masters as "active" people, and whatever helps them achieve greatness is good.Thus, Nietzsche defines the good and bad characteristics in master morality in the following way.Character traits such as courage, conquest, aggression, and command that engender the feelings of power in people are deemed `good,' while traits of weaker people such as cowardice, passivity, humility, and dependence are deemed `bad.'Furthermore, Nietzsche argues that within the master and slave morality what is good can only be good for the master, because the slave morality is essentially based on a number of opposing ideals from the master morality.Therefore, an important argument for Nietzsche is, that according to slave morality, anything that opposes, destroys, or conquers is evil and should be eliminated from human relations.Nietzsche argues that slave morality espouses humility, selflessness, and kindness as ruling traits for all people as a condition of self-perseverance against master morality.These are all character traits central to Judeo-Christian morality, and are diametrically opposed to the aggressive character traits of the master morality, which were central to the power of the Roman Empire when Christianity was conceived. Against the backdrop of master and slave morality, Nietzsche examines the classical Greek cardinal virtues, and he specifically looks into the virtue of courage, which is so central to master morality.

When Nietzsche contemplates the future of virtues, he laments the lack of courage displayed by people in modern society.Nietzsche sounds a clarion call for artists to once again courageously take their place as masters of society.Nietzsche sees courage as something which is good for the people who have it, in that it enables them to win contests which they would lose without it.In addition, Nietzsche recognizes that in order for people to act courageously, they also need to overcome their emotions of fear."But there is something in me that I call courage; that has so far slain my every discouragement."Once again, Nietzsche is using Aristotle's virtue ethic model of practical reasoning to show that a person with noble intentions, or in Nietzsche's parlance, a master can will themselves to overcome their fears.After examining Nietzsche's extensive writings on the history of ethics, I find that his description of courage fits well within the classical Greek model of the virtue of courage.

Nietzsche's philosophical project pertaining to the virtue of courage is centered on the idea that those who were the masters in Greek society actually desired to face and conquer dangerous situations.In essence, Nietzsche demilitarized the Greek emphasis on battlefield courage and applied it to the people he thought could be the masters of society of his time and into the future--artists and philosophers.The power Nietzsche yearns for is the power of creative activity.Creativity is the "will to power" that this much maligned philosopher was truly advocating. ... Read more