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Nietzsche 2014

Dr Peter Kail

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Nietzsche 1844-1900

A brief biography

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Nietzsches Key Works

Birth of Tragedy out of theSpirit 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 Anti-

Christ(A) Twilight of the

Idols(TI), Ecce Homo

(EH, 1888 [1906]).

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Nietzsche 1889-1900

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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

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Cult and Icon

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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

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Nietzsches Styles of Writing

The root cause

Non-technical and engaging

Sometimes aphoristic and compressed - leads tobumper stickerappropriation

Seemingly disorganized

Language choice (slaves, blond beasts, will to

power) Hyperbolic, strident and ad hominem(N an equal

opportunities insulter)

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Nietzsches Styles of Writing

BGE 252 - ..what is most offensive in even themost humane Englishman is his lack of musicjust

watch the most beautiful Englishwomenwalkfinally, listen to them sing! But I am askingtoo much

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Nietzsches Styles of Writing

Not philosophy?

Inconsistent?

Rhetoric rather than argument?

Spinoza, Plato and Wittgenstein

Nietzsches philosophy, affects & Self-

knowledge

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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

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The Will to Powerand 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Nietzsches unpublished notes and the WTP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

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Nietzsches Naturalism

Nietzsches positive and critical project is intimately linkedto his naturalism

Distinctive human phenomena, including evaluative

practices, can be explained by appeal to more tractablematerials 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

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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

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ECCE HOMO