nietzsche’s greek ethics: his early ethical …

NIETZSCHE’S GREEK ETHICS: HIS EARLY ETHICAL SYMPTOMATOLOGY RECONSTRUCTED

Collège Édouard-Montpetit/Centre canadien d’études allemandes et européennes)

This paper seeks to circumscribe the concepts, sources, and limits of Nietzsche’s early ethical thought through a reconstruction of his

Greeks understood the true nature of the political phenomenon, and that this could correct fundamental errors that were responsi-

ethos radically challenges modern democratic politics through a reassertion of aristocratic, heroic, and agonistic values. But be-cause Nietzsche did not systematically describe his early ethics, a reconstruction is necessary. His metaphor of the philosopher as a “physician of culture” is a guide for this reconstruction. Using con-

fferent symp-toms and possible remedies, and hoped to cure German culture through a therapeutic transvaluation of modernity. To reconstruct this symptomatology I turn to The Greek State, Homer’s Contest, and of “agon” and “eris” that are central to his reading of Greek ethics. I then describe four ethical symptoms and their remedies. I conclude with interpre-tative hypotheses that address issues that were left unanswered by Nietzsche. This symptomatology shows that his reading of Greek ethics functions as a radical—albeit fragmentary—normative cri-tique of his time, and of our democratic age.

— E

Symposium no. ( )

—a - 1— s-o-

t-

Der Arbeiter ”2 This

th- r-

man— —Greek ethos o-

o-

e-3

”4

1 Fascisme et littérature pure: La fabrique d’Ernst Jünger –Nihilistische Lektüre des Zeitalters: Ernst Jüngers Nietzsche-Rezeption

2 in Cahier de l’Herne Martin Heidegger 3 Deutsche Rundschau

Friedrich Nietzsche

-Nietzsche n-

–Orbis Litterarum –

4 Encyclopædie der klassische Philologie) are taken from KSA

KSB KSA KSB

Nietzsche’s Greek Ethics

tion”5

t-

- …is

—agon

6

e-

KSA Kritische Studienausgabe

KSB Sämtliche Briefe. Kritische Studienausgabe

5 The Republic of Genius: A Reconstruc-tion of Nietzsche’s Early Thought

6 o-

The Journal of Nietzsche Studies –Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of

History –

Symposium no. ( )

- ”7 i-

”8

— — o-

agon 9 —

Nietzsche’s Machiavellian Politics— e-o-

10 i-11

e-”12 m-

rientation of Nie-

13

7 Journal of Nietzsche Studies

8 Ibid. 9 Ibid. 10 Nietzsche’s Machiavellian Politics

11 Ibid. 12 Ibid.

Ce sera la faiblesse ou la force de Nietzsche, à tout jamais, d’avoir été un disciple de Machiavel.… Il faut ici évaluer avec précision la dette de Nietzsche. Il a tenu le machiavélisme pour la politique parfaite. Nietzsche, sa vie et sa pensée i-

th-

13 Nietzsche and the Politics of History


-14

— s-

that Human, all too Human

15 f these

16

per se e-17—a ten-

seek i-

-

agon

14 Politeia in Nietzsche and Antiquity: His Reaction and Response to the Classical Tradition

15 e.g. -

Journal of Nietzsche Studies– Nietzsche and the Politics of Aristocratic Radicalism

16 Philologica

- International Journal of the Classical Tradition

17 Nietzsche and Political

Thought

The Birth of Tragedy

The Greek State Homer’s Contest

Symposium no. ( )

e-agon Greek age

18

19 – n-Der Philosoph als Arzt der Cultur r-

20

”21

”22

The Greek State Homer’s Contest23 Five Forewords to Five Books that have not been Written that Nie-

18 Discourses and Selected Writings

19 Nietzsche: Imagery and Thought – 20 Nachlaß 21 The Gay Science 22 Nietzsche-Studien

23 The Greek State stems from notes taken for The Birth of Tragedy


Christmas —

The Birth of Tragedy Forewords

The Birth of Tragedy

in has three stages m-agon eris

ethos 24 o-

— n-— his time e

of Nie-

Eris and Agon

-

”25

Homer and Classical Philology -

Nietzsche and the Greeks

”26

24 ength in the Kulturkritik et philosophie thérapeutique chez le

jeune Nietzsche 25 - – 26 Nietzsche and the Greeks

Symposium no. ( )

on Homer’s Conteststresses that

or ”27 Five Forewords

The Birth of Tragedy an 28

Letter of Condolence to Apollonius29 30 In The Birth of Tragedy

the t-”

Greeks ha — o-’s

31 The Birth of Tragedy

s are

27 Homer’s Contest

28 Nietzsche’s Philosophical Context: An Intellectual Biography a-

– 29 The Birth of Tragedy

30 The Greek State

31 The Birth of Tragedy o-

Querelle autour de La naissance de la tragédie Cohen-


them

Homer’s Contest agon— eris

mentions eris Eris —

Rhetoric 32 In Homer’s Con-test Eris

Works and DaysGreek

Eris —it shn-

”33

divinities

ethical concepts

34

on The Greeks and Greek Civilization m-eris Eris

32 On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse –

33 Theogony. Works and Days. Shield i-–

34 Politeia – e-Nietzscheforschung: Jahrbuch der Nietzsche-

Gesellschaft Les lectures françaises de Nietzsche - –

Symposium no. ( )

roots of the earth ”35 eris m-

Eris

”36 Eris

Eris —

agon

”37 eris

— hubris

38 eris

agon agon Wettkampf e-

agon Homer’s Contest

-

35 The Greeks and Greek Civilization

36 Ibid 37 Ibid. 38 Homer’s Wettkampf haben auch, nach dem Beispiele des Miltiades, durch Thaten der Hybris ihren Untergang herbeigeführt, zum Beweise dafür, daß ohne Neid Eifersucht und wettkämpfenden Ehrgeiz der hellenische Staat wie der hellenische Mensch entartet.”


agon i.e. - 39) Greek as a

t is again akin to that of agon—

40—

polis agon

—

” 41 agon

”42 i-

- agon eris are

43 n-

uncivilized -- 44

polis i-

— ’ -

39 Nie-tzsche and Antiquity: His Reaction and Response to the Classical Tradition

40 The Greeks and Greek Civilization 41 Ibid. 42 Ibid. 43 Nachlaß 44

Ibid.Nietzsches Antike

Symposium no. ( )

45

- 46

An Ethical Symptomatology

Lage o-e reme-

the fundamen-tal contradiction between the value of work and the value of art

no matter

what rs

—

is to Nietzs ” art depends upon slavery 47 That -

45 46 The Republic of Genius 47 Demgemäß müssen wir uns dazu verstehen, als grausam klingende Wahrheit hinzustellen, daß zum Wesen einer Kultur das Sklaventhum gehöre: eine Wahrheit freilich, die über den absoluten Werth des Daseins keinen Zweifel übrig läßt.”


”48

s r-

- — the lie regarding the origins of the

state It is

-

” griechische Staat

Greek polis 49 ”

— her own

i-

50 The Greek State

bellum omnium contra omnes is

48 -The Genealogy of Morals -

49 Erhebung des Staatsbegriffes zum allgemeinen Normalbegriff der politischen Organisationsform aller Zeiten und Völker, Jahrhundert zu einem auf alle Zeiten und Völker übertragenen Allgemeinbegriff…gemacht werden konnte.”

Verfassungsrechtliche Aufsätze aus den Jahren –

50 International Journal of the Classical Tradition

Symposium no. ( )

The World as Will and Representation

” the s ”51

i-

—is o un

rs his

——or Bildung— t-

Bildung

—i.e.

o-

”52

The Greek State

51 The World as Will and Representation

52 « Werke. Kriti-sche Gesamtausgabe Vorlesungsauf-

–


s e-

eris

a-

Staatstendenz “Staatstendenz” is being replaced

by a “Geldtendenz” that amounts to “ethical egoism.”

they

Staatstendenz— sense”—

Geldtendenz— —

instrument t-

—r-

53 That is a o-Bildung e-

Kulturstaat

Kulturstaat

elevation to the dignity of

53 See Nie On the Future of our Educational Institutions

Symposium no. ( )

serving as an instrument for genius”— n-

eris r-

hubris

es eris

a-

om is the loss of the “mythical home-

land ” The Birth of Tragedy

e-

— the

a-

the

e-

Untimely Meditation

54 i-—

”55

rman rebirth of the German myth The

Birth of Tragedy

54 On the Use and Disadvantage of History for Life 55 See Ibid.


in the artis stresse

Kunstwerk der Zukunft ”56 re-

Greek art

e-

of

Fragmentary Ethics

m-

”57 This orients ’s unzeitgemäßKulturstaat

i-—

The Greek State

lack

58

56 Opéra et drame Œuvres en prose – - - - -

L’œuvre d’art de l’avenir - - - -

57 The Republic of Genius 58 The Five Forewords

Symposium no. ( )

The Five Forewords

contest, force, and art—

aristocratic, heroic, and agonistic 59

one — —

or in-

-

other than The Birth of Tragedy Five Forewords

raise Five Forewords

that it

n-

institutionalized regu-lated

59 Philosophie und Politik bei Nietzsche


-

agon or

agon n-

– agon he

agon

-states or

–- i-

Untimely Meditation a 60

-

agon —

agon

m-

—

61

60 David Strauss, the Writer and the Confessor 61 Gesammelte Schriften – –

Symposium no. ( )

a-

- r-

a-

ost fre-62

T

— Some

63

i.e.at

Untimely Meditation 64

Beethoven65

- -

62 r-– Nietzsche-Studien

63 e.g. “Centauren-Geburten”: Wissenschaft,

Kunst und Philosophie beim jungen Nietzsche –

64 e.g. Richard Wagner in Bayreuth On the Future of our Educational Institutions 65


i-- r-

e-

66 see in Beyond Good

and Evilcruder

of the necessary 67

n-—that

T r-

a fo i-

this ism—as 68

[email protected]

66 Nachlaß 67 Beyond Good and Evil 68

nietzsche’s greek ethics: his early ethical …

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