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Friedrich Nietzsche may well be the most quoted and widely-read philosopher of the 19thcentury, and one of the most famous philosophers of any age. But he, and his work, have been interpreted in many conflicting ways: he has been dismissed as not even a philosopher by some professional philosophers and treated as a dangerous proto-fascist by others; some have taken him as the godfather of an anarchic postmodernism, whilst others have found in his work resources for resisting postmodernism. Some Christian thinkers have taken him as the culmination of anti-Christian philosophy, whilst others have taken him as an unlikely ally, and he is currently well regarded (even if not always well-understood) by various voices in the so-called ‘manosphere’.
Whilst apparently opposed groups are keen to claim Nietzsche as an ally, Nietzsche himself wrote such withering criticism of such a wide range of groups that he seemed to want to ensure that no-one read him at all: Christians, Jews, Socialists, Wagnerians, metaphysicians, women, the English, and above all, the Germans; all are mocked and slandered in his work. When reflecting on what his legacy might be, Nietzsche wrote this:
‘I know my lot. One day my name will be connected with the memory of something tremendous – a crisis such as the earth has never seen, the deepest collision of conscience, a decision made against everything that has been believed, demanded, held sacred so far. I am not a human being, I am a dynamite.’ (Ecce Homo, ‘Why I am a destiny’)
This course will examine a few pieces of Nietzschean ‘dynamite’ and ask what we should make of them today.
Nietzsche wrote too much for us to get to grips with it in two weeks. We will begin in the middle, with Nietzsche’s book Daybreak, in which he introduces two of the ideas which have become most influential: his notion of ‘drives’ and his critique of morality. From there we will explore three of his most important and representative works: The Gay Science, Beyond Good and Evil and Twilight of the Idols. Rather than try to give an overview of these books, we will look at representative passages from each one, and examine these passages in some considerable detail. On the way we will examine his stranges tand perhaps most mystical idea: the eternal recurrence of all things, an idea we find expressed briefly in The Gay Science, and at length (but highly elliptically) in Thus spoke Zarathustra). This approach means that we will inevitably miss out on some important ideas, but has the advantage of getting a good sense of how Nietzsche thought and wrote. As we will see, Nietzsche style is integral to his philosophy in a way that is perhaps unique in philosophy.
Most of Nietzsche’s works are publically available online, although participants may find it easiest to buy a copy of The Nietzsche Reader, ed. Keith Ansell-Pearson. The passages for discussion will be taken from the Reader, but additional pdfs will be made available for wider reading, or where there are imp that are not included in the Reader. Equally, copies of The Gay Science, Beyond Good and Evil and Twilight of the Idols are usually available for a reasonable price second-hand.
The section numbers in bold, below, will be read and commented on in detail in the seminars
Abbreviations:
A (The Anti-Christ);
BGE (Beyond Good and Evil);
D (Daybreak);
EH (Ecce Homo);
GM (On the Genealogy of Morals);
GS (The Gay Science);
HH (Human, All Too Human)
TI (The Twilight of the Idols);
WP (The Will to Power);
Z (Thus Spoke Zarathustra).
Note that numbers are to the original numbered sections/paragraphs in the original texts, not to page numbers. Where these are not numbered sequentially through the whole work, chapter/section numbers or names are used in addition (e.g. TI‘ Morality as Anti-Nature’: 5 is to paragraph 5 of the section entitled ‘Morality as Anti-Nature’ in Twilight of the Idols).
GS 1
BGE 230
D II: 102, 103,119, 130, 560
GS I: 1, 11, 26& 54;
GS III: 108, 110, 117, 125, 127
GS IV: 278, 283, 290, 294, 338*
GS: 276,230, 341
Z: Zarathustra’s Prologue: 3, 5’; ‘Of the Vision and the Riddle’; ‘The Convalescent’
BGE: 1, 2, 3,4, 6, 9; 188, 202, 203, 225, 259, 260
TI: ‘Reason in Philosophy’; ‘How the “Real World” Became, at Last, a Fable’; ‘Morality as Anti-Nature’& ‘The Four Great Errors’ ;
A: 2, 5, 6 & 7
GS: 344
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Stuart is the Theology Lead at LJC. He graduated with a degree in Literature and Theology from the University of Hull in 2000. From 2003-9 he studied Philosophical Theology part-time at the University of Nottingham, whilst continuing to work in the third sector with vulnerably-housed or homeless people, and young asylum seekers (as well as pulling pints in a pub). He was Lecturer at York St John University for almost a decade, before moving to London Jesuit Centre in 2021. He now lives in South East London, and spends as much time as he can in the woods.
