Agonal Perspectives on Nietzsche's Philosophy of Critical Transvaluation

324 Pages·2021·2.01 MB·English

by  Herman W. Siemens, The Dutch Research Council (NWO)

Herman W. Siemens
Agonal Perspectives on Nietzsche’s Philosophy of Critical Transvaluation
Monographien und Texte
zur Nietzsche-Forschung
Herausgegeben von
Christian J. Emden
Helmut Heit
Vanessa Lemm
Claus Zittel
Begründet von
Mazzino Montinari, Wolfgang Müller-Lauter, Heinz Wenzel
Advisory Board:
Günter Abel, R. Lanier Anderson, Keith Ansell-Pearson, Sarah Rebecca Bamford,
Christian Benne, Jessica Berry, Marco Brusotti, João Constâncio, Daniel Conway,
Carlo Gentili, Oswaldo Giacoia Junior, Wolfram Groddeck, Anthony Jensen,
Scarlett Marton, John Richardson, Martin Saar, Herman Siemens,
Andreas Urs Sommer, Werner Stegmaier, Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir,
Paul van Tongeren, Aldo Venturelli, Isabelle Wienand, Patrick Wotling
Band 74
Herman W. Siemens
Agonal Perspectives
on Nietzsche’s
Philosophy of Critical
Transvaluation
The research for this book and its open access publication were funded by the Dutch Research
Council (NWO).
ISBN 978-3-11-072228-4
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-072229-1
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-072231-4
ISSN 1862-1260
DOI https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110722291
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detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2021 Herman W. Siemens, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.
The book is published with open access at www.degruyter.com.
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Para la aurora de mi vida

‘Philosophers who are not opposed to one another are usually
joined onlyby sympathy, not symphilosophy’
– Fr. Schlegel, Athenaeum Fragment 112
‘De wetenschap, inclusief de wijsbegeerte, is uit haar aard polemisch,
en het polemische is van het agonale niet te scheiden.’
– Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens
‘Enemies are of more use to the wise man than friends are to the fool. Ill will usually
levels mountains of difficulty which goodwill would balk at tackling. The greatness of
many has been fashioned thanks to malicious enemies. Flattery is more harmful
thanhatred,forthelatterisaneffectiveremedyfortheflawsthattheformerconceals.
Sensible people fashion a mirror from spite, more truthful than that of affection, and
reduce or correct their defects, for great caution is needed when living on the frontier
of envyand ill will.’
– Baltasar Gracián, Oráculo 84

Acknowledgements
Much of the work on this book was made possible by the Open Competition grant
awarded by the NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research): Between
DeliberationandAgonism:RethinkingConflictanditsRelationtoLawinPoliticalPhi-
losophy.
Thechaptersofthisbookdrawindifferentwaysonpublishedandunpublished
material,asindicatedbelow.The author wouldliketothank thepublishersfor per-
mitting the use of published material. Chapter 1 is based on a revised version of
“Nietzsche’s Hammer: Philosophy, Destruction, or The Art of Limited Warfare”, in
Tijdschrift voor Filosofie 60/2, 1998, pp. 321–347. Chapter 2 is based on a revised
andexpandedversionofthechapter“Nietzsche’sAgon”,firstpublishedinTheNietz-
scheanMind,ed.PaulKatsafanas(Routledge,2018).©2018,2021HermanSiemens.
Chapter 3 draws on unpublished work and “Agonal Writing: Towards an Agonal
Model for Critical Transvaluation’, in Logoi.ph – Journal of Philosophy, Nr. I/3, 2015
–PlayingandThinking,pp.1–29.Chapter4isbasedonarevisedandexpandedver-
sionof “ThefirstTransvaluationofallValues:Nietzsche’sAgonwithSocratesinThe
BirthofTragedy”,inNietzscheandEthics,ed.GudrunvonTevenar,2007,pp.171–196,
republishedwithpermission of PeterLang; permission conveyedthroughCopyright
Clearance Center, Inc. Chapter 5 draws on “Agonal Configurations in the Unzeitge-
mässeBetrachtungen:Identity,MimesisandtheÜbertragungofCulturesinNietzsch-
e’s Early Thought”, in Nietzsche-Studien 30, 2001, pp. 80–106; “Nietzsche contra
Kant on Genius, Originality and Agonal Succession”, in Nietzsche’s Engagements
withKantandtheKantianLegacy,ed.sBrussotti,M.,Siemens,H.,Constancio,J.,Bai-
ley, T., vol. III: Aesthetics, Anthropology and History, ed.s Branco, M. & Hay, K.
(Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., 2017),
pp.15–42;and“Nietzsche’s‘AgonaleBetrachtungen’:OntheActualityoftheGreeks
in the Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen”, in Rethinking the Nietzschean Concept of ‘Un-
timely’, ed. A. Caputo (Mimesis International, 2018), pp. 23–39. Chapter 6 is based
onarevisedversion of “(Self‐)legislation, LifeandLoveinNietzsche’sPhilosophy”,
in Neue Beiträge zu Nietzsches Moral-, Politik- und Kulturphilosophie,ed. I.Wienand
(PressAcademicFribourg,2009),pp.67–90.Chapter7isbasedonunpublishedwork
anddrawspartlyon“AgonalCommunitiesofTaste:LawandCommunityinNietzsch-
e’s Philosophy of Transvaluation’, in Journal of Nietzsche Studies 24, 2002, pp. 83–
112, Copyright © 2002. This article is used by permission of The Pennsylvania
State University Press. Chapter 8 draws partly on “Nietzsche’s Agon with Ressenti-
ment:Towards a Therapeutic Reading of Critical Transvaluation”, reprinted by per-
mission from Springer Nature Customer Service Centre GmbH in Continental Philos-
ophy Review 34/1, 2001, pp. 69–93, Copyright (2001), and expanded with
unpublishedwork.Chapter9isbasedonarevisedversionof“Umwertung:Nietzsch-
e’s ‘war-praxis’ and the problem of Yes-Saying and No-Saying in Ecce Homo”, in
Nietzsche-Studien 38, 2009, pp.182–206.
OpenAccess.©2021HermanSiemens,publishedbyDeGruyter. Thisworkislicensedunderthe
CreativeCommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives4.0InternationalLicense.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110722291-001