Beyond Selflessness: Reading Nietzsche's Genealogy

297 Pages·2007·1.21 MB·English

by  Christopher Janaway

Beyond Selflessness
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Beyond Selflessness
Reading Nietzsche’s Genealogy
Christopher Janaway
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1
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For Christine,
Nick, Peter, Freddy,
and Mateus
Preface
I have been reading Nietzsche for over twenty-five years, but for a long
timefeltunabletostartwritingabookabouthim.Mybackgroundincluded
atraininginanalyticalphilosophy,andfromthatperspectiveNietzschewas
oncesofarfrom‘central’astolieofftheedgeoftheknownworld.Though
happywiththeno-nonsensevirtuesofanalyticalphilosophy,Ifoundmyself
on something of a centrifugal path. Given the main preoccupations from
my time as a graduate student onwards—Schopenhauer, Plato, aesthetics,
the philosophy of art—Nietzsche always hovered on the horizon. I felt a
desiretodosomethingabouthim,buthemademenervousandinsecure.I
wouldsometimesgiveashort seriesoflectures,musing over asequence of
extracts from hisworks, butthey alwayssounded bizarre anddisconnected
as soon as one spoke them aloud, and suddenly seemed all too clearly
designed to sabotage the kind of commentary a philosopher was supposed
to give.
In recent years the reception of Nietzsche has certainly changed for
the better. Philosophy itself in the English-speaking world seems a bigger,
more pluralistic, and in healthy ways a less self-assured field than it used
to be, and Nietzsche now falls within the circle of legitimate figures to
study. Thereis acorpus of responsible and valuable philosophical work on
Nietzsche,withoutwhichIcouldnothavecomeneartowritingthisbook.
Andyet,IamstillnotsureifIeverwanttobecomfortablewithNietzsche.
We now see that it is eminently possible to search Nietzsche’s works
for some propositions, and occasionally even some arguments, that sound
plausible and sensible to today’s academic philosophers. But doing that
alone does not mesh with my experience of reading Nietzsche, and surely
cannot really mesh with anyone’s. So in this book I am often to be found
enquiring why Nietzsche writes poetically, metaphorically, provocatively,
ambiguously,withmisdirectionandavoidanceofstraightforwardargument,
and reflecting not only on local portions of his texts, but on the kinds
of responses we may have to reading them. Nietzsche’s project in the
Genealogyistodiscovertruthsaboutwhyweholdourcontemporarymoral
preface vii
values and to persuade us that we could shift our allegiance to different,
healthiervalues.Butbothdiagnosisandcuredemand,inNietzsche’sview,
not merely the construction of philosophical arguments, but a personal
confrontation with conflicting and uncomfortable feelings that stem from
our drives. In fact, I believe, disrupting our confidence in philosophy is
part and parcel for Nietzsche of questioning our deepest-seated values. I
welcomehisinclusionasabonafidephilosopher,providedwedonothave
to pretend that that is all he is.
The work towards what eventually became this book began more than
ten years ago and for a while remained somewhat piecemeal. I would like
toexpressmygratitudetotheArtsandHumanitiesResearchBoardforthe
award of research leave grants in 2001 and 2004, without which the pieces
mightneverhavecometogetherinthewaytheyhave.Thefollowingpub-
lished articles and chapters contain material in common with parts of the
book,sometimessubstantiallyrevised:‘Nietzsche’sIllustrationoftheArtof
Exegesis’, European Journal of Philosophy, 5 (1997), 251–68; ‘Schopenhauer
asNietzsche’sEducator’,inChristopherJanaway(ed.),WillingandNothing-
ness:SchopenhauerasNietzsche’sEducator (Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press,
1998), 13–36; ‘Nietzsche’s Artistic Revaluation’, in Jose´ Luis Bermu´dez
and Sebastian Gardner (eds), Art and Morality (London: Routledge, 2003),
260–76;‘Schopenhaueretlavaleurdu‘‘nonego¨ıste’’’,inChristianBonnet
and Jean Salem (eds), La Raison de´voile´: E´tudes Schopenhaueriennes (Paris,
J.Vrin,2005),81–94(textinFrench);‘NaturalismandGenealogy’,inKeith
Ansell Pearson (ed.), A Companion to Nietzsche (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006),
337–52;‘NietzscheonFreeWill,Autonomy,andtheSovereignIndividu-
al’,ProceedingsoftheAristotelianSociety,suppl.vol.80(2006),339–57;‘Guilt,
Bad Conscience, and Self-Punishment in Nietzsche’s Genealogy’, in Brian
Leiter and Neil Sinhababu (eds), Nietzsche and Morality (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2007), 138–54. I gratefully acknowledge permission to
reprint in all cases.
Over the years I have benefited from numerous objections, questions,
and suggestions on the part of students, colleagues, and audiences at talks
and presentations, not to mention much encouragement from different
quarters. I offer my to thanks to everyone concerned. Two readers for
Oxford University Press gave acute comments that led to a number of late
improvements. I would specifically like to thank Aaron Ridley (who read
the whole book in a penultimate draft), Brian Leiter, Sebastian Gardner,
viii preface
Simon May, David Owen, John Richardson, Maudemarie Clark, Robert
Pippin, Mathias Risse, Lanier Anderson, Bernard Reginster, Gudrun von
Tevenar, Daniel Came, Chris Sykes, Peter Poellner, John Wilcox, Robin
Small, Keith Ansell Pearson, Paul Loeb, and Elijah Millgram. I owe a very
special debt of gratitude to Ken Gemes for being with me throughout the
book’s genesis as collaborator, critic, host, and friend over countless cups
of tea. And my greatest appreciation and love goes to Christine Lopes for
her love and support, and for challenging me about Nietzsche. The book
is dedicated to her and to my four great sons.
C.J.
Southampton,England
January2007
Contents
A Note on Translations and Abbreviations x
1. Nietzsche’s Aims and Targets 1
2. Reading Nietzsche’s Preface 16
3. Naturalism and Genealogy 34
4. Selflessness: The Struggle with Schopenhauer 54
5. Nietzsche and Paul Re´e on the Origins of Moral Feelings 74
6. Good and Evil: Affect, Artistry, and Revaluation 90
7. FreeWill, Autonomy, and the Sovereign Individual 107
8. Guilt, Bad Conscience, and Self-Punishment 124
9. Will to Power in the Genealogy 143
10. Nietzsche’s Illustration of the Artof Exegesis 165
11. Disinterestedness and Objectivity 186
12. Perspectival Knowing and the Affects 202
13. TheAscetic Ideal, Meaning, and Truth 223
14. Beyond Selflessness 245
Bibliography 269
Index 279