Nietzsche And the Greeks

171 Pages·2006·11.651 MB·English

by  Dale Wilkerson

Nietzsche and the Greeks
Continuum Studies in Philosophy:
Tolerance and the Ethical Life, Andrew Fiala
Aquinas and the Ship of Theseus, Christopher M. Brown
Descartes and the Metaphysics of Human Nature, Justin Skirry
Kierkegaard's Analysis of Radical Evil, David A. Roberts
Rousseau's Theory of Freedom, Matthew Simpson
Leibniz Reinterpreted: The Harmony of Things, Lloyd Strickland
Popper's Theory of Science, Carlos Garcia
Nietzsche and the Greeks
Dale Wilkerson
continuum
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© Dale Wilkerson 2006
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identified as Author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 0-8264-8903-6 (hardback)
Typeset by YHT Ltd, London
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddies Ltd., King's Lynn, Norfolk
Contents
Abbreviations vii
1 Classical Studies for the Benefit of a Time to Come 1
2 Who are Nietzsche's Greeks? 20
3 Scepticism, Pessimism and the Exemplar of Greek Culture 51
4 Formal Variation in Pre-Platonic Cosmologies and Nietzsche's
Doctrine of Will to Power 89
5 Nietzsche's Leap on the Boundary Stone, Heraclitus 134
Index 155
V
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Abbreviations
A Anti-Christ, in Twilight of the IdolslThe Anti-Christ, trans. R. J.
Hollingdale (New York: Penguin, 1968)
BGE Beyond Good and Evil, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York:
Vintage Books, 1989) (the number given is the aphorism number)
Breazeale Daniel Breazeale (ed. and trans.) Philosophy and Truth: Selections
from Nietzsche's Notebooks of the Early 1870s (New Jersey:
Humanities Press, 1979)
BT The Birth of Tragedy
D Daybreak, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1996) (the number given is the aphorism number)
EH Ecce Homo, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (New York: Penguin, 1992)
GM On the Genealogy of Morals, ed. Keith Ansell-Pearson, trans.
Carol Diethe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995)
GS The Gay Science, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage,
1974) (the number given is the aphorism number)
H Human All Too Human, trans. Marion Faber (Lincoln, NA:
Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press, 1996) (the number
given is the aphorism number)
HOC 'Homer on Competition', in On the Genealogy of Morals, ed.
Keith Ansell-Pearson, trans. Carol Diethe (Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1995)
vii
viii ABBREVIATIONS

KGW Nietzsche Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, ed. Fritz Bornmann
and Mario Carpitella (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter,
1995)
KSA Samtliche Werke: Kritische Studienausgabe, ed. Giorgio Colli and
Mazzino Montinari, 15 vols (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1980)
KSAB Samtliche Briefe: Kritische Studienausgabe ed. Giorgio Colli and
Mazzino Montinari (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1986)
MA Nietzsches Gesammelte Werke, eds Max and Richard Oehler, 23
vols (Munich: Musarion, 1920-29)
NS Nietzsche Studien
OTL 'On Truth and Lies in a Non-Moral Sense', in Daniel Breazeale
(ed. and trans.) Philosophy and Truth: Selections from Nietzsche's
Notebooks of the Early 1870s (New Jersey: Humanities Press,
1979)
PPP Greg Whitlock (ed. and trans.) The Pre-Platonic Philosophers
(Urbana and Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2001)
PTG Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greek, trans. Marianne
Cowan (Washington, DC: Gateway Editions, 1962)
TI Twilight of the Idols, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (New York: Penguin
Books, 1968)
UM Untimely Meditations, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1995)
WTP Will to Power, trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale
(New York: Vintage, 1968)
Z Thus Spoke Zarathustra, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (New York:
Penguin, 1969)
1 Classical Studies for the Benefit of a
Time to Come
1 Ad-vantage from the 'untimely' perspective
In the early to mid-1870s at the University of Basel, the young Friedrich
Nietzsche prepared a series of lectures on the ancient world's philosophy,
literature and rhetoric. In addition to producing these works at Basel, he
wrote numerous short essays, some of which, at least, are relatively well
known by now. Nietzsche also saw three book-length projects published
during this decade, including his first full manuscript, The Birth of Tragedy.
None of the lectures is as well known in the English-speaking world as the
books and some of the short essays, and many of the lectures have not even
been translated into English. Moreover, some of the materials recently made
available, through re-editions in German and translations into other lan-
guages, have yet to receive a full hearing from Nietzsche scholars. Hence,
there is still much to be learned about Nietzsche from this early period, about
the development of his thought, and its place in the nineteenth century. There
is even much to be learned about Nietzsche's thought in light of these
materials: a more comprehensive grasp of this thought is possible through
them, as is a richer consideration of its consequences on the West.
Achieving a fuller understanding of Nietzsche will involve us in the project
of looking at his work, historically, as historians of ideas. Perhaps, then, we
should first ask: why do we study a history of thought? Why do we tend this
plant in the garden of knowledge? What characteristics shall we discern of its
fruit? Why do some of us find it so stimulating? What could tempt us to work
for this produce as we do? Is it mere idleness, or worse? What does this plant
yield to us? What do we yield to it? To be sure, any historical study of the
1