Nietzsche on language, consciousness, and the body PDF
Preview Nietzsche on language, consciousness, and the body
I N T E R - N A T I O N A L N I E T Z S C H E S T U D I E S Nietzsche on Language, Consciousness, and the Body Christian J. Emden International Nietzsche Studies Richard Schacht, series editor Editorial Board Rüdiger Bittner (Bielefeld) Eric Blondel (Paris–Sorbonne) Maudemarie Clark (Colgate) David Cooper (Durham) Arthur Danto (Columbia) Kathleen Higgins (Texas–Austin) Bernd Magnus (California–Riverside) Alexander Nehamas (Princeton) Martha Nussbaum (Chicago) Gary Shapiro (Richmond) Robert Solomon (Texas–Austin) Tracy Strong (California–San Diego) Yirmiyahu Yovel (Jerusalem) A list of books in the series appears at the back of this book. International Nietzsche Studies Nietzsche has emerged as a thinker of extraordinary importance, not only in the history of philosophy but in many fields of contemporary inquiry. Nietzsche studies are maturing and flourishing in many parts of the world. This interna- tionalization of inquiry with respect to Nietzsche’s thought and significance may be expected to continue. International Nietzsche Studies is conceived as a series of monographs and essay collections that will reflect and contribute to these developments. The series will present studies in which responsible scholarship is joined to the analy- sis, interpretation, and assessment of the many aspects of Nietzsche’s thought that bear significantly upon matters of moment today. In many respects Nietz- sche is our contemporary, with whom we do well to reckon, even when we find ourselves at odds with him. The series is intended to promote this reckoning, embracing diverse interpretive perspectives, philosophical orientations, and critical assessments. The series is also intended to contribute to the ongoing reconsideration of the character, agenda, and prospects of philosophy itself. Nietzsche was much con- cerned with philosophy’s past, present, and future. He sought to affect not only its understanding but also its practice. The future of philosophy is an open ques- tion today, thanks at least in part to Nietzsche’s challenge to the philosophical traditions of which he was so critical. It remains to be seen—and determined— whether philosophy’s future will turn out to resemble the “philosophy of the future” to which he proffered a prelude and of which he provided a preview, by both precept and practice. But this is a possibility we do well to take seriously. International Nietzsche Studies will attempt to do so, while contributing to the understanding of Nietzsche’s philosophical thinking and its bearing upon con- temporary inquiry. —Richard Schacht Nietzsche on Language, Consciousness, and the Body Nietzsche on Language, Consciousness, and the Body Christian J. Emden University of Illinois Press Urbana and Chicago © 2005 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America ∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper. c 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Emden, Christian. Nietzsche on language, consciousness, and the body / Christian J. Emden. p. cm. — (International Nietzsche studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-252-02970-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844–1900. 2. Language and languages—Philosophy—History—19th century. 3. Consciousness. 4. Body, Human (Philosophy) I. Title. II. Series. b3318.l25e45 2005 2004020466 Contents Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations and Translations xi Introduction 1 1. The Irreducibility of Language: The History of Rhetoric in the Age of Typewriters 9 2. The Failures of Empiricism: Language, Science, and the Philosophical Tradition 32 3. What Is a Trope? The Discourse of Metaphor and the Language of the Body 61 4. The Nervous Systems of Modern Consciousness: Metaphor, Physiology, and the Self 88 5. Interpretation and Life: Outlines of an Anthropology of Knowledge 124 Notes 163 Selected Bibliography 203 Index 217 Acknowledgments Although this book started out as a vague idea on the shores of Germany’s Lake Constance—not too far from Basel, where Nietzsche spent ten years as a classi- cal philologist, and not too far from Sils-Maria, in the Engadin, one of his fa- vorite haunts—most of it was written at some geographical and intellectual distance from the sites of Nietzsche’s life and writings, on the long and tranquil afternoons that seem possible only in a college room in Cambridge, where time occasionally becomes imperceptible. The final version was completed, with in- creasing distance from Nietzsche’s world, during an all too humid summer in Houston. Work on this project would not have been possible without continuing insti- tutional support. At a time when research grants have become increasingly scarce within the humanities, I was fortunate to have received assistance from the Humanities Research Board of the British Academy; the Tiarks Fund; the Jebb Fund; the Allen, Meek, and Reed Fund; and the Committee on Grants at the University of Cambridge. Assistance for extended visits to Germany and the United States was provided by the Department of German at the University of Cambridge and by Cambridge’s Sidney Sussex College. Ulrich Gaier witnessed the tentative beginnings of this project at the Univer- sity of Konstanz, where he introduced me to the problems of rhetorical thought and sharpened my understanding of German intellectual history. At Cambridge, where much of the manuscript was written and revised, Barry Nisbet offered unfailing advice, patient readings of premature drafts, and unrivaled help with many aspects of this project, and I thank him for having contributed perhaps more than he might realize. Duncan Large and David Midgley read several chapters of a previous version; their critical remarks and questions led to many changes that have made the argument more lucid. Richard Schacht and my
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