Nietzsche’s Culture War: The Unity of the Untimely Meditations

252 Pages·2018·3.19 MB·English

by  Shilo Brooks (auth.)

NIETZSCHE’S
CULTURE WAR

The Unity of the
Untimely Meditations
SHILO BROOKS
Recovering Political Philosophy
Series Editors
Timothy W. Burns
Baylor University
Waco
TX, USA
Thomas L. Pangle
University of Texas at Austin
Austin
TX, USA
Postmodernism’s challenge to the possibility of a rational foundation for
and guidance of our political lives has provoked a searching re-examination
of the works of past political philosophers. The re-examination seeks to
recover the ancient or classical grounding for civic reason and to clarify the
strengths and weaknesses of modern philosophic rationalism. This series
responds to this ferment by making available outstanding new scholar-
ship in the history of political philosophy, scholarship that is inspired by
the rediscovery of the diverse rhetorical strategies employed by political
philosophers. The series features interpretive studies attentive to historical
context and language, and to the ways in which censorship and didactic
concern impelled prudent thinkers, in widely diverse cultural conditions, to
employ manifold strategies of writing, strategies that allowed them to aim
at different audiences with various degrees of openness to unconventional
thinking. Recovering Political Philosophy emphasizes the close reading of
ancient, medieval, early modern and late modern works that illuminate the
human condition by attempting to answer its deepest, enduring questions,
and that have (in the modern periods) laid the foundations for contempo-
rary political, social, and economic life. The editors encourage manuscripts
from both established and emerging scholars who focus on the careful
study of texts, either through analysis of a single work or through thematic
study of a problem or question in a number of works.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14517
Shilo Brooks
Nietzsche’s Culture
War
The Unity of the Untimely Meditations
Shilo Brooks
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO, USA
Recovering Political Philosophy
ISBN 978-3-319-61520-2 ISBN 978-3-319-61521-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61521-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017950715
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
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For my educators and cultivators, with gratitude.
S e ’ P
erieS ditorS reface
Palgrave’s Recovering Political Philosophy series was founded with an eye
to postmodernism’s challenge to the possibility of a rational foundation
for and guidance of our political lives. This invigorating challenge has
provoked a searching reexamination of classic texts, not only of politi-
cal philosophers, but of poets, artists, theologians, scientists, and other
thinkers who may not be regarded conventionally as political theorists.
The series publishes studies that endeavor to take up this reexamination
and thereby help to recover the classical grounding for a civic reason,
as well as studies that clarify the strengths and the weaknesses of mod-
ern philosophic rationalism. The interpretative studies in the series are
particularly attentive to historical context and language, and to the ways
in which both censorial persecution and didactic concerns have impelled
prudent thinkers, in widely diverse cultural conditions, to employ mani-
fold strategies of writing—strategies that allowed them to aim at dif-
ferent audiences with various degrees of openness to unconventional
thinking. The series offers close readings of ancient, medieval, early
modern and late modern works that illuminate the human condition by
attempting to answer its deepest, enduring questions, and that have (in
the modern periods) laid the foundations for contemporary political,
social, and economic life.
We are pleased to make available, in Shilo Brooks’ Nietzsche’s Culture
War, the first book-length study of Nietzsche’s Untimely Meditations.
Brooks examines Nietzsche’s notes and letters, and the relevant portions
of Ecce Homo, to uncover what Nietzsche’s privately stated intention was
vii
viii SERIES EdITORS’ PREfACE
in this work. Guided by that intention, Brooks argues, one can see in
the Untimely Meditations, in their earliest and so revealing forms, what
Nietzsche would later call the last man (the “cultivated philistine”) and
the overman (the “redeeming human being”). Taken individually, the
four published parts of the Untimely Meditations appear as essays of
unbridled polemic (against david Strauss and Hegelian historical educa-
tion) and fulsome praise (of Schopenhauer and Wagner). But seen as a
whole, and in light of the kulturkampf into which Nietzsche had entered
the lists, against Bismark, on behalf of a rebirth of Greek spiritual ide-
als, they appear quite different. The four essays now come to sight as
integral parts of a two-part project. The first part—the two polemical
essays—seeks to demonstrate and thereby help to demolish the philistin-
ism threatening the soul of modern man. The second part—the accounts
of Wagner and Schopenhauer—presents examples of the philosophic
and the artistic characteristics of the new, redeeming human being. The
essays on Wagner and Schopenhauer now appear as versions of the mon-
umental history that are shown, in The Use and Disadvantage of History
for Life, to be needed as a means toward a revitalized culture, under the
protective, life-giving horizon created by Nietzsche’s own art. By, thus,
treating its four essays sequentially and in light of Nietzsche’s intention,
Brooks discloses the elegant unity and poetic, horizon-creating goal of
the Untimely Meditations.
Waco, USA Timothy W. Burns
Austin, USA Thomas L. Pangle
a
cknowledgementS
I am indebted to Michael Grenke for teaching me to read Nietzsche,
to Lise van Boxel for introducing me to Nietzsche, and to Nasser
Behnegar for challenging me to write about his most neglected book.
I am also grateful to the Herbst Program of Humanities in Engineering
at the University of Colorado, the Program on Constitutionalism and
democracy at the University of Virginia, the department of Government
and Legal Studies at Bowdoin College, and the department of Political
Science at Boston College for the funding that made this volume pos-
sible. I have learned much about Nietzsche from friends, colleagues, and
students who are too numerous to name, but dustin Sebell, Nicholas
Starr, david Levy, daniel Burns, Paul diduch, Paul franco, Robert
Peckham, Paul denby, and Alexander duff deserve special mention.
Siobhan Brooks has been more patient with my interest in Nietzsche
than any person should be, and her extraordinary acts of will have not
gone unnoticed.
ix
c
ontentS
1 Introduction: Nietzsche Contra Bismarck—Culture War 1
The Unification of Germany and the Aftermath
of the Franco-Prussian War: 1870–1871 1
Culture War: 1871–1872 4
Nie tzsche Contra Bismarck: The Battle
Over German Schools 6
Nietzsche and the Kulturstaat 9
Nietzsche’s Culture War: The Untimely Meditations 12
Summary of Nietzsche’s Culture War 17
2 David Strauss the Confessor and the Writer 25
Introduction: Why David Strauss? 25
Who Was David Strauss? 28
Strauss’s Readers and Nietzsche’s Readers 32
Inte rpretation of david Strauss the Confessor
and the Writer 35
Section 1: The Problem of German Culture 36
Section 2: The “Cultivated Philistine” 39
Section 3: David Strauss the Genius? 43
Sect ions 4–5: The Philistine’s Conception of Heaven as
Easygoing Enlightenment 45
Section 6: Strauss’s Uncourageous Optimism 48
xi