Nietzsche's Dangerous Game: Philosophy in the Twilight of the Idols (Modern European Philosophy)

279 Pages·1997·6.2 MB·English

by  Daniel W. Conway

NIETZSCHE'S DANGEROUS GAME
MODERN EUROPEAN PHILOSOPHY
This series seeks to publish a range of high-quality books on philosophers,
topics, and schools of thought prominent in the Kantian and post-Kantian
European tradition. The series is nonsectarian in approach and methodol-
ogy and includes both introductory and more specialized treatments of
these thinkers and topics. Authors are encouraged to interpret the bound-
aries of the modern European tradition in a broad way and to engage with it
in primarily philosophical rather than historical terms.
General Editor
ROBERT B. PIPPIN, University of Chicago
Advisory Board
GARY GUTTING, University of Notre Dame
ROLF-PETER HORSTMANN, Humboldt University, Berlin
MARK SACKS, University of Essex
Some recent titles:
Frederick A. Olafson, What is a Human Being?
Stanley Rosen, The Mask of Enlightenment: Nietzsche's Zarathustra
Robert C. Scharff, Comte After Positivism
F. C. T. Moore, Bergson
Charles Larmore, The Morals of Modernity
Robert B. Pippin, Idealism as Modernism
NIETZSCHE'S
DANGEROUS GAME
Philosophy in the Twilight of the Idols
DANIEL W. CONWAY
Pennsylvania State University
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Daniel W. Conway 1997
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1997
First paperback edition 2002
Typeface Baskerville
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Conway, Daniel W.
Nietzsche's dangerous game: philosophy in the twilight of
the idols / Daniel W. Conway.
p. cm. - (Modern European philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0 521 57371 8 (hardback)
1. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900 - Contributions in
political science. I. Title. II. Series.
JC233.N52C66 1997
193-dc21 96-46726 CIP
ISBN 0 521 57371 8 hardback
ISBN 0 52189287 2 paperback
In Memoriam
Edward G. Ballard
my first teacher

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments page ix
Nietzsche Titles: Sources and Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Reading the Signs of the Times:
Nietzsche contra Nietzsche 7
Chapter 2 The Economy of Decadence 22
Chapter 3 Peoples and Ages: The Mortal Soul Writ Large 67
Chapter 4 Et tu, Nietzsche? 103
Chapter 5 Parastrategesis: Esotericism for Decadents 143
Chapter 6 Skirmishes of an Untimely Man: Nietzsche's
Revaluation of All Values 178
Chapter 7 Standing between Two Millennia: Intimations of
the Antichrist 215
Conclusion: Odysseus Bound? 246
Index 263
Vll

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to acknowledge my heartfelt gratitude to Robert B. Pippin, General
Editor of the Modern European Philosophy series, for his unflagging sup-
port of my research. I am deeply grateful to Stephen Houlgate, Bernd
Magnus, Graham Parkes, and Gary Shapiro, all of whom read earlier drafts
of the manuscript and suggested important revisions. I am also greatly
indebted to Brian Domino, who not only served tirelessly as my research
assistant, but also directed my attention to the theory of decadence that
emerges in Nietzsche's post-Zarathustran writings. Several other friends and
colleagues have generously contributed over the years to my understanding
of Nietzsche's confrontation with modernity, including Panos Alexakos,
Keith Ansell Pearson, Claudia Crawford, Shannon Duval, Robert Gooding-
Williams, Lawrence Hatab, Laurence Lampert, Alexander Nehamas, David
Owen, Stanley Rosen, Charles Scott, John Seery, David Stern, Tracy Strong,
and Michael Zimmerman. The research for this book was made possible by a
grant from the Research and Graduate Study Office of the College of Lib-
eral Arts at The Pennsylvania State University; my thanks to Dean Susan
Welch and Associate Dean Raymond Lombra.
Finally, I gratefully acknowledge permission to use portions of my articles
from the following publications:
"Parastrategesis, Or: Rhetoric for Decadents," Philosophy and Rhetoric, Vol.
27, No. 3, 1994, pp. 179-201.
"The Economy of Decadence," The Journal of Nietzsche Studies, Issue 9/10,
ix
X ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
"Writing in Blood: On the Prejudices of Genealogy," Epoche, Vol. 3, Nos. 1-2,
!995>PP- i49-l8l«
"Decadence and Eternal Recurrence," The European Legacy, Vol. 2, No. 4,
"Standing Between Two Millennia," in Nietzsche's Happy Returns, ed. Duncan
Large. London: Macmillan (in press).