Reinterpreting Modern Culture: An Introduction to Friedrich Nietzsche's Philosophy

338 Pages·2000·2.499 MB·English

by  Paul Van Tongeren

R E I N T E R PR ET I NG
MODE R N C U LT U R E
| Purdue University Press Series
in the History of Philosophy
General Editors
Adriaan Peperzak, Editor-in-chief
Arion Kelkel
Joseph J. Kockelmans
Calvin O. Schrag
Thomas Seebohm
R E I N T E R PR ET I NG
MODE R N C U LT U R E An
Introduction
to Friedrich
Nietzsche’s
Philosophy
Paul J. M.
van Tongeren
Purdue University Press
West Lafayette, Indiana
Copyright © 2000 by Purdue Research Foundation. All rights reserved.
04 03 02 01 00 5 4 3 2 1
> The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tongeren, Paul van.
Reinterpreting modern culture : an introduction to Friedrich
Nietzsche’s philosophy / Paul J.M. van Tongeren.
p. cm. — (Purdue University Press series in the history of
philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-55753-156-0 (alk. paper). — ISBN 1-55753-157-9 (pbk. :
alk. paper)
1. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844–1900. 2. Nietzsche,
Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844–1900. Jenseits von Gut und Böse.
I. Title. II. Series.
B3317.T65 1999
193—dc21 99-13297
CIP
CONTENTS
ix PREFACE
xi NOTE ON REFERENCES, EDITIONS,
AND TRANSLATIONS
xiii ABBREVIATIONS
1 CHAPTER ONE
Presenting the Philosopher
1 Physician and Sculptor
2 The Philosopher as a Physician of Culture
13 Philosophizing with a Hammer
19 Nietzsche’s Life and Works
19 Ancestry and Childhood
21 Student
24 From Leipzig to Basel
27 From The Birth of Tragedy to
Unfashionable Observations
31 A New Start: From Human, All Too Human to
The Gay Science
38 From Thus Spoke Zarathustra to the Last Writings
43 The End
45 The Posthumous Vicissitudes of Nietzsche’s Writings
51 CHAPTER TWO
Nietzsche’s Writing and How to Read Nietzsche
52 Texts
52 Five Prefaces to Five Unwritten Books, 2
53 Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part I, “On Reading
and Writing”
54 Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter VIII, 246 and 247
58 Daybreak, Preface 5
59 On the Genealogy of Morals, Preface 8
60 Ecce Homo, “Why I Write Such Good Books,” 4
62 A Typology of Nietzsche’s Writings
64 Nietzsche’s Aphoristic Writings: A First Presentation
66 Explaining the Aphoristic Style Biographically
68 Nietzsche’s Intention to Write Aphorisms
70 Writing and Reading: Language, Thought, and Life
71 The Distorting Effects of Language
72 Style as Weapon
74 Nietzsche’s Styles
74 Nietzsche’s Modes of Presentation and
His Art of Concealment
vi | Contents
79 Rhetorical Figures and Procedures
90 Hints for the Reader
95 How to Read Nietzsche’s Writings
96 Read Slowly
98 Read Ruminatively
100 Conclusion
104 CHAPTER THREE
“Epistemology” and “Metaphysics” in Quotation Marks
104 Texts
105 Beyond Good and Evil, Preface
108 Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter I, 1, 23
111 Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter II, 24, 34, 36
117 Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter VI, 210
119 Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter VII, 231
120 A Paradoxical First Evidence and Its Ancestry
120 A Paradoxical Parody
122 Ancestry
127 Nietzsche Beyond Kant and Schopenhauer
130 The Prejudices of Philosophers and Scientists
130 “Supposing Truth Is a Woman”
133 The Dogmatic Philosophers
136 Knowledge, Language, and Life
141 Perspectivism and Genealogy
143 Irony
145 From Critique to Self-Criticism
148 Nietzsche’s Skeptical Critique of Skepticism
149 Critique of Skepticism
152 Another Skepticism
154 The “Ontology” and “Epistemology” of the
Will to Power
154 Introduction
156 The Will to Power
163 Knowledge and Reality
165 Quotation Marks: Knowledge as
Creation and Command
174 CHAPTER FOUR
“A Morality for Moralists”
176 Texts
176 Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter V, 186
179 Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter V, 188
182 Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter V, 200
184 Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter VII, 214
185 Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter VII, 227
187 Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter IX, 260
vii | Contents
193 Nietzsche’s Critique of Morality
193 Genealogy and Typology
197 Morality and Nature
202 Morality and Politics
205 Scope and Object of Nietzsche’s Critique
214 The Morality of the Critique
215 Our Virtues
220 Nietzsche’s Stoicism
228 Nietzsche’s Ideal of Nobility
235 The Dionysian Philosopher and the Overman
250 CHAPTER FIVE
“Dionysus Versus the Cruci¤ed”
251 Texts
251 Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter III, 51–56
256 Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Religion
257 Genealogy and Typology (BGE 45–50)
259 Religion and Culture (BGE 51–56)
262 Christianity (The Anti-Christ)
269 The Future of Religion (BGE 57–62)
274 Nietzsche’s Presentation of the Message of the Death
of God
274 Human, All Too Human, II, WS 84
275 Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Prologue 2
278 The Gay Science, Chapter III, 125
280 The Message
285 The Meaning
289 The Religiosity of Nietzsche’s Philosophy
289 Introduction
291 The Eternal Return of the Same
294 The Anti-Christian Character of the Eternal Return
296 Dionysian Religiosity?
305 BIBLIOGRAPHY
309 INDEX OF NAMES
312 INDEX OF SUBJECTS
319 INDEX OF TEXT CITATIONS

PREFACE
I do not allow that anyone knows that book who has not at some
time been profoundly wounded and at some time profoundly de-
lighted by every word in it. . . . (GM, pref. 8)
Nietzsche says this of his Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but we may assume
that he could have said the same of his writings in general. One does
not really know his work without being both irritated and fascinated by
it, without having experienced it in a much stronger sense than can be
said of most philosophical books we read.
Being introduced to new knowledge is a paradox. As long as one
has not entered the new domain, one hardly understands what is being
said about it; but as soon as one understands, one has already entered
and no longer needs an introduction. To put it in a less extreme way:
an introduction will always inevitably anticipate the fuller understand-
ing that can only be the result and not the beginning of the introduc-
tion. It seems unavoidable that things said in the beginning can be un-
derstood only at the end. That is true not only of systematic bodies
of knowledge such as Hegel’s philosophy, but also of the rather unsys-
tematic writings of Nietzsche. In both cases readers must be con¤dent
that they will understand what in the beginning they can only take for
granted. At the same time they must remain critical. They do not want
to believe what is implausible. They seek to be convinced, not per-
suaded or seduced.
Nietzsche considers himself to be the disciple of a philosophizing
god, Dionysus, who is preeminently a seducer (BGE 295). The introduc-
tion to his philosophy should be a seduction to an experience. But if
| ix