understanding Nietzscheanism Understanding Movements in Modern Thought Series Editor: Jack Reynolds Th is series provides short, accessible and lively introductions to the major schools, movements and traditions in philosophy and the history of ideas since the beginning of the Enlightenment. All books in the series are written for undergraduates meeting the subject for the fi rst time. Understanding Empiricism Understanding Nietzscheanism Robert G. Meyers Ashley Woodward Understanding Environmental Understanding Phenomenology Philosophy David R. Cerbone Andrew Brennan & Y. S. Lo Understanding Postcolonialism Understanding Existentialism Jane Hiddleston Jack Reynolds Understanding Poststructuralism Understanding Feminism James Williams Peta Bowden & Jane Mummery Understanding Psychoanalysis Understanding German Idealism Matthew Sharpe & Joanne Will Dudley Faulkner Understanding Hegelianism Understanding Rationalism Robert Sinnerbrink Charlie Huenemann Understanding Hermeneutics Understanding Utilitarianism Lawrence K. Schmidt Tim Mulgan Understanding Naturalism Understanding Virtue Ethics Jack Ritchie Stan van Hooft understanding Nietzscheanism Ashley Woodward First published in 2011 by Acumen Published 2014 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © Ashley Woodward 2011 Th is book is copyright under the Berne Convention. No reproduction without permission. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notices Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility. To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein. ISBN: 978- 1- 84465- 292-1 (hardcover) ISBN: 978- 1- 84465- 293-8 (paperback) British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset in Minion Pro. Contents Acknowledgements vi Abbreviations vii Introduction: Nietzsche and Nietzscheanism 1 1. Nietzscheanism and existentialism 27 2. Nietzscheanism and poststructuralism 65 3. Nietzscheanism and politics 101 4. Nietzscheanism and feminism 135 5. Nietzscheanism and theology 159 6. Nietzscheanism and posthumanism 185 7. Nietzscheanism, naturalism and science 209 Conclusion 241 Chronologies 245 Questions for discussion and revision 249 Further reading 253 Bibliography 259 Index 269 contents v Acknowledgements First, thanks are due to the series editor Jack Reynolds for inviting me to write this book. Th anks also to Tristan Palmer at Acumen for both his continual patience and understanding, and his generous words of encouragement. Acknowledgement must also be given to the anony- mous readers of the initial book proposal and the reviewers of the man- uscript in its fi rst draft form. At both stages many useful suggestions (as well as heartening words of encouragement) helped to make the book what it is. Warm thanks also to Catherine Cameron and Jon Roff e for generously reading and commenting on chapters of the book. Material for several chapters of the book was trialled in the subject “Nietzsche’s Legacy: Existentialism, Poststructuralism, Transhumanism” I taught at the Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy in the summer of 2010, and I would like to thank all the students who attended for giving me the opportunity to do this. Special thanks to Chloe Bo-k yung Kim for her patience and support during the writing of this manuscript. Of course, as always, responsibility for all the book’s faults and limitations rests with me. vi understanding nietzscheanism Abbreviations Editions of Nietzsche’s complete works in German: KGW Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Werke, G. Colli & M. Montinari (eds) (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1967– ). KSA Sämtliche Werke: Kritische Studienausgabe, 2nd edn, G. Colli & M. Monti- nari (eds) (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1980). References to Nietzsche’s works give the abbreviated book title as shown in the fol- lowing list, followed by the abbreviated title of the chapter, number of the part or section, or when required, a combination of these. For example, HAH 97 refers to section 97 of Human, All Too Human, while Z: 2 “Of Poets” refers to the section titled “Of Poets” in Th us Spoke Zarathustra, book 2. Wherever possible, I have referred to the Cambridge University Press editions of Nietzsche’s works in English translation. A Th e Anti- Christ, in Th e Anti-C hrist, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings, A. Ridley (ed.), J. Norman (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). AOM Assorted Opinions and Maxims, in Human, All Too Human. BGE Beyond Good and Evil, R.-P . Horstmann (ed.), J. Norman (trans.) (Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001). BT Th e Birth of Tragedy, in Th e Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings, R. Geuss (ed.), R. Speirs (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). CW Th e Case of Wagner, in Th e Anti- Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings. D Daybreak, M. Clark & B. Leiter (eds), R. J. Hollingdale (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). DS “David Strauss, the Confessor and the Writer”, in Untimely Meditations, D. Breazeale (ed.), R. J. Hollingdale (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- sity Press, 1997). abbreviations vii EH Ecce Homo, in Th e Anti- Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings. EN Writings from the Early Notebooks, R. Geuss & A. Nehamas (eds), Ladislaus Löb (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). GM On the Genealogy of Morality and Other Writings, 2nd edn, K. Ansell- Pearson (ed.), C. Diethe (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). GS Th e Gay Science, B. Williams (ed.), J. Nauckhoff & A. Del Caro (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001). HAH Human, All Too Human, R. J. Hollingdale (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986). HL “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life”, in Untimely Medita- tions. LN Writings from the Late Notebooks, R. Bittner (ed.), K. Sturge (trans.) (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003). NW Nietzsche contra Wagner, in Th e Anti-C hrist, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings. SE “Schopenhauer as Educator”, in Untimely Meditations. TI Twilight of the Idols, in Th e Anti-C hrist, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings. TL “On Truth and Lying in a Non-m oral Sense”, in Th e Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings. WB “Richard Wagner in Bayreuth”, in Untimely Meditations. WP Th e Will to Power, W. Kaufmann (ed.), W. Kaufmann & R. J. Hollingdale (trans.) (New York: Vintage, 1967). WS Th e Wanderer and His Shadow, in Human, All Too Human. Z Th us Spoke Zarathustra, R. Pippin (ed.), A. del Caro (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). viii understanding nietzscheanism introduction Nietzsche and Nietzscheanism I know my lot. One day my name will be connected with the memory of something tremendous, – a crisis such as the earth has never seen, the deepest collision of conscience, a decision made against everything that has been believed, demanded, held sacred so far. I am not a human being, I am dynamite. (EH “Destiny” 1) I can think of no better way to begin this book on the infl uence of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) than with this well- known assessment of his own signifi cance. As he himself foretold, Nietzsche has indeed been one of the most infl uential fi gures in modern thought since the end of the nineteenth century. Nietzsche’s work, how- ever, is also notoriously ambiguous. It has been interpreted in a great variety of ways, and has infl uenced starkly contrasting movements and schools of thought, from atheism to theology, from existentialism to poststructuralism, and from Nazism to feminism. Th is book will chart Nietzsche’s infl uence, both historically and thematically, across a variety of these contrasting disciplines and schools of interpretation. While Nietzsche’s importance to modern thought cannot be reduced to a single idea or point of interpretation, if there is one over- arching theme that helps us to understand his tremendous infl uence, then arguably it is nihilism, the devaluation of the highest values of Western culture. More than any other thinker of his age, Nietzsche analysed the signifi cance of the vast changes wrought in culture since the Enlightenment at the level of values. In other words, he analysed introduction: nietzsche and nietzscheanism 1