After Nietzsche: Notes Towards a Philosophy of Ecstasy

228 Pages·2002·1.013 MB·English

by  Jill Marsden

After Nietzsche
Notes Towards a Philosophy of Ecstasy
Jill Marsden
Renewing Philosophy
General Editor: Gary Banham
Titles include:
Kyriaki Goudeli
CHALLENGES TO GERMAN IDEALISM
Schelling, Fichte and Kant
Keekok Lee
PHILOSOPHY AND REVOLUTIONS IN GENETICS
Jill Marsden
AFTER NIETZSCHE
Notes Towards a Philosophy of Ecstasy
Celine Surprenant
THE CONCEPT OF THE MASS IN FREUD
Jim Urpeth
FROM KANT TO DELEUZE
Martin Weatherston
HEIDEGGER’S INTERPRETATION OF KANT
Categories, Imagination and Temporality
Renewing Philosophy
Series Standing Order ISBN 0–333–91928–9
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After Nietzsche
Notes Towards a Philosophy of Ecstasy
Jill Marsden
© Jill Marsden 2002
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2002 by
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ISBN 0–333–91876–2
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marsden, Jill, 1964–
After Nietszche: notes towards a philosophy of ecstasy / Jill Marsden.
p. cm. – (Renewing philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-333-91876-2 (cloth)
1. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844–1900 – Criticism and
interpretation. 2. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844–1900. Geburt
der Trag`edie. 3. Ecstasy. I. Title. II. Series
B3318.E37 M27 2002
193–dc21
2002072519
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne
For Mark Price

Contents
Series Editor’s Foreword ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xvii
1 In the Horizon of the Infinite 1
2 The Tempo of Becoming 24
3 A Feeling of Life 47
4 Men of Fire 73
5 A General Theory of Collapse 96
6 The Night of Unknowing 123
7 Great Moments of Oblivion 148
8 The Sense of Eternity 171
Notes 188
Bibliography 198
Index 205
vii

Series Editor’s Foreword
That Nietzsche marks a decisive event in the history of philosophy
is a statement often made. Rarely however is it given the type of
exploration that enables the location of the impact of Nietzsche in
relation to subsequent philosophy. If philosophy in the wake of
Nietzsche is given new tasks and goals then the nature of them must
require a register of a profoundly new kind. That this new kind of
exploration rarely breaks through the writings of Nietzsche scholar-
ship can hardly be disputed.
With the work of Jill Marsden we finally have a voice that can
locate the register that is required to begin addressing the kind of
breakthrough that Nietzsche represents. Here we find a language
that is driven, that tests its own sensible possibilities in its own
statements, which can elaborate a response to Nietzsche that does
not pre-judge the stakes of argumentation against him. Begging the
question against Nietzsche is the most common activity in writing
on his achievement. The writing here, by contrast, is carried on the
wave of joy that Nietzsche would inaugurate. The type of inquiry
that is called for in being able to describe sensations cannot be of
the same kind as is appropriate to discourse eloquently on the
logical properties of statements. Therefore it requires a particular
type of voice to make clear what it would be for the body itself to be
engaged in writing.
If Jill Marsden in producing a writing of the kind that fits the
intervention of Nietzsche into philosophy has done something rare,
it is rare in the sense of the exquisite. To write well about the sensi-
ble basis of thought should itself invoke qualities of beauty and
grace. To fail at this is to risk failing at everything. It is a true delight
and pleasure to return from the experience of this text with the
feeling that this failure has here been averted.
If there is philosophy that emerges after and because of Nietzsche
then this philosophy will have to be located in relation to his
legacy. This is also part of the work that Jill Marsden has here per-
formed: setting out this legacy in relation to a set of writers whose
possibility emerges through an engagement with the spiritual
ix