Nietzsche’s Search for Philosophy: On the Middle Writings

200 Pages·2018·2.18 MB·English

by  Keith Ansell-Pearson

Nietzsche’s Search for Philosophy
Also available from Bloomsbury
Nietzsche and Political Thought, edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson
Henri Bergson: Key Writings, edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson
Bergson: Thinking Beyond the Human Condition, by Keith Ansell-Pearson
Nietzsche’s ‘Beyond Good and Evil’, Christa Davis Acampora, Keith Ansell-
Pearson
For my friends, who keep me inspired,
and for Nicky,
who keeps me joyfully alive
Nietzsche’s Search for Philosophy
On the Middle Writings
By Keith Ansell-Pearson
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Contents
Acknowledgements
Editions of Nietzsche’s Writings Used with Abbreviations
Introduction
1 Cooling Down the Human Mind: Nietzsche On Philosophy and the
Philosopher in Human, all too Human
2 Nietzsche on Enlightenment and Fanaticism
3 Dawn and the Passion of Knowledge
4 A Philosophy of Modesty: Ethics and the Search for a Care of Self
5 Philosophical Cheerfulness: On The Gay Science
6 On Nietzsche’s Search for Happiness and Joy
Notes
Index
Acknowledgements
Versions of the chapters of this book were given as papers at various
conferences, workshops and colloquia held at the following universities:
Auckland, Birmingham, Concordia, Leiden, Liverpool, Monash (and the
Monash Centre in Prato), Rice, Sydney, Texas A&M, University of North Texas
at Denton, Warwick and the Royal Institute of Philosophy, London, and I am
grateful for the invitations I received and to the audiences at these events for
their questions and contributions. A shorter version of Chapter 1 will appear in
Celine Denat & Patrick Wotling (eds.), Humain, trop humain et les débuts de la
réforme de la philosophie (Reims: Éditions et presses de l’université de Reims,
2017). A version of Chapter 2 will be published in Paul Katsafanas (ed.), The
Nietzschean Mind (Routledge, 2017). Chapter 3 draws on material I first
published as ‘Nietzsche, the Sublime, and the Sublimities of Philosophy’,
Nietzsche-Studien, volume 39, 2010 and also for the Afterword to the Stanford
University Press edition and translation of Dawn (2011). Chapter 4 utilizes
material that was first published as ‘Beyond Compassion: On Nietzsche’s Moral
Therapy in Dawn’, Continental Philosophy Review, 44: 2, 2011. Chapter 5
draws on material first published in Paul Bishop, A Companion to Friedrich
Nietzsche: Life and Works (Camden House, 2012). Chapter 6 is a modified
version of an essay first published in a special issue of The Agonist, the online
journal of the New York Nietzsche Circle, volume X: II, Spring 2017. It also
utilizes material that was first published as ‘Heroic-Idyllic Philosophizing:
Nietzsche and the Epicurean Tradition’, published in Anthony O’ Hear (ed.),
Philosophical Traditions (Cambridge University Press: Royal Institute of
Philosophy Supplement, 74, 2014). I am grateful to the editors and publishers of
these publications for allowing me to republish material here.
I am indebted for support, advice and encouragement, as well as the sharing of
ideas and of work, to the following people: Christa Davis Acampora, Dorian
Astor, Babette Babich, Charles Bambach, Rebecca Bamford, Christine
Battersby, Paul Bishop, Nandita Biswas Mellamphy, Frank Chouraqui, Daniel
W. Conway, Christine Daigle, Carol Diethe, Christian Emden, Ken Gemes,
Robert Guay, Beatrice Han-Pile, Rainer J. Hanshe, Lawrence Hatab, Kathleen
Higgins, Horst Hutter, Christopher Janaway, Duncan Large, Vanessa Lemm,
Paul S. Loeb, John Mandalios, Mark Migotti, Katrina Mitcheson, Simon O’
Sullivan, Paul Patton, James I. Porter, Martine Prange, John Richardson, Alan D.
Schrift, Herman Siemens, Brittain Smith, Andreas Sommer, Werner Stegmaier,
Tracy B. Strong, Patrick Wotling, Dale Wilkerson and James Williams. I owe a
special debt of gratitude to Michael Ure whose work has served as a constant
source of inspiration and instruction in the course of researching and writing this
book. I am also grateful to the four readers of the manuscript who provided me
with valuable advice that helped shape the final design of the book. The sound
advice of Bob Guay and Paul Loeb is especially appreciated. I was fortunate
enough to have a year’s study leave in 2017, and I am grateful to the University
of Warwick for its support of my research. Thanks to Liza Thompson and
Frankie Mace, my editors at Bloomsbury Press, for their patience and
unwavering support. Finally, thanks are due to my colleagues at Warwick for
their support and friendship, especially Miguel Beistegui and Stephen Houlgate,
to my Warwick students past and present, and last, but not least, to my family for
their tremendous love.
Editions of Nietzsche’s Writings Used with
Abbreviations
The Anti-Christ, trans. Judith Norman (Cambridge: Cambridge University
AC
Press, 2005).
Beyond Good and Evil, trans. Marion Faber (Oxford: Oxford University
BGE
Press, 1998).
The Birth of Tragedy, trans. Ronald Speirs (Cambridge: Cambridge
BT
University Press, 1999).
Dawn: Thoughts on the Presumptions of Morality, trans. Brittain Smith
D
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011).
EH
Ecce Homo, trans. Duncan Large (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
On the Genealogy of Morality, trans. Carol Diethe (Cambridge: Cambridge
GM
University Press, 2006).
The Gay Science, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Random House,
GS
1974).