Nietzsche: Life and Times

Al interesado en el pensamiento de Nietzsche no le surgiría extraña ni sorpresiva la afirmación de que el aforismo forma parte y caracteriza su filosofía. Sin embargo, resulta bastante complejo saber con exactitud el alcance de lo que significa dicho concepto y cómo se mueve entre una frontera interpretativa y metodológica. Incluso Nietzsche parece manifestarse distante al respecto: “¡Son aforismos! ¿Son aforismos? –” (NL 1880, 7[192], KSA 9, 356).

Nietzsche’s analysis of society—its decadence and nihilism—has been quite influential among 20th century art movements; his diagnostic of culture and his response to it inspired many artists and still does nowadays. His critique of traditional culture—and this concerns as much morality, science, religion, philosophy than art—calls for a revaluation of all values, that is a profound modification of the foundations of culture. One of the most influential art movements which was inspired by this idea is Dada, an art movement born (...) in 1916, at the height of World War One. Dada rose in a context of European crisis and one of its most terrible symptoms: war. Dada, like Nietzsche, aims to overcome traditional culture and society. More than a hundred years after Dada’s birth, Europe is in no less a crisis (even though it takes a different form) and the response Dada offered—and Nietzsche’s influence on it—might be some place to which return. Inasmuch as Nietzsche returned to the Greeks looking for a rebirth of tragedy, we might need a rebirth of Dada to respond to the contemporary crisis. Dada’s attitude towards society and tradition—and Nietzsche’s attitude towards culture—can be characterised as warlike. And this warlike attitude does not mean that war is the solution, quite the contrary as Dada attempts to escape the on-going war, but that in order to overcome society and create something new, we must take risks. Against the destruction that was surrounding them, Dada’s founders engaged in a playful and joyful creation through the undermining of traditional forms of art. Culture should not follow the ways of tradition but express a break with it by creating new traditions. My paper therefore focuses on three aspects: first on Nietzsche’s and Dada’s diagnostic of culture, secondly on their response to the crisis they diagnose, and thirdly on the answer they offer to exit the crisis and the role of the joyful creation of art in this undertaking. (shrink)

An introduction to Nietzsche's life and works.

Most studies on Nietzsche seldom associate him with the dialectic method. We readily think of Socrates, Hegel, and Marx when we hear of dialectic, but very rarely, if at all, of Nietzsche. To date, very few studies on Nietzsche have claimed that one of the German philosopher's underpinning philosophical methodologies in his literary oeuvre is the dialectic. This paper thus intends to show that Nietzsche has been employing the dialectic throughout his writings, especially in his treatment of the "free spirits"-a (...) recurring subject in his different compositions. To do this, I will first revisit the meaning of dialectic in Socrates, Hegel, and Marx and subsequently argue that in Nietzsche, a type of dialectic akin to Hegel's permeates his writings. In the next parts of this paper, I will discuss in-depth how for Nietzsche, the incarnation of the free spirits involves not just one, but a continuum of triple dialectic. I will argue that to become a free spirit, one must constantly apply the dialectics of (1) criticality and openness, (2) unlearning and relearning, and (3) overcoming and becoming. These dialectics, in my view, are the necessary conditions for any individual to be truly free. In this paper, I will importantly highlight that these dialectics run through Nietzsche's works starting from the early up to the final period of his literary productivity. (shrink)

Afin de montrer qu'il faut situer le début du processus de réception de l'œuvre nietzschéenne avant les années 1980, cet article dépouille les études critiques et les recensions de cette œuvre, parues dans les pays germanophones entre 1872 et 1889. Une étude statistique révèle que Nietzsche était connu pour ses écrits sur Wagner et sa première Inactuelle. Le dépouillement de l'importante réception de l'essai sur D. F. Strauss montre que les critiques de l'époque s'intéressaient à cet essai en fonction de (...) son actualité: les divers griefs qui lui sond faits voient notamment la première Inactuelle comme un écrit schopenhauerien en continuité avec la querelle entourant La naissance de la tragédie. En grande patrie critique, la première réception des écrits nietzschéens montre que le statut philosophique qui fut accordé à lœvre et à son auteur est le résultat d'un long processus d'appropriation par le combat.Dieser Artikel wertet kritische Studien und Rezensionen von Nietzsches Werk aus,d ie zwischen 1872 und 1889 im deutschen Sprahraum erschienen sind. Es soll veranschaulicht werden, dass der Beginn des Rezeptionsprozesses seiner Werke bereits vor den 1890er Jahren leigt. Eine statistische Auswertung des Materials zeigt, dass Nietzsche für sein Schriften über Wagner und seine ersten Unzeitgemässen Betrachtungen bekannt war und sein Essais über D. F. Struß aufgrund seiner Aktualität für Kritiker interessant war. Die erste Unzeitgemässe Betrachtung wurde als eine schopenhauerische Forzetzung des Streits um Die geburt der Tragödie betrachtet. In den ersten kritischen Rezeptionen von Nietzsches Werken wird deutlich, dass der Status, der Autor und Werk in der Philosophie zugeteilt wurde, das Ergebnis eines langen Prozesses von Aneignung durch Kampf ist. (shrink)