Abstract
The ‘French reading’ of Nietzsche crystallized almost 50 years ago at the 1972 conference at Cerisy-la-Salle, Nietzsche aujourd’hui.<fnote> An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual conference of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society, with the theme of ‘The Politics of Difference’, Newcastle University, 20–21 September 2018.</fnote> Nietzsche’s fortunes have since undergone some dramatic shifts in France, but there are signs that he is once again on the ascendency, in particular the 2016 edited collection Pourquoi nous sommes Nietzschéens (a direct riposte to the 1991 Pourquoi nous ne sommes pas Nietzschéens). Taking a bearing from the French readings, I want to explore the question of what ‘Nietzsche today’ might mean for us today. At Cerisy in 1972, the meaning of Nietzsche was centred on the twin critiques of humanism and capitalism. While these issues persist, several articles in the 2016 collection indicate that they are now inflected through the vast contemporary significance of technology. One of the key debates here is Nietzsche’s significance for transhumanism. For Bernard Stiegler, transhumanism is the culmination of nihilism, understood as the reign of big data and the total quantification of the self. In this regard, he alludes to a ‘hypernihilism’ of the contemporary era, characterised by the quantifying effects of information technologies, which work in conjunction with capitalism to produce an ultimate ‘averaging’ force. I will argue that Stiegler gives an essential corrective to the largely critical engagements with neonihilism of the Nietzscheans of the previous generation, but that his emphasis on the value of negentropy risks reaffirming the logic of the transhumanism he critiques. Nietzscheanism today, I will argue, requires an appreciation of the dual tendencies of nihilism – identified here as neonihilism and hypernihilism – such that we must draw on contributions from both generations of French Nietzscheans in order to think and respond to the problems of our contemporary era.
Bibliography
Ansell-Pearson, Keith: Viroid Life: Perspectives on Nietzsche and the Transhuman Condition, London 1997Search in Google Scholar
Astor, Dorian / Jugnon, Alain (eds.): Pourquoi nous sommes Nietzschéens, Brussels 201610.14375/NP.9782874494765Search in Google Scholar
Atamer, Esra: “Dissipative Individuation”, Parrhesia 12 (2011), 57–70Search in Google Scholar
Babich, Babette E.: “Nietzsche’s Post-Human Imperative: On the ‘All-too-Human’ Dream of Transhumanism”, in Yunus Tuncel (ed.), Nietzsche and Transhumanism: Precursor or Enemy?, Newcastle 2017, 101–132Search in Google Scholar
Blanchot, Maurice: The Infinite Conversation, trans. Susan Hanson, Minneapolis, MN 1993Search in Google Scholar
Boltanski, Luc / Chiapello, Eve: The New Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Gregory Elliot, London 201810.1007/s10767-006-9006-9Search in Google Scholar
Buchanan, Allen: Better than Human: The Promise and Perils of Enhancing Ourselves, New York 2011Search in Google Scholar
Candillac, Maurice de / Pautrat, Bernard (eds.): Nietzsche aujourd’hui? Tome 1 – Intensités; Tome 2 – Passions, Paris 1973Search in Google Scholar
Coe, David K.: Angst and the Abyss: The Hermeneutics of Nothingness, New York 1985Search in Google Scholar
Cox, Christoph: Nietzsche: Naturalism and Interpretation, Berkeley, CA 199910.1525/9780520921603Search in Google Scholar
Deleuze, Gilles: “Klossowski or Bodies-Language”, in Logic of Sense, ed. Constantin V. Boundas, trans. Mark Lester and Charles Stivale, London 1990Search in Google Scholar
Deleuze, Gilles: Nietzsche and Philosophy, trans. Hugh Tomlinson, New York 198310.5040/9781350322370Search in Google Scholar
D’Iorio, Paolo: “The Eternal Return: Genesis and Interpretation”, trans. Frank Chouraqui, The Agonist 3.1 (2010), 1–43Search in Google Scholar
Ferry, Luc / Renaut, Alain (eds.): Pourquoi nous ne sommes pas Nietzschéens, Paris 1991Search in Google Scholar
Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas: The Entropy Law and the Economic Process, Cambridge, MA 197110.4159/harvard.9780674281653Search in Google Scholar
Heidegger, Martin: Nietzsche, vols. 1–4, ed. David Farrell Krell, trans. David Farrell Krell, Joan Stambaugh, and Frank A. Capuzzi, New York 1979–87Search in Google Scholar
Heidegger, Martin: “On the Question of Being”, in Pathmarks, ed. William McNeill, Cambridge 1988, 291–322Search in Google Scholar
Jugnon, Alain: Nietzsche et Simondon: Le théâtre du vivant, Paris 2010Search in Google Scholar
Klossowski, Pierre: “Circulus Vitiosus”, trans. Joseph D. Kuzma, The Agonist 2.1 (2009), 31–47Search in Google Scholar
Klossowski, Pierre: Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle, trans. Daniel W. Smith, London 2005Search in Google Scholar
Lyotard, Jean-François: “A Brief Putting in Perspective of Decadence and of Several Minoritarian Battles to be Waged”, trans. Taylor Adkins, Vast Abrupt (2018), 1–20 (https://vastabrupt.com/2018/03/12/lyotard-brief-putting-perspective-decadence/ )Search in Google Scholar
Lyotard, Jean-François: “A Postmodern Fable”, in Postmodern Fables, trans. Georges Van Den Abbeele, Minneapolis, MN 199910.1057/978-1-137-04505-8_2Search in Google Scholar
Lyotard, Jean-François: “Notes on the Return and Kapital”, trans. Roger McKeon, Semiotexte 3.1 (1978), 44–53Search in Google Scholar
Lyotard, Jean-François: The Inhuman: Reflections on Time, trans. Geoffrey Bennington and Rachel Bowlby, Cambridge 1991Search in Google Scholar
More, Max: “The Overman in the Transhuman”, in Yunus Tuncel (ed.), Nietzsche and Transhumanism: Precursor or Enemy?, Newcastle 2017, 27–3110.55613/jeet.v27i2.62Search in Google Scholar
Schrödinger, Erwin: What is Life?, Cambridge 1944Search in Google Scholar
Simondon, Gilbert: L’individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d’information, Grenoble 2005Search in Google Scholar
Sorgner, Stefan Lorenz: “Nietzsche éducateur: D’Héraclite au transhumanisme”, in Dorian Astor / Alain Jugnon (eds.), Pourquoi nous sommes Nietzschéens, Brussels 2016, 229–238Search in Google Scholar
Sorgner, Stefan Lorenz: “Nietzsche, the Overhuman, and Transhumanism”, in Yunus Tuncel (ed.), Nietzsche and Transhumanism: Precursor or Enemy?, Newcastle 2017, 14–26Search in Google Scholar
Stengers, Isabelle: “Comment hériter de Simondon?”, in Jacques Roux (ed.), Gilbert Simondon: Une Pensée Opérative, Saint-Étienne 2002, 300–323Search in Google Scholar
Stengers, Isabelle: “Pour une mise à l’aventure de la transduction”, in Pascal Chabot (ed.), Annales de l’Institut de Philosphie de l’Université de Bruxelles: Simondon, Paris 2002, 137–161Search in Google Scholar
Stengers, Isabelle: “Résister à Simondon?”, Multitudes 4.4 (2004), 55–6210.3917/mult.018.0055Search in Google Scholar
Stiegler, Barbara: Nietzsche et la biologie, Paris 201110.3917/puf.stieg.2001.01Search in Google Scholar
Stiegler, Bernard: “Automatic Society 1: The Future of Work – Introduction: Functional Stupidity, Entropy and Negentropy in the Anthropocene”, trans. Daniel Ross, La Deleuzeana 1 (2015), 121–140Search in Google Scholar
Stiegler, Bernard (with Frédéric Neyrat): “Interview: From Libidinal Economy to the Ecology of the Spirit”, trans. Arne De Boever, Parrhesia 14 (2012), 9–15Search in Google Scholar
Stiegler, Bernard: “La grande bifurcation vers le néguanthropos: Exceptions et sélections dans la noodiversité”, in Dorian Astor / Alain Jugnon (eds.), Pourquoi nous sommes Nietzschéens, Brussels 2016, 87–108Search in Google Scholar
Stiegler, Bernard: States of Shock: Stupidity and Knowledge in the 21st Century, trans. Daniel Ross, Cambridge 2014Search in Google Scholar
Stiegler, Bernard: Technics and Time 1: The Fault of Epimetheus, trans. George Collins and Richard Beardsworth, Stanford, CA 199810.1515/9781503616738Search in Google Scholar
Stiegler, Bernard: Technics and Time 2: Disorientation, trans. Stephen Barker, Stanford, CA 2009Search in Google Scholar
Stiegler, Bernard: Technics and Time 3: Cinematic Time and the Question of Malaise, trans. Stephen Barker, Stanford, CA 201010.1515/9780804799362Search in Google Scholar
Stiegler, Bernard: The Decadence of Industrial Democracies, trans. Daniel Ross, Cambridge 2011Search in Google Scholar
Stiegler, Bernard: The Lost Spirit of Capitalism: Disbelief and Discredit, vol. 3, trans. Daniel Ross, Cambridge 2014Search in Google Scholar
Stiegler, Bernard: The Neganthropocene (2018), ed. and trans. Daniel Ross (http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/the-neganthropocene/ )Search in Google Scholar
Stiegler, Bernard: The Re-Enchantment of the World: The Value of Spirit Against Industrial Populism, trans. Trevor Arthur, London 2014Search in Google Scholar
Stiegler, Bernard: “To Love, To Love Me, To Love Us”, in Acting Out, trans. David Barison, Daniel Ross, and Parrick Crogan, Stanford, CA 2008, 37–82Search in Google Scholar
Stiegler, Bernard: What Makes Life Worth Living: On Pharmacology, trans. Daniel Ross, Cambridge 2013Search in Google Scholar
Tuncel, Yunus (ed.): Nietzsche and Transhumanism: Precursor or Enemy?, Newcastle 2017Search in Google Scholar
White, Alan: “Nietzschean Nihilism: A Typology”, International Studies in Philosophy 14.2 (1987), 29–4410.5840/intstudphil198719248Search in Google Scholar
Woodward, Ashley: “Circuits of Desire: Cybernetics and the Post-natural according to Lyotard and Stiegler”, in Rosi Braidotti / Rick Dolphijn (eds.), Philosophy after Nature, London 2017, 121–136Search in Google Scholar
Woodward, Ashley: “Deleuze, Nietzsche, and the Overcoming of Nihilism”, Continental Philosophy Review 46.1 (2013), 115–14710.1007/s11007-013-9245-1Search in Google Scholar
Woodward, Ashley: Lyotard and the Inhuman Condition: Reflections on Nihilism, Information, and Art, Edinburgh 201610.3366/edinburgh/9780748697243.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Woodward, Ashley: Nihilism in Postmodernity: Lyotard, Baudrillard, Vattimo, Aurora, CO 2009Search in Google Scholar
Woodward, Ashley: “Postmodern Perspectives on the Nietzsche and Transhumanism Exchange”, in Yunus Tuncel (ed.), Nietzsche and Transhumanism: Precursor or Enemy?, Newcastle 2017, 231–247Search in Google Scholar
Woodward, Ashley: Understanding Nietzscheanism, Chesham 201110.4324/9781315730066Search in Google Scholar
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
