In Nietzsche and the Political, Daniel Conway presents a Nietzsche whose political thought has typically been misunderstood. The cause of this misunderstanding has been the failure to recognize the grand scope of Nietzsche’s political thinking. Conway’s Nietzsche goes back to the very grounds of politics itself and asks the founding question, “What ought humankind to become?”. Nietzsche’s general answer to this founding question is what Conway terms perfectionism. This perfectionism is not universal, nor does it possess a preestablished goal. Yet (...) Conway presents Nietzsche’s perfectionism as intended to benefit all and as promoting irreversible advancements of humanity as a whole. This is so because, even though Nietzsche’s perfectionism has its sights set on the production and flourishing of great, exemplary human beings, this is done with the aim of cultivating and sheltering the resources of ethical life so that the moral development of the human race remains possible. Thus Conway presents a Nietzsche who would seem to have much to say to our contemporary political situation. (shrink)