Papers by Benedetta Zavatta
Logo: Revista de retórica y teoría de la comunicación, 2002
Nietzsche-Studien, Oct 15, 2009
Hälfte der achtziger Jahre benutzte Nietzsche die Sprachanalyse als Waffe gegen die Metaphysik. I... more Hälfte der achtziger Jahre benutzte Nietzsche die Sprachanalyse als Waffe gegen die Metaphysik. Indem er verdeutlichte, dass die Sprache als historisches Apriori des Denkens eine grundlegende Rolle innerhalb der Erkenntnissynthese spielt, kritisierte er die vermeintliche ‚Reinheit' der Vernunft und folglich die Idee, dass diese zu allgemeingültigen, notwendigen Wahrheiten gelangen könne. Bei der Darlegung seiner Position knüpfte Nietzsche an einige Sprachphilosophen der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts an, die im Rahmen ihrer Erörterung der Beziehung zwischen Denken und Sprache im Lichte der Lehre Kants und Humboldts die Aufmerksamkeit auf die Tatsache gelenkt hatten, dass sich in der Sprache eine wahre Mythologie verbirgt. In beträchtlichem Maße beeinflusse diese unbewusst nicht allein unsere Wirklichkeitsauffassung, sondern auch die Instrumente, die einer kritischen Wirklichkeitsreflexion dienen müssten-wie Wissenschaft und Philosophie.
Oxford University Press eBooks, Aug 2, 2019
Based on an analysis of the marginal markings and annotations Nietzsche made to the works of Emer... more Based on an analysis of the marginal markings and annotations Nietzsche made to the works of Emerson in his personal library, the book offers a philosophical interpretation of the impact on Nietzsche’s thought of his reading of these works, a reading that began when he was a schoolboy and extended to the final years of his conscious life. The many ideas and sources of inspiration that Nietzsche drew from Emerson can be organized in terms of two main lines of thought. The first line leads in the direction of the development of the individual personality, that is, the achievement of critical thinking, moral autonomy, and original self-expression. The second line of thought is the overcoming of individuality: that is to say, the need to transcend one’s own individual—and thus by definition limited—view of the world by continually confronting and engaging with visions different from one’s own and by putting into question and debating one’s own values and certainties. The image of the strong personality that Nietzsche forms thanks to his reading of Emerson ultimately takes on the appearance of a nomadic subject who is continually passing out of themselves—that is to say, abandoning their own positions and convictions—so as to undergo a constant process of evolution. In other words, the formation of the individual personality takes on the form of a regulative ideal: a goal that can never be said to have been definitively and once and for all attained.
Oxford University Press eBooks, Aug 2, 2019
Chapter 1 investigates the reasons why the Emerson-Nietzsche relationship tended to be played dow... more Chapter 1 investigates the reasons why the Emerson-Nietzsche relationship tended to be played down, where it was not frankly and entirely denied, for almost a century. This is not a matter of chance but rather the sign of a long-protracted political and cultural hostility between Germany and the United States, with Nietzsche and Emerson being elevated to the status of cultural icons in their respective countries. This chapter considers the reception of Emerson in Europe during Nietzsche’s lifetime and the stereotype of Emerson as an Idealist mystic, innocently optimistic and unaware of social problems that had become disseminated there. Also considered is the reception of Nietzsche in the United States and the myth of his complicity in Nazism—a myth exploded only after the publication, from the end of the 1960s on, of the Critical Edition of his works and private notes.
Cadernos Nietzsche, Aug 1, 2018
Resumo: O artigo pretende explorar o lugar que a retórica ocupa no pensamento de Nietzsche. Parti... more Resumo: O artigo pretende explorar o lugar que a retórica ocupa no pensamento de Nietzsche. Partindo do posicionamento que o filósofo tem em sua época, e pela luta que trava contra o desprezo que os alemães e os modernos têm da arte retórica, pretende-se mostrar as formas pelas quais Nietzsche revaloriza a retórica. Retomando o caráter positivo que Aristóteles atribuia à retórica como uma dynamis, Nietzsche a considera como uma disposição biológica e natural, e que a própria linguagem é resultado de artes retóricas. Apelando, ainda, à tradição dos antigos sofistas, com quem compartilha a visão sobre a íntima relação entre linguagem e retórica, e por isso mesmo desconfia da capacidade de atingir a verdade, o filósofo alemão cria a figura de Zaratustra para responder ao apelo de uma época de superação dos valores religiosos e metafísicos graças ao declínio da vontade de verdade. Assim falou Zaratustra deve, portanto, ser compreendido junto ao contexto de um ceticismo renovado, no qual a verdade não é algo já dado, mas aquilo que toda vez o discurso cria e impõe como tal, em um suceder-se infinito de perspectivas.
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Jun 23, 2022
Based on an analysis of the marginal markings and annotations Nietzsche made to the works of Emer... more Based on an analysis of the marginal markings and annotations Nietzsche made to the works of Emerson in his personal library, the book offers a philosophical interpretation of the impact on Nietzsche’s thought of his reading of these works, a reading that began when he was a schoolboy and extended to the final years of his conscious life. The many ideas and sources of inspiration that Nietzsche drew from Emerson can be organized in terms of two main lines of thought. The first line leads in the direction of the development of the individual personality, that is, the achievement of critical thinking, moral autonomy, and original self-expression. The second line of thought is the overcoming of individuality: that is to say, the need to transcend one’s own individual—and thus by definition limited—view of the world by continually confronting and engaging with visions different from one’s own and by putting into question and debating one’s own values and certainties. The image of the st...
Volubilis: Revista de pensamiento, 2007
Social Science Research Network, Sep 10, 2014
Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science +B... more Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science +Business Media Dordrecht. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be selfarchived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com".
De Gruyter eBooks, Oct 16, 2015
Il progetto di una ricostruzione della «biblioteca ideale» di Friedrich Nietzsche aspira a dipana... more Il progetto di una ricostruzione della «biblioteca ideale» di Friedrich Nietzsche aspira a dipanare la fitta trama di relazioni di cui l’opera del filosofo tedesco è intessuta, così da restituire alla sua figura lo spessore storico-culturale che le spetta. L’«amicizia stellare» con il saggista americano Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), snodandosi lungo un arco temporale di oltre venticinque anni, investe gli assi portanti della filosofia nietzscheana e ne scandisce le tappe fondamentali. Dal complesso rapporto tra fato e libero arbitrio, declinato all’interno della più ampia problematica religiosa e sociale, alla relazione con la storia e l’esempio dei grandi uomini, la voce più rappresentativa del Trascendentalismo americano fornisce al filosofo tedesco una prospettiva privilegiata per guardare alla situazione europea e diagnosticarne i mali. Cardine dell’etica pionieristica, la dottrina emersoniana della self-reliance rappresenta per Nietzsche un breviario di coraggio e indipendenza, che va ad alimentare il suo progetto di trasvalutazione morale e costruzione di un uomo nuovo. Convertire ogni sofferenza della vita in gioia della conoscenza, ogni sventura in occasione di rafforzamento, ogni abbandono di un amico in un rinnovato incontro con se stessi, è la ricetta emersoniana per riportare vittoria nella lotta contro il fato. Questa trasformazione alchemica diventa in Nietzsche il presupposto di quell’immenso «sì» alla vita pronunciato da chi desidera l’eterno ritorno di tutte le cose e insieme rappresenta il segreto per mantenersi fedeli a se stessi pur nel mutamento continuo. Ripercorrendo le glosse e le sottolineature apposte da Nietzsche alle opere di Emerson in suo possesso, questo studio mostra in tutta la sua ampiezza una relazione la cui importanza è stata per lungo tempo sottaciuta, quando non apertamente negata, tanto da parte europea quanto americana. «Con dita e occhi delicati» la lettura nietzscheana aiuta inoltre a scoprire un lato inedito, scettico e pragmatista, del saggista americano, rettificando e arricchendo il più conosciuto volto «eroico» della sua filosofia e liberandola dallo stereotipo di un superficiale ottimismo.
Individuality and Beyond. 2019
Chapter 4 considers the influence exerted by Nietzsche’s reading of Emerson on the former’s criti... more Chapter 4 considers the influence exerted by Nietzsche’s reading of Emerson on the former’s critique of the morality of compassion and on his working out of a moral proposal alternative to this modelled on the relation of friendship. Emphasizing the value of individualism for the well-being of the collective, Emerson brings Nietzsche to understand that pursuing one’s personal advantage, if it is correctly understood, not only does not conflict with the welfare of society but nourishes and supports it. On this basis, Nietzsche on the one hand develops a critique of compassion and altruism as forms of the loss of the self and humiliation of the other, while on the other hand reassessing the value of egoism or, better put, distinguishing egoism as the pursuit of pleasure from a “higher egoism” that consists in pursuing one’s own vocation. Friendship is the relation that best sustains the development both of one’s own and others’ individualities.
Individuality and Beyond, 2019
This chapter examines the role played by Emerson in the development of Nietzsche’s position regar... more This chapter examines the role played by Emerson in the development of Nietzsche’s position regarding history and historiography from the second Untimely Meditation up to the middle period works. Drawing inspiration from Emerson, Nietzsche takes a stance contrary to the theory of active forgetting that he had previously maintained and finds an alternative to the historicism of his age in an active and empathic reading of history in which events are relived “in the first person.” The precondition for developing this type of reading is the virtue that Emerson calls self-reliance, understood as a reverence for oneself and for one’s own task. This chapter also considers Emerson’s contribution to the critique of the metaphysical notion of genius and of the “cult of the hero.” Clarifying the genesis of this critique allows us to clarify in turn Nietzsche’s position regarding the theory of moral and political perfectionism.
Individuality and Beyond, 2019
In this concluding section, based on the analysis conducted in previous chapters, it is argued th... more In this concluding section, based on the analysis conducted in previous chapters, it is argued that the reading of Emerson influences the development of the most important themes of Nietzsche’s philosophy, although the position of the latter thinker comes eventually to diverge in an important way from that of the former. It is further argued that Nietzsche’s attraction to Emerson is also due to an affinity of character, which explains the fact that Nietzsche uses Emerson’s philosophy as a vademecum for the conduct of his life. Understanding friendship in Emerson's manner as a kind of “attraction at a distance” or encounter-cum-confrontation between different individualities, Nietzsche defines Emerson as a true friend who, throughout his life, continuously spurred and encouraged him to become what he was.
Nietzsche on Consciousness and the Embodied Mind, edited by Manuel Dries, 2018
Nietzsche rejects the idea that there is a purely denotative discourse that simply indicates real... more Nietzsche rejects the idea that there is a purely denotative discourse that simply indicates reality, which in some cases and for some purposes can be enriched with tropes and figures. He claims, rather, that all discourse is constructed through rhetorical strategies and that tropes do not concern primarily the level of elocutio, but that of inventio. They are above all unconscious procedures to organize experience cognitively and so elaborate a vision of the world on the basis of which we can establish culturally shared models of interaction with the outside world. Examining Nietzsche’s considerations from the point of view of cognitive science we can detect the continuity of his thought on the tropical procedures of sense-data elaboration even if after 1875 his rhetorical terminology of the Basle years is no longer used.
Individuality and Beyond, 2019
Chapter 1 investigates the reasons why the Emerson-Nietzsche relationship tended to be played dow... more Chapter 1 investigates the reasons why the Emerson-Nietzsche relationship tended to be played down, where it was not frankly and entirely denied, for almost a century. This is not a matter of chance but rather the sign of a long-protracted political and cultural hostility between Germany and the United States, with Nietzsche and Emerson being elevated to the status of cultural icons in their respective countries. This chapter considers the reception of Emerson in Europe during Nietzsche’s lifetime and the stereotype of Emerson as an Idealist mystic, innocently optimistic and unaware of social problems that had become disseminated there. Also considered is the reception of Nietzsche in the United States and the myth of his complicity in Nazism—a myth exploded only after the publication, from the end of the 1960s on, of the Critical Edition of his works and private notes.
LOGO. Revista de Retórica y Teoría de la Comunicación, 2002
Nel capitolo dello Zarathustra intitolato Della conoscenza immacolata Nietzsche costruisce, attra... more Nel capitolo dello Zarathustra intitolato Della conoscenza immacolata Nietzsche costruisce, attraverso le due metafore della luna (der Mond) e del sole (die Sonne), l’esposizione della propria teoria della conoscenza a partire da quella schopenhaueriana e in opposizione ad essa. Schopenhauer, infatti, ne Il mondo come volontà e rappresentazione paragona la volontà ad un sole, mentre esprime il suo ideale di conoscenza attraverso l’immagine della fredda luce lunare quale puro occhio del mondo, contemplazione affrancata da ogni moto desiderante. Nietzsche riprende e critica queste metafore, accostando volontà e conoscenza nella comune immagine solare, elemento femminile associato alla creazione, alla generazione e alla gravidanza. La conoscenza viene così configurata come passione, come desiderio di appropriarsi delle cose conferendo loro senso, valore e bellezza. Riteniamo dunque che l’uso nietzscheano del linguaggio figurato e della metafora in particolare non sia volto a semplici fini didattici, bensì indice dell’avvenuta riconciliazione tra corpo e spirito, vita e conoscenza, forma e contenuto.
Nietzsche-Studien, 2006
Für Emerson ist die self-reliance die Haupteigenschaft des großen Menschen, sie ist das Ergebnis ... more Für Emerson ist die self-reliance die Haupteigenschaft des großen Menschen, sie ist das Ergebnis von Selbsterkenntnis und Selbstbeherrschung. In moralischer Hinsicht ist die self-reliance der Ursprung für den Heroismus, auf intellektuellem Gebiet ist sie die Quelle des Genies. Das Thema der self-reliance ist der Hauptgrund für die Attraktivität, die die Werke des Amerikaners auf Nietzsche ausüben. Wie ein roter Faden zieht sich dieses Thema durch den sich über einen Zeitraum von fünfundzwanzig Jahren erstreckenden Dialog mit Emersons Texten. Es stellt in Nietzsches Werk einen Zusammenhang zwischen Schopenhauer als Erzieher und Zarathustra her, die beide Nietzsches Ideal des Ausnahmeindividuums verkörpern, das über und gegen seine Zeit lebt.
Nietzsche, Power and Politics, 2008
Initially in completion and later in substitution of Schopenhauer’s ethics of compassion (Mitleid... more Initially in completion and later in substitution of Schopenhauer’s ethics of compassion (Mitleid), Nietzsche elaborated the idea of an ethic of friendship, meaning by this a shared joy (Mitfreude). While compassion and sexual love are based on renouncing oneself [Selbstlosigkeit], friendship on the contrary represents a link designed to promote the strengthening of individuality. A true friend is, in fact, one who does not try to assimilate the other, nor does he indulge in gratifying him, rather he urges him continually to improve himself. Friendship, intended as agonic competition, thus becomes for Nietzsche a weapon against the levelling and massifying forces operating in society and the basis for moral action.
A decisive role in the maturation of these considerations is played by the essay Friendship by Emerson, an author loved and appreciated by Nietzsche from his youth. Examination of the glosses and underlinings that Nietzsche added to his copy of the Essays show the profound understanding between the two authors on this subject. For Emerson, too, friendship represented the antithesis of compassion since it is a relationship that is formed between equals. It is the most noble of sentiments because it can only be formed between self-reliant individuals, that is between people who have reached a certain degree of self-sufficiency and capacity for self-determination, so that they do not need to entertain relationships with others based on the exchange of services and favours.
The principle behind American democratic individualism is, after all, that of cooperation between equals which is established in friendship: the possibility of exercising authority over the others, and that of dedicating oneself to them is excluded from this relationship. Everyone must be self-sufficient and responsible for himself, so that he depends as little as possible on the State and to limit its intervention on free enterprise. Adopting the point of view of the American author, as it emerges in the essay Politics, in some fragments from the eighties Nietzsche seems to desire the extension of the relationship of friendship to the entire society. Disinterested action is nothing more than utopia, while the sacrifice of the individual to collectivity can only cause harm to both: only the concentration on one’s own task and the thrust for reciprocal improvement that characterise friendship can benefit both the individual and society. In the society of friends that Nietzsche desires for the future, composed solely of self-reliant individuals, the role played by the authorities would become superfluous, because each individual would be sovereign of himself. Thus for Nietzsche friendship is not only the basis of ethics, but it also becomes the guiding principle of the only possible form of political action.
La potenza dell'immagine: metafora e simbolo in Cosı̀ parlò Zarathustra. Aiep 2001, 2001
Il presente lavoro offre un’analisi dell’opera capitale di Nietzsche, Also sprach Zarathustra, al... more Il presente lavoro offre un’analisi dell’opera capitale di Nietzsche, Also sprach Zarathustra, alla luce della problematica dello stile. Per l’insolito linguaggio impiegato, quest’opera è stata infatti considerata da alcuni studiosi più un’opera di poesia o di letteratura che non di filosofia. Scopo di questa ricerca è dimostrare, al contrario, come non si possa dubitare del valore specificamente filosofico che Nietzsche attribuisce al suo ‘capolavoro’, né – più in generale - livellare filosofia e letteratura in un’unica scrittura. Se è importante non fermarsi alla superficie del testo e giudicarlo un poema solo perché lo stile esula dal consueto, non bisogna però neppure cadere nell’errore di considerare metafore, analogie, simbolismi come ostacoli da rimuovere per riuscire a comprendere il pensiero, dunque come abbellimenti poetici fine a se stessi. Il senso si costruisce infatti attraverso lo stile, aquistando un’intenzionalità specifica. Attraverso questo tipo di scrittura Nietzsche si propone una rottura degli schemi ideologici connessi al linguaggio della metafisica e lo smascheramento genealogico dei valori istituiti tramite tali schemi. Se, come diceva Nietzsche, ‘cambiare lo stile’ è ‘cambiare il pensiero’, per operare una trasvalutazione di tutti i valori è necessario tentare un linguaggio radicalmente nuovo rispetto a quello della tradizione.
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Papers by Benedetta Zavatta
A decisive role in the maturation of these considerations is played by the essay Friendship by Emerson, an author loved and appreciated by Nietzsche from his youth. Examination of the glosses and underlinings that Nietzsche added to his copy of the Essays show the profound understanding between the two authors on this subject. For Emerson, too, friendship represented the antithesis of compassion since it is a relationship that is formed between equals. It is the most noble of sentiments because it can only be formed between self-reliant individuals, that is between people who have reached a certain degree of self-sufficiency and capacity for self-determination, so that they do not need to entertain relationships with others based on the exchange of services and favours.
The principle behind American democratic individualism is, after all, that of cooperation between equals which is established in friendship: the possibility of exercising authority over the others, and that of dedicating oneself to them is excluded from this relationship. Everyone must be self-sufficient and responsible for himself, so that he depends as little as possible on the State and to limit its intervention on free enterprise. Adopting the point of view of the American author, as it emerges in the essay Politics, in some fragments from the eighties Nietzsche seems to desire the extension of the relationship of friendship to the entire society. Disinterested action is nothing more than utopia, while the sacrifice of the individual to collectivity can only cause harm to both: only the concentration on one’s own task and the thrust for reciprocal improvement that characterise friendship can benefit both the individual and society. In the society of friends that Nietzsche desires for the future, composed solely of self-reliant individuals, the role played by the authorities would become superfluous, because each individual would be sovereign of himself. Thus for Nietzsche friendship is not only the basis of ethics, but it also becomes the guiding principle of the only possible form of political action.
A decisive role in the maturation of these considerations is played by the essay Friendship by Emerson, an author loved and appreciated by Nietzsche from his youth. Examination of the glosses and underlinings that Nietzsche added to his copy of the Essays show the profound understanding between the two authors on this subject. For Emerson, too, friendship represented the antithesis of compassion since it is a relationship that is formed between equals. It is the most noble of sentiments because it can only be formed between self-reliant individuals, that is between people who have reached a certain degree of self-sufficiency and capacity for self-determination, so that they do not need to entertain relationships with others based on the exchange of services and favours.
The principle behind American democratic individualism is, after all, that of cooperation between equals which is established in friendship: the possibility of exercising authority over the others, and that of dedicating oneself to them is excluded from this relationship. Everyone must be self-sufficient and responsible for himself, so that he depends as little as possible on the State and to limit its intervention on free enterprise. Adopting the point of view of the American author, as it emerges in the essay Politics, in some fragments from the eighties Nietzsche seems to desire the extension of the relationship of friendship to the entire society. Disinterested action is nothing more than utopia, while the sacrifice of the individual to collectivity can only cause harm to both: only the concentration on one’s own task and the thrust for reciprocal improvement that characterise friendship can benefit both the individual and society. In the society of friends that Nietzsche desires for the future, composed solely of self-reliant individuals, the role played by the authorities would become superfluous, because each individual would be sovereign of himself. Thus for Nietzsche friendship is not only the basis of ethics, but it also becomes the guiding principle of the only possible form of political action.