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Helmut Heit

Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche, Faculty Member

Institute for Advanced Study, School of Historical Studies, Invited Member

Tongji University, Faculty of Philosophy, Faculty Member

Technische Universität Berlin, Institut für Philosophie, Literatur-, Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte, Faculty Member

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Helmut Heit is director of the Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche at the Klassik Stiftung Weimar and honorary professor of philosophy at the Technische Universität Berlin. He studied philosophy and political sciences in Hannover, Melbourne and Berlin and received his Dr. phil. 2003 in Hannover for a study on the emergence of Western philosophy in ancient Greece. Before coming to Weimar, he was associate professor for German and European Philosophy and vice-director of the Academy of European Culture at Tongji University in Shanghai, and he still holds a visiting affiliation there. He previously worked at Technische Universität Berlin (2007-15) Humboldt Universität Berlin (2006-07), University of California at San Diego (2005-06) and Leibniz Universität Hannover (2003-06). He also held a teaching assignment at the Munich Business School (2011-15), was invited scholar in Pelotas, Brazil (2014-15) and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2012-13).

He works in the fields of philosophy of culture, philosophy of science, critical theory, social philosophy and European identity and values. In historical terms, his research covers 19th and 20th century German philosophy. A main focus of his recent study is Nietzsche’s cultural philosophy of science.

Helmut Heit is co-editor of Nietzsche-Studien and of the book-series Monographien und Texte der Nietzscheforschung (de Gruyter), member of the executive board of the German Nietzsche-Gesellschaft, and he was founding director of the Berliner Nietzsche-Colloquium. He is member of the advisory board of Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialtheorie und Philosophie, liaison professor (Vertrauensdozent) of Hans Böckler Foundation, and fellow of the Center for Philosophy and Ethics of Science Hannover.

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Books by Helmut Heit

Nietzsches Zukünfte. Global Conference on the Futures of Nietzsche: 7-10. Oct. 2024 in Weimar

The Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche in Weimar hosts a public conference with Nietzsche scholars from a... more

Nietzsche und die Reformation

Edited together with Andreas Urs Sommer, 2020

This volume collects 22 papers mostly in German adressing the complex relation between Nietzsche ... more This volume collects 22 papers mostly in German adressing the complex relation between Nietzsche and reformation. The collection shows that while Nietzsche was a severe critic of Luther's fundamentalist reanimation of christianity, his views on reformation, renaissance and the current topicality of christianity in a modern world are more nuanced.

Primat des Praktischen. Zur Aktualität der griechischen Sophistik

by Lars Leeten and Helmut Heit

Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie (Schwerpunktheft), 2019

Nietzsche als Kritiker und Denker der Transformation

Edited together with Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir

This volume contains papers in German and English by international scholars such as Luce Irigaray... more This volume contains papers in German and English by international scholars such as Luce Irigaray, Christoph Tuerke, Martin Saar, Babette Babich, Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir, Hermann Siemens, Helmut Heit, Silvia Stoller and others, investigating Nietzsche's significance as a social and cultural critic and his role as a thinker of change and transformation.

Nietzsche as a Scholar of Antiquity

Chapters on Nietzsche's Philological Beginnings (J. Latacz); Nietzsche's Radical Philology (J. Po... more Chapters on Nietzsche's Philological Beginnings (J. Latacz); Nietzsche's Radical Philology (J. Porter); The Sources of Nietzsche's Rhetoric (G. Most and Th. Fries); Apollo and the Problem of Unity in Nietzsche (D. Burnham); N's Valediction and First Article (A. Jensen); N and Diogenes Laertius (J. Barnes); N's Influence on Homeric Scholarship (A. Zhavoronkov); N's Lectures on Ancient Literature (C. Santini); Greek Audiences (V. Vivarelli); The Ancient Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry (M. Meyer); N's Genealogy of Early Greek Philosophy (H. Heit); N's Philology and the Science of Antiquity (B. Babich); Religion of the 'Older Greeks' (H. Cancik and H. Cancik-Lindemaier)

Handbuch Nietzsche und die Wissenschaften. Natur-, Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Kontexte

Chapters on Nietzsche's relation to The Age of Science (Heit); Helmholtz and the Rise of Modernit... more Chapters on Nietzsche's relation to The Age of Science (Heit); Helmholtz and the Rise of Modernity (Schiemann); Physiology and Epistemology (Reuter); Life-Sciences and Biology (Solies); Mechanism and Ernst Mach (Gori); Medicine (Dahlkvist); Astronomy (Treccani); Classical Philology (Benne and Santini); Historiography (Jensen); Logic (Loukidelis); Metaphysics (Riccardi); Linguistics (Zavatta); Religious Studies (Sommer); Economics (Brobjer); Politics (Fornari); Sociology (Piazzesi); and Psychology (Liebscher)
B.D. Mtichel in Isis. Vol. 105/0 (2014): "Perhaps the collection's greatest strength is the way that it strikes a balance between deepening our understanding of many of the better-known influences on Nietzsche's thought and also opening up many other avenues of exploration, particularly in the human and social sciences. While several recent studies have attended to Nietzsche and science, no other volume brings together so many diverse essays from the leading figures in Nietzsche scholarship in English and German. This work will be invaluable to any scholar interested in Nietzsche, providing, as it does, a new panoramic view of his interactions with the natural and human sciences of the nineteenth century."
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/680289

Nietzsches Wissenschaftsphilosophie. Aktualität, Rezeption und Hintergründe

Frühgriechische Philosophie. (Introduction: Thales to Socrates)

Paul Feyerabend: Naturphilosophie

Der Ursprungsmythos der Vernunft. Zur philosophiehistorischen Genealogie des griechischen Wunders

Die Werte Europas – Verfassungspatriotismus und Wertegemeinschaft in der EU?

Die Werte Europas Verfassungspatriotismus und Wertegemeinschaft in der EU? LIT Verlag Münster -Ha... more Die Werte Europas Verfassungspatriotismus und Wertegemeinschaft in der EU? LIT Verlag Münster -Hamburg -London RNE 31 Die Reihe "Region, Nation, Europa" hat zum Ziel, eine multi-und interdisziplinäre Herangehensweise an diese Fragen vorzustellen und zu begleiten. Damit versucht die Reihe eine komplexe, multidimensionale Sicht auf das Phänomen Europa -die Verbindung von Region, Nation und Europa. Mit der Idee einer europäischen Wertegemeinschaft verbindet sich der Gedanke, das neue Europa der 454,9 Millionen sei mehr als eine bloß ökonomisch und administrativ funktionale Institution. Geteilte Werte könnten zur sozialen Integration beitragen und die EU gründet sich ausdrücklich auf Werte wie Achtung der Menschenwürde, Freiheit, Demokratie, Pluralismus, Toleranz, Solidarität. Aber in welchem Verhältnis steht Europa zu diesen Werten, oder diese Werte zu Europa? Inwiefern können universale Werte zugleich als europäisch gelten? Wie hält es Europa mit christlichen Werten oder anderen normativen Erbschaften? Kann eine Verfassung zur Identitätsbildung beitragen? In dreiundzwanzig z. T. kontroversen Beiträge wird dem Verhältnis von Werten und Europa, von Wert und Gemeinschaft, von Verfassung und Patriotismus aus interdisziplinären Perspektiven und mit bemerkenswerten Ergebnissen nachgegangen.

Papers by Helmut Heit

Quellenforschung als positive Wissenschaft?

Nietzsche als Leser

Vom Kult zum Kapital. Nietzsches Weg zum philosophischen Weltereignis

In: Kult - Kunst - Kapital. Das Nietzsche-Archiv und die Moderne um 1900. Ed.: Ulrike Lorenz & Thorsten Valk (Göttingen: Wallstein), 2020

This paper reconstructs the astounding transformation of Friedrich Nietzsche from a mostly unkno... more This paper reconstructs the astounding transformation of Friedrich Nietzsche from a mostly unknown author to a cultural phenomenon of global significance in the first decades of the 20th century. I focus, firstly, on Nietzsches ambivalent relation to his readers and, secondly, on the cultural and strategic politics of his sister Elisabeth Foerster-Nietzsche and her Nietzsche-Archive. In the following sections I argue that his ongoing topicality derives from the content and style of a philosophy which matches the cultural conditions and tasks of a time, which is basically still ours.

Breakthrough to Transcendence? Three Concepts of Inter-Cultural Philosophy (Leibniz, Hegel, Jaspers)

Existenz. An International Journal in Philosophy, Religion, Politics, and the Arts. Vol. 14/1, 2019

After a brief discussion of G. W. Leibniz' and G. F. W. Hegel's disposition toward Chinese philos... more After a brief discussion of G. W. Leibniz' and G. F. W. Hegel's disposition toward Chinese philosophy, the essay addresses Jaspers' idea of a breakthrough to transcendence in the Axial cultures and questions the relevance of its contribution for the historiography of philosophy. In view of two world wars in the first half of the twentieth century, Jaspers took it upon himself to reconceptualize the idea of a world-history. The Western and Christian traditions could no longer serve as the central axis and needed to be replaced by a global perspective. Historians of philosophy who were dissatisfied with the practice of putting a sole focus on the Greco-Roman tradition in European culture later adopted this idea and challenged the implicit or explicit equation of Western philosophy as being philosophy proper. However, the attempts to establish a Jaspers inspired post-Eurocentric historiography of philosophy met a problem. Jaspers' existentialist assumptions are based on the concept of a global philosophia perennis, which in turn constitutes a universal and unifying standard for evaluation. Any such standard reintroduces what it sought to eliminate. Moreover, Jaspers' pluralism or globalism is limited to the presumed advanced civilizations of India, China, and the West, while other traditions such as African or Native American philosophy are still not being considered. And finally, the Western tradition as a continuous refinement of these Axial beginnings remains authoritative, ironically even its late modern post-colonial subversion.

德国哲学中的中国思想——普世主义，欧洲中心主义，认同政治 [Das chinesische Denken in der deutschen Philosophie. Universalismus, Eurozentrismus, Identitätspolitik]

Book chapter in: in: 胡春春 & 俞宙明HU Chunchun & YU Zhouming (ed.): 德国的“中国能力”与中国的“德国能力” [China-Kompetenz in Deutschland und Deutschland-Kompetenz in China.], 2019

This paper observes a relatively minor role of contemporary Chinese thought in German philosophy ... more This paper observes a relatively minor role of contemporary Chinese thought in German philosophy while the latter enjoys a much more intense reception in China. To account for this asymmetry the paper reconstructs three versions of the reception and appropriation of Chinese philosophy in Germany based on the positions of Leibniz, Hegel and Jaspers, which are characterized by curiosity for the exotic, hegemonic universalism and self-critical Eurocentrism. The anti-Hegelian effort to overcome the world axis of Eurocentrism shows the questionable effort to use the history of philosophy for cultural self-assurance. The discussion about the “German” or “Chinese” philosophy thus leads to an examination of philosophy as a global task beyond the various forms of identity politics.

Humano, demasiado humano, ultrahumano. El desafío de Nietzsche al humanismo

Cuestiones de Filosofía, Vol. 6 – N° 27, 2020

This paper argues that the connection between naturalist and perfectionist aspects in Nietzsche's... more This paper argues that the connection between naturalist and perfectionist aspects in Nietzsche's thought derive from the 'mysterious double-character' of human nature and result in a political anthropology of freedom. The ambition to design an aesthetically approvable character is neither naturally determinated nor morally required, but results from a ‘normative force of the possible’, which can be realized through cultural exercise. Nietzsche's challenge to humanism is an invitation to become better humans.

Protagoras und der Relativismus als epistemische Tugend

Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie 44/2, 2019

By virtue of a contextual interpretation of our few Protagorean fragments, this paper argues that... more By virtue of a contextual interpretation of our few Protagorean fragments, this paper argues that he (in opposition to the Platonic ideal of complete reproduction of absolute certainty) tries to teach virtue and the capacity of judgment through processes of consideration, insight, imitation and practice. Accordingly, his homo-mensura entails a moderate relativism that combines critical self-awareness and the ambition to improve our knowledge with a preference for proliferation of theories. Against stereotypical reservations from Plato to Boghossian, I defend Protagoras position as sustained, attractive, and virtuous epistemic attitude.

Wege zur Metanoia. Nietzsches Signifikanz für die Schriftstellerei in Ost und West

Literaturstrasse. Chinesisch-Deutsches Jahrbuch für Sprache, Literatur und Kultur. Vol. 18/1, 2017

Dieser Text fragt nach den Gründen für das be-sondere Anregungspotential, das Nietzsche unter Lit... more Dieser Text fragt nach den Gründen für das be-sondere Anregungspotential, das Nietzsche unter Literaten entfaltet hat. Der erste Abschnitt analysiert eine diesbezügliche Parallele zwischen der europäischen und der chinesischen Beschäftigung mit seinem Werk. Nietzsche wurde im Westen wie im Osten als grundstürzend, heroisch und befreiend empfunden. An dieser Rezeption haben, wie im zweiten Abschnitt argumentiert wird, nicht nur die Inhalte, sondern auch die For-men seiner Literatur erheblichen Anteil. Anhand seiner Reden über den Tod Gottes wird im dritten Abschnitt gezeigt, dass Nietzsche mit Hilfe unterschiedlicher textueller Strategien bewusst eine Literarisierung der Philosophie betreibt. Diese Strategien versuchen, einen kritischen und transformativen Gedanken nachvollziehbar zu machen, sie sind Wege zur Metanoia. "Mit ‚Zarathustra' gerathe ich nun gar noch unter die ‚Litteraten' und ‚Schrift-steller', und das Band, das mich mit der Wissenschaft verknüpfte, wird als zerrissen erscheinen.-" Mit dieser Bemerkung in einem Brief an Heinrich Kö-selitz (alias Peter Gast) am 17. April 1883 scheint Nietzsche sehr klar eine we-sentliche Facette seiner Wirkungsgeschichte vorhergesehen zu haben. Tat-sächlich übten seine Schriften und seine Persönlichkeit vor allem auch auf Künstler, Autoren, öffentliche Intellektuelle und Feuilletonisten erhebliche Attraktion aus. Die akademische Universitätsphilosophie hingegen tat sich immer wieder schwer mit diesem Dichterphilosophen. Stand Nietzsche schon durch seine Lebensumstände außerhalb der akademischen Netzwerke, so po-sitionierte er sich zudem auch inhaltlich in scharfem Kontrast zur Schulphilo-sophie. Dieser Kontrast konnte leicht mit einer unqualifizierten Abkehr von den Wissenschaften insgesamt verwechselt werden und tatsächlich hat die wissenschaftliche Dimension seiner Philosophie zu selten die gebührende Aufmerksamkeit erfahren. Insofern betont Nietzsche mit Recht, dass seine Verbindung mit der Wissenschaft nicht gar so zerrissen ist wie es scheint, aber er ist dennoch keineswegs zufällig und auch nicht allein aufgrund des Za-rathustra unter die Literaten und Schriftsteller geraten. Fragt man, was Nietzsche unter Dichtern und Romanciers, aber auch un-ter Musikern und Malern verloren hat, so lässt sich zunächst eine interessante Parallele zwischen der europäischen und der chinesischen Beschäftigung mit

Der Mensch als "Gesellschaftsbau" -Nietzsches physio-politische Anthropologie der Freiheit

Internationales Jahrbuch für philosophische Anthropologie. Vol. 7/1, 2017

This paper argues that Nietzsche combines naturalistic motives with a practice of inner-worldly t... more This paper argues that Nietzsche combines naturalistic motives with a practice of inner-worldly transcendence in his of the human. His procedures of naturalization, however, are so specifically Nietzschean, that the label 'naturalism' tends to cause more confusion as it helps to clarify. Moreover, Nietzsche’s anthropology is not just aimed at isolated existences, but takes into account the fundamentally social nature of the human. The social human nature reveals itself not only in higher cultural institutions, such as language, but already in bodily existence as a living and hierarchical organization. Individuation is the product of social organization, due to which the subject has the ability to self-design and self-determination in the first place. Nietzsche is a proponent of a political anthropology of freedom.

Nietzsche et la 'relativisme épistemique'

Nietzsche et la Relativisme, ed. by Paolo Stellino et Olivier Tinland, 2019

This paper reconstructs Nietzsche's role in the history of epistemic relativism and defends his v... more This paper reconstructs Nietzsche's role in the history of epistemic relativism and defends his views as a viable version of reasonable contextualism. After the term 'relativism' was coined by Wilhelm Krug (1838) and August Comte (1855), Nietzsche encountered the notion and the idea in the works of John Stuart Mill, Jean Marie Guyau, Artur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Albert Lange. According to Nietzsche, acknowledging a certain relativism is a necessary and intellectually virtuous conclusion of the critical self-reflection of human reason

Nietzsches Zukünfte. Global Conference on the Futures of Nietzsche: 7-10. Oct. 2024 in Weimar

The Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche in Weimar hosts a public conference with Nietzsche scholars from a... more

Nietzsche und die Reformation

Edited together with Andreas Urs Sommer, 2020

This volume collects 22 papers mostly in German adressing the complex relation between Nietzsche ... more This volume collects 22 papers mostly in German adressing the complex relation between Nietzsche and reformation. The collection shows that while Nietzsche was a severe critic of Luther's fundamentalist reanimation of christianity, his views on reformation, renaissance and the current topicality of christianity in a modern world are more nuanced.

Primat des Praktischen. Zur Aktualität der griechischen Sophistik

by Lars Leeten and Helmut Heit

Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie (Schwerpunktheft), 2019

Nietzsche als Kritiker und Denker der Transformation

Edited together with Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir

This volume contains papers in German and English by international scholars such as Luce Irigaray... more This volume contains papers in German and English by international scholars such as Luce Irigaray, Christoph Tuerke, Martin Saar, Babette Babich, Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir, Hermann Siemens, Helmut Heit, Silvia Stoller and others, investigating Nietzsche's significance as a social and cultural critic and his role as a thinker of change and transformation.

Nietzsche as a Scholar of Antiquity

Chapters on Nietzsche's Philological Beginnings (J. Latacz); Nietzsche's Radical Philology (J. Po... more Chapters on Nietzsche's Philological Beginnings (J. Latacz); Nietzsche's Radical Philology (J. Porter); The Sources of Nietzsche's Rhetoric (G. Most and Th. Fries); Apollo and the Problem of Unity in Nietzsche (D. Burnham); N's Valediction and First Article (A. Jensen); N and Diogenes Laertius (J. Barnes); N's Influence on Homeric Scholarship (A. Zhavoronkov); N's Lectures on Ancient Literature (C. Santini); Greek Audiences (V. Vivarelli); The Ancient Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry (M. Meyer); N's Genealogy of Early Greek Philosophy (H. Heit); N's Philology and the Science of Antiquity (B. Babich); Religion of the 'Older Greeks' (H. Cancik and H. Cancik-Lindemaier)

Handbuch Nietzsche und die Wissenschaften. Natur-, Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Kontexte

Chapters on Nietzsche's relation to The Age of Science (Heit); Helmholtz and the Rise of Modernit... more Chapters on Nietzsche's relation to The Age of Science (Heit); Helmholtz and the Rise of Modernity (Schiemann); Physiology and Epistemology (Reuter); Life-Sciences and Biology (Solies); Mechanism and Ernst Mach (Gori); Medicine (Dahlkvist); Astronomy (Treccani); Classical Philology (Benne and Santini); Historiography (Jensen); Logic (Loukidelis); Metaphysics (Riccardi); Linguistics (Zavatta); Religious Studies (Sommer); Economics (Brobjer); Politics (Fornari); Sociology (Piazzesi); and Psychology (Liebscher)
B.D. Mtichel in Isis. Vol. 105/0 (2014): "Perhaps the collection's greatest strength is the way that it strikes a balance between deepening our understanding of many of the better-known influences on Nietzsche's thought and also opening up many other avenues of exploration, particularly in the human and social sciences. While several recent studies have attended to Nietzsche and science, no other volume brings together so many diverse essays from the leading figures in Nietzsche scholarship in English and German. This work will be invaluable to any scholar interested in Nietzsche, providing, as it does, a new panoramic view of his interactions with the natural and human sciences of the nineteenth century."
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/680289

Nietzsches Wissenschaftsphilosophie. Aktualität, Rezeption und Hintergründe

Frühgriechische Philosophie. (Introduction: Thales to Socrates)

Paul Feyerabend: Naturphilosophie

Der Ursprungsmythos der Vernunft. Zur philosophiehistorischen Genealogie des griechischen Wunders

Die Werte Europas – Verfassungspatriotismus und Wertegemeinschaft in der EU?

Die Werte Europas Verfassungspatriotismus und Wertegemeinschaft in der EU? LIT Verlag Münster -Ha... more Die Werte Europas Verfassungspatriotismus und Wertegemeinschaft in der EU? LIT Verlag Münster -Hamburg -London RNE 31 Die Reihe "Region, Nation, Europa" hat zum Ziel, eine multi-und interdisziplinäre Herangehensweise an diese Fragen vorzustellen und zu begleiten. Damit versucht die Reihe eine komplexe, multidimensionale Sicht auf das Phänomen Europa -die Verbindung von Region, Nation und Europa. Mit der Idee einer europäischen Wertegemeinschaft verbindet sich der Gedanke, das neue Europa der 454,9 Millionen sei mehr als eine bloß ökonomisch und administrativ funktionale Institution. Geteilte Werte könnten zur sozialen Integration beitragen und die EU gründet sich ausdrücklich auf Werte wie Achtung der Menschenwürde, Freiheit, Demokratie, Pluralismus, Toleranz, Solidarität. Aber in welchem Verhältnis steht Europa zu diesen Werten, oder diese Werte zu Europa? Inwiefern können universale Werte zugleich als europäisch gelten? Wie hält es Europa mit christlichen Werten oder anderen normativen Erbschaften? Kann eine Verfassung zur Identitätsbildung beitragen? In dreiundzwanzig z. T. kontroversen Beiträge wird dem Verhältnis von Werten und Europa, von Wert und Gemeinschaft, von Verfassung und Patriotismus aus interdisziplinären Perspektiven und mit bemerkenswerten Ergebnissen nachgegangen.

Quellenforschung als positive Wissenschaft?

Nietzsche als Leser

Vom Kult zum Kapital. Nietzsches Weg zum philosophischen Weltereignis

In: Kult - Kunst - Kapital. Das Nietzsche-Archiv und die Moderne um 1900. Ed.: Ulrike Lorenz & Thorsten Valk (Göttingen: Wallstein), 2020

This paper reconstructs the astounding transformation of Friedrich Nietzsche from a mostly unkno... more This paper reconstructs the astounding transformation of Friedrich Nietzsche from a mostly unknown author to a cultural phenomenon of global significance in the first decades of the 20th century. I focus, firstly, on Nietzsches ambivalent relation to his readers and, secondly, on the cultural and strategic politics of his sister Elisabeth Foerster-Nietzsche and her Nietzsche-Archive. In the following sections I argue that his ongoing topicality derives from the content and style of a philosophy which matches the cultural conditions and tasks of a time, which is basically still ours.

Breakthrough to Transcendence? Three Concepts of Inter-Cultural Philosophy (Leibniz, Hegel, Jaspers)

Existenz. An International Journal in Philosophy, Religion, Politics, and the Arts. Vol. 14/1, 2019

After a brief discussion of G. W. Leibniz' and G. F. W. Hegel's disposition toward Chinese philos... more After a brief discussion of G. W. Leibniz' and G. F. W. Hegel's disposition toward Chinese philosophy, the essay addresses Jaspers' idea of a breakthrough to transcendence in the Axial cultures and questions the relevance of its contribution for the historiography of philosophy. In view of two world wars in the first half of the twentieth century, Jaspers took it upon himself to reconceptualize the idea of a world-history. The Western and Christian traditions could no longer serve as the central axis and needed to be replaced by a global perspective. Historians of philosophy who were dissatisfied with the practice of putting a sole focus on the Greco-Roman tradition in European culture later adopted this idea and challenged the implicit or explicit equation of Western philosophy as being philosophy proper. However, the attempts to establish a Jaspers inspired post-Eurocentric historiography of philosophy met a problem. Jaspers' existentialist assumptions are based on the concept of a global philosophia perennis, which in turn constitutes a universal and unifying standard for evaluation. Any such standard reintroduces what it sought to eliminate. Moreover, Jaspers' pluralism or globalism is limited to the presumed advanced civilizations of India, China, and the West, while other traditions such as African or Native American philosophy are still not being considered. And finally, the Western tradition as a continuous refinement of these Axial beginnings remains authoritative, ironically even its late modern post-colonial subversion.

德国哲学中的中国思想——普世主义，欧洲中心主义，认同政治 [Das chinesische Denken in der deutschen Philosophie. Universalismus, Eurozentrismus, Identitätspolitik]

Book chapter in: in: 胡春春 & 俞宙明HU Chunchun & YU Zhouming (ed.): 德国的“中国能力”与中国的“德国能力” [China-Kompetenz in Deutschland und Deutschland-Kompetenz in China.], 2019

This paper observes a relatively minor role of contemporary Chinese thought in German philosophy ... more This paper observes a relatively minor role of contemporary Chinese thought in German philosophy while the latter enjoys a much more intense reception in China. To account for this asymmetry the paper reconstructs three versions of the reception and appropriation of Chinese philosophy in Germany based on the positions of Leibniz, Hegel and Jaspers, which are characterized by curiosity for the exotic, hegemonic universalism and self-critical Eurocentrism. The anti-Hegelian effort to overcome the world axis of Eurocentrism shows the questionable effort to use the history of philosophy for cultural self-assurance. The discussion about the “German” or “Chinese” philosophy thus leads to an examination of philosophy as a global task beyond the various forms of identity politics.

Humano, demasiado humano, ultrahumano. El desafío de Nietzsche al humanismo

Cuestiones de Filosofía, Vol. 6 – N° 27, 2020

This paper argues that the connection between naturalist and perfectionist aspects in Nietzsche's... more This paper argues that the connection between naturalist and perfectionist aspects in Nietzsche's thought derive from the 'mysterious double-character' of human nature and result in a political anthropology of freedom. The ambition to design an aesthetically approvable character is neither naturally determinated nor morally required, but results from a ‘normative force of the possible’, which can be realized through cultural exercise. Nietzsche's challenge to humanism is an invitation to become better humans.

Protagoras und der Relativismus als epistemische Tugend

Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie 44/2, 2019

By virtue of a contextual interpretation of our few Protagorean fragments, this paper argues that... more By virtue of a contextual interpretation of our few Protagorean fragments, this paper argues that he (in opposition to the Platonic ideal of complete reproduction of absolute certainty) tries to teach virtue and the capacity of judgment through processes of consideration, insight, imitation and practice. Accordingly, his homo-mensura entails a moderate relativism that combines critical self-awareness and the ambition to improve our knowledge with a preference for proliferation of theories. Against stereotypical reservations from Plato to Boghossian, I defend Protagoras position as sustained, attractive, and virtuous epistemic attitude.

Wege zur Metanoia. Nietzsches Signifikanz für die Schriftstellerei in Ost und West

Literaturstrasse. Chinesisch-Deutsches Jahrbuch für Sprache, Literatur und Kultur. Vol. 18/1, 2017

Dieser Text fragt nach den Gründen für das be-sondere Anregungspotential, das Nietzsche unter Lit... more Dieser Text fragt nach den Gründen für das be-sondere Anregungspotential, das Nietzsche unter Literaten entfaltet hat. Der erste Abschnitt analysiert eine diesbezügliche Parallele zwischen der europäischen und der chinesischen Beschäftigung mit seinem Werk. Nietzsche wurde im Westen wie im Osten als grundstürzend, heroisch und befreiend empfunden. An dieser Rezeption haben, wie im zweiten Abschnitt argumentiert wird, nicht nur die Inhalte, sondern auch die For-men seiner Literatur erheblichen Anteil. Anhand seiner Reden über den Tod Gottes wird im dritten Abschnitt gezeigt, dass Nietzsche mit Hilfe unterschiedlicher textueller Strategien bewusst eine Literarisierung der Philosophie betreibt. Diese Strategien versuchen, einen kritischen und transformativen Gedanken nachvollziehbar zu machen, sie sind Wege zur Metanoia. "Mit ‚Zarathustra' gerathe ich nun gar noch unter die ‚Litteraten' und ‚Schrift-steller', und das Band, das mich mit der Wissenschaft verknüpfte, wird als zerrissen erscheinen.-" Mit dieser Bemerkung in einem Brief an Heinrich Kö-selitz (alias Peter Gast) am 17. April 1883 scheint Nietzsche sehr klar eine we-sentliche Facette seiner Wirkungsgeschichte vorhergesehen zu haben. Tat-sächlich übten seine Schriften und seine Persönlichkeit vor allem auch auf Künstler, Autoren, öffentliche Intellektuelle und Feuilletonisten erhebliche Attraktion aus. Die akademische Universitätsphilosophie hingegen tat sich immer wieder schwer mit diesem Dichterphilosophen. Stand Nietzsche schon durch seine Lebensumstände außerhalb der akademischen Netzwerke, so po-sitionierte er sich zudem auch inhaltlich in scharfem Kontrast zur Schulphilo-sophie. Dieser Kontrast konnte leicht mit einer unqualifizierten Abkehr von den Wissenschaften insgesamt verwechselt werden und tatsächlich hat die wissenschaftliche Dimension seiner Philosophie zu selten die gebührende Aufmerksamkeit erfahren. Insofern betont Nietzsche mit Recht, dass seine Verbindung mit der Wissenschaft nicht gar so zerrissen ist wie es scheint, aber er ist dennoch keineswegs zufällig und auch nicht allein aufgrund des Za-rathustra unter die Literaten und Schriftsteller geraten. Fragt man, was Nietzsche unter Dichtern und Romanciers, aber auch un-ter Musikern und Malern verloren hat, so lässt sich zunächst eine interessante Parallele zwischen der europäischen und der chinesischen Beschäftigung mit

Der Mensch als "Gesellschaftsbau" -Nietzsches physio-politische Anthropologie der Freiheit

Internationales Jahrbuch für philosophische Anthropologie. Vol. 7/1, 2017

This paper argues that Nietzsche combines naturalistic motives with a practice of inner-worldly t... more This paper argues that Nietzsche combines naturalistic motives with a practice of inner-worldly transcendence in his of the human. His procedures of naturalization, however, are so specifically Nietzschean, that the label 'naturalism' tends to cause more confusion as it helps to clarify. Moreover, Nietzsche’s anthropology is not just aimed at isolated existences, but takes into account the fundamentally social nature of the human. The social human nature reveals itself not only in higher cultural institutions, such as language, but already in bodily existence as a living and hierarchical organization. Individuation is the product of social organization, due to which the subject has the ability to self-design and self-determination in the first place. Nietzsche is a proponent of a political anthropology of freedom.

Nietzsche et la 'relativisme épistemique'

Nietzsche et la Relativisme, ed. by Paolo Stellino et Olivier Tinland, 2019

This paper reconstructs Nietzsche's role in the history of epistemic relativism and defends his v... more This paper reconstructs Nietzsche's role in the history of epistemic relativism and defends his views as a viable version of reasonable contextualism. After the term 'relativism' was coined by Wilhelm Krug (1838) and August Comte (1855), Nietzsche encountered the notion and the idea in the works of John Stuart Mill, Jean Marie Guyau, Artur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Albert Lange. According to Nietzsche, acknowledging a certain relativism is a necessary and intellectually virtuous conclusion of the critical self-reflection of human reason

'there are no facts ...‘ Nietzsche as Predecessor of Post-Truth?

Studia Philosophica Estonica, 2018

In light of recent political events Nietzsche was (again) charged as proponent of unscrupulous po... more In light of recent political events Nietzsche was (again) charged as proponent of unscrupulous power-politics and as predecessor of "post-truth." A passage from his late notes is notoriously quoted to denounce him as gurehead of relativism, truth-denial and post-factual attitudes: "facts are precisely what there is not, only interpretations." By means of an analysis of this passage and its 19th century contexts, the paper reconstructs Nietzsche's criticism of absolute truth. He problematizes notions of truth on the basis of epistemological, physiological, historical, and sociological considerations, arguing in favour of self-reflexive, pluralistic, and modest epistemic attitudes, which are occasionally associated with relativism. Unlike certain cliché-versions of relativism Nietzsche denies that every "perspective" is equally valid, he develops and employs a variety of interpretational and argumentative standards. These standards are not absolute, but allow human evaluations of knowledge-claims. The proposed alternative between "truth" or "post-truth" construes a false opposition and underestimates the need for informed value-judgments in politics and culture. In conclusion it is argued that prosecutors and defendants of "post-truth" are similarly vulnerable for resentful dogmatic ideologies, because of unwillingness or inability to accept and employ a post-absolutist loss of certainty.

Naturalizing Perspectives. On the Epistemology of Nietzsche's Experimental Naturalizations

Nietzsche-Studien, 2016

This paper argues that Nietzsche indeed pursues a philosophical project of naturalization. But th... more This paper argues that Nietzsche indeed pursues a philosophical project of naturalization. But that neither implies the uncritical adoption of naturalistic doctrines nor that he employs ontological or methodological naturalism in a strict sense of the word. To this end I not only dwell upon the extensive terminological difficulties for any non-empty definition of 'naturalism' but also on Nietzsche's well justified reservations against clear defined doctrines. His naturalizing philosophical experiments cannot be understood without an appreciation of his critical epistemic attitude towards the sciences. A contextual reading of the naturalizing and the critical epistemological aphorisms in the first book of Beyond Good and Evil rather reveals that Nietzsche experimentally adopts naturalizing perspectives for abductive reasons without ascribing a privileged position to the natural sciences above philosophy. Nietzsche's project of naturalization is perspectival.

Angloamerikanische Antworten auf Grundfragen der Nietzsche-Forschung

Nietzsche-Studien, 2016

The paper discusses a selection of recent Anglophone contributions to international Nietzsche-res... more The paper discusses a selection of recent Anglophone contributions to international Nietzsche-research. Manuel Dries & P. J. E. Kail (ed.): Nietzsche on Mind and Nature (Oxford 2015); Maudemarie Clark: Nietzsche on Ethics and Politics (Oxford 2015); Daniel Came (ed.): Nietzsche on Art and Life (Oxford 2014); and Anthony K. Jensen: Nietzsche’s Philosophy of History (Cambridge 2013). While only few papers (e.g. one by Galen Strawson) are found sub-standard, the selection shows a rich variety of productive contributions to many contemporary discussions about Nietzsche. Three general observations are made: 1. Tensions between different schools are particularly vivid in the UK and US. 2. While most papers claim to address the state of debate, many only contrast a very limited selection of peer positions, indicating a certain provincialism. 3. Authors are generally more prepared to exceed reconstructive scholarship and to employ Nietzsche in a creative manner.

Ascese e gaia ciência na "Genealogia Da Moral" de Nietzsche

Kriterion. Revista de Filosofia, 2017

RESUMO Neste artigo argumento que Nietzsche desenvolve a ideia de uma gaia ciência, que afirma a ... more RESUMO Neste artigo argumento que Nietzsche desenvolve a ideia de uma gaia ciência, que afirma a vida, como um possível resultado de uma história cultural do ascetismo e da sublimação. As seções finais da " Genealogia da moral " introduzem uma distinção entre ciência normal e idealista e discutem suas respectivas relações com o ascetismo. A prática do trabalho científico normal e a busca idealista pela verdade revelam, ambas, a falta de ideais autônomos. Uma análise de sua compreensão do conhecimento hipotética e instrumentalista mostra (contra Charles Larmore) que a discussão nietzscheana da verdade não é autorrrefutável. Nietzsche não é um inimigo da ciência, mas afirma uma posição privilegiada para a filosofia na hierarquia das disciplinas em um amplo contexto de emancipação cultural.

Das Subjekt der Befreiung. Identitätskritik bei Adorno und Butler im Lichte Nietzsches

Zeitschrift für kritische Theorie, 2016

Both Theodor W. Adorno and Judith Butler provide severe criticism of traditional essentialist con... more Both Theodor W. Adorno and Judith Butler provide severe criticism of traditional essentialist concepts of conscious subjectivity while at the same time maintaining a project of individual and social emancipation. This paper argues that their respective understandings of 'the subject of emancipation' could be understood better in light of their different engagement with Nietzsche. While Adorno sees the subject in contexts of an economically driven dialectics of enlightenment, Butler provides a linguistically informed deconstruction of essentialist subjectivity. While Adorno might look like falling for naturalism, Butler (despite acknowledging that bodies matter) underestimates the subconscious material features of being-in-the-world and therefore neglects Adorno's idea of consolation between nature and culture.

尼采对西方科学的文化批判 (Nietzsche's Cultural Criticism of Western Science - in Chinese)

Tongji Daxue Xuebao / Journal of Tongji University. Social Science Section (transl. into Chinese by YU Mingfeng), 2017

This paper investigates Nietzsche’s critical reflections upon science in the broad sense of the G... more This paper investigates Nietzsche’s critical reflections upon science in the broad sense of the German word ‘Wissenschaft.’ Nietzsche’s works were perceived in East and West as a composition of severe criticism and intriguing prospects of change and alternative. In a first step the paper reconstructs the role of critic in Nietzsche’s works. Criticism consists of destructive, analytic and prospective aspects, and the balance between them changes in accordance to different topics, needs, and contexts. This also applies to Nietzsche’s philosophy of science, understood as one of the most significant features of Western culture. Nietzsche engagement with science is therefore always embedded within broader contexts of his analysis and criticism of cultural, societal and intellectual values and institutions. In a second step the paper turns to the Nietzsche’s later self-critical preface of his early book on the birth of tragedy, and to his claim that he appreciated the problem of science for the first time. This claim on originality is analysed and defended in the main third part of the paper. Nietzsche lived in a ‘Age of Science.’ The natural sciences rose to cultural hegemony, while historical consciousness and critical self-reflection undermined earlier aspirations on absolute truth and certainty.
The main part of this paper is devoted to a reconstruction of Nietzsche’s philosophy of science n the contexts of his reading and understanding of contemporary science. The 19th century saw the rise of the natural sciences to cultural hegemony and of historical consciousness. Nietzsche’s philosophy of science is shaped by his training in philology in three main regards: He shared the predominant view that Western scientific thought emerged in ancient Greece, he applied historical consciousness to the development and validity of science, and he employed the notion of interpretation to comprehend the construction and reconstruction of (scientific) theories and world-views. Moreover, Nietzsche combined his background in the humanities with a thorough and life-long interest in the natural sciences, as the paper indicates by two significant examples. Nietzsche read several physiological studies, among others by Herman von Helmholtz, and took them as evidence for a constructivist understanding of sensory experience. His reading of Emil du Bois-Reymond and Friedrich Albert Lange provided him with an instrumentalist and anti-absolutist understanding of scientific theories. In the light of these debates, Nietzsche went a step further and brings the not yet questioned culture role of science to the fore. The unique composition of timely and untimely, original and contextual features in Nietzsche’s view provide an inspiring perspective on science in our contemporary world. Nietzsche not only observed the constructive and hypothetical character of our scientific ways of world-making, but invited fundamental contemplation about human goals and the proper role of science in future culture. This does not make him an enemy of science but a demanding friend.

Literatur oder Lehre? Philosophisches Schreiben über und nach Gottes Tod

Katharina Grätz & Sebastian Kaufmann (Eds.): Nietzsche zwischen Philosophie und Literatur. Heidelberg (Winter), 2017

Readers of Nietzsche became more and more aware of the fact that proper understandings of his phi... more Readers of Nietzsche became more and more aware of the fact that proper understandings of his philosophy must take his variety of literary forms into account. Some argue that he does not propose philosophical positions but rather explores self-referential modes of thought and speech to undermine the very idea of doctrines. This paper argues that the apparent tension between Nietzsche’s literary forms and his supposed philosophical positions could be resolved, if we acknowledge how he put his criticism of traditional notions of true teachings into practice. He ‘teaches’ the Death of God as a plausible and intellectually honest assumption, and he tries to convince his readers of its far-reaching implications. Without such guarantor of certainty, the justification and expression of philosophical views must not cease but change. Nietzsche’s literature experimentally explores new modes of philosophical expression.

Reasons for Relativism. Feyerabend on 'the Rise of Rationalism' in Ancient Greece

Abstract : This paper argues that essential features of Feyerabend’s philosophy, namely his radic... more Abstract
: This paper argues that essential features of Feyerabend’s philosophy, namely his radicalization of critical rationalism and his turn to relativism, could be understood better in the light of his engagement with early Greek thought. In contrast to his earlier, Popperian views he came to see the Homeric worldview as a genuine alternative, which was not falsified by the Presocratics. Unlike socio-psychological and externalist accounts my reading of his published and unpublished material suggests that his alternative reconstruction of the ancient beginnings of the Western scientific tradition motivate and justify his moderate Protagorean relativism

Paul Feyerabend. An Historical Philosopher of Nature (with Eric Oberheim)

This piece is the English translation of our introduction to Paul K. Feyerabend: Philosophy of Na... more This piece is the English translation of our introduction to Paul K. Feyerabend: Philosophy of Nature, co-edited with Eric Oberheim.
We show the significance of Feyerabends work on archaic and ancient Greek thought and his engagement with the history of human understanding of nature. The Philosophy of Nature, written in the early 1970s, is a companion book to Against Method. This work not only improves or understanding of Feyerabend intellectual development, but also sheds new light on Western philosophy, history, and science.

Wissenschaftskritik in der Genealogie der Moral. Vom asketischen Ideal zur Erkenntnis für freie Menschen

Critique of Science in the Genealogy of Morals. From the Ascetic Ideal to Knowledge in a Free Soc... more Critique of Science in the Genealogy of Morals. From the Ascetic Ideal to Knowledge in a Free Society.
Departing from a comparison between Nietzsche and Paul Feyerabend, this paper argues that Nietz-sche develops the idea of a life-affirming, artistic, and joyfull science as a possible result of a cultural history of asceticism and sublimation. The closing sections of Genealogy of Morals introduce a distinction between normal and idealist science and discuss their respective relation to asceticism. The practice of normal scientific labour and the idealist quest for truth both reveal the lack of autonomous ideals. An analysis of his hypothetical and perspectival understanding of knowledge-claims shows (against Charles Larmore) that Nietzsche's discussion of truth is neither inconsistent nor self-refuting. Nietzsche is no enemy of science but assumes a privileged position for philosophy in the hierarchy of disciplines within a broader context of cultural emancipation.

Perspectivas Naturalizantes de Nietzsche em ‘Além do Bem e do Mal’

Perspectivas Naturalizantes de Nietzsche em ‘Além do Bem e do Mal’ in: Dossiê Naturalismo, Disser... more Perspectivas Naturalizantes de Nietzsche em ‘Além do Bem e do Mal’ in: Dossiê Naturalismo, Dissertatio - Volume Suplementar 02 | UFPel [2015]

Tradução do original realizado por Leonardo Camacho de Oliveira (Mestre em Filosofia e bacharel em Direito e Filosofia pela UFPel)

O presente volume suplementar da Revista Dissertatio de Filosofia da Universidade Federal de Pelotas, denominado "Dossiê Naturalismo" reúne artigos de diversos autores importantes no cenário contemporâneo sobre Naturalismo. By Juliano do Carmo, Adriano N. De Brito, Helmut Heit, Clademir Araldi, Fabricio Pontin, Jack Ritchie, and Mark Timmons

ABSTRACT: The title of this paper connects two words, which are often applied to Nietzsche's philosophy, but usually not simultaneously, since perspectivism and naturalism are often seen as alternative or even contradictory concepts. While perspectivism is associated with aesthetic, constructivist, Kantian if not relativist and postmodern readings of Nietzsche, the notion of naturalism brings him closer to science, empiricism and realism. Accordingly, many of those who ascribe versions of perspectivism to Nietzsche harbour reservations against naturalistic readings and vice versa. However, this paper argues that Nietzsche neither develops or defends 'naturalism' nor 'perspectivism' in the form of spelled out doctrines or theories. We should be reluctant to apply such apparently strict denominators to his philosophy, since they may well be fundamentally misleading. Moreover, such approaches tend to result in confirming preconceptions rather than generating new ideas. So regarding the question whether Nietzsche should be called a 'naturalist' it seems to me that evil severely outweighs necessity in this case. Nietzsche does not teach doctrines but exemplifies, tests and proposes certain philosophical practices. These philosophical practices contain of naturalistic and perspectival features. He invites his readers to adopt naturalist perspectives and he experimentally explores them in his practical contexts to pursue a certain project. Nietzsche's naturalizing accounts of mind, philosophy, and science, his apparent empiricism, sensualism, and materialism are always counterbalanced by critical epistemology.

On 'Nietzsche and the Sciences'. Programmatic Concerns after Babich and Cohen

Review Essay of Babich and Cohen (eds. 1999): Nietzsche and the Sciences (Boston Studies in the P... more

Nietzsche über Wissenschaft, Metaphysik und Perspektivismus

On: 'Paul K. Feyerabend: Die Vernichtung der Vielfalt. Ein Bericht, Wien 2005'

On: 'Diels (H.) Frühgriechische Philosophie. Vorlesungsmitschrift aus dem Wintersemester 1897/98. Stuttgart 2010'

Eine faszinierende Interpretation der Vorsokratiker. Helmut Heit über die neue Vorsokratiker-Ausgabe von M. Laura Gemelli Marciano

Wie sind Platons Mythen zu verstehen?

Von der Freiheit ... Luthers Annäherung an eine moderne Vision

This talk was delivered to a mainly Chinese audience in the Goethe-Institute Shanghai. It investi... more

Erkenntnis für freie Menschen. Nietzsches kritische Philosophie der Wissenschaften

Invited Talk: Lectio Nietzscheana Naumburgensis (19. Oct. 2014)

Was Nietzsche an Enemy of Science?

Invited Talk at the Instituto Federal Espirito Santo, Linhares/Brazil; 9. Dec. 2014

Tre Anni di Filosofia Occidentale nella Republica Popolare Cinese (italienisch und deutsch)

InCircolo Vol. 16 (Dicembre 2023): 269-277, 2023

The Italien Online-Journal "In Circulo" invited a paper about my experiences teaching and researc... more

Denn ein Übermensch kennt keine Trauer: Nietzsche in China, von Alexander Kissler

This essay by the Alexander Kissler appeared in the renowend journal "Cicero. Magazin für politis... more

Helmut Heit im Gespräch mit Kathrin Wenzel: Deutsches Denken im Reich der Mitte; MDR 2018-01-06

This radio-feature, broadcasted by the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) on Jan. 6th, 2018 contains ... more

Der Denker: Helmut Heit

This short biopic by Andreas Schulte appeared in the journal "Mitbestimmung. Magazin der Hans Böc... more