Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, German philosophy

I look closely at one passage of the Genealogy of Morals where Nietzsche discusses Kant’s doctrine that the judgement of taste is disinterestedness. I separate Kant's view that the judgement of taste claims universal validity from Kant’s view that the judgement of taste should be impersonal and impartial. I then argue that Nietzsche has an interesting critique of the impersonal and impartial aspect of Kant’s disinterestedness doctrine, as opposed to claim to the universal validity of the judgement of taste. For Kant, the judgement of taste rests on something universal in human nature. So correct judgements of taste, like moral virtue, are available to all. Nietzsche disputes this democratic view. I highlight the distance between Nietzsche's critique and the much less interesting and less plausible views of various relativists, Marxists and feminists who have thought that Kant’s view that the judgement of taste claims universal validity is faulty. But for Nietzsche, this is unproblematic. I then address Nietzsche remarks about erotic beauty, which he contrasts with the pure pleasure in beauty. I show how Nietzsche’s is not criticizing Kant’s account of the pure judgment of taste. He thinks that Kant is right that such pleasures are actual and possible. (Nietzsche is no proto-Freudian.) Nietzsche’s point, however, is to question the Kantian value judgment, which ranks the pure disinterested pleasures above impure interested erotic pleasures. I connect the two themes since, I conjecture, the latter pleasure are the ecstatic pleasures of passionate noble souls who have access to higher beauty. On both these point, Nietzsche poses a profound challenge to Kant.

This essay discusses Swami Vivekananda’s unduly neglected critical remarks on Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophy, which are contained primarily in lectures delivered in America and England between 1895 and 1896.  I argue that Vivekananda, one of the first commentators to critique Schopenhauer’s doctrine of the will from a Vedāntic standpoint, occupies a unique place in the late nineteenth-century reception of Schopenhauer’s philosophy.  To set the stage, I outline briefly in Part I the interpretations of two of Vivekananda’s contemporaries, Paul Deussen and Max Hecker, the pioneers in the field of Schopenhauer’s relation to Indian thought.  In Part II, I discuss Vivekananda’s critical remarks on Schopenhauer’s doctrine of the will and place them in dialogue with the views of Deussen and Hecker.  In contrast to Deussen and Hecker, Vivekananda claims that Schopenhauer equates the will with the noumenal thing in itself.  According to Vivekananda, Schopenhauer’s conception of the will as the noumenal reality is mistaken for two main reasons: first, the will is at least subject to time and hence cannot be identified with the Kantian thing in itself beyond time, space, and causality; second, Schopenhauer’s conception of the will as the noumenal thing in itself conflicts with the soteriological thesis that the will can be transcended through self-denial and asceticism.  Vivekananda also reproaches Schopenhauer for misinterpreting Vedānta, which conceives the noumenal reality not as the evil will but as the transcendental Ātman/Brahman beyond all willing and suffering.  In Part III, I argue that many of Vivekananda’s views on Schopenhauer’s doctrine of the will and its relationship to Vedānta and Buddhism find echoes in recent scholarly interpretations of Schopenhauer’s philosophy.

Friedrich Nietzsche is presented in this essayistic documentary film as a fascinating, questionable and sometimes repulsive philosopher whose influence goes far beyond the boundaries of the academic world. As a representative of perspective thinking he is regarded as a pioneer of modernism and postmodernism. Of utmost importance for his life and work was the tiny Swiss village Sils Maria, the only place that he visited again and again during his nomadic years and where much of his work was created. The film conveys a tangible impression of the area and how this charismatic place must have influenced Nietzsche's thinking and feeling. For the first time in a film are shown some of the scribbled sheets from the time of Nietzsche's mental derangement at the clinic in Jena. The majority of the interviewees in the film are academics related the Nietzsche-Haus in Sils Maria.

“Un giorno, preso dal cruccio, mi scappò di dire che l’arte è una forma della morale, ma non un mezzo morale. Mi si rispose che era una massima oscura”. Nell’oscurità di questa formula riportata nelle Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen c’è tutta l’ambiguità della morale manniana, una morale eteronoma, le cui leggi sono quelle cui l’artista obbedisce nella produzione, nell’obbedienza all’opera. Etica, pessimismo, sacrificio, senso della forma sono, in Thomas Mann, termini difficilmente svincolabili gli uni dagli altri, ricondotti all’“aura etica” di una Heimatsphäre che contempla in sé, insieme al senso più alto dello Humanitätsideal, le declinazioni più oscure o tragiche del nichilismo. L’arte è il luogo privilegiato i cui convergono le antinomie delle spirito, un’arte ‘morale’ e ‘antimorale’, morale per il rigore della forma, la verità dell’espressione che non può darsi senza l’esperienza profonda e radicale di ciò che solo apparentemente le si oppone, senza le estasi erotico-wagneriane di tanti personaggi manniani, senza le irrinunciabili componenti di dilettantismo, malattia e degenerazione, senza, dunque, le implicazioni ‘antimorali’ dell’arte stessa, origine del ‘dolore’ e della ‘grandezza’ che costituiscono la dignità e l’ambiguità dell’attività artistica. Per il ruolo preminente della forma e del rigore strutturale, per la sua specificità metafisica e la potenza dei suoi effetti, la musica è, per Mann, il paradigma, “il più sacro archetipo di ogni arte”, l’arte in cui “la morale diventa forma”.

In der modernen Forschung zu Schopenhauer rücken methodologische und systematische Fragen immer mehr in den Vordergrund, mit besonderem Fokus auf perspektivistische und hermeneutische Momente seiner Philosophie. Michał Dobrzański geht in seinen Untersuchungen einem Problem nach, welches eine wichtige Grundlage für solche Deutungen verschafft – Schopenhauers Begriffslehre. In dem Buch wird sie aus zerstreuten Aussagen des Philosophen rekonstruiert, ausgewertet und dann um die Erörterung seines Philosophiekonzepts ergänzt. Dies bildet die Grundlage zur anschließenden vielseitigen Untersuchung von jenen Aspekten seiner Philosophie, in denen die Thesen seiner Begriffslehre besonders zum Tragen kommen. Spezieller Druck wird hier auf Schopenhauers Methode gelegt, zu deren vollem Bild sein rekonstruiertes Begriffsverständnis einen gehaltvollen Beitrag leistet.

Resumen.
Tanto el tema de la ciencia como la noción de creatividad en Nietzsche no han sido abarcadas con la atención que se merecen. El tema de la ciencia, sin embargo, puede considerarse un hilo de investigación que va llamando la atención de un gran número de  filósofos. La noción de creatividad, por su parte, ocupa, entre otras nociones, un lugar poco conocido dentro de los intereses que giran en torno a la  figura del pensador de Röcken. Así pues, pretendemos desarrollar un estudio del concepto de ciencia en Nietzsche centrándonos en un análisis de su crítica, para posar la mirada en el tema del darwinismo. La creatividad será estudiada a la luz de las obras de Nietzsche y posteriormente en nexo con la ciencia. La relación entre estos temas permite un novedoso acercamiento al estudio de la ciencia en Nietzsche y de esa manera percibir sus posibles consecuencias.

ABSTRACT
This article investigates how Gabriele D’Annunzio’s The Triumph of
Death brings together Nietzsche’s ideas and Wagner’s music and
interweaves them with the motifs of literary Decadence and the
author’s own particular sexual politics. The novel is an experimental
text striving to be a Gesemtkunstswerk, an integrated work that
incorporates music, painting, poetry, regional folklore, and private
thoughts about personal and national power. I discuss the novel’s
themes of violent sexuality and the anxiety of powerlessness and
explore their implications for the fascist political aesthetics in which
D’Annunzio played a pioneering role.

Philosophe le plus lu de la seconde moitié du xixe siècle, Schopenhauer est-il toujours bien compris ?
On le caricature souvent en vieillard acariâtre, chantre du pessimisme, aimant les bêtes bien plus que les hommes…
Ce livre entend dépoussiérer cette image d’Épinal afin de mettre au jour, à travers le récit de sa vie et le développement de sa pensée, les raisons profondes que l’on peut avoir de lire et d’aimer encore une telle philosophie.
À la croisée de la biographie et de la philosophie, voici réunies dans un même ouvrage introductif toutes les clés pour devenir un intime de Schopenhauer et de son oeuvre.

Im Sommer 1875 notiert Nietzsche in seinem Tagebuch: "Socrates, um es nur zu bekennen, steht mir so nahe, dass ich fast immer einen Kampf mit ihm kämpfe" (NL 1875, KSA 8, S. 97). Dies lässt sich in gleicher Weise über die jeweils verehrende, herausfordernde und konfliktgeladene Beziehung Nietzsches zu Wagner und Schopenhauer behaupten. Im Laufe seines Lebens hat Nietzsche sich unablässig mit der Aufgabe der Philosophie befasst, die er in seinen späten Werken als seine selbstgestellte Aufgabe bezeichnet und auf die prägnante Formel einer "Umwertung aller Werte" bringt. Seine Auseinandersetzung mit Wagner und Schopenhauer spielt dabei eine maßgebliche Rolle. Entscheidend ist Nietzsches Abkehr von beiden, die sich zwischen 1877-1881 vollzieht. Wie er 1886 in der Vorrede zur zweiten Auflage von MA schreibt, sind dies die Jahre der "großen Loslösung": Sie ist eine Krankheit zugleich, die den Menschen zerstören kann, dieser erste Ausbruch von Kraft und Willen zur Selbstbestimmung, Selbst-Werthsetzung, dieser Wille zum freien Willen: und wie viel Krankheit drückt sich an den wilden Versuchen und Seltsamkeiten aus, mit denen der Befreite, Losgelöste sich nunmehr seine Herrschaft über die Dinge zu beweisen sucht! (MA I, KSA 2, S. 16f.)

Avec André Bayrou (CPGE lycée Carnot), Hélène Gravier (CPGE Georges de la Tour), Philippe Quesne (CPGE Henri 4) et Fanny Vernay (CPGE Jules Garnier)
nous publions ce volume consacré au programme de lettres-philo des CPGE scientifiques 2021, "La force de vivre" (Hugo, Nietzsche, Alexievitch).
Un ouvrage à destination des étudiants, étudiantes, collègues enseignants ou enseignantes, membres de jury (et de toute personne intéressée)... conçu et utile à la fois pour l'introduction, les repères, l'approfondissement et les révisions du thème.
- Cours synthétique sur les trois œuvres
- Citations commentées à mémoriser
- Réseau de mots-clés et de références culturelles, selon 5 axes
- Méthodologie de la dissertation, pas à pas
- Grille de compétences
- 20 sujets intégralement rédigés
- Sujets pour s’entraîner

Resumo: O trabalho proposto intenta analisar a teoria da tragédia em Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) e a concepção do nascimento da tragédia em Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) para, em seguida, estabelecer um estudo comparativo de alguns de seus elementos primordiais. Entram em exame concepções como a importância da razão em ambos, o problema da liberdade, o belo, o sublime e o herói. Busca-se compreender, também, a influência de Kant na construção do pensamento estético do primeiro autor, e um possível contraponto do segundo com esta.

The first time that Nietzsche crossed the path of Dostoevsky was in the winter of 1886–87. While in Nice, Nietzsche discovered in a bookshop the volume L’esprit souterrain. Two years later, he defined Dostoevsky as the only psychologist
from whom he had anything to learn. The second, metaphorical encounter between Nietzsche and Dostoevsky happened on the verge of nihilism. Nietzsche announced the death of God, whereas Dostoevsky warned against the danger
of atheism.
This book describes the double encounter between Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. Following the chronological thread offered by Nietzsche’s correspondence, the author provides a detailed analysis of Nietzsche’s engagement with Dostoevsky from the very beginning of his discovery to the last days before his mental breakdown. The second part of this book aims to dismiss the wide-spread and stereotypical reading according to which Dostoevsky foretold and criticized in his major novels some of Nietzsche’s most dangerous and nihilistic theories. In order to reject such reading, the author focuses on the following moral dilemma: If God does not exist, is everything permitted?

Secara filosofis, Pesimisme adalah gagasan/pandangan hidup yang memandang dunia yang terhadap pandangan/gagasan anti-optimis. Bentuk pesimisme bukan disposisi emosional seperti pada umumnya yang diketahui orang banyak (karena istilahnya "pesimis). Sebaliknya, itu adalah filsafat atau pandangan dunia yang secara langsung menantang gagasan kemajuan yang dianggap klaim berbasis optimisme agama.

An introductory essay to the 3-volume work 'The Philosophy of the Unconscious' ('Die Philosophie des Unbewusstseins') of Eduard von Hartmann. Edouard d'Araille takes a brief survey of von Hartmann's life and thought, in particular the "philosophy of the unconscious" which would make von Hartmann a household name both in Germany and abroad (including in England). This ambitious work extends upon the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer's system (set forth in most detailed fashion within 'The World as Will and Representation') whilst also being inspired by the triad of Post-Kantians F.W.J. von Schelling, J.G. Fichte and G.W.F. Hegel. Hartmann transforms Schopenhauer's concept of the 'Will' into his own, related idea, of the 'Unconscious', forming an interesting bridge between the ideas of one strand German Idealism and Sigmund Freud's psychology of the Sub-Conscious. This essay only provides a brief sketch of von Hartmann's philosophy, but enough so as to appreciate its importance in the evolution of thought. The essay also touches upon the pessimism which was at the heart of von Hartmann's philosophy, which he shared above all with Schopenhauer himself. The essay is followed by a four page Bibliography of von Hartmann's major work (including translations) and reference is also made to some books and article written about him.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950) formulated their theories of the Will to Power and līlā, respectively, in the context of a distinctly modern cross-cultural conversation about the nature and value of existence. Each philosopher responds to global trends in modern intellectual history, particularly metaphysical idealism, Romanticism, Orientalism, and Darwinism. Nietzsche and Aurobindo were well versed in one another’s traditions: the milieu of the German Oriental Renaissance influenced Nietzsche, while Aurobindo engaged with the Indian Renaissance a century later. The ideologies of these movements are connected. Both thinkers react to prominent movements of idealism and pessimism by formulating “life-affirming” philosophies. Nietzsche deploys the Will to Power as a unifying theory that affirms the phenomenal world metaphysically by justifying realism, and affirms life ethically by justifying revaluation and self-overcoming. Aurobindo deploys līlā as a unifying theory that affirms the phenomenal world metaphysically and ethically in strikingly similar ways. Taken in context, their parallel arguments reflect not a coincidence, but a shared response to a modern intellectual predicament.

Nietzsche’s fascination for Bizet’s opera is not the outcome of an accidental caprice. We shall look for the metaphoric illustrations of his philosophical thinking contained in this opera– which was not intended to be Nietzschean at all – and which are the canters that emanate fascination and horror towards the audience, but have inspired the philosopher as well.

Nietzsche thinks health and strength are essential for the progress of culture, society and 'the type "man"' (BGE 62). He argues that such progress is inhibited by our contemporary life-denying value system. This is because contemporary morality is steeped in Judeo-Christian thinking which, Nietzsche says, represents a hatred of all things healthy, strong and powerful. This paper examines the arguments which Nietzsche gives in support of this view. I first introduce Nietzsche's concept of the 'will to power'. I then present the dimensions on which Christian morality and the impulses of the will to power intersect and lead to the degeneration of life. These are the ways in which Nietzsche thinks Christianity 'sickens', or 'weakens', people. I aim to present the feeling of powerless hatred, or 'ressentiment' as the unifying feature of Nietzsche's critique of Christian morality. I conclude by outlining Nietzsche's method for '*f+reedom from ressentiment' (EH Why I am so Wise: 6).

Nietzsche leu esse ensaio em sua versão francesa em Nice, nos primeiros meses de 1888, imediatamente após os malfadados esforços empreendidos com vistas à produção de sua planejada obra Vontade de poder: ensaio de uma transvaloração de todos os valores, e que haviam resultado finalmente no abandono deste projeto por parte do filósofo. Nos fragmentos póstumos 11 [236] a 11 [282] de novembro de 1887 - março de 1888, o filósofo resume, toma notas, copia e traduz diversas passagens de Ma Religion, e, em alguns momentos, faz esboços e tentativas de interpretação das idéias expostas na obra. Esse material serviu como base para diversos elementos da crítica ao cristianismo feita em O Anticristo.

Resumen

Schopenhauer, pese a la reticencia de Freud en reconocer estos “prestamos inconfesables”, se anticipó a Freud en medio siglo. En Schopenhauer aparece por vez primera una filosofía explícita del inconsciente y del cuerpo. Schopenhauer procede de los “años salvajes de la filosofía”, pese a su  enemistad con el Romanticismo, en el convergen muchas de estas ideas convirtiéndolo, tal vez a su pesar, en un insospechado heredero de un legado del que se convierte en mediador –a través de Nietzsche (y Freud) a importantes corrientes de pensamiento del siglo XX.  Schopenhauer nada contra la corriente de su tiempo: no le anima el placer de la acción, sino el arte del nirvana. Este filósofo de lo irracional, diseña una filosofía de la contemplación, que invita a inhibir la acción o suprimir el deseo-  Su sueño es un mundo transformado en el espejo “desinteresado”de la música.   

Palabras Clave: voluntad, psicoanálisis, inconsciente, represión, eros, mundo.

Dr. Adolfo Vásquez Rocca

Nietzsche’s view of suicide is a topic which in the last years has been the focus of works such as Julian Young’s and Paul S. Loeb’s. Within this context, this paper seeks to add new elements to the discussion. To this purpose, Nietzsche’s attitude to suicide will be explored from two different points of view. The first part of the paper focuses on the distinction between voluntary (free) and involuntary (natural) death. Nietzsche’s appraisal of both will be scrutinized. In particular, through the comparison with the Classical and, especially, Stoic philosophy and through the critique of the religious (particularly Christian) conception of death, it will be shown, among other things, that Nietzsche defends the rationality of suicide, presents a view of voluntary death as emptied of morality and fights against the Christian denaturalization of suicide. In the second part of the paper, suicide will be considered from a philosophical-existentialist viewpoint, that is, as a possible consequence of the meaninglessness of human existence. The problem is to judge whether life is or is not worth living in a world devoid of meaning and purpose. Nietzsche’s attitude to suicide will be analyzed in a chronological way (early, middle and late Nietzsche). Special attention will be given to the role played by art. The relevant conclusion is that, although in different ways, Nietzsche gives an affirmative answer to the question whether life is worth living in a world devoid of meaning and purpose.

Se o cristianismo representa a negação absoluta da vida, então é somente mediante uma maldição plena e absolutamente radical do cristianismo que a vida pode ser afirmada de uma maneira igualmente plena e absolutamente radical, pois é somente pelo combate que a vida se supera, e quanto maior o inimigo, maior a superação.

MORAES, E. C. Além da metafísica e do niilismo: a sabedoria trágica de Nietzsche.

Dissertação (Mestrado em Filosofia), Universidade Federal de Goiás. 2013.

Esta dissertação de mestrado tem por objetivo refletir sobre a filosofia de Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), compreendida como tentativa de superação tanto da metafísica quanto do niilismo. Destaca-se a valorização nietzschiana de um pensamento dotado de senso histórico, fiel ao devir ininterrupto do real, o que implica em uma cosmovisão
semelhante à de Heráclito. Defende-se que a posição peculiar de Nietzsche na história da filosofia moral consiste na análise crítica da multiplicidade de diferentes valorações morais, sempre remetidas a suas fontes humanas (demasiado humanas). Através da atenção às circunstâncias e condições de surgimento, desenvolvimento e ocaso dos diversos ideais, valores morais e doutrinas religiosas, procuramos mostrar como Nietzsche constitui uma filosofia que rompe com a noção de valores divinos e imutáveis, além de des-estabilizar crenças em verdades absolutas. De modo a ilustrar o método genealógico nietzschiano em operação, investigam-se fenômenos como o ressentimento e o ascetismo, re-inseridos no fluxo histórico e compreendidos a partir de seus pressupostos psicológicos, fisiológicos e sócio-políticos. Com base em ampla pesquisa bibliográfica da obra de Nietzsche e comentadores (como Jaspers, Wotling, Rosset, Giacoiua, Moura, Ferraz, dentre outros), argumenta-se que a filosofia nietzschiana realiza uma ultrapassagem da cisão platônico-cristã entre dois mundos, além de uma superação do dualismo entre corpo e espírito. Procura-se descrever como a filosofia anti-idealista de Nietzsche, avessa ao absolutismo e ao  sobrenaturalismo, age como uma “escola da suspeita”, convidando-nos a um filosofar liberto de subserviência,
credulidade e obediência acrítica à tradição. Explora-se também a temática da “morte de Deus” e da derrocada dos valores judaico-cristãos, além da concomitante escalada do
niilismo, no contexto de uma filosofia que busca sugerir e abrir novas vias para a aventura humana ao mobilizar conceitos como amor fati, além-do-homem e “fidelidade à terra”. Nietzsche é compreendido não somente em seu potencial crítico, demolidor da tradição idealista e metafísica, mas também como criador de uma sabedoria trágica e dionisíaca que se posiciona nas antípodas tanto dos ideais ascéticos quanto dos ideários niilistas.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Friedrich Nietzsche, Sabedoria Trágica, Crítica à Metafísica, Niilismo, Ética.

L’analisi dei principali temi della filosofia di Nietzsche conduce all’individuazione della nozione di forza come elemento centrale delle sue riflessioni. Egli la incorpora ed utilizza filosoficamente, in periodi diversi, per la definizione di teorie centrali quali l’eterno ritorno, la volontà di potenza e il prospettivismo conoscitivo. L’assimilazione di questa nozione – come è stato osservato in passato – può essere riportata alla sua lettura nel 1873 della Theoria philosophiae naturalis del matematico Ruggero Boscovich.
Attraverso una dettagliata analisi del materiale postumo oltre che del contesto delle discussioni scientifiche dell’epoca, questo studio si propone di chiarire nella maniera più esaustiva fino a che punto il sistema di Boscovich e, più in generale, la visione dinamica del mondo in esso delineata abbiano influito sul pensiero nietzscheano, con la precisa finalità di restituire nella sua complessità il rapporto di Nietzsche con questa figura.

La Genealogia della morale si presenta al lettore come un compatto ma articolato crocevia di temi e di problematiche del pensiero di Friedrich Nietzsche. L'opera è caratterizzata da una particolare unità tematica, ma è al tempo stesso ricca di spunti che offrono accessi a questioni di non secondaria importanza e che, nel loro complesso, definiscono la trama di un pensiero che manifesta la propria ricchezza e originalità al lettore più accorto. Di tale ricchezza rende conto il presente volume, attraverso una serie di incursioni nel testo di Nietzsche che, illuminando alcuni passaggi cruciali della Genealogia della Morale, rendono conto della rilevanza filosofica di quest'opera e del ruolo che essa gioca nella storia del pensiero occidentale.

The World as Will and Representation is the major achievement of Schopenhauer’s life, and the backbone of his intellectual career. In 1844 he published a revised and extended edition of it, and now added a whole second volume of ‘supplementary’ essays. It is this second volume, even longer than the first, that we have here in translation. In 1859, the year before he died, Schopenhauer revised both volumes for a final time, making many further additions.