Nietzsche and the Project of Bringing Philosophy to an End

Abstract

Nietzsche commentators disagree about most aspects of his thinking — as one would expect — especially about what an Übermensch is supposed to be, what eternal recurrence asserts, whether he had developed or had intended to formulate a full-blown theory of the will to power, as well as what his perspectivism may be said to assert. These are disagreements concerning the substance, goal, and success of Nietzsche’s attempted transvaluation of all values. On the other hand, there is considerably less disagreement about identifying the deconstructive aspect of his work, the sense in which he sought to disentangle Western metaphysics, Christianity, and morality in order to display what he took to be their reactive decadence. Put crudely and misleadingly, there is considerably less disagreement concerning the negative, deconstructive side of Nietzsche’s thinking than there is about the positive, reconstructive side.KeywordsFamily ResemblanceWestern MetaphysicAnimal ConsciousnessTrue WorldEternal RecurrenceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.