Nietzsche, Genealogy, Critical Theory

Abstract

tzsche has played in that unwieldy and still growing enterprise called theory? Especially in the wake of the politicized re-openings of the Heidegger case and the de Man case, what should be done with that most difficult Ur-case of all? And how to address the peculiar fact that, unlike the work of any other philosopher considered serious by the academy, Nietzsche in the past twenty years has once again attained an unmatched popular appeal? His books can be found today on the shelves of mass market booksellers who stock few other professional philosophers and in new age and other specialty shops as well. His name will come up in the most unlikely contexts quoted suddenly by avowed Zen fascist John Milius at the opening of his Conan the Barbarian. Meanwhile, Nietzsche remains a crucial figure in the rise of a critical discourse which is constantly chastized both for its subversive intent and for its distance from the non-specialist public sphere. The anomalies of Nietzsche's position in late-capitalist western culture produce strange collaborators. Within the academy, Jfirgen Habermas denounces Nietzsche's influence on his own tradition of