Abstract
BOOK REVIEWS i47 served by Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy. It veers with unnerving speed between the assumption that the reader knows nothing--it is explained at length that Hamburg is an important port 09)--and the assumption that the reader knows a great deal--as when it is flatly stated in a single sentence that there exists a connection between Romanticism and the origins of the term 'nihilism' 029). Inasmuch as the latter is a matter of some considerable import for a nuanced understanding of Schopenhauer , it is a pity to see it mentioned only in passing. With respect to the translation, a certain sympathy with the task Ewald Osers must have faced is unavoidable; indeed, Safranski's style is at once so passionate and so idiosyncratic as to remind one of Hegel's comment about Hamann: "he does not have a style, he /s style." Safranski's besetting sin is an apparently incurable fondness for cumberson metaphorical castles in the air, as when he repeatedly compares Kant's categories of the understanding to a rococo music-box, or when he speaks of "Kant's rococo-like eye-winking epicureanism" (lo5). In fairness it must be remarked that more passion than idiosyncrasy comes through, which is surely to Osers's credit. The most glaring omission in Safranski's book is any mention (either in the text or in the bibliography) of Arthur Hiibscher's Denker gegen den Strom (recently translated as Thinker Against the T/de).4 And with respect to the important philosophical issues, such as the understanding of Romanticism, an appreciation of the philosophical significance of Schopenhauer's contemporaries, especially Fichte and Schelling, and the knowledge of Schopenhauer's philosophical evolution, Hiibscher is indisputably superior. JAMEs SNOW Millsaps College DALE SNOW Loyola Collegein Baltimore Daniel Breazeale, ed. and trans. Philosophyand Truth: Selectionsfrom Nietzsche's Notebooks of the Early 187os. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, Inc., 199o. Pp. lxv + x65. Paper, $15.oo. In view of the fact that Nietzsche's "non-book," The Will to Power, has for a long time been the only easily accessible version of Nietzsche's Nachlass in English translation, the issuing in paperback of these notes from the early 187os is a welcome event. The translation is excellent, and the translator's introduction and explanatory notes intelligent and informative. In particular, Professor Breazeale relates the selected notes to the circumstances of Nietzsche's life and thinking at the time in a way that will be very helpful for readers unfamiliar with the relevant biographical details. His philological skill in dealing with the problems attending the editing of Nietzsche's notes is as effective as it is impressive. The translator's introduction characterizes the selections of Nietzsche's Nachlass that follow as pertaifiing primarily to issues in epistemology, as well as giving us a good idea of Nietzsche's early thinking about the relation of the philosopher to culture--to 4 Trans. J. T. Baer and D. E. Cartwright (Lewistown, NY, 1989). 148 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 30: I JANUARY i99~ art in particular--and to the ancient Greek thinkers. It thus provides a perfect orientation for the sometimes cryptic notes that form the main body of the volume, and is marred only by a few typographical errors that are unexpected in a revised edition. Malwida yon Meysenbug, for example, whose surname often gains an additional "r," in this case loses the "n"; and through inheriting a cedilla, Foucault's name as printed makes him sound--with unfortunate irony--both mad and idiotic. Of the six major sections in the volume, the one that comes closest to being a finished essay is the best known: "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense" (personally I'd prefer to retain the singular of the German "lie"). Aside from the shorter "On the Pathos of Truth," which Nietzsche dedicated to Cosima Wagner, the other main sections are collections of disjointed notes. Even though "On Truth and Lies" has been" so gushed over by would-be deconstructionists and DeManiacs in recent years that it threatens to "disappear under the interpretations," it is still a thought-provoking essay and contains some vintage...
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