Nietzsche Research Articles

“The dead do not negotiate”: Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, and Britain’s obsession with history

ABSTRACT Why do we remember the dead with such intensity in Britain, as if they were still among us? I argue that Hilary Mantel makes a critical intervention in this debate with her historical fictions Wolf Hall (2009), Bring Up the Bodies (2012) and The Mirror and the Light (2020). Her novels are theoretical and political interventions that allow us to critically evaluate historiographic, heritage and commemorative practices in contemporary Britain. I argue that they demonstrate the harmful consequences of commemorations centred around the continuous revival of the dead, because this practice justifies injuries against and negligence of the living through an appeal to imagined ancestors, who cannot engage in compromise or change their minds. This mode of knowing the past results in social standstill and the perception of social and political change as a threat. Thinking through the characteristics of this historical epistemology with Martin Davies, Walter Benjamin and Friedrich Nietzsche, I go on to argue that Hilary Mantel’s intervention exposes the violent consequences of such a mode of knowing the past and proposes a radical alternative: rather than negotiating with the dead, it reminds us to focus on the needs of the vulnerable living in the present.

The Policing Animal: Towards a Critique of Punitive Humanism

Abstract: This article uncovers, analyzes, and critiques a common yet under-examined trend in the history of Western political thought: punitive humanism, the belief that human beings are "naturally" punitive. Engaging with different iterations of punitive humanist thought in the writings of John Locke, Immanuel Kant, and Jeremy Bentham, I argue that this belief has wide-ranging implications, and constitutes a particular challenge to abolitionist theory and practice. I use the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, particularly his conceptualization of ressentiment , to elaborate a critique of punitive humanism, one which resonates with and provides valuable theoretical material for contemporary abolitionist thought.

Concept of ressentiment by Max Scheler and its contemporary relevance

The article deals with Max Scheler's philosophical concept of ressentiment. In “Ressentiment in the Structure of Morals”, he uses Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of "ressentiment" to describe an important negative phenomenon in modern moral and culture in general. The article shows that Max Scheler's descriptive method organically grows out of the phenomenological philosophy of Edmund Husserl and at the same time imitates some specific features of Wilhelm Diltai's descriptive and analytical psychology. On the basis of this methodological approach, Max Scheler does not explain ressentiment and does not give a clear definition of this concept, but instead reproduces its formation in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and describes the phenomenon of ressentiment. Using the descriptive method, Scheler concludes that ressentiment is related to the desire for revenge and feelings of powerlessness. He also describes the different dimensions of ressentiment, which can be formulated as follows: Kinship and sexual dimension. Age dimension. Professional dimension. Class dimension. There is also noted in the article that Scheler demonstrates national ressentiment rather than critically analyzes it. This circumstance to some extent brings to light the Zeitgeist, i.e. the spirit of time, when authoritarian and totalitarian ideologies and regimes such as Russian Bolshevism and German Nazism were formed, being undoubtedly feed by the destructive energy of resentment. The author of the article also discovers a connection between Scheler's concept of ressentiment and Freud's concept of suppression. The study shows how, on the theoretical basis of Max Scheler's concept of ressentment, it is possible to critically deconstruct not only such historical manifestations of ressentiment as Bolshevism and Nazism, but also some dangerous and destructive trends in the modern world, namely the ideology of the "Russian world" (“Russkii mir”).

Walking-Derived Metaphysics in Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”

Friedrich Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, the protagonist of his most famous book, can be regarded as a philosopher who works towards becoming a sage—something that, towards the end of the narrative, ultimately seems to happen. Over the course of the account, he travels between his lonely cave and human society several times, walking up and down a mountain. In this article, I focus on how Nietzsche describes those walks using language that breaks with Cartesian dualism through its employment of such expressions as “lead-drop thoughts.” As a systematic frame of reference intended to support the analysis of these descriptions, I make use of Antoni Kempinski’s concept of energetic-informational metabolism. Then, motivated by the preceding observations, I outline the philosophico-therapeutic hypothesis of a human transformation taking place as a two-phase procedure: (1) replacing the view of Cartesian dualism with what I call the “theatre of forces,” and (2) “de-selfing” the stage, or regarding this theatre as impersonal. Finally, reaching out to a Buddhist philosophical conception of the impersonal, I consider the possibility of a metaphysics entirely derived from sensations.

The Perception of Socrates' Ethics in F. Nietzsche's Moral Philosophy: Overcoming Metaphysics and its "Eternal Recurrence"

The subject of the study is to consider the perception of Socrates' ethics in Nietzsche's philosophy as a theoretical basis for the formation of the key provisions of Nietzsche's philosophy of morality, in particular, possible elements of metaphysical thinking in these provisions. Nietzsche's critical argumentation in relation to the philosophical views of Socrates was considered as the basis for the key provisions of Nietzsche's moral philosophy, particularly in the aspect of its connection with the question of metaphysics. The focus of the author's research is the analysis of the perception of Socratic ideas in the context of criticism of Nietzsche's project of metaphysics through the prism of morality: the idea of self-overcoming and the increasing will to power turn out to be the basis for understanding Nietzsche's new project in moral philosophy. The research methodology includes theoretical methods, historical-philosophical and ethical-philosophical analysis of the consideration of Socrates’ ethics by Nietzsche, and the influence of this consideration on the ethical position of the latter. As a research basis, the article uses the approaches of J. Deleuze, L. Klages, A.F. Losev, L. Shestova, V.M. Bakuseva. The novelty of the article lies in tracing the influence of Socratic ethics on Friedrich Nietzsche's formulation of the moral problem, especially in the aspect of the question of metaphysics in Nietzsche's ethical thought (both criticism of metaphysics and the continuation of some lines of the metaphysical tradition). The first line of Nietzsche's criticism of Socratic philosophy was to identify the influence of Socrates on the emergence of European nihilism. Nietzsche's second thought, in relation to Socrates, concerned the "theoretical man".The third idea, which can be designated as one of the most important features of Nietzsche's moral philosophy, was the idea of self-overcoming.

Cultural Heritage of Europeism in Georgian Publicist and Artistic Texts

Due to historical ill-fate, Georgia found itself cut off from European civilization and culture for a long time. The catastrophe caused by the fall of Constantinople in the 15th century placed Georgia under an aggressive Islamic siege, posing a mortal threat to the existence of its nation-state and at the same time cutting the spiritual and cultural arteries that historically connected Georgia with Europe. The process of “re-Europeanization” (Siradze, 2008, p. 213) was first systematically revealed in the Georgian writing of the so-called “transitional century” (the turn of the 18th-19th centuries) and spread in all spheres of life throughout the 19th century. It should be emphasized that for our leaders, Europeanism was essentially not a matter of social-cultural orientation or vector, but the return of Georgian culture to its native bosom, native living and mental space, the restoration of the natural path of development. The 19th century saw great interest in Europe and its literature. The term "Europeanism" has been established since the 1850s. As for the content of the term itself, when defining the essence of Europeanism, we rely mainly on the point of view of Friedrich Nietzsche that Europe, as a term denoting culture, refers to those peoples who have a common past with the Greek and Roman civilizations, in the form of the Bible and Christianity. If we take into account Nietzsche’s definition and compare it with the history of Georgia, it is easy to see that we really have reason to call ourselves Europeans. First of all. The present work is aimed at studying and fully presenting the history of European-Georgian relations; the role and significance of translation, journalism and fiction in bringing Georgia closer to Europe; the turning of the viewpoint of Georgian society towards European ideals and the struggle for the establishment of the cultural traditions of Europeanism.

Nietzschean Themes in Béla Tarr's The Turin Horse

Béla Tarr's last feature film The Turin Horse (2011) begins with a prologue that narrates Friedrich Nietzsche's mental breakdown in Turin in 1889, which was allegedly prompted by his witnessing a cab driver brutally whipping his horse. Nietzsche's name is not mentioned again in the film, and the viewer is left wondering what connection, if any, exists between the Nietzsche story and the film's narrative. Scholars often refer to one or another aspect of Nietzsche's philosophy when analysing Tarr's film. Yet, to date, no comprehensive study has been devoted to exploring the connection between The Turin Horse and Nietzsche's philosophy. This article seeks to fill this gap in the literature. The first section examines the connection between the prologue and the film. In the second section, attention is given to the most evident connection between Tarr's film and Nietzsche's philosophy, namely the use of circularity and repetition in The Turin Horse and Nietzsche's idea of the eternal recurrence of the same. The third section interprets the neighbour's monologue in light of Nietzsche's death of God. Finally, the fourth section is devoted to nihilism.

‘The coldest of all cold monsters’: Friedrich Nietzsche as a constitutional theorist

‘The coldest of all cold monsters’: Friedrich Nietzsche as a constitutional theorist

Nietzsche and the Mysticism of Apotheosis

Abstract This paper argues that Friedrich Nietzsche was a mystic and that his post-Gay Science (1882) thought should be understood as an unfolding expression of his mystical experiences. Drawing on Nietzsche’s Nachlass (notes), letters, and published writings, I show that he undoubtedly had at least two major mystical experiences and that these experiences were the source of all the cardinal motifs of his later thought. The apparent tensions or paradoxes between Nietzsche’s cardinal teachings, above all that between the superman and the eternal recurrence, are resolved once they are understood as products of a mystical epistemology derived from an intuitive source of knowledge purportedly beyond the dualities intrinsic to ordinary modes of cognition. This intuitio mystica, which Nietzsche declared to be the real purpose of all philosophy, is coextensive with a type of mysticism I call apotheosis, based on the individual ego’s identification with a unity underlying all reality.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s Philosophy of Übermensch (Overman) and Muhammad Iqbal’s Philosophy of Insan-i-Kamal (Perfect Man): Comparative Analysis

The aim of this paper is to highlight the concept of man in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and Mohammad Iqbal and present the comparative analysis of both philosophers. Nietzsche introduced the idea of Übermensch (Overman or Superman) in his philosophy of human person in which all humans are called to become superman (Übermensch). For Nietzsche the exemplary human being is Übermensch which must be crafted through self-realization. As individual man must know, improve and master himself in order to live meaningful and fruitful life. While, Mohammad Iqbal centers his philosophy of human person around the idea of khudi (selfhood). By realizing his khudi man can become perfect man (Insan-i-Kamal). His perfect man is embodiment of divine qualities and characteristics. This paper discusses the thoughts and views of Nietzsche and Iqbal regarding the philosophy of human person.

The Apolline, the Dionysiac, and Spectatorship in Punchdrunk’s Masked Performances

Two key trends stand out within recent scholarship on spectatorship in immersive performance. The first is methodologically driven and falls into the theatre and performance studies sub-field of audience studies and considers individual audience experiences of performance. The second is theoretically driven and uses Jacques Rancière’s The Emancipated Spectator as an interpretative lens through which to consider audience experience in general, specifically in terms of agency. Here, I argue that the time has come to introduce additional rubrics for the analysis of spectatorship in immersive theatre, to further discussion and to add a new dimension to our understanding of the phenomenon. To do so, I attempt to unify the methodologically driven with the theoretically driven and propose a new rubric for the analysis of spectatorial experience of immersive performance based upon Friedrich Nietzsche’s notion of the Apolline and the Dionysiac as articulated in The Birth of Tragedy. I take Punchdrunk’s 2013–14 production The Drowned Man as a paradigmatic example and analyse the co-presence of the Apolline and Dionysiac drives at the point of reception. I utilise a mixed-method approach to surveying the audience experience of three key components of performance, namely scenographic engagement, large-scale, crowd-drawing choreographic sequences, and one-on-one experiences, and suggest that audience records of satisfying moments of performance reflect a balancing of the Apolline and the Dionysiac, whereas frustrating experiences reflect an imbalance. Overall, I argue that by continuing the tradition of developing Nietzsche’s binary to understand contemporary practice we gain an additional tool that holds productive possibilities for unpicking how and why moments of immersive performance might be particularly alluring or, conversely, frustrating for difference audiences.

Culture and Morality in the Nineteenth Century: The Origins of Modern European Tolerance

This publication aims to analyze the economic, social, and cultural phenomena that first appeared in the "era of revolutions" that occurred in the nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. The modern European trend toward tolerance, which is the basis of current social and cultural changes, including in our country, has specific intellectual grounds. The subject of the study was the ideosphere of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including philosophical, economic, and psychological concepts that gave rise to modern trends in these areas. The result of this study was the determination of the reasons that caused the change of the ideological paradigm in Europe. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that, for the first time, the intellectual foundations of the formation of tolerance as an actual socio-cultural phenomenon are analyzed. This article consistently proves that among the first such grounds, it is possible to determine the emergence of machine production and, as a result, the appearance of a mass person with a culture corresponding to them, performing a compensatory and entertaining function. The most important cultural foundation is mainly the intellectual "background" created by the teachings of Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud. The ideas of Anglo-American pragmatism played a significant role in forming a new morality, which included the denial of religion and its values, giving it a utilitarian character. During the subsequent historical period and at present, these views have become the basis for the creation of the so-called "individual faith," in which religion ceases to be the guide of human life but only serves the needs of the individual. The desacralization of religion leads to the study of different aspects of sexuality, which opens up the possibility for modern thinking about gender. The concept of "natural law" should also be attributed to the intellectual factors of the formation of modern European tolerance.

Shaw's Man and Superman and the Don Juan Legend

As seen from the point of view of the dramatist Bernard Shaw, Don Juan is portrayed in his play Man and Superman as a public figure of a womanizer who has appeared in multiple literary works. Ultimately, it tells the story of Superman in terms of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. By illuminating the thought of Superman, the author seeks to discover the significance of the myth of Don Juan. This study shows that John Tanner, the play's hero, and Don Juan Tenorio are two characters merged into one character. The two characters represent the idea of Superman from different points of view. Through his permissiveness in his everyday life, John Tanner shows his thoughts about Superman. John Tanner is the embodiment of the Superman idea. He is a modified version of Superman. In the meantime, Don Juan Tenorio has become the spokesperson for the Superman idea. His image of Superman reflects Nietzsche's idealized perception. In the long dialogue during the hell scene, he discusses the idea of Superman. Don Juan Tenorio represents what Superman thinks, whereas John Tanner represents what Superman does.

Nacjonalizm jako manipulacja zbiorowymi wyobrażeniami (stereotypami) o swoich i obcych w „Megalomanii narodowej” Jana Stanisława Bystronia

The research purpose of the article is to analyse Jan Stanisław Bystroń’s research on collective imaginaries of one’s own people and strangers, on the basis of which he formulated an original perspective on the perception of nationalism. The research question is as follows: What is nationalism in the views of Bystroń? He was one of the first scholars to point out that nationalism boils down to the manipulation of collective imaginaries that are the source of prejudice. His National Megalomania (1924) can be considered a forerunner of research on stereotypes. The research purpose of the article is also to point out that his comments on national megalomania preceded the theories on collective narcissism formulated in the 1970s by Erich Fromm and Theodor W. Adorno. They are to this day analysed in scholarly literature, also in the context of research on nationalism. These analyses indicate that the source of narcissism is ressentiment. This concept of Friedrich Nietzsche is also used in theories about nationalism, so it was also included in the analysis of nationalism in this article. Bystroń’s research was interdisciplinary in nature, which allowed him to point out a new and, in many points, pioneering perspective on the perception of nationalism. Research on his work also requires an interdisciplinary approach. For this reason, the study uses references to theories from a wide spectrum of social and humanistic research. As a result, it was possible to interpret Bystroń’s contribution to the study of nationalisms from a broader perspective.

Атеология Жоржа Батая и негативная суверенность

The article presents a brief essay on the analysis of three key concepts in the philosophy of Georges Bataille – heterology as the logic of exclusion, (a-)theology as an atheistic understanding of the death of God and the concept of ‘negative’ or ‘sacrificial’ Sovereignty. It seems that the key to understanding the various and heterogeneous philosophical, literary-poetic, cultural-anthropological and socio-economic concepts of the French thinker is the prism of the heterological logic of exclusion, which opposes the internalization of the dominant ontological discourse. The heterology or ‘logic of exclusion’ used by Georges Bataille, is not so much a negative version of the traditional logic of ‘inclusion’, but is a logic of alternative extremes. It is precisely by striving to overcome the dominant metaphysical universalism of the general order of being (embodied, according to Bataille, in the concept of ‘being’ / ‘die Existenz’ in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger). In an effort to overcome the dominant metaphysical universalism of the general order of being, Bataille turns to various kinds of ‘denials’ and extremes – the left sacred or the sanctity of ‘foulness’, the metaphorical of the disgusting, erotic and violent forms of transgression, the cultivation of the experience of inner abandonment and ultimate despair, and, also, to his own concept of ‘sacrifice’, serving as a guide to the world of sovereign domination. Thus, developing his concept of metaphysical ‘sovereignty’, Bataille turns not only to the existential, but also to the political sphere, largely contrasting his ‘metaphysics of sacrifice’ with the concept of ‘metaphysical domination’ of the German political and legal theorist Carl Schmitt. The nihilistic energy drawn from Friedrich Nietzsche and the ‘metaphysical negation’ taken from Hegel’s dialectic through the interpretation of Alexander Kozhev is used by Bataille for the purposes of his own ‘heterological’ logic of exclusion, desubjectivization and dissolution. However, negation for Bataille is not a target for itself, but a methodological tool on the way to the ‘Other’ excluded from any ontosemantic order.

The Phenomenon of Loneliness in the Context of Philosophical-Religious Ideology

This article explores the phenomenon of loneliness in the context of a philosophical and religious worldview. The authors analyze the relationship between loneliness and religious experience, and also explore how religious and philosophical ideas and practices can influence the experience and overcoming of loneliness. The article outlines the main provisions of various philosophical and religious trends related to the phenomenon of loneliness. Considers the contribution of authors such as Martin Buber, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre and others in understanding loneliness and its connection with religious practice. Various religious traditions and beliefs are analyzed as resources and approaches for overcoming loneliness. In conclusion, the article summarizes and draws preliminary conclusions about how philosophical and religious worldview can influence the perception and overcoming of loneliness. She calls for further research on this topic and takes into account its importance for human development in society.

Paths of Evolution: A Reading of Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Martín-Santos’ Time of Destruction

This essay examines Luis Martín-Santos’ second novel, Time of Destruction, unfinished at the time of his accidental death in 1964, in connection with James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). To date, Marisol Morales-Ladrón remains the only scholar who has dealt extensively with both texts (2005: 162-182), a sharp contrast to the numerous studies that have discussed the traces of Joyce’s Ulysses in Martín-Santos’ first novel, Time of Silence (1962). The publication, in 2022, of Mauricio Jalón’s new edition of Martín-Santos’ Time of Destruction, one with significant textual amendments to the first edition (1975), provides an ideal opportunity to expand the scholarship on this scarcely researched topic. The first section of this essay offers a brief discussion of the new edition of Martín-Santos’ novel and reconsiders it in relation to Joyce’s work. The second section proposes a reading of A Portrait and Time of Destruction in light of the tension that exists between the narrators and the two main fictional figures in these novels, Stephen Dedalus and Agustín. The final section considers both novels in relation to Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy of history and morality.

Immanent Ethics and Deconstruction

This paper endeavors to argue that Derrida’s deconstructionist ethics can be construed as an embodiment of immanent ethics. To achieve this goal, it commences with Friedrich Nietzsche’s articulation of immanent ethics, drawing a contrast with formalist and conformist accounts of morality, exemplified in Kant. Following that, the paper explores the ethical thoughts of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze to establish a connection between immanent ethics and the problem of life. In this context, we observe how immanent ethics redirects ethical concerns from human consciousness to the domain of life, modes of existence, the unconscious desire and its exteriority. Within this framework, the paper characterizes Derrida’s ethics of deconstruction as a convergence of the immanence of deconstruction and deconstruction as a creative mode of life. As a result, Derrida’s formulation of ethical challenges within the context of aporias, impossibility, and responsibility can be understood as a call for resistance against conformity to established forms of life. This imbues deconstruction with an intrinsic ethical-political character.

Alfred Rosenberg on Friedrich Nietzsche and Ludwig Klages

Here we present the English translation of two texts written by Alfred Rosenberg. The first corresponds to a speech at a memorial service on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Friedrich Nietzsche on October 15, 1944. The second one is entitled ‘Shape and Life’ and was published during year 1938. This last article presents Rosenberg’s views on Ludwing Klages philosophical works.

Nietzsche, Nishitani, and Laruelle on the Apostle Paul: tradition and the affirmation of life

ABSTRACT This article offers two further philosophical engagements with the writings of the Apostle Paul. The recent work of Francois Laruelle on Paul in his turn to Christian non-theology is placed in dialogue with Nishitani Keiji’s account. This effort is accomplished by briefly grounding the discussion in Friedrich Nietzsche’s interpretation, where Paul is cast as the inventor of Christianity and the primary influence in the religion’s turn to a doctrinal and world-denying form of existence. As described here, Laruelle follows the broad outline of Nietzsche’s interpretation, where Paul once more deviates from the example of Christ and is guilty of encouraging a turn away from the world towards concepts of transcendence and life after death. Nishitani, on the other hand, and despite his affection for Nietzsche’s thought, sees in Paul’s life and writings a turn towards immanence, and offers a heavily contrasting read of Paul, one which deserves greater attention.