What do you think?
Rate this book
Reading Nietzsche through the Ancients: An Analysis of Becoming, Perspectivism, and the Principle of Non-Contradiction
Nietzsche's work was shaped by his engagement with ancient Greek philosophy. Matthew Meyer analyzes Nietzsche's concepts of becoming and perspectivism and his alleged rejection of the principle of non-contradiction, and he traces these views back to the Heraclitean-Protagorean position that Plato and Aristotle critically analyze in the Theaetetus and Metaphysica IV, respectively. At the center of this Heraclitean-Protagorean position is a relational ontology in which everything exists and is what it is only in relation to something else. Meyer argues that this relational ontology is not only theoretically foundational for Nietzsche's philosophical project, in that it is the common element in Nietzsche's views on becoming, perspectivism, and the principle of non-contradiction, but also textually foundational, in that Nietzsche implicitly commits himself to such an ontology in raising the question of opposites at the beginning of both Human, All Too Human and Beyond Good and Evil.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
317 pages, Hardcover
First published August 15, 2012
81 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 25, 2023
A very fun book to read and well worth one’s time.
Nietzsche is probably the most entertaining of all philosophers to read. The problem is he often gets mischaracterized by others since they don’t understand his relation to the ancient Greeks and his critics oversimplify what he is saying.
This book does not really miss a beat and as with all very good philosophy books it is completely relevant for the world we live in today. The messages are complex but are readily available for the astute reader.
Nietzsche is not a post-modernist, a relativist, or a nihilist. Only sloppy readers of Nietzsche will say that. This book clearly shows why that is sloppy thinking.
Nietzsche threads the needle unlike anyone else before him or even after him. He realizes that Kant shows that the truth is no longer out there and that the Copernican Revolution for the mind has consequences, and Nietzsche will take those consequences even further.
Truth as being (cogito ergo sum) muddies the water. This book will show why in detail. Heraclitus will not let us cross the river since there is only becoming not being for him, and Protagoras’ “man is the measure of all things” relativizes knowledge. Plato tries to undo that with Parmenides’ “there is only the One.” Plato needs the One in order to give absolute truth, his ideals or allow Aristotle to develop his Forms.
Aristotle’s logic requires Principal of Non-Contradiction (PNC), and he will say that if we don’t have that the understanding in the world will just get too yucky. Nietzsche realizes that is not a good enough reason. This book explains why and how Nietzsche gets around the problem of assuming PNC. Schopenhauer also never warms up to PNC.
When the PNC is assumed that means relations, context, and the background that a thing resides within aren’t relevant and that opposites must exist, ‘hot’ must be contrasted with ‘cold’. The synchronic contingency of Duns Scotus is how the world must be considered when PNC is in play. That is, there is being as opposed to becoming. This author did mention Scotus but not in this context. It means that the Truth is out there and knowable and the absolute has meaning. Nietzsche knows better, he believes that our intuitions and desires determines our meaning through will-to-power and there is only becoming and without the need for absolute or therefore certainty.
All existence actively engages in interpretation giving will-to-power for a perspective. This book will mention that Spinoza’s striving (conatus) or Schopenhauer’s will to live are sublimated by the will to power and ultimately gives us the perspective that gives us the most relevant way for understanding.
Knowledge and facts about the world reside in an interconnecting web, and never stand alone. Every fact that we have about the world needs to be first interpretated and fits into that web of knowledge that we thought we already have and what we thought we knew about the world before the fact is determined (not discovered) and gets filtered by what we thought we knew and weighted by what we were expecting. Nietzsche gets that and this book demonstrates that, for those who think that makes Nietzsche a relativist they don’t really understand what Nietzsche is getting at.
If you take the strict definition of post-modernist as defined by Lyotard in the “Postmodern Tradition”, that there is no overriding controlling authority that tells us what Truth is except for the ones we find ourselves, under that definition Nietzsche would be a post-modernist, but most times when people use that term they mean it as a slur and use it to say that the person thinks all things are relative and that Truth does reside somewhere outside of us, or in other words, to them a post-modernist is someone who thinks everyone’s worldview is correct and anything that they want to believe is okay . Nietzsche’s perspectivism says that our truths come from within us, and by us, not from on high through a transcendental plane outside of us, and that there is no central overriding authority except ourselves.
The worst of all nihilist are the ones who outsource truth to a superstition, book, or authority. Nietzsche is not a nihilist; he throws the problem back at the individual and it is for them to find their own meaning in the world.
The one occurring theme this book highlights about Nietzsche is the problem of recursive thought and how Nietzsche always is aware of the dilemma and the ground itself needs a foundation. Heidegger makes the world itself our ground, and Nietzsche makes it will-to-power. Heidegger’s authenticity leads to fascism (and Nazism), while Nietzsche wants a return to our primal intuitions and desires and prioritizes perspectivism with will-to-power (Heideggar uses 'care'). Perspectivism is the way of looking at something that gives us the most relevant, contextualized and profitable background for understanding the world. A side note, it’s possible to say that the earth is the center of the universe and make that your perspective of truth as they did until the sixteenth century, but as we know today the planets retrograding in the sky are much harder to explain, having the sun the center of the solar system makes it easier and it is a better perspective, that doesn’t make it the truth; it just makes it the preferred perspective.
This book is an intelligent book and it is always refreshing to a read a book where the author knows way more about the subject than I’ll ever know.
Nietzsche is probably the most entertaining of all philosophers to read. The problem is he often gets mischaracterized by others since they don’t understand his relation to the ancient Greeks and his critics oversimplify what he is saying.
This book does not really miss a beat and as with all very good philosophy books it is completely relevant for the world we live in today. The messages are complex but are readily available for the astute reader.
Nietzsche is not a post-modernist, a relativist, or a nihilist. Only sloppy readers of Nietzsche will say that. This book clearly shows why that is sloppy thinking.
Nietzsche threads the needle unlike anyone else before him or even after him. He realizes that Kant shows that the truth is no longer out there and that the Copernican Revolution for the mind has consequences, and Nietzsche will take those consequences even further.
Truth as being (cogito ergo sum) muddies the water. This book will show why in detail. Heraclitus will not let us cross the river since there is only becoming not being for him, and Protagoras’ “man is the measure of all things” relativizes knowledge. Plato tries to undo that with Parmenides’ “there is only the One.” Plato needs the One in order to give absolute truth, his ideals or allow Aristotle to develop his Forms.
Aristotle’s logic requires Principal of Non-Contradiction (PNC), and he will say that if we don’t have that the understanding in the world will just get too yucky. Nietzsche realizes that is not a good enough reason. This book explains why and how Nietzsche gets around the problem of assuming PNC. Schopenhauer also never warms up to PNC.
When the PNC is assumed that means relations, context, and the background that a thing resides within aren’t relevant and that opposites must exist, ‘hot’ must be contrasted with ‘cold’. The synchronic contingency of Duns Scotus is how the world must be considered when PNC is in play. That is, there is being as opposed to becoming. This author did mention Scotus but not in this context. It means that the Truth is out there and knowable and the absolute has meaning. Nietzsche knows better, he believes that our intuitions and desires determines our meaning through will-to-power and there is only becoming and without the need for absolute or therefore certainty.
All existence actively engages in interpretation giving will-to-power for a perspective. This book will mention that Spinoza’s striving (conatus) or Schopenhauer’s will to live are sublimated by the will to power and ultimately gives us the perspective that gives us the most relevant way for understanding.
Knowledge and facts about the world reside in an interconnecting web, and never stand alone. Every fact that we have about the world needs to be first interpretated and fits into that web of knowledge that we thought we already have and what we thought we knew about the world before the fact is determined (not discovered) and gets filtered by what we thought we knew and weighted by what we were expecting. Nietzsche gets that and this book demonstrates that, for those who think that makes Nietzsche a relativist they don’t really understand what Nietzsche is getting at.
If you take the strict definition of post-modernist as defined by Lyotard in the “Postmodern Tradition”, that there is no overriding controlling authority that tells us what Truth is except for the ones we find ourselves, under that definition Nietzsche would be a post-modernist, but most times when people use that term they mean it as a slur and use it to say that the person thinks all things are relative and that Truth does reside somewhere outside of us, or in other words, to them a post-modernist is someone who thinks everyone’s worldview is correct and anything that they want to believe is okay . Nietzsche’s perspectivism says that our truths come from within us, and by us, not from on high through a transcendental plane outside of us, and that there is no central overriding authority except ourselves.
The worst of all nihilist are the ones who outsource truth to a superstition, book, or authority. Nietzsche is not a nihilist; he throws the problem back at the individual and it is for them to find their own meaning in the world.
The one occurring theme this book highlights about Nietzsche is the problem of recursive thought and how Nietzsche always is aware of the dilemma and the ground itself needs a foundation. Heidegger makes the world itself our ground, and Nietzsche makes it will-to-power. Heidegger’s authenticity leads to fascism (and Nazism), while Nietzsche wants a return to our primal intuitions and desires and prioritizes perspectivism with will-to-power (Heideggar uses 'care'). Perspectivism is the way of looking at something that gives us the most relevant, contextualized and profitable background for understanding the world. A side note, it’s possible to say that the earth is the center of the universe and make that your perspective of truth as they did until the sixteenth century, but as we know today the planets retrograding in the sky are much harder to explain, having the sun the center of the solar system makes it easier and it is a better perspective, that doesn’t make it the truth; it just makes it the preferred perspective.
This book is an intelligent book and it is always refreshing to a read a book where the author knows way more about the subject than I’ll ever know.
Displaying 1 of 1 review