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Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Nietzsche on Art and Literature
Nietzsche is one of the most important modern philosophers and his writings on the nature of art are amongst the most influential of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This GuideBook introduces and This GuideBook will be essential reading for all students coming to Nietzsche for the first time.
- GenresPhilosophyArt
194 pages, Paperback
First published December 13, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 26, 2023
Dit boek is een mooie introductie in het denken van Nietzsche over de kunst. De hoofdstukken volgen chronologisch op elkaar waardoor Ridley de evolutie van het denken van Nietzsche over kunst helder uiteen kan zetten. Het boek toont mooi aan dat de kunst voor Nietzsche een fundamentele plek inneemt in zijn denken. Het is altijd vanuit deze lens dat Ridley de geschriften gaat analyseren. Ook is Ridley niet bang om sterke claims te maken, zo is voor hem Aldus Sprak Zarathoestra een gefaald en barslecht filosofisch werk, maar functioneert het wel als een groots literair werk. Een hiaat waar ik niet omheen kan is echter het niet behandelen van de wil tot macht en de relatie tussen schoonheid en macht. Wat schoon is, is voor Nietzsche een uiting van macht. Hier wordt niet over gesproken al zou dit de analyse in mijn opinie wel verbeteren. Het zou enkele verwarringen die Ridley maakt kunnen oplossen (zo ziet hij Amor Fati en de eeuwige wederkeer als aparte concepten die elkaar tegenspreken, terwijl deze eigenlijk complementair zijn aan elkaar). Toch is dit boek een goede inleiding voor het gedachtegoed bij Nietzsche.
July 30, 2023
Ridley’s book serves as a valuable contribution to Routledge’s Philosophy Guidebook Series. It is well-written and offers a detailed analysis of Nietzsche’s varying and changing view of art.
It is not, however, a book for rank beginners and readers unfamiliar with Nietzsche’s philosophy. For example, Chapter one deals with some thorny scholarly issues such as the bifurcated reading of the Birth of Tragedy, highlighting the difference between psychological and metaphysical readings of sections of the book, which includes the further division between “strong” and “weak” metaphysical readings. This includes debate about Nietzsche’s sometimes confusing use of terms such as “will” and phrases such as the “ground of being” and “primordial being itself.”
The chapters focus and place emphasis on Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy, Human, All Too Human, Gay Science, Zarathustra, and Nietzsche's post-Zarathustra writings (which does not, for obvious reasons, include the collection of notes published as The Will To Power) It also contains a detailed appendix focused on Nietzsche and Wagner, which serves as a serious contribution to scholarship focused on philosophy and art related to Wagner and classical music.
Yet despite this section being impressive and informative, for me, the historical relationship between these two figures is of little interest - I don't listen to Wagner (my shortcoming!) as I prefer the (industrial) musical stylings of Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Big Black, and Filter...
Ridley’s chapters on Philosophy as Art (Chapter 4 - which contains an illuminating analysis and critique of the thought of the "eternal return") and the Art of Freedom (Chapter 5 - which includes important discussions regarding "Becoming who we are" and art and self - philosopher as artist!) are standouts! They could serve as excellent companions to interpretations of Nietzsche’s notion of the self-in-transition or Nietzsche’s trans-valued view of subjecthood – self-creation as a stylized, artistic phenomenon, e.g., Dienstag’s “Dionysian Pessimism,” Thiele’s Nietzsche and the Politics of the Soul, Franco’s “Become who You Are: Nietzsche on Self-Creation,” and Nehamas’ well-known book, Nietzsche: Life as Literature.
The analysis of art is set within the context of Nietzsche's intractable relationship to Christianity and metaphysics. Readers familiar with Heidegger's Nietzsche, as the "last metaphysician" in the Western tradition, will enjoy this aspect of Ridley's interpretation.
Interestingly, despite Nietzsche's claims to be an "anti-metaphysical," Heidegger concludes the opposite. Ridley, in a similar manner, despite Nietzsche's beliefs, indicates that Nietzsche betrayed his "Dionysian" project of self-overcoming (becoming) when writing in his autobiography regarding the apparent accomplishment of said project - the achievement of total "affirmation" - every "it was," every event in Nietzsche's life, became that which was willed and hence necessary.
"Ecce Homo is actually no more than a self-help manual, of a sort that endorses a peculiarly self-serving variety of positive thinking" - (Ridley, 138).
To the author’s credit, each chapter reads as a condensed and self-contained journal article, where a thesis is defended through argumentation, which includes engagement with counterarguments adopted by other scholars writing on Nietzsche. Indeed, serious (college) philosophy students would benefit from using Ridley as a model for effectively thinking/writing on philosophical ideas.
I enjoyed reading this scholarly offering from Routledge and highly recommend it to readers familiar with and interested in Nietzsche’s stimulating philosophy of art. There are many interesting and thought provoking interpretations of Nietzsche's work contained in Ridley's short book.
The only downside - and this is the publisher's ill-advised choice - the dreaded use of endnotes (that are gathered in total at the end of the text!), which always interferes with the smooth reading of a scholarly text. I urge university and commercial academic presses to reconsider this decision regarding the use of endnotes - for even with a short book like this one, it's a %&$#@*& inconvenience!
Dr. James M. Magrini
Philosophy/College of Dupage
NCIS
It is not, however, a book for rank beginners and readers unfamiliar with Nietzsche’s philosophy. For example, Chapter one deals with some thorny scholarly issues such as the bifurcated reading of the Birth of Tragedy, highlighting the difference between psychological and metaphysical readings of sections of the book, which includes the further division between “strong” and “weak” metaphysical readings. This includes debate about Nietzsche’s sometimes confusing use of terms such as “will” and phrases such as the “ground of being” and “primordial being itself.”
The chapters focus and place emphasis on Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy, Human, All Too Human, Gay Science, Zarathustra, and Nietzsche's post-Zarathustra writings (which does not, for obvious reasons, include the collection of notes published as The Will To Power) It also contains a detailed appendix focused on Nietzsche and Wagner, which serves as a serious contribution to scholarship focused on philosophy and art related to Wagner and classical music.
Yet despite this section being impressive and informative, for me, the historical relationship between these two figures is of little interest - I don't listen to Wagner (my shortcoming!) as I prefer the (industrial) musical stylings of Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Big Black, and Filter...
Ridley’s chapters on Philosophy as Art (Chapter 4 - which contains an illuminating analysis and critique of the thought of the "eternal return") and the Art of Freedom (Chapter 5 - which includes important discussions regarding "Becoming who we are" and art and self - philosopher as artist!) are standouts! They could serve as excellent companions to interpretations of Nietzsche’s notion of the self-in-transition or Nietzsche’s trans-valued view of subjecthood – self-creation as a stylized, artistic phenomenon, e.g., Dienstag’s “Dionysian Pessimism,” Thiele’s Nietzsche and the Politics of the Soul, Franco’s “Become who You Are: Nietzsche on Self-Creation,” and Nehamas’ well-known book, Nietzsche: Life as Literature.
The analysis of art is set within the context of Nietzsche's intractable relationship to Christianity and metaphysics. Readers familiar with Heidegger's Nietzsche, as the "last metaphysician" in the Western tradition, will enjoy this aspect of Ridley's interpretation.
Interestingly, despite Nietzsche's claims to be an "anti-metaphysical," Heidegger concludes the opposite. Ridley, in a similar manner, despite Nietzsche's beliefs, indicates that Nietzsche betrayed his "Dionysian" project of self-overcoming (becoming) when writing in his autobiography regarding the apparent accomplishment of said project - the achievement of total "affirmation" - every "it was," every event in Nietzsche's life, became that which was willed and hence necessary.
"Ecce Homo is actually no more than a self-help manual, of a sort that endorses a peculiarly self-serving variety of positive thinking" - (Ridley, 138).
To the author’s credit, each chapter reads as a condensed and self-contained journal article, where a thesis is defended through argumentation, which includes engagement with counterarguments adopted by other scholars writing on Nietzsche. Indeed, serious (college) philosophy students would benefit from using Ridley as a model for effectively thinking/writing on philosophical ideas.
I enjoyed reading this scholarly offering from Routledge and highly recommend it to readers familiar with and interested in Nietzsche’s stimulating philosophy of art. There are many interesting and thought provoking interpretations of Nietzsche's work contained in Ridley's short book.
The only downside - and this is the publisher's ill-advised choice - the dreaded use of endnotes (that are gathered in total at the end of the text!), which always interferes with the smooth reading of a scholarly text. I urge university and commercial academic presses to reconsider this decision regarding the use of endnotes - for even with a short book like this one, it's a %&$#@*& inconvenience!
Dr. James M. Magrini
Philosophy/College of Dupage
NCIS
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews