The affirmation of life : Nietzsche on overcoming nihilism

327 Pages·2006·2.307 MB·English

by  Nietzsche, Friedrich, Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, Reginster, Bernard, Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm

The Affirmation of Life

The Affirmation of Life
J
NIETZSCHE ON OVERCOMING NIHILISM
BERNARD REGINSTER
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England
Copyright(cid:1)2006bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2008.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Reginster,Bernard.
Theaffirmationoflife:Nietzscheonovercomingnihilism/Bernard
Reginster.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferences(p. )andindex.
ISBN978-0-674-02199-0(cloth : alk.paper)
ISBN978-0-674-03064-0(pbk.)
1. Nietzsche,FriedrichWilhelm,1844–1900. 2. Ethics. 3. Nihilism.
4. Life. I. Title.
B3318.E9R44 2006
193—dc22 2005052809
To my father and the
memory of my mother

Preface
The present book develops a systematic interpretation of Nietzsche’s
ethicalthought.IhavereliedonthecriticaleditionofNietzsche’sworks
by Colli and Montinari, and I have referred to the still-classictransla-
tionsofhisworksbyWalterKaufmannandR.J.Hollingdale,including,
no doubt controversially, their collaborative translation of The Will to
Power.Ihavedonesoontheassumptionthatthesearethetranslations
with which the reader is most likely to be familiar. However, I have
also consulted some new translations, such as that of On the Gene-
alogyofMoralitybyMaudemarieClarkandA.J.Swensen.Ingeneral,
I have left those translations intact, occasionally reproducing theorig-
inal German, except in a few cases in which I estimatedthattheywere
simply too misleading. For Kant and Schopenhauer, I have also used
the classic translations, and relied on the standard Akademie edition
of Kant’s original works, and the Brockaus complete edition of Scho-
penhauer’s original works. Here, too, I have remained largely faithful
to the translations. I have indicated omissions of parts of the original
text in all of my quotations with the convention “[...].”
I gratefully acknowledge permission to reproduce the following of
my already-published materials: parts of “Nietzsche on Ressentiment
and Valuation” in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 57
(June 1997), pp.281–305, have been reproduced in Chapter 6; parts
of “Happiness as a Faustian Bargain” in Daedalus 133 (2) (Spring
2004), pp.52–59, have been used in Chapters 3 and 6; and parts
of “Nihilism and the Affirmation of Life” in International Studies in
viii • Preface
Philosophy 34(3) (2002), pp.55–68, have been used in Chapters 1
and 6.
PortionsofthisbookwerewrittenundertheauspicesoftheNational
Humanities Center, at which I was a fellow during spring 2000. I am
deeply grateful for the support I received then. I have also, to varying
degrees, incurred debts of gratitude to many colleagues, friends, and
students during the conception and preparation of this book. They
include, in alphabetical order, R. Lanier Anderson, Neera Badhwar,
Akeel Bilgrami, Justin Broackes, Maudemarie Clark, Garrett Deckel,
James Dreir, Jorge Fernandez, Harold Hodes,RobertHowell,Nadeem
Hussain, Jonathan Ichikawa, George Kateb, Jaegwon Kim, Joshua
Landy,CharlesLarmore,BrianLeiter,WolfgangMann,FrederickNeu-
houser, Martha Nussbaum, Robert Pippin, John Richardson,Matthias
Risse, Ivan Soll, Richard Schacht, R. Jay Wallace, and Linda Zag-
zebsky. I owe special thanks to Alexander Nehamas, who showed me
the possibility of an interpretation of Nietzsche that is at once philo-
sophical and distinctive, and to Robert Howell and Brian Leiter, who
wrote detailed comments on the entire manuscript. It is in spite of the
assistance of all mentioned here that this book remains marred by
many shortcomings.
I have also benefited from discussions following presentations of
parts of this book with audiences at Brown University, the University
of Illinois at Champaign–Urbana, Stanford University, CornellUniver-
sity, Wellesley College, the University of New Mexico, the University
of Oklahoma, the Radcliffe Seminar at Harvard University, theRhode
Island Philosophical Society, the International Nietzsche Tagung in
Naumburg, and the Nietzsche Kolleg at the Goethe-SchillerStiftungat
Weimar, and at various meetings of the North AmericanNietzscheSo-
ciety.
Contents
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1 Nihilism 21
2 Overcoming Disorientation 54
3 The Will to Power 103
4 Overcoming Despair 148
5 The Eternal Recurrence 201
6 Dionysian Wisdom 228
Notes 271
Bibliography 301
Index 309