Table Of Contentunderstanding Nietzscheanism
Understanding Movements in Modern Thought
Series Editor: Jack Reynolds
Th is series provides short, accessible and lively introductions to the
major schools, movements and traditions in philosophy and the history
of ideas since the beginning of the Enlightenment. All books in the
series are written for undergraduates meeting the subject for the fi rst
time.
Understanding Empiricism Understanding Nietzscheanism
Robert G. Meyers Ashley Woodward
Understanding Environmental Understanding Phenomenology
Philosophy David R. Cerbone
Andrew Brennan & Y. S. Lo
Understanding Postcolonialism
Understanding Existentialism Jane Hiddleston
Jack Reynolds
Understanding Poststructuralism
Understanding Feminism James Williams
Peta Bowden & Jane Mummery
Understanding Psychoanalysis
Understanding German Idealism Matthew Sharpe & Joanne
Will Dudley Faulkner
Understanding Hegelianism Understanding Rationalism
Robert Sinnerbrink Charlie Huenemann
Understanding Hermeneutics Understanding Utilitarianism
Lawrence K. Schmidt Tim Mulgan
Understanding Naturalism Understanding Virtue Ethics
Jack Ritchie Stan van Hooft
understanding Nietzscheanism
Ashley Woodward
First published in 2011 by Acumen
Published 2014 by Routledge
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© Ashley Woodward 2011
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Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Abbreviations vii
Introduction: Nietzsche and Nietzscheanism 1
1. Nietzscheanism and existentialism 27
2. Nietzscheanism and poststructuralism 65
3. Nietzscheanism and politics 101
4. Nietzscheanism and feminism 135
5. Nietzscheanism and theology 159
6. Nietzscheanism and posthumanism 185
7. Nietzscheanism, naturalism and science 209
Conclusion 241
Chronologies 245
Questions for discussion and revision 249
Further reading 253
Bibliography 259
Index 269
contents v
Acknowledgements
First, thanks are due to the series editor Jack Reynolds for inviting me
to write this book. Th anks also to Tristan Palmer at Acumen for both
his continual patience and understanding, and his generous words of
encouragement. Acknowledgement must also be given to the anony-
mous readers of the initial book proposal and the reviewers of the man-
uscript in its fi rst draft form. At both stages many useful suggestions (as
well as heartening words of encouragement) helped to make the book
what it is. Warm thanks also to Catherine Cameron and Jon Roff e for
generously reading and commenting on chapters of the book. Material
for several chapters of the book was trialled in the subject “Nietzsche’s
Legacy: Existentialism, Poststructuralism, Transhumanism” I taught at
the Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy in the summer of
2010, and I would like to thank all the students who attended for giving
me the opportunity to do this. Special thanks to Chloe Bo-k yung Kim
for her patience and support during the writing of this manuscript. Of
course, as always, responsibility for all the book’s faults and limitations
rests with me.
vi understanding nietzscheanism
Abbreviations
Editions of Nietzsche’s complete works in German:
KGW Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Werke, G. Colli & M. Montinari (eds) (Berlin:
Walter de Gruyter, 1967– ).
KSA Sämtliche Werke: Kritische Studienausgabe, 2nd edn, G. Colli & M. Monti-
nari (eds) (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1980).
References to Nietzsche’s works give the abbreviated book title as shown in the fol-
lowing list, followed by the abbreviated title of the chapter, number of the part or
section, or when required, a combination of these. For example, HAH 97 refers to
section 97 of Human, All Too Human, while Z: 2 “Of Poets” refers to the section titled
“Of Poets” in Th us Spoke Zarathustra, book 2. Wherever possible, I have referred to
the Cambridge University Press editions of Nietzsche’s works in English translation.
A Th e Anti- Christ, in Th e Anti-C hrist, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and
Other Writings, A. Ridley (ed.), J. Norman (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005).
AOM Assorted Opinions and Maxims, in Human, All Too Human.
BGE Beyond Good and Evil, R.-P . Horstmann (ed.), J. Norman (trans.) (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
BT Th e Birth of Tragedy, in Th e Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings, R. Geuss
(ed.), R. Speirs (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
CW Th e Case of Wagner, in Th e Anti- Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols,
and Other Writings.
D Daybreak, M. Clark & B. Leiter (eds), R. J. Hollingdale (trans.) (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997).
DS “David Strauss, the Confessor and the Writer”, in Untimely Meditations, D.
Breazeale (ed.), R. J. Hollingdale (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1997).
abbreviations vii
EH Ecce Homo, in Th e Anti- Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other
Writings.
EN Writings from the Early Notebooks, R. Geuss & A. Nehamas (eds), Ladislaus
Löb (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
GM On the Genealogy of Morality and Other Writings, 2nd edn, K. Ansell-
Pearson (ed.), C. Diethe (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2006).
GS Th e Gay Science, B. Williams (ed.), J. Nauckhoff & A. Del Caro (trans.)
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
HAH Human, All Too Human, R. J. Hollingdale (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1986).
HL “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life”, in Untimely Medita-
tions.
LN Writings from the Late Notebooks, R. Bittner (ed.), K. Sturge (trans.) (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
NW Nietzsche contra Wagner, in Th e Anti-C hrist, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the
Idols, and Other Writings.
SE “Schopenhauer as Educator”, in Untimely Meditations.
TI Twilight of the Idols, in Th e Anti-C hrist, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols,
and Other Writings.
TL “On Truth and Lying in a Non-m oral Sense”, in Th e Birth of Tragedy and
Other Writings.
WB “Richard Wagner in Bayreuth”, in Untimely Meditations.
WP Th e Will to Power, W. Kaufmann (ed.), W. Kaufmann & R. J. Hollingdale
(trans.) (New York: Vintage, 1967).
WS Th e Wanderer and His Shadow, in Human, All Too Human.
Z Th us Spoke Zarathustra, R. Pippin (ed.), A. del Caro (trans.) (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2006).
viii understanding nietzscheanism
introduction
Nietzsche and Nietzscheanism
I know my lot. One day my name will be connected with the
memory of something tremendous, – a crisis such as the earth
has never seen, the deepest collision of conscience, a decision
made against everything that has been believed, demanded,
held sacred so far. I am not a human being, I am dynamite.
(EH “Destiny” 1)
I can think of no better way to begin this book on the infl uence of
the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) than with this well-
known assessment of his own signifi cance. As he himself foretold,
Nietzsche has indeed been one of the most infl uential fi gures in modern
thought since the end of the nineteenth century. Nietzsche’s work, how-
ever, is also notoriously ambiguous. It has been interpreted in a great
variety of ways, and has infl uenced starkly contrasting movements and
schools of thought, from atheism to theology, from existentialism to
poststructuralism, and from Nazism to feminism. Th is book will chart
Nietzsche’s infl uence, both historically and thematically, across a variety
of these contrasting disciplines and schools of interpretation.
While Nietzsche’s importance to modern thought cannot be
reduced to a single idea or point of interpretation, if there is one over-
arching theme that helps us to understand his tremendous infl uence,
then arguably it is nihilism, the devaluation of the highest values of
Western culture. More than any other thinker of his age, Nietzsche
analysed the signifi cance of the vast changes wrought in culture since
the Enlightenment at the level of values. In other words, he analysed
introduction: nietzsche and nietzscheanism 1
