An Interpretation Of Nietzsche S On The Uses And Disadvantage Of History For Life

With his An Interpretation of Nietzsche’s "On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life", Anthony K. Jensen shows how 'timely' Nietzsche’s second "Untimely Meditation" really is. This comprehensive and insightful study contextualizes and analyzes a wide range of Nietzsche’s earlier thoughts about history: teleology, typology, psychology, memory, classical philology, Hegelianism, and the role historiography plays in modern culture. On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life is shown to be a ‘timely’ work, too, insofar as it weaves together a number of Nietzsche's most important influences and thematic directions at that time: ancient culture, science, epistemology, and the thought of Schopenhauer and Burckhardt. Rather than dismiss it as a mere ‘early’ work, Jensen shows how the text resonates in Nietzsche’s later perspectivism, his theory of subjectivity, and Eternal Recurrence. And by using careful philological analysis of the text’s composition history, Jensen is in position to fully elucidate and evaluate Nietzsche’s arguments in their proper contexts. As such Jensen’s Interpretation should restore Nietzsche’s second "Untimely Meditation" to a prominent place among 19th Century philosophies of history.

(Part II of Thoughts Out of Season)

The treatise "On the Use and Abuse of History for Life" is one of Nietzsche's early writings on culture. It was published in 1874, after his professorship in Basel, Switzerland. At first, there was hardly any response to this text. It was only with the reception of Heidegger during the twenties and thirties of the next century that it developed its historical effect on modern thinking. Thanks to its easy-to-understand account, this paper is well suited to understand the thinking of the early Nietzsche. In addition, basic features of his later concepts of the "revaluation of all values" and the "overman" can already be detected here. In addition to the English language version, this e-book also contains the original German text.

An exposition of the development of Nietzsche's philosophy of history in its historical context and of its relevance to contemporary theories.

"While life needs the services of history, it must just as clearly be comprehended that an excess measure of history will do harm to the living," declares Friedrich Nietzsche in this cautionary polemic. The iconoclastic philosopher warns us about the dangers of an uncritical devotion to the study of the past, which leads to destructive and limiting results — particularly in cases where long-ago events are exploited for nationalistic purposes. Nietzsche proposes three approaches to times gone by: the monumental, focusing on examples of human greatness; the antiquarian, involving immersion in a bygone period; and the critical, rejecting the old in favor of the new. He examines the pros and cons of each concept, favoring how the ancient Greeks looked at things, which balanced a consciousness of yesteryear with contemporary intellectual, cultural, and political sensibilities. Nietzsche’s emphasis on history as a dynamic, living culture rather than the subject of detached scholarship is certain to resonate with modern readers.

With his An Interpretation of Nietzsche’s "On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life", Anthony K. Jensen shows how 'timely' Nietzsche’s second "Untimely Meditation" really is. This comprehensive and insightful study contextualizes and analyzes a wide range of Nietzsche’s earlier thoughts about history: teleology, typology, psychology, memory, classical philology, Hegelianism, and the role historiography plays in modern culture. On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life is shown to be a ‘timely’ work, too, insofar as it weaves together a number of Nietzsche's most important influences and thematic directions at that time: ancient culture, science, epistemology, and the thought of Schopenhauer and Burckhardt. Rather than dismiss it as a mere ‘early’ work, Jensen shows how the text resonates in Nietzsche’s later perspectivism, his theory of subjectivity, and Eternal Recurrence. And by using careful philological analysis of the text’s composition history, Jensen is in position to fully elucidate and evaluate Nietzsche’s arguments in their proper contexts. As such Jensen’s Interpretation should restore Nietzsche’s second "Untimely Meditation" to a prominent place among 19th Century philosophies of history.

This book is the first comprehensive interpretation of Nietzsche’s Untimely Meditations. It argues that the four Meditations—which Nietzsche said “deserve the greatest attention for my development”—are not separate pieces, but instead form a unified philosophic narrative that constitutes his first attempt to diagnose and cure the spiritual ailments whose causes he traced to modern culture and science. Taking Nietzsche’s commentary on the four essays in his autobiographical work Ecce Homo as its interpretive guide, this book also shows that the Untimely Meditations contain early expositions of concepts like the last man, the overman, the new philosopher, the creation of values, and the malleability of nature—all staples of his later philosophy.