Nietzsche and Political Thought Bloomsbury Studies in Continental Philosophy Bloomsbury Studies in Continental Philosophy presents cutting-edge scholarship in the field of modern European thought. The wholly original arguments, perspectives and research findings in titles in this series make it an important and stimulating resource for students and academics from across the discipline. Some other titles in the series: Adorno, Heidegger, Philosophy and Modernity, Nicholas Joll Between the Canon and the Messiah, Colby Dickinson Castoriadis, Foucault, and Autonomy, Marcela Tovar-Restrepo Deconstruction without Derrida, Martin McQuillan Deleuze and the Diagram, Jakub Zdebik Deleuze and the History of Mathematics, Simon B. Duffy Derrida and the Future of the Liberal Arts, edited by Mary Caputi and Vincent J. Del Casino, Jr Derrida, Badiou and the Formal Imperative, Christopher Norris Derrida: Ethics Under Erasure, Nicole Anderson Emmanuel Levinas, Abi Doukhan From Ricoeur to Action, edited by Todd S. Mei and David Lewin Gadamer and Ricoeur, edited by Francis J. Mootz III and George H. Taylor Heidegger and Nietzsche, Louis P. Blond Immanent Transcendence, Patrice Haynes Jean-Luc Nancy and the Question of Community, Ignaas Devisch Kant, Deleuze and Architectonics, Edward Willatt Levinas, Storytelling and Anti-Storytelling, Will Buckingham Lyotard and the ‘figural’ in Performance, Art and Writing, Kiff Bamford Michel Henry, edited by Jeffrey Hanson and Michael R. Kelly Performatives After Deconstruction, edited by Mauro Senatore Place, Commonality and Judgment, Andrew Benjamin Post-Rationalism, Tom Eyers Rethinking Philosophy and Theology with Deleuze, Brent Adkins and Paul R. Hinlicky Revisiting Normativity with Deleuze, edited by Rosi Braidotti and Patricia Pisters The Movement of Nihilism, edited by Laurence Paul Hemming, Kostas Amiridis and Bogdan Costea The Time of Revolution, Felix Ó Murchadha Nietzsche and Political Thought Edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2013 © Keith Ansell-Pearson and Contributors, 2013 Keith Ansell-Pearson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Editor of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4411-2933-8 ePDF: 978-1-4411-0095-5 ePub: 978-1-4411-7352-2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nietzsche and political thought/edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson. pages cm. – (Bloomsbury studies in Continental philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4411-2933-8 (hardcover) – ISBN 978-1-4411-0095-5 (ebook (pdf)) – ISBN 978-1-4411-7352-2 (ebook (epub)) 1. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900. 2. Political science–Philosophy. I. Ansell-Pearson, Keith, 1960- editor of compilation. B3317.N449 2013 320.01–dc23 2013026669 Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India Contents Notes on Contributors vi List of Abbreviations ix Introduction Keith Ansell-Pearson 1 1 Nietzsche, Genealogy and Justice Paul Patton 7 2 Nietzsche on Truth, Honesty and Responsibility in Politics Rosalyn Diprose 23 3 Nietzsche, Naturalism and Law Peter R. Sedgwick 37 4 Movements and Motivations: Nietzsche and the Invention of Political Psychology Robert Guay 55 5 Nietzsche’s Freedom: The Art of Agonic Perfectionism David Owen 71 6 Reassessing Radical Democratic Theory in the Light of Nietzsche’s Ontology of Conflict Herman W. Siemens 83 7 Spinoza vs. Kant: Have I Been Understood? Alan D. Schrift 107 8 Kairos and Chronos: Nietzsche and the Time of the Multitude Gary Shapiro 123 9 Nietzsche and the Engine of Politics Nandita Biswas Mellamphy 141 10 Nietzsche’s Political Therapy Michael Ure 161 11 Nietzsche’s Great Politics of the Event Vanessa Lemm 179 12 Nietzsche’s Immoralism and the Advent of ‘Great Politics’ Daniel Conway 197 13 Nietzsche, Badiou, and Grand Politics: An Antiphilosophical Reading Bruno Bosteels 219 Index 241 Notes on Contributors Keith Ansell-Pearson holds a personal chair in Philosophy at the University of Warwick. In 2013/14 he will be a visiting fellow in the Humanities at Rice University. He is the author and editor of several books on Nietzsche, including Nietzsche contra Rousseau, The Nietzsche Reader and A Companion to Nietzsche. He is currently completing a book with Rebecca Bamford on Nietzsche’s text Dawn. Nandita Biswas Mellamphy is associate professor of Political Theory at Western University, and former Associate Director (2011–12) of the Center for the Study of Theory and Criticism (Western). She is the author of The Three Stigmata of Friedrich Nietzsche: Political Physiology in the Age of Nihilism (Palgrave MacMillan, 2011), as well as several other essays on Nietzsche’s and Nietzschean political thought. Her topics of study include post-humanism, digital media culture, continental philosophy (especially the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and the post-Nietzscheans) and the political dimensions of contemporary science-fiction and current-day neuroscience. In addition she is completing a series of articles devoted to the theorist François Laruelle’s interpretation of Nietzsche’s political thought. Bruno Bosteels is professor of Romance Studies and Comparative Literature at Cornell University. He is the author, among others, of Badiou and Politics (Duke University Press, 2011), The Actuality of Communism (Verso, 2011) and Marx and Freud in Latin America (Verso, 2012). Between 2005 and 2011 he served as the general editor of the journal diacritics. He is also the translator of numerous books by Alain Badiou, including Theory of the Subject (Continuum, 2009), Wittgenstein’s Antiphilosophy (Verso, 2011), Philosophy for Militants (Verso, 2012), and The Adventure of French Philosophy (Verso, 2012). Daniel Conway is professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Texas A&M University. He is the author of Nietzsche’s Dangerous Game (Cambridge UP, 1997), Nietzsche and the Political (Routledge, 1997), and Reader’s Guide to Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals (Continuum, 2008). He is the editor of the four-volume series Nietzsche: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers (Routledge, 1998) and co-editor of Nietzsche und die antike Philosophie (Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 1992), Nietzsche, Philosophy, and the Arts (Cambridge UP, 1998), and The History of Continental Philosophy, Volume II (U Chicago, 2010). He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society and a former Editor of the Journal of Nietzsche Studies. Rosalyn Diprose is professor of Philosophy (Emeritus) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. She is author of numerous articles and book chapters on Notes on Contributors vii Nietzsche’s philosophy, including in relation to other thinkers such as Hannah Arendt. Recent books include Corporeal Generosity: On Giving with Nietzsche, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas (SUNY Press, 2002) and the co-edited anthology Merleau-Ponty: Key Concepts (Continuum, 2008). Her ongoing research draws on existential phenomenology and biopolitical analysis to explore themes such as the politics of dwelling, reconstruction and natality. Robert Guay is associate professor of Philosophy at Binghamton University. His work has appeared most recently in the Journal of Nietzsche Studies and The Edinburgh Critical History of Philosophy, and the Oxford Handbook to Nietzsche. He is currently completing a book on Nietzsche’s accounts of the conditions for normative authority. Vanessa Lemm received her PhD in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research (2002). She is professor in Philosophy at the School of Humanities and Languages of the University of New South Wales. She is the author of Nietzsche’s Animal Philosophy: Culture, Politics and the Animality of the Human Being (New York: Fordham University Press, 2009), Nietzsche y el pensamiento politico contemporáneo (Santiago: Fondo de cultura económica, 2013), and several articles on contemporary political theory. She has also edited volumes on Hegel and Foucault. David Owen is professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the University of Southampton. He has also held visiting positions in Frankfurt and Madrid. He has published nine books, most recently, Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morality (Acumen, 2007) and published numerous journal articles. Among other things, he is currently working on Nietzsche’s relationship to realism, agonism and perfectionism. Paul Patton is Scientia Professor of Philosophy at The University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He is the author of Deleuze and the Political (Routledge, 2000) and Deleuzian Concepts: Philosophy, Colonization, Politics (Stanford, 2010). He is the editor of Nietzsche, Feminism and Political Theory (Routledge, 1993) and Deleuze: A Critical Reader (Blackwell,