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The Political Implications of Nietzsche's Perspectivism Tansy The Political Implications of Nietzsche's Perspectivism Tansy Anada Etro-Beko Thesis submitted to the University of Ottawa in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctorate in Philosophy Department of Philosophy Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Tansy Anada Etro-Beko, Ottawa, Canada, 2018 The Political Implications of Nietzsche's Perspectivism Table of Contents Table of Contents ii Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv List of Abbreviations v Introduction 1 Chapter One: The Metaphysics of Nietzsche’s Perspectivism 11 1.1 Nietzsche's Perspectives on Metaphysics 13 1.2 Nihilism 48 1.3 Will to Power 60 1.4 The Übermensch 88 Chapter Two: Nietzsche's Perspectivism 118 2.1 Perspectivism Is a Theory of Knowledge 119 2.2 Perspectivism and Relativism 138 Chapter Three: The Political Implications of Nietzsche's Perspectivism 164 3.1 Perspectivism's Political Implications 166 3.2 Perspectivism's Textual Implications 203 Conclusion 256 Bibliography Primary Sources 259 Secondary Sources 260 !ii The Political Implications of Nietzsche's Perspectivism Abstract In the first chapter of my doctoral thesis, entitled The Political Implications of Nietzsche's Perspectivism, I argue that due to conflicting passages present throughout his oeuvre, Nietzsche is best understood as a twofold metaphysical sceptic. That is, a sceptic about the existence of the external world, and consequently, as a sceptic about such a world's correspondence to our pers- pectives. Nietzsche presents a threefold conceptualization of 'nihilism' and a twofold one of the 'will to power.' Neutral nihilism is humanity's inescapable condition of having no non-humanly created meanings and values. This state can be interpreted positively as an opportunity to create one's own meanings and values, or negatively as a terrifying incentive to return to dogmatism. The will to power is life before and as it becomes life, the unqualified will to power, and all the realities in it, the qualifiable will to power. The combination of these ontological concepts brings me to my second chapter and to the determination of Nietzsche's general epistemology: perspec- tivism. Perspectivism is an admittedly created, ontologically derived interpretation of knowledge, which both entails and goes beyond relativism. Nietzsche's perspectivism is constructed to sup- port any norm that allows for univocal evaluations, not just Nietzsche's. Moreover, it can be deri- ved from any ontology that conceptualizes life as a unit of growth and decay and human beings as creators of all their perspectives. These two elastic concepts allow me to propose, in my third chapter, that, although his texts disavow an all-inclusive democracy in favour of a new spiritual aristocracy, on the one hand, the proper political implications of perspectivism allow for demo- cracy, while on the other hand, Nietzsche can be read as disapproving of an all inclusive or repre- sentative democracy, yet as approving of the direct democracy that arises naturally among elite peers. !iii The Political Implications of Nietzsche's Perspectivism Acknowledgements This doctoral thesis is written in the loving living memory of M. John O. Beko — I am grateful to my mother, Ivana G. Etro, my father, John O. Beko, and my grandmother, Ofélia Cogolati, for their unconditional love. I will never be able to thank them enough! Love you! I thank Dr. S. Sikka for years of guidance and help, Drs. M. Migotti, H. Aronovitch, M. Béland, J.-P. Couture, C. Daigle, B. Egyed, D. Raynor and J. Reid for their critiques, comments and ques- tions, which were all priceless in bettering my work, and Drs. M. Hinds and D. Leech and Mrs. C. Leblanc, J. Fascetto and A. Kinney for their invaluable second readings. I am thankful for all the various support I received from Drs. D. Giroux, M. Slater, A. O'Sullivan and L. Jurkovic, S. Patterson, A.-M. Boulais, J. Lacasse, L. Morin, V. Bernard, C. Bernard, A. Rock, J.-M. Sempels, S. Emond, J. Owechia, Grand Master T. E. Lee, Master D, Silverman, the University of Ottawa, as well as for and to everyone who has helped me along in this incredible journey. I am thankful to F. W. Nietzsche for his fascinating, impressive, challenging works! !iv The Political Implications of Nietzsche's Perspectivism List of Abbreviations The Birth of Tragedy, Or: Hellenism and Pessimism (c1872): BT; Homer's Contest, Preface to an Unwritten Book (1872): HC; On Truth and Lies in an Extra-moral Sense (c1873): OTL; On the Use and Abuse of History for Life (c1874) from Untimely Meditations, Thoughts Out of Season, Parts I and II: UAH; Human, All-Too-Human, A Book for Free Spirits (c1878/1880): HATH; Assorted Opinions and Maxims (c1879): AOM; The Wanderer and His Shadow (c1880): WS; The Dawn of Day (c1881): DD; The Gay Science (c1882/1887): GS; Beyond Good and Evil, Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (c1886): BGE; Thus Spoke Zarathustra, A Book for All and None (c1884/5): Z; On the Genealogy of Morals, A Polemic (c1887): GM; The Antichrist, An Attempt at a Critique of Christianity (1888/posthumous c1895): A; Ecce Homo, How One Becomes What One Is (1888/posthumous c1908): EH; Twilight of the Idols, Or How One Philosophizes with a Hammer (c1889): TI; The Will to Power (posthumous, c1904): WP. For everyone's ease, rather than using the traditional Kritische Gesamtausgabe Werke und Briefe, in my bibliographical references, Nietzsche's works are abbreviated as noted above, followed by the name or number of the essay, the number of the section and the page number, i.e., (GM, II, §11, p. 511). !v The Political Implications of Nietzsche's Perspectivism Introduction During my exegetical research, I realized that my doctoral thesis, entitled The Political Implications of Nietzsche's Perspectivism, constituted a search for answers to two questions: what are perspectivism's textual political implications, and what are the political implications that emerge from its proper application? My realization illustrates the adverse effects of Nietzsche's writings being (in)famously cryptic: employing aphorisms and storytelling instead of developing philosophical essays. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche is a complex thinker who notoriously presents his theories unconventionally and thus obscurely. Nietzsche consciously uses poetry, aphorisms, narratives and the like in his philosophy.1 In 1888, he proposes that his multiple styles are the result of a rich inner life that is filled with many different inner states: "To communicate a state, an inward ten- sion of pathos, by means of signs, including the tempo of these signs — that is the meaning of every style; and considering that the multiplicity of inward states is exceptionally large in my case, I have many stylistic possibilities — the most multifarious art of style" (EH, Books, §4, p. 721). Nietzsche claims that the diversity of one's outward styles depends on the diversity of one's inward states. Conscious of his variety of styles and of the interpretational difficulties they present, as the self-professed author of "the first language for a new series of experiences," he expects that of his works: "simply nothing will be heard, but there will be the acoustic illusion that where nothing is heard, nothing is there. This is, in the end, my average experience and, if you will, the originality of my experience" (EH, Books, §1 p. 717). He claims that the philosoph- 1 William H. F. Altman (2013) offers an example of a contemporary use of Nietzsche's own style in an analysis of this complex, since largely unintentional and unrecognized, relationship to his era and the Second Reich. !1 The Political Implications of Nietzsche's Perspectivism ical vacuity that is attributed to his writings is merely an illusion. Having something to say and the gradually diminishing hope of being heard and understood, Nietzsche wrote profusely until his last lucid year.2 Given Nietzsche's various styles, many conflicting interpretations of his philosophy arise.3 In large measure because of his stylistic choices, Nietzsche is considered by some readers and interpreters as being too convoluted to reconstruct into useful philosophical theories; such readers relegate him to literary analyses. Others read Nietzsche as proposing theories that however are either plainly incoherent or an "attempt to abolish all decent feelings" (EH, Books, §1, p. 716). He was aware of these last two streams of misinterpretation; they are respectively represented by the reviews of Spitteler and Widmann of his books Thus Spoke Zarathustra, A Book for All and None, and Beyond God and Evil, Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future. Thus, in his next book, in 1887, he writes, in his own preemptive defence: 2 Paul Valadier (1998) claims that Nietzsche wishes not for disciples, but to transform his readers’ perspectives; for although our morality changes, its dichotomies and effects remains the same. Joseph Westfall (2009) proposes an understanding of Nietzsche's style as maieutic achieved via irony, and Tracy B. Strong (2010) details further how Nietzsche aims to transform his readers. Christa Davis Acampora (2006a) proposes an explanation of the interplay, especially in and for Nietzsche, of reading and rewriting, or artfully appropriating, a text. Babette E. Babich (2006) claims that Nietzsche's aphoristic style affects his readers' convictions; although, Nietzsche was painful worried the he would be misread, and his tones, misheard. Christopher Janaway (2007) proposes that Nietzsche writes stylistically to interact with his readers and affect their affects, and thereby their perceptions of certain phenomena, such as morality or the variety of interpretations we give suffering. For instance, Janaway claims that morality is essential for human survival, yet to be healthy and desirable, it must allow us to perfect ourselves. Completing Janaway's impulse, David Owen (2008) proposes that Nietzsche's perspectivism serves knowledge’s transformative effect. I likewise claim that all of Nietzsche's writings share this effect.
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