DOCSLIB.ORG

A Nietzschean Critique of Kant's Highest Good

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Nietzschean Critique of Kant's Highest Good University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1988 A Nietzschean critique of Kant's highest good. Donald M. Schneier University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Schneier, Donald M., "A Nietzschean critique of Kant's highest good." (1988). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 2029. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/2029 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A NIETZSCHEAN CRITIQUE OF KANT’S HIGHEST GOOD A Dissertation Presented by DONALD M. SCHNEIER Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September I988 Philosophy Copywright by Donald M. Schneier I988 All Rights Reserved A NIETZSCHEAN CRITIQUE OF KANT’S HIGHEST GOOD A Disser'ta'fcion Presented by DONALD M. SCHNEIER Approved as to style and content by: Sara Lennox, Member Michael Jubien, Department Head Philosophy ACKNOV/LEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the members of my committee, es- pecially Bob Wolff, for their guidance, the AT for offering a constructive environment, my other friends for their change of pace, and Karen and my father for their steady support over this long haul. IV ABSTRACT A NIETZSCHEAN CRITIQUE OF KANT'S HIGHEST GOOD SEPTEMBER I988 DONALD M. SCHNEIER, B.A. , UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS M.A. , UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS Directed by: Professor Robert Paul Wolff The concept of the highest good is important to Kant be- cause it serves to connect his rationalist ethics to reli- gion. However, this concept entails a paradoxical treatment of the concept of happiness which some commentators believe strains Kant’s rationalism. After discussing and assessing previous approaches to this problem in Kant's ethics, I de- velop a different line of argument against it. I draw upon Nietzsche's theory of valuation to demonstrate how Kant's treatment of reward and punishment, and, hence, of happiness, diverges from his rational principles. Such a line seems to prove more decisive than previous efforts, as I furthermore argue. This Nietzschean approach also suggests a novel per- spective on the relation between Kant and Nietzsche. V TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT ^ INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1. HAPPINESS AND UTILITARIANISM IN KANT'S . ETHICS . 5 Introduction ^ The concept of happiness in Kant's ethics .... 6 Against happiness as a universal moral principle . 8 The moral status of .’ happiness . 10 Controversy over this status 12 Beck's and Wood's positions I5 Happiness as the matter of maxims 21 Universality and happiness in Kant's ethics ... 23 Kant the utilitarian ' 29 Universal happiness as Kant's highest good .... 33 Conclusions 38 References 40 2. SCHOPENHAUER'S CRITICISM OF KANT'S ETHICS .... 42 Introduction 42 Difficulties in applying utilitarianism to Kant's ethics 43 The utilitarian analysis of Kant's highest good . 46 vi Schopenhauer as a critic of Kant’s eudaimonism . 51 The earlier and the later Kant 54 Schopenhauer on Kant and the intelligible world 56 Schopenhauer on reason in general in Kant's ethics 59 Schopenhauer on reason in the Groimdwork 63 Schopenhauer on reason in the second Critique . 70 Intelligible world and intelligible selves . 71 Schopenhauer and Beck, Wood, and the utilitarian 73 Conclusion 76 References 78 3. REASON AND RES SENTIMENT IN KANT'S ETHICS .... 80 Introduction 80 Virtue, happiness, and the best world 82 Nietzsche on reason and Kant's best world . 84 Nietzsche's Genealogy and Kant's Groundwork . 87 Reason and criticism in Kant's philosophy . 89 Master morality, slave morality, and ressentiment 94 Bad conscience and guilt 99 Both moralities in Kant's ethics 106 Conclusions 115 References 116 4 . THE VALUE OF HAPPINESS IN RATIONAL ETHICS 119 Introduction 119 Criticism of the concept of deserved happiness 121 The value of happiness 123 vii Reason and the existence of God Comparison with the other commentaries I33 The Nietzschean side of Kant I38 Conclusion References 5. CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY viii INTRODUCTION This project grew out of what was initially an histor- ical inquiry. I was then interested in the relation between some trends in contemporary philosophy and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophy. This led me into doing some work on the way in which the contemporary philosophers Husserl, Ortega, and Heidegger have appropriated the doc- trines of Descartes, Leibniz, and Kant, respectively. Soon I developed a more concentrated interest in Kant, but my curiosity about his relation to more recent philo- sophy remained. As I became more familiar with Jaspers, it was Kant's relation to existential thinking in partic- ular which drew my attention. It seemed to me that the existentialist notion of freedom bears a close resemblance to the Kantian concept of autonomy. However, such a com- parison would seem to fly in the face of certain received opinions about the relation between Kant and the existen- tialists, For, existentialist individualism seems direct- ly antagonistic to Kantian universalism and impersonalism. Furthermore, Kant is often regarded as being the direct forerunner of Hegelianism, a doctrine which most existen- tialists seem to plainly, and even vehemently, oppose. These conflicting historical theses came into sharper relief as I began to study Nietzsche, who is regarded, on the one hand as one of the seminal figures in existential- ism, and on the other, as an opponent of anti -individual- istic thinking which seems to be essential to Kantianism 2 and Hegelianism. But, again, the views in question seemed to fall only uneasily into those historical categories. Nietzsche's advocacy of not only autonomy hut of also crit- ical methodology places him much more squarely in a Kant- ian tradition than such categorization would seem to have it. It was beginning to occiir to me that one of the key tenets of the received historical thesis is the assumption that Hegel is the sole legitimate nineteenth-century heir of Kant. At about the same time, as I was becoming acquaint- ed with Schopenhauer, the questionability of that tenet be- came obvious. For, Schopenhauer's philosophy is as much a development out of Kant's as is Hegel's, only one which is less popular and prominent. And furthermore, Nietzsche's thinking is quite clearly a direct development out of Scho- penhauer's. Hence, it was now possible to examine Kant's relation to existentialism in the context of a tradition which is able to bypass Hegel. After this, I began to concentrate on Nietzsche from among the existentialists, with an eye towards determining how Nietzsche maintains his advocacy of autonomy and cri- tique while apparently jettisoning Kant's committment to rationalism. Then my investigations took a surprising twist. Partly inspired by Deleuze, I began to see that Nietzsche had not in fact jettisoned rationalism, but, quite to the contrary, that it is one of his main contentions that it is Kant who tiirns misologist. 3 This surprising conception of the relation between Kant and Nietzsche seemed fruitful enough to be the makings of a project of the present scope. In fact, it became apparent that it would exceed present constraints. It became clear that such a project would require defending not only this novel conception of their relation, but also revised inter- pretations of each thinker individually. How to narrow down my ambitions became clear as I began to concentrate on the ethical facet of Kant’s philosophy. The concept, in the latter, of the highest good was emer- ging as one which, on the one hand, is clearly objection- able to Nietzsche, and, on the other, seemed to strain some fundamental Kantian rational principles, ^//hen I understood how Nietzsche’s objections are in the name of reason, even if present constraints precluded the possibility of defending it as a definitive imderstanding, I v/as nevertheless suf- ficiently prepared to proceed to. a. discussion of Kant’s ethics which appears in these pages. Thus, the focus of my discussion is on Kant's concept of the highest good. The first chapter below explains the con- cept and assesses its significance. The concept is impor- tant to Kant because it serves to connect his rational ethics to religion. However, the concept hinges upon a paradox- ical treatment of the concept of happiness, and, so, pre- sents a ripe target for criticism. This chapter will show that this weakness seems to force Kant to the undesirable resort of assistance from utilitarianism. 4 The second chapter responds to the utilitarian defense of Kant’s highest good, by examining a further criticism of the latter. Here I have recourse to some of the results of the historical phase of the genesis of this project, as this second approach is Schopenhauer's critique of Kant's high- est good. As will be seen, though, neither the Schopen- hauerian attack nor the utilitarian defense are decisive either individually or with respect to one another, so the status of that highest good remains at this point in ques- tion. The last two chapters attempt to resolve the issue by developing the Nietzschean approach to the question. This approach v/ill take advantage of the uncertainty of Kant's treatment of happiness by demonstrating discrepancies be- tween rational principles and Kant's treatment of reward and punishment. With this critique of Kant's highest good established, the need at the end of the foiirth chapter to explain my appropriation of Nietzsche for the critique a little further, affords me an opportunity to close with v;hat could serve as a preliminary discussion of the historical thesis v;hich I could not get to in these pages.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Reason and Belief in God in the Nietzschean Postmodern Philosophy: a Critical Study in the Light of Thomistic Philosophy
    Reason and Belief in God in the Nietzschean Postmodern Philosophy: A Critical Study in the Light of Thomistic Philosophy A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Philosophy in Philosophy by PRINCE D. (Reg. No. 1234802) Under the Guidance of Jose Nandhikkara Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy Department of Philosophy ProperCHRISTty of Ch rUNIVERSITYist University. BANGALORE, INDIA Use it for fair purpose. Give credit to theMarch autho r2013 by c iting properly, if your are using it. Approval of Dissertation Dissertation entitled ‘Reason and Belief in God in the Nietzschean Postmodern Philosophy: A Critical Study in the Light of Thomistic Philosophy’ by Prince D. Reg. No. 1234802 is approved for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy in Philosophy. Examiners: 1. ___________________ ___________________ 2. ___________________ ___________________ 3. ___________________ ___________________ Supervisor(s): ___________________ ___________________ Chairman: ___________________ ___________________ Date: ___________ (Seal) Place: Christ University Property of Christ University. Use it for fair purpose. Give credit to the autho r by citing properly, if your are using it. i Declaration I, Prince D., hereby declare that the dissertation, titled ‘Reason and Belief in God in the Nietzschean Postmodern Philosophy: A Critical Study in the Light of Thomistic Philosophy’ is a record of original research work undertaken by me for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy in Philosophy. I have completed this study under the supervision of Dr. Jose Nandhikkara, Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy. I also declare that this dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any degree, diploma, associateship fellowship or other title.
    [Show full text]
  • Virtue and Happiness: a Philosophical Inquiry
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Wits Institutional Repository on DSPACE VIRTUE AND HAPPINESS: A PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY Muhammad Assadallah Schuitema 320900 A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Applied Ethics for Professionals University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 16th March 2015 1 Abstract The position that holds that virtue, as a good, is sufficient for happiness has had illustrious exponents in the past. We will refer to this position as the sufficiency thesis. In recent times however this position has fallen into disfavour. This is largely due to the strong intuition that certain goods other than virtue are necessary for happiness. We will refer to this as the problem of external goods. The point of this paper is to respond to the problem of external goods by articulating an understanding of virtue as involving the ability to occupy a “distanced perspective” within which the virtuous agent becomes detached from external goods insofar as he comes to view them as indifferent. My articulation of this understanding of virtue will be based upon what I take to be the core of the Stoic description of virtue. 2 Declaration I declare that this research report is my own unaided work. It is submitted for the degree of Master of Arts in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has not been submitted before for any other degree or examination in any other university.
    [Show full text]
  • Sexual Orientation and the Law. by Richard D. Mohr. Harry V
    University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository Constitutional Commentary 1991 Book Review: Sexual Orientation and the Law. by Richard D. Mohr. Harry V. Jaffa Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/concomm Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Jaffa, Harry V., "Book Review: Sexual Orientation and the Law. by Richard D. Mohr." (1991). Constitutional Commentary. 395. https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/concomm/395 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Minnesota Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Constitutional Commentary collection by an authorized administrator of the Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1991] BOOK REVIEW 313 ical context, Karst illuminates their connection to the creation of a system of caste. Having given judges the tools to work with, Karst renews the argument for the centrality of the federal judiciary, and particularly the Supreme Court, in remedying the hurt of exclusion. Judicial enforcement of the equal citizenship principle vindicates the central tenets of the American civic culture, invites outsiders into the na­ tional community, and promotes the national good by assuring that no group is a permanent loser in the political process. As we begin the 1990s, this prescription seems hauntingly sad. A court that could tell Native Americans that their religious prac­ tices (and everyone else's, for that matter) were the proper subject of political brokering7 is an unlikely candidate for spiritual leader in the quest for constitutional equality. But as Karst himself points out, the strength of the judicial commitment to equality has never been the measure of its pull on American consciousness-else how could Brown v.
    [Show full text]
  • Newton Contra Alt-Right Nietzsche: Dionysus As Androgynous Black Panther
    Newton contra Alt-right Nietzsche: Dionysus as Androgynous Black Panther Joshua M. Hall The Pluralist, Volume 15, Number 2, Summer 2020, pp. 110-128 (Article) Published by University of Illinois Press For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/757907 [ Access provided at 12 Oct 2020 22:27 GMT from Loyola-Notre Dame Library ] Newton contra Alt-right Nietzsche: Dionysus as Androgynous Black Panther joshua m. hall William Paterson University I saw a man move catlike Across the rooftops, Glide along the horizons, Casting no shadow . —Melvin Newton (qtd. in Hilliard and Weise 245)1 perhaps the most egregious subcommunity responsible for today’s political crisis in the United States, pre-dating and facilitating the rise of its forty-fifth president, is the group known as the “alt-right” (short for the al- ternative right of the political spectrum). It is composed primarily of younger (millennial) cisgender white men, and it developed in response to a well- publicized controversy in the world of computer gaming known as “Gamer- gate.”2 And one of their primary philosophical influences, like the Nazis before them, is Friedrich Nietzsche. They interpret Nietzsche, often through the filter of Ayn Rand’s work, as a powerful precursor to their self-appointed role as nemeses of “political correctness” and champions of the hierarchical views embraced by capitalists, racists, sexists, xenophobes, and so on (which they mask as “free speech”). One major aspect of the mainstream right to which the alt-right is “al- ternative” is orthodox Christianity. Many on the alt-right proudly identify as atheists or agnostics and, like Nietzsche, reach conclusions highly criti- cal of democracy, women, Jewish people, and so on, that are shared by the mainstream right, but they do so via routes that do not explicitly endorse any religious beliefs.
    [Show full text]
  • Voegelin and Strauss on Thomas Hobbes
    A Comparison and Evaluation of Interpretation: Voegelin and Strauss on Thomas Hobbes Copyright 2002 Jeremy J. Mhire In the beginning of his essay on Thomas Hobbes in What is Political Philosophy, Leo Strauss asks the rather salient question of why we, as students of political philosophy in contemporary times, should read Hobbes?29 [1] The simplicity of this question, to say nothing of its relevance, cannot be overlooked. To study Hobbesian political philosophy is to say that it is relevant to us in some way; it speaks to us precisely because it allows us the ability to understand ourselves more fully. As our self‐ understanding is at least partially informed through the modern perspective, it makes sense to return to the thoughts of one who was influential in creating that perspective. This was certainly the standpoint of both Strauss and Eric Voegelin, two of the most influential political philosophers of the last century. By returning to Hobbes�s thought, both Strauss and Voegelin wished to revive those insights that 29 [1] Leo Strauss, What is Political Philosophy (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1959), p. 170. played a crucial role in defining how we understand ourselves today. This essay, then, is first and foremost a general attempt to understand the ways in which both Eric Voegelin and Leo Strauss used Hobbes�s political philosophy as a means through which the modern project, or modernity more simply, could be better understood. This will involve an examination of the key themes that both Voegelin and Strauss thought important to properly understand Hobbes�s political philosophy in particular, and its relationship to modernity more generally.
    [Show full text]
  • Augustine's Ethics
    15 BONNIE KENT Augustine’s ethics Augustine regards ethics as an enquiry into the Summum Bonum: the supreme good, which provides the happiness all human beings seek. In this respect his moral thought comes closer to the eudaimonistic virtue ethics of the classical Western tradition than to the ethics of duty and law associated with Christianity in the modern period. But even though Augustine addresses many of the same problems that pagan philosophers do, he often defends very different answers. For him, happiness consists in the enjoyment of God, a reward granted in the afterlife for virtue in this life. Virtue itself is a gift of God, and founded on love, not on the wisdom prized by philosophers. The art of living In Book 8 of De civitate Dei Augustine describes “moral philosophy” (a Latin expression), or “ethics” (the Greek equivalent), as an enquiry into the supreme good and how we can attain it. The supreme good is that which we seek for its own sake, not as a means to some other end, and which makes us happy. Augustine adds, as if this were an uncontroversial point, that happiness is the aim of philosophy in general.1 Book 19 opens with a similar discussion. In his summary of Varro’s treatise De philosophia, Augustine reports that no school of philosophy deserves to be considered a distinct school unless it differs from others on the supreme good. For the supreme good is that which makes us happy, and the only purpose of philosophizing is the attainment of happiness.2 Both of these discussions cast philosophy as a fundamentally practical discipline, so that ethics appears to overshadow logic, metaphysics, and other comparatively abstract areas as a philosopher’s chief concern.
    [Show full text]
  • Download (364Kb)
    Jesson, Stuart ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8826-0314 (2019) ‘The question in each and every thing’: Nietzsche and Weil on affirmation. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 86 (2). pp. 131-155. Downloaded from: http://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/3727/ The version presented here may differ from the published version or version of record. If you intend to cite from the work you are advised to consult the publisher's version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11153-019-09703-4 Research at York St John (RaY) is an institutional repository. It supports the principles of open access by making the research outputs of the University available in digital form. Copyright of the items stored in RaY reside with the authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full text items free of charge, and may download a copy for private study or non-commercial research. For further reuse terms, see licence terms governing individual outputs. Institutional Repository Policy Statement RaY Research at the University of York St John For more information please contact RaY at [email protected] “This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in International Journal for Philosophy of Religion. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Jesson, Stuart (2019) ‘The question in each and every thing’: Nietzsche and Weil on affirmation is available online at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11153-019- 09703-4” ‘The question in each and every thing’: Nietzsche and Weil on affirmation1 Abstract: This paper identifies and offers commentary upon a previously un-remarked consonance between Nietzsche and Weil when it comes to the idea of a universal love of the world (‘affirmation’ in Nietzsche’s terms, or ‘consent to necessity’ in Weil’s).
    [Show full text]
  • WRAP THESIS Kuzma 2011.Pdf
    University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/47816 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. Erotic Scenographies: Blanchot, Nietzsche & the Exigency of Return by Joseph Dlaboha Kuzma A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy & Literature University of Warwick, Department of Philosophy October 2011 Erotic Scenographies: Blanchot, Nietzsche & the Exigency of Return Contents Preface & Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Courtship & Despondency 21 The Ecstasy of Transmogrification 57 “A Voluptuousness of Hell” 112 The Absolute of Separation 147 The Irrevocable, the Prophetic 194 When Distance Collapsed 251 The Nothingness of Love 293 An Uncertain Covenant 319 “This Beating of a Hesitant Heart” 382 Afterword 433 Appendix 437 Bibliographic Materials Preface & Acknowledgements Some 400 metres above the unbroken azure of the Mediterranean coast, the narrowest of paths leads one upwards, around spires of eroded rock and boulder, to the walls of a medieval village perched high atop the summit. The path itself is not only steep but treacherous – carved out over many hundreds of years, it once led mules laden with cargo, rather precariously, from the port below, to the gates of a chateau, whose ruins still overlook the sea with a bruised, if undeterred, stateliness.
    [Show full text]
  • Confessions, by Augustine
    1 AUGUSTINE: CONFESSIONS Newly translated and edited by ALBERT C. OUTLER, Ph.D., D.D. Updated by Ted Hildebrandt, 2010 Gordon College, Wenham, MA Professor of Theology Perkins School of Theology Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas First published MCMLV; Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 55-5021 Printed in the United States of America Creator(s): Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo (345-430) Outler, Albert C. (Translator and Editor) Print Basis: Philadelphia: Westminster Press [1955] (Library of Christian Classics, v. 7) Rights: Public Domain vid. www.ccel.org 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . 11 I. The Retractations, II, 6 (A.D. 427) . 22 Book One . 24 Chapter 1: . 24 Chapter II: . 25 Chapter III: . 25 Chapter IV: . 26 Chapter V: . 27 Chapter VI: . 28 Chapter VII: . 31 Chapter VIII: . 33 Chapter IX: . 34 Chapter X: . 36 Chapter XI: . 37 Chapter XII: . 39 Chapter XIII: . 39 Chapter XIV: . 41 Chapter XV: . 42 Chapter XVI: . 42 Chapter XVII: . 44 Chapter XVIII: . 45 Chapter XIX: . 47 Notes for Book I: . 48 Book Two . .. 50 Chapter 1: . 50 Chapter II: . 50 Chapter III: . 52 Chapter IV: . 55 Chapter V: . 56 Chapter VI: . 57 Chapter VII: . 59 Chapter VIII: . 60 Chapter IX: . .. 61 3 Chapter X: . 62 Notes for Book II: . 63 Book Three . .. 64 Chapter 1: . 64 Chapter II: . 65 Chapter III: . 67 Chapter IV: . 68 Chapter V: . 69 Chapter VI: . 70 Chapter VII: . 72 Chapter VIII: . 74 Chapter IX: . .. 76 Chapter X: . 77 Chapter XI: . 78 Chapter XII: . 80 Notes for Book III: . 81 Book Four . 83 Chapter 1: . 83 Chapter II: . 84 Chapter III: .
    [Show full text]
  • Simmel's Reading of Nietzsche
    Dominika Partyga Simmel’s reading of Nietzsche: the promise of “philosophical sociology” Article (Accepted version) (Refereed) Original citation: Partyga, Dominika (2016) Simmel’s reading of Nietzsche: the promise of “philosophical sociology”. Journal of Classical Sociology, 16 (4). pp. 414-437. ISSN 1468-795X DOI: 10.1177/1468795X16656267 © 2016 The Author This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/68865/ Available in LSE Research Online: January 2017 LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the author’s final accepted version of the journal article. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. Dominika Partyga I London School of Economics I Department of Sociology Simmel’s reading of Nietzsche: The promise of “philosophical sociology” Abstract This article explores Simmel’s engagement with Nietzsche to illuminate the dynamics of ethical agency in his late life-philosophy. The main argument is that Simmel’s reworking of the Nietzschean themes of the will to power, distinction, and self-overcoming lays the ground for his vitalist ethics in The View of Life.
    [Show full text]
  • Nietzsche's Theory of Cognition: an Interpretation and Defense of Perspectivism Justin R
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Loyola eCommons Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2012 Nietzsche's Theory of Cognition: An Interpretation and Defense of Perspectivism Justin R. Marquis Loyola University Chicago Recommended Citation Marquis, Justin R., "Nietzsche's Theory of Cognition: An Interpretation and Defense of Perspectivism" (2012). Dissertations. Paper 369. http://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/369 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2012 Justin R. Marquis LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO NIETZSCHE’S THEORY OF COGNITION: AN INTERPRETATION AND DEFENSE OF PERSPECTIVISM A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM IN PHILOSOPHY BY JUSTIN R. MARQUIS CHICAGO, IL AUGUST 2012 Copyright by Justin R. Marquis, 2012 All rights reserved. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would, first and foremost, like to thank my family and especially my parents, Rick and Cindy, for encouraging me in all my pursuits. A huge thanks is due to Dr. Jacqueline Scott, my dissertation director, for her mentoring and guidance. I have learned a great deal working under her, and this dissertation represents the fruits of her mentoring. Her encouragement to pursue the connection between Nietzsche’s epistemology and his larger project directly influenced the content of Chapters Two and Six.
    [Show full text]
  • Aryeh Kosman, the Divine in Aristotle's Ethics
    THE DIVINE IN ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS Aryeh Kosman Haverford College [email protected] What role does the notion of the divine play in Aristotle’s account of a good life? This is not an obvious question; god appears relatively infrequently, for example, in the Nicomachean Ethics. But it might interest us, if only because of the perplexing appearance of the divine in Book 10 of that treatise, as that which appears to underwrite the choice of a contemplative life. The cognate question, what role does god play in Aristotle’s understanding of being, is obvious and is more understandable, given Metaphysics Lambda. That question yields a variety of answers. Some interpreters see the entire Metaphysics as directed toward the discussion of divine being in Lambda. Others see Lambda as an addendum to the central books of the Metaphysics, perhaps the residuum of a youthful view outgrown in the course of Aristotle’s maturation. In fact, Lambda’s discussion of god perfects the analysis of substance. It does so, however, not by revealing something about substance and being that the central books do not see, but by making clear that the principle articulated in those books is divine. I think that the same is true with Aristotle’s ethics: the divine is a principle that governs the discourse of the ethical treatises. Stewart put it nicely when he proposed to translate Aristotle’s doctrine “into the language of modern philosophy, and say that Aristotle makes ‘the Idea of God’ the ‘regulative principle’ in man’s life.”1 That neo-Kantian description (“the language of modern philosophy”) may now seem quaint, but it captures Aristotle’s view of god as a formal principle of our normative lives, and it does so without abandoning our commitment to read his ethics as naturalistic and human- centered.
    [Show full text]