Nietzsches Begriff Der Decadence: Kritik Und Analyse Der Moderne

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Nietzsches Begriff Der Decadence: Kritik Und Analyse Der Moderne Nietzsches Begriff der decadence: Town Kritik und Analyse der Moderne Cape Anetteof Horn University Thesis for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of German Language and Literature University of Cape Town 1998 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derivedTown from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only.Cape of Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University ii ANETIEHORN Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis is my own, unaided work. It is being submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Cape Town, South Africa. It has not been submitted before for any degree or examination in any other University. Cape Town, this 15th day of January, 1998 Town Cape of University Nietzsches Begriff der decadence iii Acknowledgements - Danksagungen The financial assistance of the Centre for Science Development (HSRC, South Africa) towards this research is hereby acknowledged with thanks. Opinions expressed in this work, or conclusions arrived at, are those of the author and are not to be attribu­ ted to the Centre for Science Development. The generous financial assistance of the University Research Committee of the University of Cape Town, where I was a UCT Research Associate for two years, is hereby acknowledged, as well as two Mellon Foundation PhD Students Conference Travel Grants. Ich spreche hier den folgenden Personen meinen aufrichtigen Dank aus, fiir lange Gesprache, wertvolle Hinweise, Photokopien von Biichern und Artikeln, die im Buchhandel und in siidafrikanischen Bibliotheken nicht erhaltlich waren, und Kontakte, die sie mir vermittelt haben: Prof. Dr. Sander Gilman an der Universitat Chicago, Prof.Town Dr. Dieter Borchmeyer an der Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Heidelberg, Prof. Dr. Helmut Pfotenhauer an der Bayerischen Julius-Maximilian-Universitat Wiirzburg, Dr. Thomas Brobjer an der Universitat Upsala, Dr. Erdmann von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf und Dr Frank Simon-Ritz an der Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek,Cape Stiftung Weimarer Klassik, Prof. Dr. Paul van Tongeren und Dr. Gerd Schank an der Universitat Nijmegen, Dr. Erika Krau:ISe vom Ernst-Haeckel-Haus derof Universitat Jena. Dem Personal der folgenden Bibliotheken und Archive sei hiermit fiir grofSziigige Hilfeleistungen gedankt: Nietzsche Bibliothek in Weimar (Nationale Forschungs und Gedenkstatten, Zentral­ bibliothek der Deutschen Klassik), University Library of the University of Cape Town, Universitatsbibliothek der Freien Universitat Berlin, Universitatsbibliothek der der Humbolt UniversitatUniversity Berlin, Nationalbibliothek Wien. Mein besonderer Dank gilt Prof. John Noyes, der diese Arbeit betreut und durch kritische Ratschlage gefOrdert hat, sowie allen Dozenten, Mitarbeitern und Postgra­ duierten an der Deutschen Abteilung der Universitat Kapstadt fiir ihre Diskussionsbei trage. Meinen Eltern gilt mein besonderer Dank fiir ihre Unterstiitzung meines Studiums. Abstract: Nietzsche himself has placed the problem of decadence into the centre of his thinking. But he mistrusts any definitions which tear concepts out of the context of their becoming and reduce them to a static 'meaning. In his analysis of decadence there a no unambiguous causes and effects. The very historical breadth and ambiva­ lence of the word 'decadence' does not allow the unambiguous assignation of the word to a 'meaning. Nietzsche's remarks about decadence allow us to postulate two hypotheses as their basis: the first, 'Darwinist' hypothesis would be that occidental culture impedes the development of humanity because it makes 'natural selection' ineffective. The second, 'historico-philosophical' hypothesis would be: everything has existed before, nothing changes, there is neither progress nor degeneration. Nietzsche uses the discoveries of the natural sciences of his time to question radically the separation between biology and culture, natural history and human history, physis and psyche. One of the dominant themes of physiology of the 19th century was the boundary between the pathological and the normal. Nietzsche transfers the medical scheme of diagnosis, aetiology and prognosis to a social and cultural phenomenon such as decadence. In contrast to a conservative critique of culture Nietzsche does not bemoan the disintegration of eternal values, which are supposed to underpin a High Culture, but questions theTown values of religions and philosophies themselves which pretend to be eternal but subordinate life to false aims. Nietzsche drafts a psycho-pathology of the type of the decadent, the embodi­ ment of which is the Christian. Nietzsche sees the "nihilist religions all as: systema­ tis[ ed] stories of illness in a religious-moralCape terminology". In the centre of the psychopathology of Christianity Nietzsche makes out the negation of the body. Nietzsche terms the movement which ofopposes all idealisms a nihilism. Nihilism derives from the understanding that the highest philosophical, religious and ethical values have become devalued. The understanding that truth is based on mere appearance and that it is no 'thing as such', as believed by Platonic and Christian tradition, leads to a renunciation of the truth claim. University iiiB ANETTE HORN Zusammenfassung: Nietzsche selbst hat das Problem der decadence in des Zentrum seines Denkens geriickt. Nietzsche miBtraut allerdings den Definitionen, da sie die Begriffe aus ihrer Entstehungsgeschichte herausreiBen und auf einen statischen 'Sinn' reduzie­ ren. In seiner Analyse der decadence gibt es keine eindeutigen kausalen Beziehungen. Schon die historisch bedingte Breite und Ambivalenz des Wortes 'decadence' verhin­ dert eine eindeutige Zuordnung des Worts zu einem Begriff. Nietzsches AuiSerungen zur decadence lieiSen sich zwei H ypothesen zugrundelegen: Die erste 'darwinistische' Hypothese lautet, daB die abendlandische Kultur die Entwicklung der Menschheit hemmt, indem sie die "natiirliche Selektion" durch­ kreuzt. Die zweite 'geschichtsphilosophische' Hypothese lieiSe sich so formulieren: Alles war schon einmal da, nichts andert sich, es gibt weder Fortschritt noch Ri.ickschri tt. Nietzsche benutzt naturwissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse seiner Zeit, um die Trennung zwischen Biologie und Kultur, Naturgeschichte und menschlicher Histo­ rie, Physis und Psyche radikal in Frage zu stellen. Der Begriff der Decadence operiert innerhalb eines medizinischen Diskurses. In diesem Diskurs ist der ,,Karper" ein sprachliches Konstrukt, Metapher fiir ein Anderes, ein TownGesellschaftliches, fiir den ,,body politic''. Eines der Leitthemen der physiologischen Wissenschaft des 19. Jahrhunderts war die Grenze zwischen dem Pathologischen und dem Normalen, dem Kranken und dem Gesunden. Nietzsche iibernimmt das arztliche Schema von Diagnose, Atiologie und Prognose und iibertragtCape es auf ein soziales und kulturelles Phanomen wie die decadence. Im Unterschied zu einer konservativen Kulturkritik beklagt Nietzsche nicht einfach den Verfallof ewiger Werte, die einer hochstehenden Kultur zugrundeliegen sollten, sondern stellt die als ewig geglaubten Werte der Religionen und Philosophien in Frage, da sie das Leben in den Dienst falscher Zwecke stellen. Fiir die Kulturpessimisten des 19. Jahrhunderts stellte die 'Degene­ ration' die Gegenprobe zur darwinistischen Evolutionstheorie dar. Indem sie in der gegenwartigen Kultur iiberall Zeichen des biologischen Verfalls zu erblicken glaub­ ten, kehrten sie den latenten Fortschrittsglauben der Darwinisten einfach um. Das medizinische VokabularUniversity der Degeneration verlieh ihren kulturpessimistischen Thesen auBerdem eine dubiose wissenschaftliche Legitimitat. Im Unterschied zur Medizin und Literatur des spaten 19. Jahrhunderts spielt die Sexualitat und Prosti­ tution keine zentrale Rolle in Nietzsches Theorie der Degeneration. Obwohl auch er das medizinische Vokabular der 'Degeneration' und 'Degenereszenz' verwendet, scheint er diesen Verfall als notwendig anzusehen, weil er die alten Werteordnun­ gen in Frage stellt. Nietzsche teilt die romantische Auffassung, daB das Kranke das Interessante sei, doch ist er sich der Problematik einer unkritischen Bewunderung des Pathologischen bewuBt. So ist auch sein Angriff auf das Christentum im Diskurs der Degeneration angesiedelt. Indem er behauptet, daB das Christentum auf morbi­ dem Boden gewachsen sei, stellt er es als pathologische Abweichung von einer als gesund konstatierten Norm dar. Wo Selbstbestimmung <lurch Fremdbestimmung verdrangt wird, wo das Verhalten des Einzelnen nicht mehr seinem eigenen Willen entspringt, sondern den natiirlichen und gesellschaftlichen Umstanden, und wo die Philosophie und wissenschaftliche Theorie dieses empirischen Tatbestand auch Nietzsches Begriff der decadence iiic noch valorisiert, dort ist nach Nietzsche ganz offensichtlich Dekadenz zu diagnosti­ zieren, dort kann nichts Neues mehr entstehen, dort ist die Zukunft bereits verspielt. Obwohl Nietzsche einer deterministischen Theorie des sozialen Milieus abgeneigt ist, legt er dennoch groiSen Wert auf Umweltfaktoren, die einen EinfluiS auf die Entwicklung des Menschen haben, wie z.B. die Diat und das Klima. Das scheint im groiSeren Kontext seiner Aufwertung des Korpers zu stehen. Die vornehmen Werte sind fi.ir Nietzsche sublimierten Triebe, die einen stark ausgebildeten Willen zur Macht voraussetzen. Der Wille zur
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