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WALKING NIETZSCHE’S TIGHTROPE, A THESIS FOR NO ONE by Paul Robert Dotson Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in POLITICAL SCIENCE APPROVED: all + Timo¢thy WY Lukel Chairman Stephen K. White i=e Gwyton B. Hammond May 1992 Blacksburg, Virginia CY LD SS VB5S5 (G42 V6%) Cie ABSTRACT The philosophyof Friedrich Nietzsche is thought provoking and enigmatic. This work is an exploration of three of the bulwarks of Nietzsche's philosophy and an attempt to trace their political implications. Analyses of Nietzsche’s concepts of the will to power, eternal return, and the Ubermensch are presented in an effort to build a coherent vision of Nietzsche’s work. The will to power has been interpreted in many ways, and in this text I make the case that it is a drive for self-cultivation and finding one’s own direction in life. Eternal return is presented as a mythic idea which Nietzsche thought would spur people to live each moment as if they wished it would recur eternally, rather than judging their actions by future promises or past glories. The Ubermensch is the Nietzschean individual who believes in eternal return and engages in self-cultivation through the will to power. There are interesting political implications which follow from this philosophical framework, which I discuss in the final chapter. Based on the analysis of the three concepts mentioned above, I argue that Nietzsche thought societal problems were never cured or even lessened by politics or any political theory. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe many thanks to Tim Luke and Stephen White, for driving me to do what it takes to do good work, and for saving me from attempting "My Theory of the World." I thank Guy Hammond for stepping over the boundary of disciplines and giving me a perspective on Nietzsche that I could not get in political science. To Charles Walcott I owe a great deal for persuading me to apply to (and getting me into) VPI. Were it not for Chuck, my returnto undergraduate study in 1988 after a hiatus probably would not have led me here, thanks Chuck. To Doug Borer, Philosopher and Guru, for all the time you’ve given me: (th)ankhs man. To Nick (P)Smith, I owe thanks for inspiration and some of the best advice a friend could give. Many thanks go to Terry, Kim, and Maxine, who persevere in the face of graduate student mindlessness. I benefitted greatly from the "Ubermensch Society" discussions with Stephen White, Scott Nelson, and Tim Duvall. Scott has given me many ideas (and stolen a few) and immeasurably helped me to stay afloat. I can’t thank Tim enough, for help on this or anything else. My thoughts and life would be of less value were it not for Tim. You are well hated my friend, C~. To my parents, well, I hope the time it took to make me makes up for the past 24 years. I’m still not sure how you lived through them. 1ii I owe more to my wife Shelley than to anyone else. I can’t believe the hell she has put up with here at VPI. I can’t imagine completing this program without her support, criticism, and love. Through it all she has reminded me of what is most important to me; along with Buddy, Jane, Bill, Ted, and Earl. iv Key to Abbreviations of Nietzsche’s Works BGE Beyond Good and Evil, 1886 BT The Birth of Tragedy, 1872 D Dawn, 1881 EH Ecce Homo, 1888 GM On the Genealogy of Morals, 1887 GS The Gay Science, 1882 HAH Human, All Too-Human, 1878 TI Twilight of the Idols, 1889 TSZ Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1883-5 Major divisions (Books, Essays...) of works are listed by Roman numerals. Sections are listed by number. For example, Section 12, Essay 2 of On the Genealogy of Morals, will be cited as: (GM, II, 12). PREFACE As undesirable as it may seem, it remains necessary to inform the reader of the limitations of this work. First, I have not read Nietzsche’s work in the original German--because I cannot. Hence, I have not had access to the volumes of untranslated texts and notes; nor have I been able to speculate on the nuances of the German language which translators may have missed. Second, unlike the commentators I have cited repeatedly in this work (who regularly thank each other for help in their interpretations of Nietzsche), I have had only myself and a few friends to ruminate with over the construction of ‘my Nietzsche.’ If my work seems sophomoric, well, that is because it is. I have taken care in my interpretation of the work of Nietzsche and his commentators. I owe that care to them and to the reader. I have also attempted at all times to make this work readable and enjoyable for those inside and outside academia. I think I also owe this to Nietzsche, his commentators, and those few who might read this text. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: MOUNTING THE TIGHTROPE......ceecccccvecccesveed 1.1 Introduction...... cece crc cccccvves emceercv ere seee 1 1.2 Why This ThesisS?.........ccceccccee cece cece ccc eee 3 1.3 Why Nietzsche?...... cccc eee cece cc cee receeens oo eee dD 1.4 Conceptual OVeErview.....ccc crc c cr ccrccerccccccene 7 1.4.a Eternal Return....... ccc cece ccc cnr creer ccc ces 7 1.4.b The Will to Power........ eeeeee r owns cc cccece ...10 1.4.c The Ubermensch..........ceveceees cee c ev eres eee eld 1.5 A Glimpse at the Political Implications.......... 17 CHAPTER TWO: HERAKLEITOS, ETERNAL RETURN, AND THE DEATH OF GOD... ceceee eee eee weee eee reece cencecern ec cs cceene 20 2.1 The Circle of Cycles...ccc c cece vce neee ec ccee 20 2.2 The Glorification of the Moment............. coe ee dl 2.3 Weaving a Web With Nietzsche’s Thoughts.......... 30 2.3.a "Behold This Gateway, Dwarf!"........... eee eee 0 30 2.3.b The Death of God............. wcrc cccer cceee 22-34 2.3.c The Love Of Fate...... cece cw wc wc ccc nce ncces - 36 2.3.d Eternal Return, The Will to Power, and the Ubermensch eeeeee#eersrekese¢ eoee#e#es2#ke8e8 8e@e#e+e4ee¢##fee¢e#8tsee Ge Oe eee ehUchhUrhChUCOhlUO ee 0 38 vii CHAPTER THREE: ‘GIVING STYLE TO ONE’S CHARACTER’..........40 3.1 Stormtroopers and Swastikas: Nietzsche and World Mastery.... se0e@8es8@ @ @ & © 8e@ 8 8 eeeetenfe8s88 8 eooeseeste#escese#ee#ee ccc cece ee e Al 3.1.b The Individual and the ‘Great War’.............46 3.2 Nietzsche & the Greek ‘Aesthetics of Existence’..53 3.3 The Will to Power and Aesthetic Praxis.......... 64 3.3.a Untruth as a Condition of Life.................64 3.3.b Good For All, Evil For All, Do Not Exist.......67 3.3.c The Will to Power = Aesthetic Praxis...........69 3.4 Conclusion...... cece eee ccc ccc cee cece cece eccceeeAD CHAPTER FOUR: THE UBERMENSCH: HOW ONE BECOMES WHAT ONE IS.....-2. ccccee cece merce esecvecne cece eee ee 82 4.1 Eternal Return, The Will to Power, and the Ubermensch.....ccc ccccscccccccccccccvscces cece eee ee 82 4.2 The Three Metamorphoses of the Spirit............ 86 4.3 Nietzsche’s Conception of Self............... 22-89 4.4 tibermensch Autonomy: “Holding a Space"...........94 CHAPTER FIVE: FROM PHILOSOPHY TO POLITICS: WALKING NIETZSCHE'S TIGHTROPE.... cc. cwvcccscccccecsccsecsccoee 104 5.1 The Promise of the Will to Power................106 5.2 The Power of Eternal Return.........ceceeeeeeeeeL17 5.3 The Ubermensch: Life on Nietzsche’s Tightrope...124 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......... ee cece cc er ccc e eee ee L138 viil CHAPTER ONE MOUNTING THE TIGHTROPE Nietzsche lived with his intellectual problems as with realities, he experienced a similar emotional commitment to them as other men experience to their wife and children...In a man who thinks like this, the dichotomy between thinking and feeling, intellect and passion, has really disappeared. He feels his thougts. He can fall in love with an idea. An idea can make him ill. ~-R. J. Hollingdale 1.1 Introduction Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was more a philosopher and critic of society than he was a political theorist. His works do not include political treatises in the tradition of Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Machiavelli, Locke, and Rousseau. The emerging political theories of Nietzsche’s time--Marxism, socialism, anarchism, and democratic theory are among the targets of Nietzsche’s most vitriolic attacks (see, e.g. GM: I, 4 & 5: TSZ: I, 11; II, 6). The affinity of his manifestly political ideas with his friend Jacob Burckhardt’s,’ tenuously places them among those of ‘Aristocratic Conservatives’ such as Alexis de Tocqueville and Henry Adams. But to say that this was a concern of Nietzsche’s at all would be a severe overstatement. His sparse political commentary shared * Nietzsche’s elder colleague at the University of Basel, 1869-79; Hayman: 108-9. Burckhardt’s view that "Mediocrity is the real diabolical force in the world. Civilization is in danger from the ascendancyof the masses" (in Curtis, 1962: 180). In general, Nietzsche’s philosophy was a critique of what he saw as a deplorable rise of mediocrity in the "plebean bias of the modern mind" (GM: I, 4). He lambasted socialists for their "weakness," their "complaining," and their “shifting of blame onto others for their conditions of existence" (TI: 34). He attacked the ideology of "that gruesome farce", the French Revolution, which still pervaded Europe as "a force enlisting everything shallow and mediocre" (BGE: 38; TI: 48).