NIETZSCHE’S GREEK ETHICS: HIS EARLY ETHICAL SYMPTOMATOLOGY RECONSTRUCTED ƴȋCollège Édouard-Montpetit/Centre canadien d’études allemandes et européennes) This paper seeks to circumscribe the concepts, sources, and limits of Nietzsche’s early ethical thought through a reconstruction of his DzǤdzǡ Greeks understood the true nature of the political phenomenon, and that this could correct fundamental errors that were responsi- Ǥ ϔ ethos radically challenges modern democratic politics through a reassertion of aristocratic, heroic, and agonistic values. But be- cause Nietzsche did not systematically describe his early ethics, a reconstruction is necessary. His metaphor of the philosopher as a “physician of culture” is a guide for this reconstruction. Using con- ǡ ϔ fferent symp- toms and possible remedies, and hoped to cure German culture through a therapeutic transvaluation of modernity. To reconstruct this symptomatology I turn to The Greek State, Homer’s Contest, and Ǥǡϔ of “agon” and “eris” that are central to his reading of Greek ethics. I then describe four ethical symptoms and their remedies. I conclude with interpre- tative hypotheses that address issues that were left unanswered by Nietzsche. This symptomatology shows that his reading of Greek ethics functions as a radical—albeit fragmentary—normative cri- tique of his time, and of our democratic age. ǡ Ǥ ǡǡǤ — E ǡϐ ϐ ǡ ϐ
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NIETZSCHE’S GREEK ETHICS: HIS EARLY ETHICAL SYMPTOMATOLOGY RECONSTRUCTED
Collège Édouard-Montpetit/Centre canadien d’études allemandes et européennes)
This paper seeks to circumscribe the concepts, sources, and limits of Nietzsche’s early ethical thought through a reconstruction of his
Greeks understood the true nature of the political phenomenon, and that this could correct fundamental errors that were responsi-
ethos radically challenges modern democratic politics through a reassertion of aristocratic, heroic, and agonistic values. But be-cause Nietzsche did not systematically describe his early ethics, a reconstruction is necessary. His metaphor of the philosopher as a “physician of culture” is a guide for this reconstruction. Using con-
fferent symp-toms and possible remedies, and hoped to cure German culture through a therapeutic transvaluation of modernity. To reconstruct this symptomatology I turn to The Greek State, Homer’s Contest, and of “agon” and “eris” that are central to his reading of Greek ethics. I then describe four ethical symptoms and their remedies. I conclude with interpre-tative hypotheses that address issues that were left unanswered by Nietzsche. This symptomatology shows that his reading of Greek ethics functions as a radical—albeit fragmentary—normative cri-tique of his time, and of our democratic age.
— E
Symposium no. ( )
—a - 1— s-o-
t-
Der Arbeiter ”2 This
th- r-
man— —Greek ethos o-
o-
e-3
”4
1 Fascisme et littérature pure: La fabrique d’Ernst Jünger –Nihilistische Lektüre des Zeitalters: Ernst Jüngers Nietzsche-Rezeption
2 in Cahier de l’Herne Martin Heidegger 3 Deutsche Rundschau
Friedrich Nietzsche
-Nietzsche n-
–Orbis Litterarum –
4 Encyclopædie der klassische Philologie) are taken from KSA
KSB KSA KSB
Nietzsche’s Greek Ethics
tion”5
t-
- …is
—agon
6
e-
KSA Kritische Studienausgabe
KSB Sämtliche Briefe. Kritische Studienausgabe
5 The Republic of Genius: A Reconstruc-tion of Nietzsche’s Early Thought
6 o-
The Journal of Nietzsche Studies –Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of
Ce sera la faiblesse ou la force de Nietzsche, à tout jamais, d’avoir été un disciple de Machiavel.… Il faut ici évaluer avec précision la dette de Nietzsche. Il a tenu le machiavélisme pour la politique parfaite. Nietzsche, sa vie et sa pensée i-
th-
13 Nietzsche and the Politics of History
Nietzsche’s Greek Ethics
-14
— s-
that Human, all too Human
15 f these
16
per se e-17—a ten-
seek i-
-
agon
14 Politeia in Nietzsche and Antiquity: His Reaction and Response to the Classical Tradition
15 e.g. -
Journal of Nietzsche Studies– Nietzsche and the Politics of Aristocratic Radicalism
16 Philologica
- International Journal of the Classical Tradition
17 Nietzsche and Political
Thought
The Birth of Tragedy
The Greek State Homer’s Contest
Symposium no. ( )
e-agon Greek age
18
19 – n-Der Philosoph als Arzt der Cultur r-
20
”21
”22
The Greek State Homer’s Contest23 Five Forewords to Five Books that have not been Written that Nie-
18 Discourses and Selected Writings
19 Nietzsche: Imagery and Thought – 20 Nachlaß 21 The Gay Science 22 Nietzsche-Studien
23 The Greek State stems from notes taken for The Birth of Tragedy
Nietzsche’s Greek Ethics
Christmas —
The Birth of Tragedy Forewords
The Birth of Tragedy
in has three stages m-agon eris
ethos 24 o-
— n-— his time e
of Nie-
Eris and Agon
-
”25
Homer and Classical Philology -
Nietzsche and the Greeks
”26
24 ength in the Kulturkritik et philosophie thérapeutique chez le
jeune Nietzsche 25 - – 26 Nietzsche and the Greeks
Symposium no. ( )
on Homer’s Conteststresses that
or ”27 Five Forewords
The Birth of Tragedy an 28
Letter of Condolence to Apollonius29 30 In The Birth of Tragedy
the t-”
Greeks ha — o-’s
31 The Birth of Tragedy
s are
27 Homer’s Contest
28 Nietzsche’s Philosophical Context: An Intellectual Biography a-
– 29 The Birth of Tragedy
30 The Greek State
31 The Birth of Tragedy o-
Querelle autour de La naissance de la tragédie Cohen-
Nietzsche’s Greek Ethics
them
Homer’s Contest agon— eris
mentions eris Eris —
Rhetoric 32 In Homer’s Con-test Eris
Works and DaysGreek
Eris —it shn-
”33
divinities
ethical concepts
34
on The Greeks and Greek Civilization m-eris Eris
32 On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse –
33 Theogony. Works and Days. Shield i-–
34 Politeia – e-Nietzscheforschung: Jahrbuch der Nietzsche-
Gesellschaft Les lectures françaises de Nietzsche - –
Symposium no. ( )
roots of the earth ”35 eris m-
Eris
”36 Eris
Eris —
agon
”37 eris
— hubris
38 eris
agon agon Wettkampf e-
agon Homer’s Contest
-
35 The Greeks and Greek Civilization
36 Ibid 37 Ibid. 38 Homer’s Wettkampf haben auch, nach dem Beispiele des Miltiades, durch Thaten der Hybris ihren Untergang herbeigeführt, zum Beweise dafür, daß ohne Neid Eifersucht und wettkämpfenden Ehrgeiz der hellenische Staat wie der hellenische Mensch entartet.”
Nietzsche’s Greek Ethics
agon i.e. - 39) Greek as a
t is again akin to that of agon—
40—
polis agon
—
” 41 agon
”42 i-
- agon eris are
43 n-
uncivilized -- 44
polis i-
— ’ -
39 Nie-tzsche and Antiquity: His Reaction and Response to the Classical Tradition
40 The Greeks and Greek Civilization 41 Ibid. 42 Ibid. 43 Nachlaß 44
Ibid.Nietzsches Antike
Symposium no. ( )
45
- 46
An Ethical Symptomatology
Lage o-e reme-
the fundamen-tal contradiction between the value of work and the value of art
no matter
what rs
—
is to Nietzs ” art depends upon slavery 47 That -
45 46 The Republic of Genius 47 Demgemäß müssen wir uns dazu verstehen, als grausam klingende Wahrheit hinzustellen, daß zum Wesen einer Kultur das Sklaventhum gehöre: eine Wahrheit freilich, die über den absoluten Werth des Daseins keinen Zweifel übrig läßt.”
Nietzsche’s Greek Ethics
”48
s r-
- — the lie regarding the origins of the
state It is
-
” griechische Staat
Greek polis 49 ”
— her own
i-
50 The Greek State
bellum omnium contra omnes is
48 -The Genealogy of Morals -
49 Erhebung des Staatsbegriffes zum allgemeinen Normalbegriff der politischen Organisationsform aller Zeiten und Völker, Jahrhundert zu einem auf alle Zeiten und Völker übertragenen Allgemeinbegriff…gemacht werden konnte.”
Verfassungsrechtliche Aufsätze aus den Jahren –
50 International Journal of the Classical Tradition