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Die Natur des Geistes – Noch einmal: Nietzsches Theorie des homo natura

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Nietzsches Naturen
This chapter is in the book Nietzsches Naturen

Abstract

The Nature of Spirit - Once Again: Nietzsche’s Theory of the Homo Natura. The essay explores the relation between Geist and nature. The thought is, that Geist shows itself in the way in which Geist denies and rejects itself as nature. The way in which Geist denies and rejects itself as nature is the way in which Geist shows its dependency and origin from nature. In two steps I show that Nietzsche’s formula of retranslating the human being back into nature can be understood in two opposed ways. One way to understand it would be that there is a pre-human fundament in nature. I call this pre-human fundament the animal as the presupposition of the human. In this reading the pre-human is the pre-social nature of the human. Another way to understand it would be that the human is an effect of the social nature of the human. In this reading the human is a difference within the human kind. I call this the new human being. In this reading there is no such thing than a pre-human condition for the human, the human being is social all the way down. My claim is that we have to go back from the second transformative reading to the first archaeological reading in order to understand both directions in its dependency. The pre-social nature of the animal within the human on the one side and the social nature of the human as a new form of what a different human being could be on the other side.

Abstract

The Nature of Spirit - Once Again: Nietzsche’s Theory of the Homo Natura. The essay explores the relation between Geist and nature. The thought is, that Geist shows itself in the way in which Geist denies and rejects itself as nature. The way in which Geist denies and rejects itself as nature is the way in which Geist shows its dependency and origin from nature. In two steps I show that Nietzsche’s formula of retranslating the human being back into nature can be understood in two opposed ways. One way to understand it would be that there is a pre-human fundament in nature. I call this pre-human fundament the animal as the presupposition of the human. In this reading the pre-human is the pre-social nature of the human. Another way to understand it would be that the human is an effect of the social nature of the human. In this reading the human is a difference within the human kind. I call this the new human being. In this reading there is no such thing than a pre-human condition for the human, the human being is social all the way down. My claim is that we have to go back from the second transformative reading to the first archaeological reading in order to understand both directions in its dependency. The pre-social nature of the animal within the human on the one side and the social nature of the human as a new form of what a different human being could be on the other side.

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