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The Psychological Theory of On the Utility and Liability of History for Life

  • Jozef Majerník EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 8. Oktober 2020

Abstract

The problem of history in Nietzsche’s second Unfashionable Observation is best approached through that which it is supposed to serve: life, more specifically human life. I argue that Nietzsche presents an oblique but nevertheless complete articulation of the nature of the human soul as consisting of two basic parts, of desiring (the unhistorical) and memory (the historical): of a multiplicity of desires that struggle for domination over the others, and which express themselves in more complex ways through memory-based structures such as conscience. I then discuss some implications of this conception. First, I interpret the significance of the useful kinds of history: rather than being different modes of historical science, they are much more basic modes of practical relating to the matters of our world (especially to other humans and their ways of life) that are external to us both temporally and spatially. Second, I discuss the particular kinds of desires which underpin the three useful kinds of history. Third, I interpret the problem of scientific history as arising from a turning of the normal human structures of meaningfulness against themselves, and as resulting in two specific kinds of psychic damage: to our capacity for growth and self-cultivation, and to our will to do so at all. Finally, I show the importance of the erotic-historic soul for the questions of right and wrong methods of self-knowledge and for the meaning of the imperative “sei du selbst!” that we find in Schopenhauer as Educator.

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Published Online: 2020-10-08
Published in Print: 2020-10-27

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Titelseiten
  2. Abhandlungen
  3. Eine psychophysiologische Lektüre der Vorreden von 1886/87. Genese und Bedeutung von „Krankheit“ und „Gesundheit“ in Nietzsches Spätphilosophie
  4. Abenteurer und Entdecker vor dem „Theater-Auge“ in Nietzsches Morgenröthe
  5. Vom Krieg zur Liebe. Nietzsches Philosophieren über Männlichkeiten im Lichte von Gegenwartsdebatten
  6. The Psychological Theory of On the Utility and Liability of History for Life
  7. A Dynamic Interpretation of Nietzsche’s “The Greatest Weight”
  8. Political Theologies Surrounding the Nietzschean “Death of God” Trope
  9. The Will to Synthesis: Nietzsche, Carnap and the Continental-Analytic Gap
  10. Herbert Spencer: A Case History of Nietzsche’s Conception of Decadence
  11. Texte et Contexte. Georges Bataille Lecteur de Nietzsche dans la Revue Acéphale
  12. Diskussionsbeitrag
  13. Does Nietzsche have aNachlass”?
  14. Berichte
  15. „Odi profanum vulgus et arceo“. Zwei lateinische Oden des Schülers Nietzsche
  16. Nietzsche und die Worte des Avestā. Lektürespuren parsischer Texte in Also sprach Zarathustra
  17. Nachweise zur Quellenforschung
  18. NACHWEIS AUS LUDWIG PRELLER, HERMIPPI SMYRNAEI PERIPATETICI FRAGMENTA, IN: NEUE JAHRBÜCHER FÜR PHILOLOGIE UND PAEDAGOGIK 17.1 (1836)
  19. NACHWEISE AUS ARNOBIUS DER AFRIKANER, SIEBEN BÜCHER WIDER DIE HEIDEN (1842)
  20. NACHWEISE ZU QUELLEN DER MORGENRÖTHE
  21. NACHWEIS AUS FRIEDRICH UEBERWEG, UEBER DIE PLATONISCHE WELTSEELE, IN: RHEINISCHES MUSEUM 9 (1854)
  22. NACHWEIS AUS PLATON’S WERKE (1855–1869)
  23. NACHWEISE AUS JACOB BERNAYS, JOSEPH JUSTUS SCALIGER (1855)
  24. NACHWEISE AUS GOTTFRIED BERNHARDY, GRUNDRISS DER RÖMISCHEN LITTERATUR (1865)
  25. NACHWEISE AUS OTTO JAHN, AUS DER ALTERTHUMSWISSENSCHAFT (1868)
  26. NACHWEIS AUS MORITZ VON ENGELHARDT, DAS CHRISTENTHUM JUSTINS DES MÄRTYRERS (1878)
  27. Rezensionen
  28. Some Recent Work on Nietzsche’s Ethical Thought
  29. Beyond Onto-theology and Metaphysics: the Cases of Heidegger and Nietzsche
  30. Neuerscheinungen zu Nietzsches Ästhetik
  31. Nietzsche’s Engagement with Kant and the Kantian Legacy
Heruntergeladen am 23.10.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/nietzstu-2020-0004/html
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