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Recent Work on Nietzsche’s Moral Psychology and Ethics

  • Paul Katsafanas EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: August 20, 2021

Abstract

Each of these books presents itself as rescuing Nietzsche from misinterpretation. Thus, Leiter wants to prevent Nietzsche from being “moralized” (i. e., read in a way that makes him sound like a contemporary moral philosopher); Stern wants to prevent Nietzsche from being iron-manned (i. e., read in a way that assumes his arguments must be invulnerable to critique); Alfano wants to correct what he sees as a tendency to misrepresent Nietzsche’s central concerns; and Ridley claims writers have been misled when thinking about Nietzsche on action. Alfano’s book is, to my mind, the most successful at achieving its stated aims; while I point out some potential oversights and some areas that could benefit from further development, Alfano’s book is both novel and important. Leiter’s book is clearly written and presents the arguments in an admirably forthright manner, but some of its conclusions are vitiated by lapses and mischaracterizations. Stern gets Nietzsche’s basic view right, but does not probe it very deeply and is too quick to present Nietzsche as confused; I see the confusions as emanating less from Nietzsche’s texts and more from Stern’s reading of them. Ridley’s book is original and provocative, but I find the central claim – that Nietzsche endorses an expressive account of action – ultimately unconvincing.

Bibliography

Katsafanas, Paul: Agency and the Foundations of Ethics: Nietzschean Constitutivism, Oxford 201310.1093/acprof:oso/9780199645077.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Katsafanas, Paul: “The Antichrist as a Guide to Nietzsche’s Mature Ethical Theory,” in Paul Katsafanas (ed.), The Nietzschean Mind, London 2018, 83–10110.4324/9781315146317-7Search in Google Scholar

Katsafanas, Paul: The Nietzschean Self: Agency, Moral Psychology, and the Unconscious, Oxford 201610.1093/acprof:oso/9780198737100.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Nehamas, Alexander: “Nietzsche, Intention, Action,” European Journal of Philosophy 26/2 (2018), 685–70110.1111/ejop.12295Search in Google Scholar

Stern, Tom: “Must We Choose Between the Real Nietzsche and Good Philosophy? A Streitschrift,” Journal of Nietzsche Studies 49/2 (2018), 277–8310.5325/jnietstud.49.2.0277Search in Google Scholar

Stern, Tom: “‘Some Third Thing’: Nietzsche’s Words and the Principle of Charity,” Journal of Nietzsche Studies 47/2 (2016), 287–30210.5325/jnietstud.47.2.0287Search in Google Scholar

Street, Sharon: “A Darwinian Dilemma for Realist Theories of Value,” Philosophical Studies 127/1 (2006), 109–6610.1007/s11098-005-1726-6Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2021-08-20
Published in Print: 2021-08-18

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelei
  2. Editorial
  3. Inhaltsverzeichnis
  4. Die „Magie des Extrems“ in philosophischen Neuorientierungen. Nietzsches neue extreme Problemstellungen und -lösungen und das alte Beispiel des Sokrates
  5. Burckhardt’s Silence and Nietzsche
  6. A Heretical Student in the Schopenhauerian School
  7. Nietzsche’s Heraclitean Doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same
  8. Das Bild eines „europäischen Goethe“ in Nietzsches Götzen-Dämmerung. Einige Bemerkungen
  9. Le cas Napoléon
  10. Utopien des Übergangs. Don Quixote und Zarathustra
  11. „Werde, der du bist!“. Selbsterkenntnis, Handeln und Selbstgestaltung bei Nietzsche in einem Ineditum von Georges Canguilhem
  12. Bound Sovereignty: The Origins of Moral Conscience in Nietzsche’s “Sovereign Individual”
  13. Nietzsche’s Compassion
  14. Nietzsche’s Entomology: Insect Sociality and the Concept of the Will
  15. Sources of Nietzsche’s Knowledge and Critique of Anarchism
  16. Nachweis aus Horaz, Satiren und Episteln
  17. Nachweis aus Karl Rosenkranz, Aesthetik des Hässlichen (1853)
  18. Nachweise aus Eugen Dühring, Cursus der Philosophie (1875)
  19. Nietzsche and the Aesthetics of Philosophy
  20. Nietzsche and Music
  21. Leib, Seele und Subjektivität nach Nietzsche. Internationale Perspektiven auf ein Problem im Wandel
  22. Recent Work on Nietzsche’s Moral Psychology and Ethics
  23. Recent Work on Nietzsche’s Social and Political Philosophy
  24. Jewish Nietzscheanism
  25. Siglen
  26. Stellenregister
  27. Hinweise zur Gestaltung von Manuskripten für die Nietzsche-Studien
  28. Nietzsche-Studien Style Sheet
  29. Titelseiten
  30. Editorial
  31. Abhandlungen
  32. Die „Magie des Extrems“ in philosophischen Neuorientierungen. Nietzsches neue extreme Problemstellungen und -lösungen und das alte Beispiel des Sokrates
  33. Burckhardt’s Silence and Nietzsche
  34. A Heretical Student in the Schopenhauerian School
  35. Nietzsche’s Heraclitean Doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same
  36. Das Bild eines „europäischen Goethe“ in Nietzsches Götzen-Dämmerung. Einige Bemerkungen
  37. Le cas Napoléon
  38. Utopien des Übergangs. Don Quixote und Zarathustra
  39. „Werde, der du bist!“. Selbsterkenntnis, Handeln und Selbstgestaltung bei Nietzsche in einem Ineditum von Georges Canguilhem
  40. Bound Sovereignty: The Origins of Moral Conscience in Nietzsche’s “Sovereign Individual”
  41. Nietzsche’s Compassion
  42. Nietzsche’s Entomology: Insect Sociality and the Concept of the Will
  43. Abhandlung zur Quellenforschung
  44. Sources of Nietzsche’s Knowledge and Critique of Anarchism
  45. Nachweise zur Quellenforschung
  46. NACHWEIS AUS HORAZ, SATIREN UND EPISTELN
  47. NACHWEIS AUS KARL ROSENKRANZ, AESTHETIK DES HÄSSLICHEN (1853)
  48. NACHWEISE AUS EUGEN DÜHRING, CURSUS DER PHILOSOPHIE (1875)
  49. Rezensionen
  50. Nietzsche and the Aesthetics of Philosophy
  51. Nietzsche and Music
  52. Leib, Seele und Subjektivität nach Nietzsche. Internationale Perspektiven auf ein Problem im Wandel
  53. Recent Work on Nietzsche’s Moral Psychology and Ethics
  54. Recent Work on Nietzsche’s Social and Political Philosophy
  55. Jewish Nietzscheanism
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