Nietzsche's Struggle against Pessimism
- Author: Patrick Hassan, Cardiff University
- Date Published: November 2023
- availability: Not yet published - available from October 2024
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781009380270
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On what grounds could life be made worth living, given its abundant suffering? Friedrich Nietzsche was among many who attempted to answer this question. While always seeking to resist pessimism, Nietzsche's strategy for doing so, and the extent to which he was willing to concede conceptual grounds to pessimists, shifted dramatically over time. His reading of pessimists such as Eduard von Hartmann, Olga Plümacher, and Julius Bahnsen—as well as their critics, such as Eugen Dühring and James Sully—has been under-explored in the secondary literature, isolating him from his intellectual context. Patrick Hassan's book seeks to correct this. After closely mapping Nietzsche's philosophical development on to the relevant axiological and epistemological issues, it disentangles his various critiques of pessimism, elucidating how familiar Nietzschean themes (e.g. eternal recurrence, aesthetic justification, will to power, and his critique of Christianity) can and should be assessed against this philosophical backdrop.
Read more- Offers a wider account of Nietzsche's intellectual context for his articulation, and critique, of pessimism
- Disentangles Nietzsche's seemingly scattered remarks about pessimism into clearly delineated critiques
- Contains in-depth analysis of key passages in Nietzsche's corpus
Reviews & endorsements
'In place of a superficial acceptance or rejection, Patrick Hassan nuances in a fruitful and quite original way Nietzsche's critical engagement with the varieties and historical iterations of pessimism. A rare combination of historical erudition and analytic precision, this is an essential book on a core topic in Nietzsche studies.' Anthony Jensen, Providence College
See more reviews'Nietzsche's critique of pessimism has often been framed as a response to Schopenhauer. Hassan usefully expounds the wider intellectual context and shows philosophical sensitivity in reconstructing the thought of the now-lesser-known figures that Nietzsche was in dialogue with, beyond just Schopenhauer.' Andrew Huddleston, University of Warwick
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×Product details
- Date Published: November 2023
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781009380270
- length: 284 pages
- dimensions: 235 x 158 x 21 mm
- weight: 0.57kg
- availability: Not yet published - available from October 2024
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I. Nietzsche's Intellectual Context & Early Reception of Pessimism:
1. The varieties of pessimism
2. Nietzsche's initial engagement with pessimism
Part II. The Beginnings of Change: Pessimism in Human All Too Human:
3. Nietzsche's new naturalism
4. 'Bad news for priests': scientific progress and suffering
Part III. Nietzsche's mature rejection of the 'Pessimism of Sensibility':
5. A psychological critique
6. An existential critique
7. A perfectionist critique
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.
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