Agonal perspectives on Nietzsches philosophy of critical transvaluation Nietzsche’s strengths as a critic are widely acknowledged but his peculiar style of critique is usually ignored as rhetoric or dismissed as violent or simply incoherent. In this book Nietzsche’s concept of the agon or Wettkampf a measured and productive form of conflict inspired by ancient Greek culture is advanced as the dynamic and organising principle of his philosophical practice enabling us to make sense of his critical confrontations and the much disputed concept of transvaluation or Umwertung. Agonal perspectives are cast on number of key problems in his thought across a broad range of texts. Topics and problems treated include: critical history and the need for a limit in the negation of the past; Nietzsche contra Socrates and the problem of closure; Nietzsche contra humanism and the problem of humanity; Nietzsche contra Kant on genius and legislation; the problem of self legislation in relation to life and temporality; Nietzsche’s sense of community in its articulation with law and the normativity of taste; ressentiment and the question of therapy in Nietzsche and Freud; and the problem of total affirmation in relation to critique. These studies have a broad appeal from MA level to advanced Nietzsche research Frontmatter Acknowledgements Contents Translations of Nietzsche’s Writings References to Nietzsche’s Writings Abbreviations and References for Nietzsche Introduction Chapter 1 The Art of Limited Warfare: Nietzsche’s Hammer and the Need to Find a Limit in Negation Chapter 2 Nietzsche’s Agon and the Transvaluation of Humanism Chapter 3 Performing the Agon: Towards an Agonal Model for Critical Transvaluation Chapter 4 The First Transvaluation of All Values: Nietzsche’s Agon with Socrates in The Birth of Tragedy Chapter 5 Agonal Configurations in the Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen: The Problem of Origins Originality and Mimesis in Genius and Culture (Nietzsche and Kant) Chapter 6 Of (Self‐)Legislation Life and Love Chapter 7 Law and Community in the Agon: Agonal Communities of Taste and Lawfulness without a Law Chapter 8 Nietzsche’s Agon with Ressentiment: Towards a Therapeutic Reading of Critical Transvaluation (Nietzsche and Freud) Chapter 9 Umwertung: Nietzsche’s ‘War Praxis’ and the Problem of Yes Saying and No Saying in Ecce Homo Agon Related Publications by the Author Bibliography Name Index Subject Index