Nietzsche's  philosopher of the future
Subtitle: eternal return as a bodily experience.
Published: 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 264
Description: This study examines the role of embodiment in Nietzsche's vision of future philosophy, in relation to will to power and eternal return in the Zarathustran and post-Zarathustran works. The precondition for the coming of the 'future philosopher' who will inaugurate 'great politics' rests on the bodily experience of the eternal return. Modernity is characterized by the existential crisis of nihilism that alienates man from life and the corporeal origin of his existence. The logic of nihilism and its subjugation of the body lead human existence to negate rather than affirm life. The solution to the problem of how to create new values free from the effects of nihilism begins with the philosopher's retranslation back into nature. Retranslation is intended to reconnect man with his nature corporeally understood. Conceived as the philosopher's sublime experience of eternal return, retranslation consists of the philosopher's experience of bodily metamorphosis that, if successfully endured, results in the affirmation of life. Future philosophy originates in the bodily constitution of life and aims to found new forms of political existence based on this. The political problem is that the bodily experience of eternal return can only be endured by a rare type with the ability to withstand the destabilizing and potentially self-destructive encounter with the bodily impulses; as such, the creation of new forms of existence further depends on the philosopher's employment of a Dionysian form of  religion that can translate the experience of eternal return into a political language persuasive enough to reconnect all types with the bodily essence of life. The transformative experience of eternal return is the precondition for the philosopher's political task of legislating a new form of existence for all human types. Retranslation is the prerequisite for future philosophy; eternal return and will to power corporeally  understood, are the cornerstones of Nietzsche's vision of 'great politics'. I examine the interpretations of Karl Lowith, Leo Strauss and Walter Kaufmann because they provide rich interpretations of eternal return but insufficiently stress embodiment; I therefore turn to the readings of Georges Bataille, Pierre Klossowski, and Robert Gooding-Williams who emphasize eternal return as a bodily experience.
Notes: Adviser: Edward Andrew.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2004.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 65-05, Section: A, page: 1809.