Nietzsche, the aristocratic rebel : : intellectual biography and critical balance-sheet / / by Domenico Losurdo ; with an introduction by Harrison Fluss ; translated by Gregor Benton.

• Superior document: Historical materialism book series ; Volume 200
• VerfasserIn: Losurdo, Domenico,
• TeilnehmendeR: Benton, Gregor,; Fluss, Harrison,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2019]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English; Italian
• Series: Historical materialism book series ; Volume 200.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.
• Notes: "Originally published in Italian by Bollati Boringhieri Editore as Domenico Losurdo, Nietzsche, il ribelle aristocratico: Biografia intellettuale e bilancio critico, Turin, 2002."

Perhaps no philosopher is more of a conundrum than Nietzsche, the solitary rebel, poet, wayfarer, anti-revolutionary Aufklärer and theorist of aristocratic radicalism. His accusers identify in his ‘superman’ the origins of Nazism, and thus issue an irrevocable condemnation; his defenders pursue a hermeneutics of innocence founded ultimately in allegory. In a work that constitutes the most important contribution to Nietzschean studies in recent decades, Domenico Losurdo instead pursues a less reductive strategy. Taking literally the ruthless implications of Nietzsche's anti-democratic thinking – his celebration of slavery, of war and colonial expansion, and eugenics – he nevertheless refuses to treat these from the perspective of the mid-twentieth century. In doing so, he restores Nietzsche’s works to their complex nineteenth-century context, and presents a more compelling account of the importance of Nietzsche as philosopher than can be expected from his many contemporary apologists. Originally published in Italian by Bollati Boringhieri Editore as Domenico Losurdo, Nietzsche, il ribelle aristocratico: Biografia intellettuale e bilancio critico, Turin, 2002.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Motto -- Motto -- Motto -- Motto -- Motto -- Introduction to the English-Language Edition / Harrison Fluss -- Nietzsche in His Time: In Struggle against Socratism and Judaism -- The Crisis of Culture from Socrates to the Paris Commune -- Tradition, Myth and the Critique of Revolution -- Socratism and ‘Present-Day Judaism’ -- The Founding of the Second Reich, and Conflicting Myths of Origin -- From the ‘Judaism’ of Socrates to the ‘Judaism’ of Strauss -- Nietzsche in His Time: Four Successive Approaches to the Critique of Revolution -- The ‘Solitary Rebel’ Breaks with Tradition and the ‘Popular Community’ -- The ‘Solitary Rebel’ Becomes an ‘Enlightener’ -- From Anti-revolutionary ‘Enlightenment’ to the Encounter with the Great Moralists -- Between German National Liberalism and European Liberalism -- The Poet of the ‘People’s Community’, the ‘Solitary Rebel’, the Anti-revolutionary ‘Enlightener’ and the Theorist of ‘Aristocratic Radicalism’ -- ‘Aristocratic Radicalism’ and the ‘New Party of Life’ -- Nietzsche in His Time: Theory and Practice of Aristocratic Radicalism -- Slavery in the United States and in the Colonies and the Struggle between Abolitionists and Anti-abolitionists -- ‘Hierarchy’, Great Chain of Being and Great Chain of Pain -- The ‘Uneducated Masses’, the ‘Freethinker’ and the ‘Free Spirit’: Critique and Meta-critique of Ideology -- From the Critique of the French Revolution to the Critique of the Jewish-Christian Revolution -- The Long Cycle of Revolution and the Curse of Nihilism -- The Late Nietzsche and the Longed-for Coup against the ‘Social Monarchy’ of Wilhelm II and Stöcker -- ‘Anti-Anti-Semitism’ and the Extension to Christians and ‘Anti-Semites’ of the Anti-socialist Laws -- ‘New Party of Life’, Eugenics and ‘Annihilation of Millions of Deformed’ -- Beyond ‘Metaphor’ and ‘Anticipation’: Nietzsche in Comparative Perspective -- ‘Metaphor’, ‘Anticipation’ and ‘Translatability of Languages’ -- Politics and Epistemology between Liberalism and ‘Aristocratic Radicalism’ -- Otium et bellum: Aristocratic Distinction and the Struggle against Democracy -- Social Darwinism, Eugenics and Colonial Massacres -- Nietzsche and the Aristocratic Reaction in Two Historical Epochs -- Philosophers, Historians and Sociologists: The Conflict of Interpretations -- Aristocratic Radicalism, Pan-European Elite and Anti-Semitism -- Culture in Search of Its Slaves: From the Late Nineteenth Century Anti-democratic Reaction to Nazism -- Transformations of Aryan Mythology, Condemnation of the Revolutionary Conspiracy and the Formation of Anti-Semitism -- In Nietzsche’s Philosophical Laboratory -- A Philosopher totus politicus -- How to Challenge Two Millennia of History – Anti-dogmatism, and Dogmatism of Aristocratic Radicalism -- From Suprahistorical Myth to the Opening of New Perspectives for Historical Research -- Nietzsche and Us – Radicality and Demystifying Potential of the Reactionary Project -- The Radical Aristocrat and the Great Moralist -- Crisis of the Western Myth of Origin and of Imperial Universalism -- Individualism and Holism, Inclusion and Exclusion: The Liberal Tradition, Nietzsche and the History of the West -- Back Matter -- How One Constructs Nietzsche’s Innocence: Publishers, Translators, Interpreters -- Nietzsche’s Spectacles and Umbrella: An Answer to My Critics -- Abbreviations Used in Citing Nietzsche’s writings -- Bibliography -- Index.