Description
Book SynopsisOften considered mere assemblages of aphorisms, the free spirit works - Human, All Too Human; Assorted Opinions and Maxims; The Wanderer and His Shadow; Daybreak; and The Gay Science - are here presented as a coherent narrative of Nietzsche's self-education. The book explores these works' role in Nietzsche's wider philosophy.
Trade Review'This is a superb intellectual history of Nietzsche's philosophical quest to emancipate his self-legislating spirit from the debilitating influences of metaphysics, religion, morality, and the scientific desire for truth at all costs.' Paul S. Loeb, University of Puget Sound, Washington
'Matthew Meyer's ambitious and exciting new book … is not only the most illuminating study we now have of Nietzsche's middle period, but an important call to a very different way of approaching Nietzsche's whole oeuvre.' Agonist
'… genuinely thought-provoking … will stimulate productive discussions about the meaning and significance of Nietzsche's middle works for many years to come.' Journal of Nietzsche Studies
Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Interpreting Nietzsche's free spirit works; 2. A defense of the dialectical reading; Part I. The Ascetic Camel: 3. For the love of truth: Human, All Too Human; 4. An Epicurean in exile: Assorted Opinions and Maxims and The Wanderer and His Shadow; Part II. The Dragon-Slaying Lion: 5. Undermining the prejudices of morality: Daybreak; 6. The Selbstaufhebung of the will to truth: The Gay Science I–III; Part III. The Dionysian Child: 7. Incipit Tragoedia: from The Gay Science IV to Thus Spoke Zarathustra; 8. Incipit Parodia: from the free spirit to the philosophy of the future?
