126-362/462 Introduction to reading Nietzsche

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Objectives:

Students who complete this subject should:

• have a familiarity with Nietzsche's major writings, especially those which are considered most significant and innovative today;

• have a critical appreciation of the contradictions within Nietzsche's thinking;

• have an understanding of the relation of philosophical and literary discourses within Nietzsche's work.

Content:

The course presents a general introduction to reading Nietzsche in the original German with an emphasis on those aspects of his thought which have most intellectual currency at the end of the 20th century. This means that a good deal of attention will be paid to fragments unpublished in Nietzsche's own lifetime, especially those relating to his analysis of language and his critiques of philosophical discourse and human identity. Works from which extracts will be read and discussed include: 'Über Wahrheit und Lüge im außermoralischen Sinn', 'Die Philosophie im tragischen Zeitalter der Griechen', 'Die Geburt der Tragödie', 'Menschliches, Allzumenschliches', 'Jenseits von Gut und Böse' and 'Zur Genealogie der Moral'. The aim of the course is a critical revaluation of Nietzsche's thought which is free of the uniformed adulation under which it suffers in various fashionable intellectual contexts today. The course also aims at an appreciation of Nietzsche as one of the great German literary stylists.

Assessment:

Prescribed Texts:

A course reader will be supplied containing the German texts of all extracts from Nietzsche to be discussed.