Kathleen Marie Higgins

Nietzsche's works and their themes

Interpretation of Nietzsches thought is a complex enterprise. Because of his avoidance of any conventional philosophical system and his many experiments with styles and genres, Nietzsches writings seem to demand a sense of active reading. The “Nietzsche” that emerges from scholarly discussion typically depends on the interests of the interpreter and especially often those of the interpreters discipline. Themes which are taken to be most central to Nietzsches philosophy often depend on which works are regarded as most important or most accessible; but the relative importance which attaches to each of Nietzsches works is by no means obvious. Indeed, Nietzsche scholarship has experienced fads with regard to given points of interest. As we will consider below, Thus Spoke Zaiathustias celebrity outside of Germany declined after the Nazis invoked it for propagandistic purposes, while Nietzsches early essay “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense” has assumed new importance in recent literary-critical discussion, in part because it suggests that all language is metaphoric.

The Age of German Idealism

1. From Leibniz to KantLewis White Beck, University of Rochester2. Kants copernican revolutionDaniel Bonevac, University of Texas at Austin3. Kants moral philosophyDon Becker, University of Texas at Austin4. Kant: Critique of JudgmentPatrick Gardiner, Magdalen College, Oxford 5. Fichte and Schelling: the jena periodDan Breazeale, University of Kentucky6. Hegels Phenomenology of SpiritRobert C.Solomon, University of Texas at Austin7. Hegels logic and philosophy of mindWillem deVries, University of New Hampshire8. Hegel, spirit, and politicsLeo Rauch, Babson College9. The young Hegelians, Feuerbach and MarxRobert Nola, University of Auckland10. Arthur SchopenhauerKathleen M.Higgins, University of Texas at Austin11. Kierkegaards speculative despairJudith Butler, Johns Hopkins University

Biology and Culture in Musical Emotions

In this article I show that although biological and neuropsychological factors enable and constrain the construction of music, culture is implicated on every level at which we can indicate an emotion-music connection. Nevertheless, music encourages an affective sense of human affiliation and security, facilitating feelings of transcultural solidarity.

Nietzsche and the Judaeo-Christian tradition

OVERVIEW Nietzsche has been one of the most influential critics of Christianity. Like Feuerbach and other philosophers of the Hegelian Left, he was not content with merely rejecting Christianity. Instead, he developed a kind of “genetic criticism.” In other words, he claimed that his critique of religion demonstrated the reasons why human beings become religious and the mechanisms by which they comprehend the religious realm. For some time Nietzsche, the son of a Lutheran minister, was an active Christian himself. He was familiar with Christian practice, with the Bible, and with Christian doctrine. In his critique of religion, he made more use of this familiarity and knowledge than did other critics. His criticism has been effective not only through the arguments he articulated but also through the vitality of his language and the richness and splendor of his rhetoric. Emulating Luthers German translation of the Bible and Goethes poetry and prose, Nietzsche utilized keen images and impressive similes to persuade his readers. For several years after he had lost his faith, Nietzsche relied on the historical refutation of Christianity available at the time. In this period his own critique of religion mainly recapitulated that of Schopenhauer. To a certain extent, he accepted religion as a fictitious “ suprahistorical power” at the same time expecting that religion in general, and Christianity in particular, would automatically vanish with the passage of time.

Nietzsche and East Asian thought

I imagine future thinkers in whom European-American indefatigability is combined with the hundredfold-inherited contemplativeness of the Asians: such a combination will bring the riddle of the world to a solution. (1876) The conjunction signified by the “and ” of the main title is to be taken in three ways. First of all the question of what influence, if any, ideas from Asian philosophies may have exerted on the development of Nietzsches thinking. Conversely, there is the issue of the enormous impact Nietzsches ideas have had in Asia and the enthusiasm with which he continues to be studied there today - especially in China and Japan. A subsidiary theme here concerns the ways his thought has been appropriated by those quite alien cultures and thereby transformed, as well as the relevance of such appropriations to Nietzsche scholarship in the West. And finally the field of comparative research, which embraces a variety of styles of discourse. A comparison of Nietzsches ideas on a certain topic with those of an appropriate Asian philosophy can enhance our appreciation of both sides. For people familiar with Nietzsche, a comparison with an East-Asian thinker might serve as a way into hitherto unfamiliar modes of thought. And since Chinese and Japanese philosophies are for the most part immetaphysical in outlook, insofar as Nietzsches ideas can be shown to resonate sympathetically with features of those quite alien traditions of thinking, such resonances may boost his standing in the competition, among such figures as Hegel and Heidegger, for the distinction of being the first Western thinker to “overcome” the metaphysical tradition.

Bob on Meaning in Life and Death

Robert C. Solomon (“Bob”) took a narrative conception of the meaning of life and of death, and this is of a piece with his existentialism. Through the ongoing process of engaging and reflecting, we reposition ourselves and rework our stories, each new version a potential means for responding to the world from a more mature and encompassing stance. Death is meaningful in the context of this narrative, providing the closure to an individual life that gives it a place within a larger whole. Bob’s conception of narrative meaning is evident in his own life, and it is that life as well as the thinker who led it that we celebrate in this volume.

Waves of Uncountable Laughter

We require that a man should be so large and columnar in the landscape, that it should deserve to be recorded, that he arose and girded up his loins, and departed to such a place. The pictures most credible to us are those of majestic men who prevailed at their entrance, and convinced the senses; as happened to the eastern magian who was sent to test the merits of Zertusht or Zoroaster [Zarathustra]. When a Yuani sage arrived at Balkh, the Persians tell us, Gushtasp appointed a day on which the Mobeds of every country should assemble, and a golden chair was placed for the Yuani sage. Then the beloved Yezdam, the prophet of Zertusht, advanced into the midst of the assembly. The Yuani sage, on seeing the chief, said, ‘This form and this gait cannot lie, and nothing but truth can proceed from them.’1

Beauty and the Sense of Life

The Hegelian notion of the end of art presupposes his totalizing account of world history. Hegel’s historical vision is inadequate because it fails to recognize that cultures have had different specific goals for art, and that they have not all aimed at the transparent realism that Hegel admires. His relegation of art to a less prominent role than hitherto also amounts to a demotion of beauty from its earlier spiritual role, through art, of guiding humanity to greater collective self-awareness. Hegel underemphasizes another spiritual function of beauty, its role in furthering our sense of life and enabling us to take joy in our own vitality. A recognition of this function of beauty is better able to reflect diverse cultural conceptions of beauty and spirituality than does Hegel’s account. It also suggests a partial explanation of the widespread phenomenon of turning to beauty in contexts of loss and mourning.

Social Dynamics and Mixed Emotions

The commentators collectively indicate a variety of further considerations that should factor into an account of musical emotion beyond those I consider. I agree that we should seek a more holistic account of musical experience and provide some of my own suggestions toward this end in light of their remarks.

Leaving the Elevator Behind

In Nicholas Roeg’s fine but under-appreciated film Insignificance, Einstein asks a Cherokee elevator operator if it is true that in the Cherokee worldview, wherever you are is the center of the universe. The elevator operator tells him that this is true, but adds that it is hard to remember in an elevator. A similar situation prevails with Nietzsche scholarship. Nietzsche urges his readers to ecstatic states and the apotheosis of the everyday world. Yet this is easy to forget amidst the scholarly debates that engage his interpreters. This tension is inherent to the enterprise of Nietzsche, Philosophy, and the Arts, that of examining the aesthetic character of Nietzsche’s understanding of philosophy. At times the conceptual character of a book of philosophical essays threatens to produce forgetfulness of the dynamic immediacy of the aesthetic on Nietzsche’s account. On balance, however, the book avoids succumbing to this threat, both because conceptual discussions so often point to the more immediate, and because of the clear enthusiasm the papers display toward their topics. The scope indicated by the title of the book is vast, and the volume includes quite a range of discussions. Some, such as Ernst Behler’s paper on the philosophical motivations of Nietzsche’s use of irony, seek to analyze Nietzsche’s aesthetic approach to his philosophical project across the range of his works. Others turn a new gaze toward particular