Phil 422: Nietzsche
PHIL 422: Nietzsche
The Generic Course Description
This course is a study of Nietzsche's central ideas, in terms of their origins, development and significance for contemporary philosophy and culture. Focus varies, e.g., the primacy of interest, linguistic indeterminacy and the aesthetic theory of meaning, experimentalism, the question of style, and the human value of science and art.
PHIL 422: Nietzsche
Jacqueline Scott
In general, the focus of this course will be on close readings of Nietzsche’s text in order to analyze various themes in them.
During the Spring 2008 semester, we will focus on Nietzsche’s late works (those after Zarathrustra) and analyze an aspect of his positive philosophy: the role of art. We will read Birth of Tragedy as well as several of these late works in order to figure out the role he assigns to art in his late works, and in particular, the role of tragedy. We will examine this theme by making connections to Nietzsche’s understanding of the philosophical problem of modernism. We will then read a few secondary sources on this topic.
Prerequisite: All students who enroll in this course must have read at least one of Nietzsche’s late works before the start of the class (Beyond Good and Evil, The Case of Wagner, Genealogy of Morals, The Gay Science (Preface and Book V), The Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist or Ecce Homo). I want to make sure that students have some familiarity with Nietzsche’s critical philosophy.