Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
by Michael Tanner
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael TannerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-02-01
ISBN: 0192854143
Number of pages: 120
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
Book Review: A comment on the opening chapter only-misreadings
Summary: 5 Stars
In his opening chapter Tanner claims that Nietzsche has been appropriated by the most diverse groups. Neitzsche Tanner claims is the most written about philosopher in the world today. He claims that he has been the patron saint of post- modernists and deconstructionists, structuralists and other academic schools of reading texts. He mentions but does not dwell upon the evil and horrible misreading of Nietzsche made by the Nazis. Neitzsche Tanner seems to say has been adopted by all kinds of different people and schools all of whom put his work to use for their own purposes.
In this regard Tanner points out the negative influence of the publication of Nietzsche's notebooks and journals. He claims that often these were half- baked ideas and not what Nietzsche would have necessarily presented to the public. He points out how careful Nietzsche was in polishing , and even rewriting whole works. And he claims that the published writings are far superior in their style and quality of thought than the notebooks.
In contradiction to this it seems to me that none of Nietzche's major ideas, not the will-to -power, not the 'eternal recurrence' and certainly not the ' ubermensch superman idea ' are of positive value to mankind today. I would even maintain that his telling insight into the cultural state of Europe in which the West seemed at his time to lose the meaningfulness given by a felt presence of the Divine ,is not a final definition even for the old continent. So too his critique of Christianity , his contempt for the idea of Christian equality seems to me to not be of any real positive human value.
It seems to me that the religious and philosophical problems facing Mankind today , including the problems created by Mankind's unending usurpation of Divine powers have no real answer in Nietzsche. Our world in which we are the threshhold of ' enhanced human beings' ' cloning ' ' two hundred year life spans' ' possible nuclear destruction' is not really the one that Nietzsche lived in. In this regard it seems to me it is not Nietzsche alone among the great philosophers in not really addressing the kind of unprecedented Reality mankind is confronted by today.
Therefore however dramatic and powerful many of his ideas might seem the best reading of him is as a kind of inspired literary master, a maker of philosophical fictions, a most brilliant aphoristic stylist, a man of extraordinary intelligence and humor but not a thinker who really can address the questions facing Mankind today for tomorrow.
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