Nietzsche and Friendship

Willow Verkerk is a Lecturer in Continental Philosophy and Social Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, Canada and a researcher with the Gendered Mimesis Project at KU Leuven, Belgium.

• Introduction Chapter 1: Nietzsche’s Literary Gift of Friendship: Reading Nietzsche as a Joyful, Agonistic, and Bestowing Friend Chapter 2: Nietzsche’s Re-evaluation of Friendship Chapter 3: On Becoming What One Is: Nietzsche’s Therapeutic Concept of the Self Chapter 4: Nietzsche and Aristotle on Character, Virtue, and the Limits of Friendship Chapter 5: Women, Love, and the Gendered Troubles of Friendship in Nietzsche and Irigaray Chapter 6: Abducting Woman? An Agonistic Reception of Nietzsche’s (and Derrida’s) Gifts Conclusion: Further Re-evaluations Notes References Index

Nietzsche valued friendship, and this pioneering study shows how Nietzsche’s own discussion of friendship is absolutely crucial for understanding his philosophy. Through a very careful and perceptive reading of Nietzsche’s texts, Verkerk argues that Nietzsche’s ideas about friendship are empowering – and in this way she makes a strong case for the relevance of Nietzsche’s thought in contemporary debates concerning friendship, gender relations, and love.