Nietzsche's Unfashionable Observations

Jeffrey Church is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston. He is the author of Nietzsche’s Culture of Humanity: Beyond Aristocracy and Democracy in the Early Period (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and Infinite Autonomy: The Divided Individual in the Political Thought of G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche (Penn State University Press, 2012) which was awarded Best First Book by the Foundations of Political Theory section of APSA.

• ChronologyAbbreviationsIntroduction1. Philosophical BackgroundNietzsche, neo-KantianSchopenhauer and the fundamental problemKant, exemplarity and the value of freedomSchiller and the artistic lifeCulture in Kant and Schiller2. David Strauss the Confessor and the WriterStructural overview1. The political corruption of German culture2. The democratic corruption of German culture3. David Strauss as the ‘anti-genius’4–5. The ‘heaven’ of the new faith6–7. The ‘courage’ of the new faith7–8. The ‘world’ of the new faith8–12. Strauss as a bad writer3. On the Utility and Liability of History for LifeStructural overviewForeword: the philosopher in the historical age1. Life2. Monumental history3. Antiquarian and critical history4. The transition from ancient to modern history5. The decline of the active life in modernity6. Justice and the new history7. Arrested growth and development in modernity8. Modernity’s philosophy of history9. The redemption of humanity10. Fixing modern culture4. Schopenhauer as EducatorStructural overview1. Freedom2. The exemplar’s education of affect3. The exemplar’s education of character4. The exemplar’s education of culture5. Elevating the individual to culture6. Culture and the value of existence7. Modern conditions for fostering genius8. The independence of culture from politics5. Richard Wagner in BayreuthStructural overview1. The tasks of the unfashionable audience2. Wagner’s two drives3. Wagner’s struggle with modern culture4. Art and the tragic justification of existence5–6. Wagner’s redemption of modern culture7. The freedom of the audience8. Wagner’s life9. Wagner the artist10. Wagner’s influence11. The call to the audience6. The Observations’ Influence on Nietzsche’s Mature ThoughtUnity in ‘David Strauss’The value of history in ‘Utility and Liability’Exemplarity in ‘Schopenhauer as Educator’Self-tyranny in ‘Richard Wagner’Glossary of Key TermsGuide to Further Reading on the ObservationsBibliographyIndex

An insightful and discriminating addition to the Edinburgh Critical Guides to Nietzsche series … Addressing concerns in a diverse selection of scholarly secondary literature on Nietzsche's early period, Church (political science, Univ. of Houston) provides a combination of intellectual history, broad philosophic context, and careful textual analysis. The author is most insightful on Nietzsche's (unacknowledged) debt to Kant's three critiques, both for their circumscription of the role of reason in the identification of fundamental human concerns and the importance of self-legislating morality.