Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist

Walter A. Kaufmann

Published by Princeton University Press 2014

Nietzsche

Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist

Walter A. Kaufmann
Preface by: Alexander Nehamas

Volume 104 in the series Princeton Classics

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400849222

Overview
Contents

About this book

This classic is the benchmark against which all modern books about Nietzsche are measured. When Walter Kaufmann wrote it in the immediate aftermath of World War II, most scholars outside Germany viewed Nietzsche as part madman, part proto-Nazi, and almost wholly unphilosophical. Kaufmann rehabilitated Nietzsche nearly single-handedly, presenting his works as one of the great achievements of Western philosophy.

Responding to the powerful myths and countermyths that had sprung up around Nietzsche, Kaufmann offered a patient, evenhanded account of his life and works, and of the uses and abuses to which subsequent generations had put his ideas. Without ignoring or downplaying the ugliness of many of Nietzsche's proclamations, he set them in the context of his work as a whole and of the counterexamples yielded by a responsible reading of his books. More positively, he presented Nietzsche's ideas about power as one of the great accomplishments of modern philosophy, arguing that his conception of the "will to power" was not a crude apology for ruthless self-assertion but must be linked to Nietzsche's equally profound ideas about sublimation. He also presented Nietzsche as a pioneer of modern psychology and argued that a key to understanding his overall philosophy is to see it as a reaction against Christianity.

Many scholars in the past half century have taken issue with some of Kaufmann's interpretations, but the book ranks as one of the most influential accounts ever written of any major Western thinker. Featuring a new foreword by Alexander Nehamas, this Princeton Classics edition of Nietzsche introduces a new generation of readers to one the most influential accounts ever written of any major Western thinker.

Author / Editor information

Walter A. Kaufmann (1921-1980) was professor of philosophy at Princeton University and a world-renowned scholar and translator of Nietzsche.

Reviews

"Mr. Kaufmann has produced what may be called the definitive study of Nietzsche's life and thought-an informed, scholarly, and lustrous work."

"Illuminating."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
FOREWORD Publicly Available Download PDF	v
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION(1974) Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION(1968) Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION (1956) Publicly Available Download PDF	xix
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION (1950) Publicly Available Download PDF	xxi
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	xxv
A NOTE ON THE CITATIONS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PROLOGUE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
PART I. Background
1. Nietzsche’s Life as Background of His Thought Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
2. Nietzsche’s Method Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
3. The Death of God and the Revaluation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
PART II. The Development of Nietzsche's Thought
4. Art and History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
5. Existenz versus the State, Darwin, and Rousseau Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
6. The Discovery of the Will to Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
PART III. Nietzsche's Philosophy of Power
7. Morality and Sublimation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
8. Sublimation, Geist, and Eros Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	228
9. Power versus Pleasure Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
10. The Master Race Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	284
11. Overman and Eternal Recurrence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	307
PART IV. Synopsis
12. Nietzsche’s Repudiation of Christ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337
13. Nietzsche’s Attitude toward Socrates Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	391
Epilogue: Nietzsche’s Heritage Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	412
Appendix: Nietzsche’s “Suppressed” Manuscripts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	424
Four Letters: Commentary and Facsimile Pages Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	459
Bibliography and Key to Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	483
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	511