yy/mm/dd 200620: i have read some by nz(3) some on nz(11) some by dz(6) some on dz(20), and this is definitely one of the best. this is an academic text, philosopher on philosopher, and though read intently i cannot claim to fully understand it. it is translation from french translating from german. i understand dz has been selective in what aspects of nz he investigates, focuses on, and in this review i do no more, for there is wide-ranging area covered, as delineated by the table of contents of major divisions: one: tragic, two: active and reactive, three: critique, four: ressentiment to bad conscience, five: the overman, against the dialectic...
in the tragic dz has nz create the concept of genealogy as birth of his thoughts, of 'evaluation' and 'interpretation' rather than 'fact', which can never be 'objective' but carry within buried or ignored aspects of being. genealogy is value of origins and origin of values. thus difference and distinction, everything has some quality of way either base or noble, negation or affirmation, sense that is referred to as 'will to power'- though this is not what it sounds like, it is not will as in schopenhauer that is unitary but multiple, further to which dz contends nz is not 'dialectician', not convinced of synthesis and power of the negative except as negative... at this point dz interprets the 'dice throw' and essential affirmation of chance and necessity...
in the active and reactive dz elaborates the philosophical interpretation by nz of the human being (not scientific) which is a matter of 'forces' that are 'active' and 'affirmative' or 'reactive' and 'negative', in which the 'healthy' is one in whom these forces are balanced, that the negative has its own power too, the 'will to power' is' the genealogical element of force, both differential and genetic' and if you understand this far, you have gone further than i have. yet the five given is sincere. for as i stumble along, there are more and more ideas, better expositions of nz concepts, everything from the 'becoming-reactive' of all forces to ambivalence of sense-value to how 'eternal return’ is not 'return of the same' but the act of 'return' , the doubling affirmation, of becoming, of the being of becoming...
in critique, dz follows nz's critique of Kant's critical philosophy and how nz found he simply did not go far enough, he recoiled at final implications, he invented relationship to 'supra-sensory realm' so that there was, for example, still room for god. schopenhauer went further but was hindered by his essential pessimism, pushing the 'representational' illusionism as far as old philosophy would have it but... not questioning the entire metaphysics of any 'representation'! and this is where i really like nz, when he deals with the arts...
pg 103: 'we the artists'='we the seekers after knowledge or truth'='we the inventors of new possibilities of life' for the artist ‘appearance is truth’ not simply ‘representation’...
in ressentiment and bad conscience nz shows how the 'reactive' comes to dominate the 'active', which is apparently through the priests, judaic then christian, which is where i can certainly see him mischaracterised as anti-Semitic. this is where we deal with how good and bad become inverted from healthy to moral good and evil, where 'i am good therefore you are evil' becomes 'you are evil therefore i am good', the doubled negation of the bad conscience. after his work 'genealogy of morals', in which he tries to explain his poetry in non-poetic, accessible terms, nz contends that in art 'appearance is truth' and dz has helpful little table on pg 146 which shows the 'typology' and 'topology' of 'active' and 'reactive', that is, 'master' and 'slave', and 'artist' is argued into the right upper corner, above 'noble'...
in overman and against the dialectic, dz follows nz in his aspiration not to adapt to the death of god or even man, but towards the transcendence of man, which will not be the result of 'dialectic', which nz really does not like, but through creation, transmutation, affirmation. yes dz certainly finds his 'affirmation' as theme throughout nz. to some degree this book is probably more about dz as interpreted by nz than nz by dz, but either way is fascinating. there are other monographs to read before difference and repetition, and i have been rec'd [book:A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia|118316] before that. and it is at this point i am particularly enthused: what i had feared negative, dark, depressing philosophy of nz has turned out to be so positive! joyous, creative, laughing and dancing! i have to read more nz and dz.. there are so many books to read and so little time...