Monograph by Jeffrey Metzger
Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals has become a central text for understanding the thinker an... more Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals has become a central text for understanding the thinker and his impact on moral philosophy. Yet his account of the rise of political society and its relation to morality has generally been overlooked, in large part because of its strange and often confusing character. In The Rise of Politics and Morality in Nietzsche’s Genealogy: From Chaos to Conscience, Jeffrey Metzger devotes careful attention to Nietzsche’s analysis of the origin of political society in the Second Essay and its intertwining with the development of morality and religion. Focused on how that account places Nietzsche’s understanding of humanity in his larger conceptions of nature and the will to power, the book further considers how Nietzsche grounds his thought in the world as he presents it, and the strengths and weaknesses of Nietzsche’s approach to this crucial moment in human development. This book will interest philosophers, political theorists, and anyone else interested in Nietzsche and his contribution to our understanding of how we became human.
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Edited Volumes by Jeffrey Metzger
After more than a century, the urgency with which the writing of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Friedrich ... more After more than a century, the urgency with which the writing of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Friedrich Nietzsche speaks to us is undiminished. Nietzsche explicitly acknowledged Dostoevsky’s relevance to his work, noting its affinities as well as its points of opposition. Both of them are credited with laying much of the foundation for what came to be called existentialist thought. The essays in this volume bring a fresh perspective to a relationship that illuminates a great deal of twentieth-century intellectual history. Among the questions taken up by contributors are the possibility of morality in a godless world, the function of philosophy if reason is not the highest expression of our humanity, the nature of tragedy when performed for a bourgeois audience, and the justification of suffering if it is not divinely sanctioned. Above all, these essays remind us of the supreme value of the questioning itself that pervades the work of Dostoevsky and Nietzsche.
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Nietzsche's engagement with nihilism has been relatively neglected by recent scholarship, despite... more Nietzsche's engagement with nihilism has been relatively neglected by recent scholarship, despite the fact that Nietzsche himself regarded it as one of the most original and important aspect of his thought. This book addresses that gap in the literature by exploring this central and compelling area of Nietzsche's thought. The essays concentrate on Nietzsche's philosophical analysis of nihilism, the cultural politics of his reaction to nihilism, and the rhetorical dimensions and intricacies of his texts.
Nietzsche famously referred to nihilism as "this uncanniest of all guests" (dieser unheimlichste aller Gäste). The figure of the guest, "standing at the door," suggests that he is foreign, an outsider or alien from whom one can safely dissociate or differentiate oneself. The fact that nihilism is the "uncanniest of all guests," however, suggests that he makes our home itself foreign and alien; his chill figure is not simply unwelcome, it renders us homeless (heimatlos). It was Nietzsche’s engagement with nihilism, his prescient experience of homelessness, that dominated the serious reaction to his work in the early part of the twentieth century. Nietzsche was regarded as the prophet of the death of God, the herald of the most profound spiritual crisis to convulse the Western world in centuries. There were of course exceptions, but for the most part the catastrophe Nietzsche had foretold and christened with the name "nihilism" was never far from the minds of his readers, living as they were in the midst of civilizational cataclysms every bit as terrifying as those Nietzsche had predicted.
At some point in the past twenty or thirty years this situation changed, at least in the English-speaking world. Nietzsche’s name is no longer associated primarily with nihilism, and in some cases the association does not seem to made at all. The present collection of essays therefore aims to contribute to our understanding of Nietzsche by returning attention to his treatment of nihilism, the aspect of his thought that Nietzsche himself considered perhaps the most important and original. It does so by bringing together a series of distinct and at times discordant perspectives on Nietzsche, representing not only substantive, interpretive, methodological and "disciplinary" differences but divergent attitudes towards Nietzsche’s intentions and success in his confrontation with nihilism.
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Articles by Jeffrey Metzger
American Political Thought, 2018
The television series The Wire is often described by its principal creator, David Simon, as a con... more The television series The Wire is often described by its principal creator, David Simon, as a contemporary version of Greek tragedy. This article argues that tragedy as practiced by The Wire centers on the destruction of the individual and on confronting the audience with terrible truths that are usually repressed. It first considers how institutions restrict and ultimately destroy individuals in the series and then considers two types of response to this situation. The first is the response of the series’ tragic heroes, who attempt to master the situation they find. The second is to abandon one’s previous sense of self and attempt to help others. The article then draws on James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time to better understand this second path and closes by discussing how Baldwin’s work both illuminates and challenges or complicates the tragedy staged by The Wire.
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Contemporary Pragmatism, 2010
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Book Chapters by Jeffrey Metzger
In Nietzsche and Dostoevsky: Philosophy, Morality, Tragedy, eds. Jeff Love and Jeffrey Metzger. Northwestern University Press 58-86, 2016
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In In Search of Humanity: Essays in Honor of Clifford Orwin, ed. Andrea Radasanu, 365-379. Lexington Books, 2015
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In The Philosophy of Punishment and the History of Political Thought, ed. Peter Koritansky, 172-198. University of Missouri Press, 2011
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Papers by Jeffrey Metzger
American Political Thought, Sep 1, 2018
The television series The Wire is often described by its principal creator, David Simon, as a con... more The television series The Wire is often described by its principal creator, David Simon, as a contemporary version of Greek tragedy. This article argues that tragedy as practiced by The Wire centers on the destruction of the individual and on confronting the audience with terrible truths that are usually repressed. It first considers how institutions restrict and ultimately destroy individuals in the series and then considers two types of response to this situation. The first is the response of the series’ tragic heroes, who attempt to master the situation they find. The second is to abandon one’s previous sense of self and attempt to help others. The article then draws on James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time to better understand this second path and closes by discussing how Baldwin’s work both illuminates and challenges or complicates the tragedy staged by The Wire.
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Introduction, Jeffrey Metzger (University of Toronto, Canada) 1. Nihilism and Monism: On Nietzsch... more Introduction, Jeffrey Metzger (University of Toronto, Canada) 1. Nihilism and Monism: On Nietzsche's Pluralistic 'Universe', Keith Ansell-Pearson (University of Warwick, UK) 2. Reactivating Nietzsche?, Alenka Zupancic (Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts) 3. Nietzsche, Contingency, and the Vacuity of Politics, Robert Guay (Binghamton University, USA) 4. Nietzsche and the Impossiblity of Nihilism: The Genealogy of an Idea, James Porter (University of Michigan, USA) 5. Ni dieu, ni maitre and Nietzsche's Reading of the Democractic Ethos of Modern Nihilism, Babette Babich (Fordham University, USA) 6. Nietzsche's Philosophic Legislation: Rescuing the True and the Noble, Laurence Lampert and George Dunn (Purdue University, USA) 7. Nietzsche: Neo-Gnosticism and Nihilism, Stanley Corngold (Princeton University, USA) 8. Toward a New Aristocracy: Nietzsche's Struggle Against Plato for the Heart of the Warrior, Michael Allen Gillespie (Duke University, USA) 9. Nobility and Ressentiment in On the Genealogy of Morals, Jeffrey Metzger (University of Toronto, Canada) 10. The criminal of criminals is the philosopher': Nietzsche and the Prado-Jack the Ripper-Oscar Wilde-Van Gogh-Gaugin Complex, Geoff Waite (Cornell University, USA) 11. What Wisdom Wants: Nietzsche and the Rhetoric of Nihilism, Daniel Conway (Texas A&M University, USA) Bibliography Notes Index.
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The European Legacy, Feb 16, 2022
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Contemporary Pragmatism, Apr 21, 2010
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The European Legacy, 2022
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Introduction, Jeffrey Metzger (University of Toronto, Canada) 1. Nihilism and Monism: On Nietzsch... more Introduction, Jeffrey Metzger (University of Toronto, Canada) 1. Nihilism and Monism: On Nietzsche's Pluralistic 'Universe', Keith Ansell-Pearson (University of Warwick, UK) 2. Reactivating Nietzsche?, Alenka Zupancic (Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts) 3. Nietzsche, Contingency, and the Vacuity of Politics, Robert Guay (Binghamton University, USA) 4. Nietzsche and the Impossiblity of Nihilism: The Genealogy of an Idea, James Porter (University of Michigan, USA) 5. Ni dieu, ni maitre and Nietzsche's Reading of the Democractic Ethos of Modern Nihilism, Babette Babich (Fordham University, USA) 6. Nietzsche's Philosophic Legislation: Rescuing the True and the Noble, Laurence Lampert and George Dunn (Purdue University, USA) 7. Nietzsche: Neo-Gnosticism and Nihilism, Stanley Corngold (Princeton University, USA) 8. Toward a New Aristocracy: Nietzsche's Struggle Against Plato for the Heart of the Warrior, Michael Allen Gillespie (Duke University, USA) 9. Nobility and Ressentiment in On the Genealogy of Morals, Jeffrey Metzger (University of Toronto, Canada) 10. The criminal of criminals is the philosopher': Nietzsche and the Prado-Jack the Ripper-Oscar Wilde-Van Gogh-Gaugin Complex, Geoff Waite (Cornell University, USA) 11. What Wisdom Wants: Nietzsche and the Rhetoric of Nihilism, Daniel Conway (Texas A&M University, USA) Bibliography Notes Index.
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American Political Thought, 2018
The television series The Wire is often described by its principal creator, David Simon, as a con... more The television series The Wire is often described by its principal creator, David Simon, as a contemporary version of Greek tragedy. This article argues that tragedy as practiced by The Wire centers on the destruction of the individual and on confronting the audience with terrible truths that are usually repressed. It first considers how institutions restrict and ultimately destroy individuals in the series and then considers two types of response to this situation. The first is the response of the series’ tragic heroes, who attempt to master the situation they find. The second is to abandon one’s previous sense of self and attempt to help others. The article then draws on James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time to better understand this second path and closes by discussing how Baldwin’s work both illuminates and challenges or complicates the tragedy staged by The Wire.
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Contemporary Pragmatism, 2010
This paper identifies cultural disenchantment as a crucial concept in Rorty's understand... more This paper identifies cultural disenchantment as a crucial concept in Rorty's understanding of liberalism, and considers how Rorty's use of this term draws on but also differs from similar ideas in Nietzsche and Weber. It argues that Rorty's notion of disenchantment complements his ...
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Monograph by Jeffrey Metzger
Edited Volumes by Jeffrey Metzger
Nietzsche famously referred to nihilism as "this uncanniest of all guests" (dieser unheimlichste aller Gäste). The figure of the guest, "standing at the door," suggests that he is foreign, an outsider or alien from whom one can safely dissociate or differentiate oneself. The fact that nihilism is the "uncanniest of all guests," however, suggests that he makes our home itself foreign and alien; his chill figure is not simply unwelcome, it renders us homeless (heimatlos). It was Nietzsche’s engagement with nihilism, his prescient experience of homelessness, that dominated the serious reaction to his work in the early part of the twentieth century. Nietzsche was regarded as the prophet of the death of God, the herald of the most profound spiritual crisis to convulse the Western world in centuries. There were of course exceptions, but for the most part the catastrophe Nietzsche had foretold and christened with the name "nihilism" was never far from the minds of his readers, living as they were in the midst of civilizational cataclysms every bit as terrifying as those Nietzsche had predicted.
At some point in the past twenty or thirty years this situation changed, at least in the English-speaking world. Nietzsche’s name is no longer associated primarily with nihilism, and in some cases the association does not seem to made at all. The present collection of essays therefore aims to contribute to our understanding of Nietzsche by returning attention to his treatment of nihilism, the aspect of his thought that Nietzsche himself considered perhaps the most important and original. It does so by bringing together a series of distinct and at times discordant perspectives on Nietzsche, representing not only substantive, interpretive, methodological and "disciplinary" differences but divergent attitudes towards Nietzsche’s intentions and success in his confrontation with nihilism.
Articles by Jeffrey Metzger
Book Chapters by Jeffrey Metzger
Papers by Jeffrey Metzger
Nietzsche famously referred to nihilism as "this uncanniest of all guests" (dieser unheimlichste aller Gäste). The figure of the guest, "standing at the door," suggests that he is foreign, an outsider or alien from whom one can safely dissociate or differentiate oneself. The fact that nihilism is the "uncanniest of all guests," however, suggests that he makes our home itself foreign and alien; his chill figure is not simply unwelcome, it renders us homeless (heimatlos). It was Nietzsche’s engagement with nihilism, his prescient experience of homelessness, that dominated the serious reaction to his work in the early part of the twentieth century. Nietzsche was regarded as the prophet of the death of God, the herald of the most profound spiritual crisis to convulse the Western world in centuries. There were of course exceptions, but for the most part the catastrophe Nietzsche had foretold and christened with the name "nihilism" was never far from the minds of his readers, living as they were in the midst of civilizational cataclysms every bit as terrifying as those Nietzsche had predicted.
At some point in the past twenty or thirty years this situation changed, at least in the English-speaking world. Nietzsche’s name is no longer associated primarily with nihilism, and in some cases the association does not seem to made at all. The present collection of essays therefore aims to contribute to our understanding of Nietzsche by returning attention to his treatment of nihilism, the aspect of his thought that Nietzsche himself considered perhaps the most important and original. It does so by bringing together a series of distinct and at times discordant perspectives on Nietzsche, representing not only substantive, interpretive, methodological and "disciplinary" differences but divergent attitudes towards Nietzsche’s intentions and success in his confrontation with nihilism.