Paul S . Loeb
I studied physics and philosophy at Cornell University and I wrote my doctoral dissertation at the University of California at Berkeley on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.
I taught philosophy at the University of Puget Sound, and I have taken some time off from teaching in order to concentrate on the research projects outlined below. My teaching experience and specialties include the History of Philosophy (especially Ancient Greek Philosophy, Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Weber, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Foucault, and Deleuze), Metaphilosophy, Philosophy of Time, Aesthetics, Film Theory, Ethics and Moral Philosophy, Social and Political Philosophy, and Posthuman/Transhumanist Theory.
My research has centered around the writings of Nietzsche, especially his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra, his conception of philosophy, and his Zarathustran theories of eternal recurrence, will to power, and the superhuman. I published The Death of Nietzsche’s Zarathustra with Cambridge University Press in 2010, which is the first commentary to explain how Nietzsche incorporated his doctrine of eternal recurrence into the narrative details of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Together with Germanist scholar David F. Tinsley, I have published translations of the KSA 10 and 11 unpublished fragments from the period when Nietzsche was writing Thus Spoke Zarathustra, in Volumes 14 and 15 Stanford University Press’ The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche. Volume 14 includes the fragments from 1882-1884 and an extensive afterword on translating and interpreting Nietzsche's philosophical concept of the Übermensch. Volume 15 includes the fragments from 1884-1885 and an afterword on Nietzsche's philosophical concept of superior humans. We also translated Nietzsche's Dionysus Dithyrambs for Volume 9 of The Complete Works, and we are currently completing our translation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra for Volume 7, which is scheduled to be published at the end of 2024. Together with Matthew Meyer, I edited a collection of contributed essays for Cambridge University Press, published in December 2019, entitled Nietzsche's Metaphilosophy: The Nature, Method, and Aims of Philosophy. The paperback edition of this book came out in October 2021. Together with Keith Ansell Pearson, I edited a collection of contributed essays for The Cambridge Critical Guide to Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and the paperback edition of this book came out in 2023. My most recent essays include a study of the relation between will to power and panpsychism, an examination of Nietzsche’s place in the canonical history of philosophy, a discussion of Nietzsche's final word on Kant's critical philosophy, an examination of the role of priests in Nietzsche's account of the slave revolt in morality, an overview of Nietzsche's futurism, an analysis of Nietzsche's account of genuine philosophers in BGE § 211, an examination of Nietzsche's concept of amor fati in Ecce Homo, a discussion of the role of values in Nietzsche's metaphilosophy with special reference to the start of BGE, and a Nietzschean critique of the later Wittgenstein's metaphilosophy. I have also published four new studies of Nietzsche's theory of eternal recurrence--a new exegesis of the presentation in Gay Science § 341, an essay explaining why he calls this theory Heraclitean (especially in GS § 285), an essay explaining why he thinks that this theory solves the philosophical problem of change, and another essay addressing the philosophical problem of personal identity. Currently, I am writing a short monograph for the Cambridge Elements series on Nietzsche's philosophy of philosophy, forthcoming in 2025.
I taught philosophy at the University of Puget Sound, and I have taken some time off from teaching in order to concentrate on the research projects outlined below. My teaching experience and specialties include the History of Philosophy (especially Ancient Greek Philosophy, Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Weber, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Foucault, and Deleuze), Metaphilosophy, Philosophy of Time, Aesthetics, Film Theory, Ethics and Moral Philosophy, Social and Political Philosophy, and Posthuman/Transhumanist Theory.
My research has centered around the writings of Nietzsche, especially his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra, his conception of philosophy, and his Zarathustran theories of eternal recurrence, will to power, and the superhuman. I published The Death of Nietzsche’s Zarathustra with Cambridge University Press in 2010, which is the first commentary to explain how Nietzsche incorporated his doctrine of eternal recurrence into the narrative details of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Together with Germanist scholar David F. Tinsley, I have published translations of the KSA 10 and 11 unpublished fragments from the period when Nietzsche was writing Thus Spoke Zarathustra, in Volumes 14 and 15 Stanford University Press’ The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche. Volume 14 includes the fragments from 1882-1884 and an extensive afterword on translating and interpreting Nietzsche's philosophical concept of the Übermensch. Volume 15 includes the fragments from 1884-1885 and an afterword on Nietzsche's philosophical concept of superior humans. We also translated Nietzsche's Dionysus Dithyrambs for Volume 9 of The Complete Works, and we are currently completing our translation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra for Volume 7, which is scheduled to be published at the end of 2024. Together with Matthew Meyer, I edited a collection of contributed essays for Cambridge University Press, published in December 2019, entitled Nietzsche's Metaphilosophy: The Nature, Method, and Aims of Philosophy. The paperback edition of this book came out in October 2021. Together with Keith Ansell Pearson, I edited a collection of contributed essays for The Cambridge Critical Guide to Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and the paperback edition of this book came out in 2023. My most recent essays include a study of the relation between will to power and panpsychism, an examination of Nietzsche’s place in the canonical history of philosophy, a discussion of Nietzsche's final word on Kant's critical philosophy, an examination of the role of priests in Nietzsche's account of the slave revolt in morality, an overview of Nietzsche's futurism, an analysis of Nietzsche's account of genuine philosophers in BGE § 211, an examination of Nietzsche's concept of amor fati in Ecce Homo, a discussion of the role of values in Nietzsche's metaphilosophy with special reference to the start of BGE, and a Nietzschean critique of the later Wittgenstein's metaphilosophy. I have also published four new studies of Nietzsche's theory of eternal recurrence--a new exegesis of the presentation in Gay Science § 341, an essay explaining why he calls this theory Heraclitean (especially in GS § 285), an essay explaining why he thinks that this theory solves the philosophical problem of change, and another essay addressing the philosophical problem of personal identity. Currently, I am writing a short monograph for the Cambridge Elements series on Nietzsche's philosophy of philosophy, forthcoming in 2025.
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Monographs by Paul S . Loeb
Co-Edited Anthologies by Paul S . Loeb
Co-Authored Translations by Paul S . Loeb
of superior humans that is the basis of the fourth and final part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Here we offer a brief discussion of Nietzsche's treatment of this concept, concentrating first of all on his distinction between superior and inferior humans; second, on his view of the ultimate goal pursued by superior humans; third, on his distinction between successful and failed superior humans; and finally, on his profiles of failed superior humans. We argue that all these profiles were inspired by actual historical figures who were active in nineteenth-century Europe.
Book Reviews of DNZ and Responses by Paul S . Loeb
Recent Essays in Journals by Paul S . Loeb
of superior humans that is the basis of the fourth and final part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Here we offer a brief discussion of Nietzsche's treatment of this concept, concentrating first of all on his distinction between superior and inferior humans; second, on his view of the ultimate goal pursued by superior humans; third, on his distinction between successful and failed superior humans; and finally, on his profiles of failed superior humans. We argue that all these profiles were inspired by actual historical figures who were active in nineteenth-century Europe.
Kant’s success is just a theologian’s success” (A 10). Although there has been a lot of discussion recently about the influence of Kant’s critical philosophy on Nietzsche’s evolving thought, very little attention has been paid to this provocative statement. Most historians of philosophy would
probably dismiss it as typically hyperbolic and leave it at that. But in this essay, I want to take this statement seriously and I want to ask to what extent it helps us gain a deeper understanding of Kant’s first Critique and of Nietzsche’s view of the relation between philosophy and religion.
My argument in this essay is organized as follows. First, I summarize Nietzsche’s genealogy of the Protestant roots of Kant’s idea of a critique of pure reason. Next, I explore Nietzsche’s general account of the priestly type, with a special focus on his claim that this type needs to exert its will to power through lies and deception. After that, I turn to Nietzsche’s earlier text, On the Genealogy of Morality, in order to examine his account there of the historical emergence of philosophers who had to camouflage themselves as priests in order to avoid being persecuted by the established society. I then return to The Antichrist in order to consider Nietzsche’s view that these philosophers used their natural drives and virtues to defend the priestly lies that they internalized while disguised as priests. Next, I explain why Nietzsche offers Kant as an example of this kind of priestly philosopher. His implied contrast is himself, and other philosophers like himself, whose strength, he says, allowed them to turn their skeptical talents against their internalized priestly lies. I then look to Kant’s debate with Hume in the first
Critique as an illustration of Nietzsche’s idea that there must be a confrontation between those weak-willed philosophers whose reason remain corrupted by priestly deception and those strong-minded
philosophers who are able to emancipate themselves from priestly manipulation. Finally, I consider how Nietzsche might have criticized Kant’s decision to conclude his first Critique with a moral theology.
Nietzsche casting himself in a much more modest and self-critical light than
has so far been supposed. In this reading, the chief point of Nietzsche’s autobiography
is to draw up a catalogue of his all-too-human deficiencies in order to
show how he nevertheless triumphed by pointing the way to a future superhuman
teacher who would be able to overcome these deficiencies. In Nietzsche’s
view, his own greatest all-too-human flaw is that he was unable to affirm life.
His amor fati was not a true life-affirmation because it depended on self-deception
and because, more importantly, it did not entail the desire to eternally relive
his identical life. Instead, he fashioned a poetic, mythical, and prophetic story in
which the narrative structure exhibited this future teacher’s extreme realism and
overwhelming desire to eternally relive his identical life – a desire which, paradoxically,
is inspired in him by his actual experience of having already eternally
relived his identical life.
concluding chapters of Part 3 of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Building on my study’s claim that Zarathustra dies at the end of Part 3, I argue that this conversation is taking place between two of his person-stages: the person-stage who has grown old and is now ending his own life, and the person-stage who has been reborn and is now entering childhood. This conversation shows how Zarathustra’s older self has awakened his own childhood consciousness and is now using all of his wisdom to shape and educate it—a wisdom that then informs and propels his many journeys and teachings throughout the narrative. This conversation also shows that Zarathustra’s most important dying gift to his own childhood soul is his newly recovered
knowledge of eternal recurrence. This knowledge lies dormant in Zarathustra’s soul until he gains the lion’s strength needed to summon it up and then perishes as a result. Nietzsche thus invents a parthenogenetic protagonist whose life illustrates what is perhaps the first time-travel paradox ever written.