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In Nietzsche's first book The Birth of Tragedy (1872), cultural renewal is paramount among his concerns. In the person of Richard Wagner, Nietzsche saw someone who might bring together a fragmented and directionless modern society through the creation of tragic festival that, through its mythic content, would allegedly give renewed meaning and purpose to human life. The standard story about Nietzsche's philosophical development is that he becomes disillusioned with this project and his mature philosophy undergoes a radical shift. Instead of reposing his hopes in a broader culture, he comes to occupy himself instead with the fate of a few great individuals, or, at the extreme, perhaps mainly with his own quasi-artistic self-cultivation. On these readings, to the extent that he remains concerned with culture at all, it is only as something whose noxious influence threatens this cadre of elite individuals. Nietzsche on the Decadence and Flourishing of Culture questions this individualist reading that has become prevalent, and develops an alternative interpretation of Nietzsche as a more social thinker who sees collective cultural achievements as no less important. Great individuals are not all that matter. Andrew Huddleston uses Nietzsche's perfectionistic ideal of a flourishing culture and his diagnostics of cultural malaise as a point of departure for reconsidering many of the central themes in Nietzsche's ethics and social philosophy, as well as for understanding the interconnections with the form of cultural criticism that was part and parcel of his distinctive philosophical enterprise.
List of contents
- Introduction
- 1: The Existential Conception of Culture
- 2: The Uses and Disadvantages of Bildung for Culture
- 3: The Collectivist Conception of Culture
- 4: The Great Individual in Culture
- 5: Nietzsche on the Decadence of Individuals and Cultures
- 6: Consecration to Culture : Nietzsche on Slavery and Human Dignity
- 7: Nietzsche s Meta-Axiology: Against the Skeptical Readings
- 8: Cultural Criticism: The Case of the Christian-Moral Outlook
- Afterword
About the author
Andrew Huddleston is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London. He studied as an undergraduate at Brown University and at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He completed his PhD at Princeton University under the supervision of Alexander Nehamas. Prior to coming to Birkbeck, he was a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.
Summary
Andrew Huddleston presents a striking challenge to the standard view of Nietzsche as the champion of the great individual, and preoccupied with his own quasi-artistic self-cultivation. Huddleston focuses on Nietzsche's idea of a flourishing culture to bring out the deep social and collectivist character of his thought.
Additional text
The author pays a great service to a more balanced general comprehension and assessment of Nietzsche...
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Andrew Huddleston's Nietzsche on the Decadence and Flourishing of Culture is an impressive book: It is sophisticated, yet light-footed and elegant. It is historically ambitious, yet systematically rich. From beginning to end, it is an enjoyable read. Kristin Gjesdal, Journal of Nietzsche Studies
