Nietzsche’s Anti-Positivist Thought in His Middle Period

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31649/sent43.03.023

Keywords:

genealogy, art, causality, self-preservation instinct

Abstract

In this paper, I aim to call into question a long-established tradition within the Anglo-Saxon Nietzsche scholarship that regards Nietzsche’s middle period as positivist. Unlike most scholars, I shall demonstrate that in Human, All Too Human Nietzsche does not take a positivist position, recognizing the limits of science with regard to knowledge of reality and its contributions toward unleashing human potential. Ultimately, I will show that Nietzsche was coherent, taking an anti-positivist position in all three works of the middle period.

Author Biography

Laura Langone

University of Verona (Italy)

References

Abbey, R. (2000). Nietzsche’s Middle Period. New York: Oxford UP. https://doi.org/10.1093/0195134087.001.0001

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Ansell-Pearson, K. (2018). Nietzsche’s Search for Philosophy: On the Middle Writings. London: Bloomsbury.

Cohen, J. (1999). Nietzsche’s Fling with Positivism. In B. E. Babich & R. S. Cohen (Ed.), Nietzsche, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science: Nietzsche and the Sciences II (pp. 101-107). Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2428-9_8

Danto, A. (1965). Nietzsche as Philosopher. New York: Macmillan.

Franco, P. (2011). Nietzsche’s Enlightenment: The Free-Spirit Trilogy of the Middle Period. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226259840.001.0001

Kaufmann, W. (1968). Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. Princeton: Princeton UP.

Meyer, M. (2019). Nietzsche’s Free Spirit Works: A Dialectical Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108564847

Nietzsche, F. (2005). Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits. (R. J. Hollingdale, Trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

Nietzsche, F. (2008). The Gay Science. (J. Nauckhoff, Trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

Nietzsche, F. (2015). Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality. (R. J. Hollingdale, Trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

Remhof, J. (2015). Naturalism, Causality, and Nietzsche’s Conception of Science. Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 46(1), 110-119. https://doi.org/10.5325/jnietstud.46.1.0110

Ridley, A. (2007). Nietzsche on Art. London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0378.2007.00259.x

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Published

2024-11-30

How to Cite

Langone, L. (2024). Nietzsche’s Anti-Positivist Thought in His Middle Period. Sententiae, 43(3), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.31649/sent43.03.023

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