My research focuses on the interconnections between Nietzsche’s philosophy and Charles Darwin’s science - in particular, how both nineteenth-century thinkers conceptualized the notion of struggle.  Nietzsche’s philosophy was strongly influenced by Darwin’s vision of biological wills and their struggle within nature. Nietzsche’s “will to power,” (slides 1., 3. & 5.) for example, is a response to Darwin’s “struggle for existence” (slides 2. & 4.) - an immanent struggle between and within species for scarce resources, with fitter variations being selected over time.

Darwin’s theory of natural selection was conceived during a period of profound economic and social turmoil; it seemed to reflect that period as much as subsequently define it.  His theory resonated with an audience that had already formed a starker, more pessimistic vision of nature - a “nature, red in tooth and claw” (Tennyson, IN MEMORIAM).

Nietzsche, on the other hand, was inspired by the ancient Greek notion of the agon.  For Nietzsche, the agon did not reflect nature; instead, it represented a highly ritualized arena outside the realm of nature where powerful wills could clash.  In his last works, Nietzsche argued against Darwin’s somber “struggle for existence.”  On the contrary, he asserted that “the total aspect of life is not the extremity, not starvation, but rather riches, profusion, even absurd squandering—and where there is struggle, it is a struggle for power” (TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS, “Skirmishes of an Untimely Man” 14).  It was Nietzsche's final attempt to revive a tragic, though affirmative vision of life to counteract the strain of nihilistic pessimism he saw reflected in the culture.

PUBLICATIONS

“Gattung.” Nietzsche Dictionary, lemma entry (forthcoming).

“Il sodalizio di Nietzsche con Paul Rée: ‘réealismo superiore’ o réeallineamento filosofico?” Rivista di Filosofia 2 (2005): 233-62. (“Nietzsche’s Partnership with Paul Rée: ‘Höherer Réealismus’ or Philosophical Réealignment?” Trans. Pietro Kobau.)

“On the Way to the Anti-Darwin: Nietzsche’s Darwinian Meditations in the Middle Period.” Tijdschrift voor Filosofie 65 (2003): 657-78.

“Nietzsche’s Early Darwinism: The ‘David Strauss’ Essay of 1873.” Nietzsche-Studien 30 (2001): 62-79.

PRESENTATIONS

“‘Diese englischen Psychologen - was wollen sie eigentlich?’ Nietzsche’s Critique of the ‘Historians of Morals.’” Fifteenth Annual Conference of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society (Cambridge University, UK, September 2005)

“Translating Nietzsche’s Atheism(s): A World Beyond the Ethical Imperative.” Fourteenth Annual Conference of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society (University of Sussex, UK, September 2004)

“‘Höherer Réealismus’ or Philosophical Réealignment?: Nietzsche, Paul Rée, and the Search for a ‘Tradition.’” Annual Conference of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society (St. Andrews, Scotland, September 1997)

Monday, November 28, 2005
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