Abstract

This thesis argues that affectivity is central to philosophical thought and interpretation through an examination of Friedrich Nietzsche's writings concerning the relations between affectivity, selfhood and language. I am particularly concerned with how an examination of the role of affectivity in thought and interpretation contributes to discussing the complexity of women's participation in the philosophical tradition. ;I begin by considering Jacques Derrida's book Spurs, which examines the question of "woman", the feminine, philosophy and style in Nietzsche. Derrida's analysis of the relation of "woman" and the feminine to philosophy is problematic I argue because it cannot address the affective relation between words and those who use them. This incapacity is problematic, both in terms of the position it situates women in relation to philosophy and as a reading of Nietzsche, because it excises Nietzsche's considerable engagement with the relation between language and its users. ;In order to reopen some of the possibilities for discussing the relation between women, the feminine and philosophy, I develop Nietzsche's thoughts about the necessity of affectivity to the ongoing constitution of the self and its interpretation of the world. The significance of affectivity includes its central role in maintaining the relation between selves and words, and in the processes of reading, writing and thinking. Styles of language are intimately related to the affective disposition of authors, readers and their surrounding cultures. Furthermore, according to Nietzsche, style, and hence affectivity, is integral to the meaning of all language, including philosophical language. ;Nietzsche's general ideas concerning the embodied self, affectivity and language can contribute to feminist theorising and to the discussion of the relation between women, the feminine and philosophy. But a consideration of the significance of Nietzsche's characterisations of women reveals that he fails to apply his general account of the relation between selves, affectivity and language to the circumstances of women. Furthermore, Nietzsche's characterisations of women exclude women from the practice of philosophical and artistic creation. It emerges that the problematic elements of Derrida's readings are perpetuations of Nietzsche's own tendency to valorise "woman" and the feminine in abstraction from embodied women.