Die sogenannte Syphilisfrage ist von Beginn an ein Thema der Nietzscheforschung. Das vorliegende Buch versucht diese Frage zu beantworten, indem es sich auf eine aufwändige Spurensuche bis zurück zur Syphilis der Renaissance-Päpste begibt. Wie war in verschiedenen Zeiten der Umgang mit der Krankheit und der fortwährenden Furcht, infiziert zu sein? Mit welchen Subtexten bringen Dichter und Denker zur Zeit Nietzsches das Thema zur Sprache? Und wie gab Nietzsche selbst in seinen Werken und Briefen davon Kunde? Das Buch betrachtet Nietzsche im (...) europäischen Kontext des 19. Jahrhunderts, in dem die Angst vor der Lustseuche allgegenwärtig war. Christian Niemeyers Nietzsche-Lektüre im Zeichen der Syphilis eröffnet überraschende Deutungsmöglichkeiten im Werk Friedrich Nietzsches. (shrink)

Christian Niemeyers "Nietzsche. Werk und Wirkung eines freien Geistes" geht der Frage nach, wie Nietzsches Werk heute gelesen werden soll. Für Philosophen und für interessierte Laien bietet dieser Band eine Antwort auf die Frage, wieso Nietzsche auch noch im 21. Jahrhundert wichtig ist. Christian Niemeyers Werk "Nietzsche. Werk und Wirkung eines freien Geistes" konzentriert sich auf Nietzsches Spätwerk ab Menschliches, Allzumenschliches. In dieser Phase ist Nietzsche frei von den Einflüssen Schopenhauers oder Wagners; es handelt sich um den echten (...) Nietzsche. Was an diesem Nietzsche ist auch heute noch relevant, und wo und warum verliert der späte Nietzsche die Spur? Warum geht er auch in der Rezeptionsgeschichte zunehmend verloren? Und was war seine Intention? Der renommierte Nietzsche-Forscher Christian Niemeyer geht auf diese Fragen ein und zeigt dem Leser, wie Nietzsche heute gelesen werden muss. Klar und verständlich führt Niemeyer sowohl Philosophen als auch interessierte Laien an den authentischen Nietzsche jenseits von Pathos, Rhetorik und Selbststilisierung heran. (shrink)

Not only does Nietzsche anticipate the doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence and the diagnosis of God's death in his collection of aphorisms "The Gay Science", but he also suggests what is later exposed more explicitly in Beyond Good and Evil and in "On the Genealogy of Morals" : the project of an anti-metaphysical human science with a strong psychological focus and the task for 'new philosophers' to discover and reclaim 'another world' of knowledge and life. In this respect, "The Gay (...) Science" has not been paid adequate attention and has been underestimated so far, in particular by German-speaking educationalists. (shrink)

Nietzsche ist, noch vor Freud, die Einsicht zu danken, dass der Mensch nicht immer Herr des eigenen Denkens, Wollens und Handelns ist. Diese Einsicht gilt allerdings auch für Nietzsche – und ist möglicherweise ein Schlüssel zum Verständnis der zahlreichen Brüche in seinem Denken, auch des Fanatismus in vielen seiner Äußerungen. So betrachtet geht die Absicht der folgenden Seiten dahin, Nietzsche wieder in seinen Intentionen freizulegen, jenseits von Rhetorik, Pathos und Selbststilisierung. Dies erfordert die Montage eines gleichsam authentischen Nietzsche, aber auch (...) die Demontage eines sich selbst missverstehenden,,unbewussten' Nietzsche. (shrink)

Als die zwei auch für die Wissenschaftstheorie relevantesten Konversionen der letzten Jahre gelten die von Holzkamp hin zum Marxismus sowie die von Feyerabend hin zum Anarchismus oder Dadaismus. Beide Forscher haben autobiographische Notizen publiziert, die ihre Konversion plausibel machen sollen. Darüberhinaus liegt durch jüngste Publikationen auch bei Feyerabend inzwischen genügend theoretisches Material vor, aufgrund dessen eine erste Bilanz gewagt werden kann. Mit dem Schwerpunkt auf Feyerabend lautet die Hauptfrage, warum er "nur" zum Anarchismus konvertierte, nicht aber zum Marxismus. Bezogen auf (...) die Auseinandersetzung zwischen emanzipatorischer Anthropologie und nomothetischer Methodologie wird zunächst die Kritik der Forschungspraxis aufgezeigt, wie sie vom frühen Holzkamp und von Feyerabend geübt wurde. Spätestens bei dem seit den Analysen von Kuhn aktuellem Bruch zwischen Wissenschaftstheorie und -praxis ist Feyerabend im Unterschied zu Holzkamp nicht mehr motiviert, diesen Bruch rational zu rekonstruieren. Vielmehr tut Feyerabend alles dafür, die Autorität der Wissenschaft zu erschüttern. Die Überführung seines durchaus teilbaren Kampfes gegen ein Falsifikationsprinzip in einen Kampf für pluralistische Methodologie ist letztlich ein Zeichen der Hilflosigkeit einer idealistischen und voluntaristischen Philosophie. Seine radikaldemokratische Konzeption der Wissenschaft als Abstimmungsgeschäft etabliert jene 'Mob'-Herrschaft, die er in seiner Auseinandersetzung mit Lakatos' Basisurteilen noch ablehnte. Als Ursache für den Unterschied in der Konversion bei Holzkamp und Feyerabend wird herausgestellt: Das liberalistische Privatindividuum Feyerabend ist im Unterschied zu Holzkamp nie in der Lage, seine Interessen an Wissenschaft von der Praxis her disziplinieren zu lassen und die positiven Ansätze zu einer "kosmologischen" Analyse in einer umfassenden Reflektion des Zusammenhangs von Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft aufzuheben. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Nietzsche-Studien Jahrgang: 43 Heft: 1 Seiten: 152-171.

Name der Zeitschrift: Nietzscheforschung Jahrgang: 24 Heft: 1 Seiten: 411-417.

Recent studies, such as the one by Thomas Mittmann, have drawn new attention to Nietzsche's position towards anti-Semitism. In this context, the following article will delineate a few main ideas on this topic and strive to define Nietzsche's early anti-Semitism more clearly and with regard to the factors that influenced it. The same will be done for Nietzsche's late anti-anti-Semitism, which culminated in his ominous statement: "Just now I am having all anti-Semites shot.".

Werner Kindt's sourcebook exemplifies the obvious interest of German-speaking pedagogy in reflexive denial. This reflexive denial had its beginnings in the affected generation, which after 1945 became appalled by the authors it had admired in its youth. This generation simply began to deny that these authors as well as the resulting literary works had ever existed as they were.

Resumo A intenção do artigo está em reabilitar o diagnóstico de sífilis de Nietzsche proposto pelo neurologista alemão Paul Möbius, autor da obra Nietzsche. Doença e filosofia. Para tanto, ele traz a relação ambígua que o médico estabelece com a irmã do filósofo - sempre ávida em elucubrar versões para desviar da hipótese do acometimento por sífilis -, traz à luz o comentário de Möbius sobre o “acidente” que teria vitimado o pai de ambos, evidencia a correlação entre paralisia e (...) sífilis, compara as versões de Elisabeth e do próprio Möbius para a anedota do bordel, narrada por Paul Deussen, deslinda as excessivas preocupações do filósofo com o nariz, que poderia ser afetado como decorrência da sífilis. E, não por último, se Möbius erra ao excessivamente patologizar suas interpretações de Nietzsche, o texto faz ver o quanto a patologização de elementos do percurso intelectual do filósofo contribuiu para a transmissão despreocupada de sua obra.The main purpose of the article is to rehabilitate the syphilis diagnosis proposed by the German neurologist Paul Möbius in his work Nietzsche. Illness and philosophie. For this purpose, it reviews the ambiguous relation the physician maintains with the philosopher’s sister - always eager to elaborate versions to deviate from the hypothesis of a syphilis diagnosis -, brings to light Möbius’ comment about the “accident” that would have befallen their father, evinces the correlation between paralysis and syphilis, compares Elisabeth and Möbius’ versions to the brothel anedocte, narrated by Paul Deussen, and eventually unravels the philosopher’s excessive concerns about his nose, that could be affected as an outcome of syphilis. And if Möbius makes a mistake in excessively pathologizing his interpretations of Nietzsche, the text also points to how much the patologization of elements of the intellectual pathway has contributed to the unconcerned transmission of his work. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Nietzscheforschung Jahrgang: 21 Heft: 1 Seiten: 367-370.

Name der Zeitschrift: Nietzscheforschung Jahrgang: 23 Heft: 1 Seiten: 306-313.

In Nietzsche verstehen, Christian Niemeyer aims at “correcting mistaken readings of Nietzsche” (10), by which he means clichéd misunderstandings of Nietzsche as a racist eugenicist, an advocate of a superiority of “German nature,” an anti-Semite, a warmonger, and a nihilistic negator of any ethics. In other words, the book addresses those aspects that portray Nietzsche as a kind of proto-Nazi. In doing so, Niemeyer also exposes the “genealogies” of such misreadings, in good Nietzschean style. He discusses these (...) issues in seven chapters dedicated to seven “commandments,” each of which concerns a particular set of problems in the interpretation of Nietzsche and how to avoid the usual misunderstandings that they .. (shrink)

According to Christian Niemeyer, professor of social education in Dresden, Germany, we are currently witnessing “a crisis of overproduction” in Nietzsche research. For several years, an “actual Nietzsche industry” has provided “a plethora of introductions, commentaries, monographs, readers, and editions for an apparently still hungry audience”. Though acknowledging that there are many important books among them, Niemeyer, first, deplores the fact that many “postmodern” interpreters mistake Nietzsche’s programmatic lack of system as carte blanche for ignoring scholarly methods (...) and thereby arbitrarily producing a “highly idiosyncratic Nietzsche”. Second, he harshly criticizes two prominent “schools” of... (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Nietzscheforschung Jahrgang: 21 Heft: 1 Seiten: 375-380.

Earlier research pointed out that the processing of the results of the municipal council elections shows a serious distorsion favouring the strongest lists and prejudicing the weaker ones. The Belgian Parliament will discuss at an early date two different proposals of law on that problem. One prefers the "D'Hondt"-method, the other suggests the "Niemeyer"-technique, which is used in Germany. Both systems seem to be more proportional than the "Imperiali"-way. However, the "Niemeyer"-technique is not always able to transform an (...) absolute majority of votes into a majority of seats in the municipal councils. A modification of the seatsdistributionsystem will seriously reduce the number of absolute majorities in the municipal councils. This could pose problems of political and administrative stability in local government. A modification will also produce negative ejfects on the positions of the christian-democrats in Flanders and the socialists and christian-democrats in the Walloons. Nearly all the other parties and particularly the small ones will improve their positions. (shrink)

Spacetime as we know and love it is lost in most approaches to quantum gravity. For many of these approaches, as inchoate and incomplete as they may be, one of the main challenges is to relate what they take to be the fundamental non-spatiotemporal structure of the world back to the classical spacetime of GR. The present essay investigates how spacetime is lost and how it may be regained in one major approach to quantum gravity, loop quantum gravity.

_Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism_ fundamentally rethinks the nature of the transgressive theories and practices of the Buddhist Tantric traditions, challenging the notion that the Tantras were "marginal" or primitive and situating them instead--both ideologically and institutionally--within larger trends in mainstream Buddhist and Indian culture. Critically surveying prior scholarship, Wedemeyer exposes the fallacies of attributing Tantric transgression to either the passions of lusty monks, primitive tribal rites, or slavish imitation of Saiva traditions. Through comparative analysis of modern historical narratives--that depict (...) Tantrism as a degenerate form of Buddhism, a primal religious undercurrent, or medieval ritualism--he likewise demonstrates these to be stock patterns in the European historical imagination. Through close analysis of primary sources, Wedemeyer reveals the lived world of Tantric Buddhism as largely continuous with the Indian religious mainstream and deploys contemporary methods of semiotic and structural analysis to make sense of its seemingly repellent and immoral injunctions. Innovative, semiological readings of the influential _Guhyasamaja Tantra_ underscore the text's overriding concern with purity, pollution, and transcendent insight--issues shared by all Indic religions--and a large-scale, quantitative study of Tantric literature shows its radical antinomianism to be a highly managed ritual observance restricted to a sacerdotal elite. These insights into Tantric scripture and ritual clarify the continuities between South Asian Tantrism and broader currents in Indian religion, illustrating how thoroughly these "radical" communities were integrated into the intellectual, institutional, and social structures of South Asian Buddhism. (shrink)

_Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism_ fundamentally rethinks the nature of the transgressive theories and practices of the Buddhist Tantric traditions, challenging the notion that the Tantras were "marginal" or primitive and situating them instead -- both ideologically and institutionally -- within larger trends in mainstream Buddhist and Indian culture. Critically surveying prior scholarship, Wedemeyer exposes the fallacies of attributing Tantric transgression to either the passions of lusty monks, primitive tribal rites, or slavish imitation of Saiva traditions. Through comparative analysis of (...) modern historical narratives -- that depict Tantrism as a degenerate form of Buddhism, a primal religious undercurrent, or medieval ritualism -- he likewise demonstrates these to be stock patterns in the European historical imagination. Through close analysis of primary sources, Wedemeyer reveals the lived world of Tantric Buddhism as largely continuous with the Indian religious mainstream and deploys contemporary methods of semiotic and structural analysis to make sense of its seemingly repellent and immoral injunctions. Innovative, semiological readings of the influential _Guhyasamaja Tantra_ underscore the text's overriding concern with purity, pollution, and transcendent insight -- issues shared by all Indic religions -- and a large-scale, quantitative study of Tantric literature shows its radical antinomianism to be a highly managed ritual observance restricted to a sacerdotal elite. These insights into Tantric scripture and ritual clarify the continuities between South Asian Tantrism and broader currents in Indian religion, illustrating how thoroughly these "radical" communities were integrated into the intellectual, institutional, and social structures of South Asian Buddhism. (shrink)