West takes issue with the traditional interpretation of the Apology, according to which Socrates’ conviction on charges of impiety and corruption of the young was unjust, the manner of his defense noble and beautiful, his rhetorical manner a model of straightforward simplicity and truth. West’s account bears an affinity to a more recent interpretation which holds that the politically reactionary Socrates was justly condemned for being out of tune with the progressive Athenian democracy. Yet this agreement is a superficial one. (...) While he argues that Socrates was guilty as charged, West is no simple partisan of democracy. His criticism of Socrates is based on a thorough understanding of what the original charges implied; he may be characterized as a critic of the Socratic enterprise who is himself informed by Socrates’ questions. "In order to understand Socrates, it is necessary to contradict him; those who accept what Socrates says without question will never learn the truth.". (shrink)

Lively and well written, this account comes closest to Nietzsche in its prose, which occasionally approaches the compact yet lingering suggestions of Nietzsche’s own aphoristic style.

An interesting, important, and well-written interpretation of Nietzsche’s doctrine of eternal recurrence. The first chapter, in addition to providing a useful summary of Nietzsche’s philosophy under the topics of nihilism, morality, Christianity, will-to-power, the Ubermensch, [[sic]] and eternal recurrence, emphasizes Nietzsche’s understanding of the crisis of Western civilization. The root of that crisis is nihilism, itself a product of Western civilization, or more specifically, of Platonism and Christianity. Plato’s rejection of the phenomenal or sensory world in the name of the (...) supersensory world of "ideas" culminates in nihilism once it becomes impossible to accept the concept of a truth independent of history. The practical result of nihilism is the "last man," the man who knows that God is dead, but so little understands what that means as to be cheerfully complacent about it. Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence and Ubermensch [[sic]] are intended to overcome this "passive" nihilism. The chapter ends with two questions that animate almost half of the remaining text: Is the doctrine of eternal recurrence empirically true, and did Nietzsche believe it to be true? (shrink)