Nietzsche (PHIL 135N)

4 credits · Graduate

Friedrich Nietzsche is among the most original and controversial writers of the European tradition. The course covers major themes of his mature thought, including his famous critiques of traditional religion, morality, and philosophy, his psychological insights, his interest in individualism and self-fashioning, and his engagement with art and culture, through close study of key books, including The Gay Science, Beyond Good and Evil, and On the Genealogy of Morality. Attention will be divided between learning to grapple with Nietzsche's unusual way of writing philosophy and how his books are structured, and primary philosophical ideas and doctrines, like the eternal recurrence of the same, the will to power, perspectivism, the diagnosis of nihilism, and Nietzschean "immoralism." Prerequisite: one prior course in philosophy or instructor permission required. Graduate students register for 235N.