Thought-Factory.net Philosophical Conversations Public Opinion philosophy.com Junk for code
PortElliot2.jpg
'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'
RECENT ENTRIES
SEARCH
ARCHIVES
Weblog Links
Library
Fields
Philosophers
Writers
Connections
Magazines
E-Resources
Academics
Other
www.thought-factory.net
'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'

Nietzsche v Klossowski « Previous | |Next »
October 14, 2004

For the Nietzsche of The Will to Power the body and physiology are the starting point. (Para 492, Bk 3, Principles of a New Valuation). Nietzsche operates within an organic metaphysics of change and becoming, as distinct from the mechanistic mode of being of modern natural science, that is naively defended by Australian materialists as absolute truth and not as one interpretation in a field of competing interpretations.

For Nietzsche the chaotic bodily impulses express themselves in gestures and give rise to a particular perspective on the world, an instrumental reason directed at taking possession of things ( para. 503). Reason grows out of the earthly kingdom of desires (para 509) whilst humanizing the world is to make ourselves masters of it (para 614).

These bodily movements and gestures are expressed in signs and form a system of interpretations and valuations.

Thus Nietzsche says (para 507) that:


"Trust in reason and its categories, in dialectic, therefore the valuation of logic, proves only their usefulness for life, provided by experience--not that something is true. That a great deal of belief must be present; that judgements may be ventured; that doubt concerning all essential values is lacking--that is the precondition of every living thing and its life. Therefore, what is needed is that something must be held to be true--not that something is true."

Nietzsche says that the distinction between the real and apparent world depends on a valuation:


"We have projected the conditions of our preservation as predicated of being in general. Because we have to be stable in our beliefs if we are to prosper, we have have made the "real " world a world not of change and becoming, but one of being."

Klossowski misses the whole dimension of valuation in his interpretation of Nietzsche. What is excised is that our being in the world as organic beings embodies valuations. It is the question of values that is central to Nietzsche. So we can talk in terms of Klossowski's Nietzsche.

| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 11:01 PM | | Comments (0)
Comments