Customer Reviews (9)

Nietzsche did not write this book, and Levy did not translate it!
I read Walter Kaufmann's articles, available in the AMOK publication of this book, in which he explains why this book is a forgery, I'll share some of the reasons: The original manuscript of this book in German supposedly "disappeared" according to Samuel Roth, owner of the original publisher, Seven Sirens Press. Roth was known for publishing other forgeries of famous authors, including a fake sequel to Lady Chatterley's Lover. Roth claimed Oscar Levy translated it, but Oscar Levy had died 4 years before this was published, and while Levy EDITED his "Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche" Levy never considered his English good enough to do the translations himself! If you look at Levy's "Complete Works", he's always listed as the editor but never the translator, so it's very unlikely that he would consider his English good enough for this book but none of Nietzsche's other books, and it's very unlikely that Levy would leave this book out of his Complete Works series and instead sell it to a guy known for publishing forgeries.Levy's daughter denounced the book as a forgery and stated that her father had nothing to do with it.George David Plotkin, a minor author, confessed to Kaufmann shortly before his death that he wrote this book for Roth.

To me its Nietzsche.. the passion is in there
My Profile- No qualifications as a Philisophy critic whatsover

This review refres to the spanish edition "Mi hermana y Yo"- Edaf

I have not read Nietsche since my days at the university.. and not only him, just about any other philosopher as well, I guess life got in the way and now I had to live it..

This is a strange book, for many its a fake and the reasons to claim it are substancial.. others, say its from the thinker himself, me? as I can remember the passion of Nietsche its there and that a hell of a difficult thing to emulate..

Once you get past the shock of the incestous relantionship and you have the context of see past his particular anti-semitism and anti-christianism then you can appreciate the personal anguish that its contained in this pages.

Strange enough, I am browsing through the book now expecting to see the many highlights and notes I used to make back then, and the book does not have that many...many thought are stirring up, did I really read this? looking over some of the aphorisms I try to picture myself reading this with passion I had back then.. where is that desire now?

One of them is worthy of the laughter that only experience can provide

" Mis necesidades sexuales aumentan, no disminuyen. Solia pensar. Pronto, pronto esto terminará, y estaré en condiciones de ofrecer toda mi naturaleza apasionada a la filosofía. No sucede nada de esto, y ahora pienso que no sucederá nunca. La filosofía siempre será el segundo violín de mis necesidades de mi naturaleza orgánica. es como morir en el Fuego"49 del capítulo VI

" My sexual needs increase, not dimish. I used to think: Soon, soon all of this will pass and I will be in conditions to offer all of my passionate nature to philosophy. Nothing like that is happening, and now I think it will never happen. Philosophy will always ne second fiddle in the needs of my organic nature. Its like dying in fire"

Back in my 20s there was no way I thought my sexual desires were going to diminish, I thought tranquility was to be put to a"later age", say my 40's.. well I am here and I guess I have to postpone it till my 60s!! Glad to know Nietzshe felt the same way too.

Seiously, this book is worthy of a review, if for anything, as the last parragraph says (before the epilogue poem)

"As the poet Lucilus onced said, the friend of Scipion: Virtue exists so as to allow us appreciate the true worth of those things for which we live for.

Let us impress eternity's seal over our lives.

Lets live in a way that we shall desire to live eternally; this is my credo, yesterday, today, tomorrow and the days that precedes those of tomorrow."

Does it really matter?
There is debate over this book's authenticity, yes.However, research that I had turned up was nothing like what the reviewers here claim.That in and of itself tells me that there is a possibility that people just do not want to believe that Nietzsche wrote this book.

But, honestly, does it matter?The book has some amazing points and theories, regardless of the incest.If this book is a fake, the man who wrote it has been done out of his due credit.The fact of the matter is, people who are honestly interested in philosophy would read the book for its insights.The author does not really matter.I found this book in a thrift store, and it made me love Nietzsche.I discovered that it was supposedly a fraud, and then looked at Nietzsche's philosophies.I still greatly enjoy Nietzsche.And I still enjoy My Sister and I.

Don't pass over the book because it is controversial.If anything, read it BECAUSE it is controversial.

Worth reading - fake or not
Of course it would be threatening to academic followers and/or readers of Nietzsche to learn that in the wake of his father's death (as a result of injuries sustained to his head after tripping over the family dog), his sister Elizabeth crept into his bed at night for comfort because their mother had switched off emotionally, and that during their lives Elizabeth and Friedrich developed a very close turbulent and incestuous relationship - which for Friedrich ruled out any kind of intimacy with women for the rest of his life.

Whatever arguments are presented in relation to its authenticity, this book demonstrates magnificently that the thoughts and ideas expressed in the accepted works of Nietzsche are based not on the high ideals of the Greeks, but on the psychology of having been left fatherless and under the power of women from a very early age, from the particular contradictions prejudices and delusions that this growing human male had to deal with during that particular life.

It is a rather tawdry tale which nevertheless points out the connections between the "man" and the "philosophy" - particulary Nietzsche's alleged mysogyny, and that reveals a vulnerable naive and trepidatious human being, incarcerated in an asylum, facing death, already experiencing seizures paralysis and insanity. Having moreover just discovered that his crisp autobiographical statement to the world in Ecce Homo is not going to be published because his sister has forbidden it. At the same time though he is aware that she is already starting an archive of his oeuvre so that the Nietzschean philosophers who are beginning to make themselves known will have some resource with which to work.

The one who is supposed to have faked this tragedy is skilled indeed in psychology and psychoanalysis. There are obvious anachronisms in the text, but all of these are explainable in other ways than that the whole book is a fake. What seems more likely is that Nietzsche did write notes that were smuggled out of the asylum or that he dictated words to somebody who then collated them into a manuscript. But that the story presented in the Amok edition of the book's subsequent travels is partial and/or inaccurate for whatever reason. Personally I doubt that Oscar Levy was the translator, and would add that it is not actually a very good translation.

Anybody who wants to find out more should read the book for themselves rather than listen to voices for or against its authenticity. That would be a much more Nietzschean approach.

An interesting perspective on Nietzsche and his work
A diary from an insane asylum attributed to the most important philosopher of the post-modern era...

This book is controversial.Not for whether it is by Nietzsche himself (which it most likely is) but because it confesses to his sister's molestation of Nietzsche, and his subsequent erotic desires for her.If true, Nietzsche would have repressed such issues during his life, and only felt the courage to speak out about them close to his death.And if true, it pokes a gaping hole in the theory that Elisabeth commissioned this work, as it paints an unflattering picture of her.

This book would be very entertaining for both casual readers, as well as Nietzsche scholars. It is an interesting look into the mind of a brilliant genius.The fact that this book is often ignored by Nietzsche scholars seems to be a bit strange.Why? I believe that this book represents a diminution of Nietzsche's emphasis on the value of individual strength.Nietzsche in this text shows himself to be vulnerable to an overwhelming need for solace and love from others, values which he denounced throughout his career.(This adds further credence to the belief that this work is truly his, since what single dying man wouldn't wish that he had people who really cared for him around?)It seems that if a conspiracy existed to make one more Nietzsche book, it would have been a further exhortation to the will to power.However, because this book can be read as a parenthetical withdrawal from his espoused doctrines, it shows why theoreticians would decry its legitimacy.It is much easier to understand a man's writings if one ignores a lengthy inner contradiction.

But this is all the more a testament to the book's possible authenticity.Nietzsche's work is full of contradiction and reconfiguring of values.As he insists in the introduction to Beyond Good and Evil, why must we insist on the truth?Why not rather untruth?

An entertaining challenge to one's perspective on Nietzsche's philosophy, whether it is authentic or not. ... Read more

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Nihilism in Postmodernity is an exploration of the nature of the problem of meaninglessness in the contemporary world through the philosophical traditions of nihilism and postmodernism. The author traces the advent of modern nihilism in the works of Nietzsche, Sartre, and Heidegger, before detailing the postmodern transformation of nihilism in the works of three major postmodern thinkers: Lyotard, Baudrillard, and Vattimo. He presents a qualified defense of their positions, arguing that while there is much under-appreciated value in their responses to nihilism, they fail to address adequately the problem of contingency in contemporary life. Drawing on the critical encounters with nihilism in both existentialist and postmodern traditions, the author concludes by staking out future directions for combating meaninglessness. ... Read more

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In this book the author intervenes in current debates concerning the characteristics of modernity and post-modernity. He focuses on the work of Nietzsche and Heidegger and shows how their bitter criticisms of modern European thought prepared the way for more recent proclamations of the end of the modern era. Against this backcloth, it pursues a range of questions which are central to aesthetics and hermeneutic philosophy. He sides with contemporary philosophers such as Gadamer and Rorty in rejecting the search for stable and transcendent foundations for knowledge. But he adds a new dimension to current debates by introducing the notion of "weak thought" and "weak ontology". These notions, which have been much debated in Italy, offer a way of going beyond metaphysics by curing philosophy of the modernist disease - the search for foundations - and by resituating questions of truth and being within the realm of human experience. This book should interest students of philosophy, sociology, literature and cultural studies, 2nd and 3rd year students at universities and colleges and all interested in the "post-modernity" debate. ... Read more

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An in-depth examination of Spinoza's vision of reality
Professor of English Language and Literature Emeritus and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy Harold Skulsky presents Staring into the Void: Spinoza, Master of Nihilism, an in-depth examination of Spinoza's vision of reality, broken down into twelve stages. Spinoza's remarkable vision of God and society are explained step-by-step, from his "monism" claim that there is only one thing or "substance", to the concept of "attributes" and why God's "attributes" are infinitely many, to his dismissal of moral realism in favor of a more strictly biological theory of human nature and the societies that human nature can make, to Spinoza's view of politics and support of federal democracy. Extensive notes and an index round out this meticulously scholarly work, especially recommended for anyone studying Spinoza at length, as well as college library philosophy collections.
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Using Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy's study of the persistence of German Idealist philosophy as its starting point, Justin Clemens presents a valuable study of the links between Romanticism and contemporary theory. The central contention of this book is that contemporary theory is still essentially Romantic-despite all its declarations to the contrary, and despite all its attempts to elude or exceed the limits bequeathed it by Romantic thought. The argument focuses on the ruses of "Romanticism's indefinable character" under two main rubrics: "contexts" and "interventions." The first three chapters investigate "contexts", examining some of the broad trends in the historical and institutional development of Romantic criticism; the second section, "interventions", is comprised of close readings of the work of Jacques Lacan, Deleuze and Guattari, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Ian Hunter and Alain Badiou. In the first chapter Clemens identifies and traces the development of two interlocking recurrent themes in Romantic criticism: the Romantic desire to escape Romanticism and the problem posed to aesthetico-philosophical thought by the modern domiciliation of philosophy in the university.He develops these themes in the second chapter by examining the link forged between aesthetics and the subject in the work of Immanuel Kant. In the third chapter, Clemens shows how the Romantic problems of the academic institution and aesthetics were effectively bound together by the philosophical diagnosis of nihilism. Chapter four focuses on two key moments in the work of Jacques Lacan - his theory of the "mirror stage" and his "formulas of sexuation" - and demonstrates how Lacan returns to the grounding claims of Kantian aesthetics in such a way as to render him complicit with the Romantic thought he often seems to contest. In the following chapter, taking Deleuze and Guattari's notion of "multiplicity" as a guiding thread, Clemens links their account to their professed "anti-Platonism," showing how they find themselves forced back onto emblematically Romantic arguments. Chapter six provides a close reading of Sedgwick's most influential text, "Epistemology of the Closet".Clemens' reading localizes her practice both in the newly consolidated academic field of "queer theory" and in a conceptual genealogy whose roots can be traced back to a particular anti-Enlightenment strain of Romanticism. Clemens next turns to the professedly anti-Romantic arguments of Ian Hunter, a major figure in the ongoing re-writing of modern histories of education. In the final chapter he examines the work of the contemporary French philosopher Alain Badiou. Clemens argues that, if Badiou's hostility to the diagnosis of nihilism, his return to Plato and mathematics, and his expulsion of poetry from philosophical method, all place him at a genuine distance from dominant Romantic trends, even this attempt admits ciphered Romantic elements. This study should be of interest to literary theorists, philosophers, political theorists and cultural studies scholars. ... Read more

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The 'Thinker' Behind Nihilsm
Fredrich Nietzsche challenged all ideas that had not only come before him, but also those which proliferated during his own period. He "deconstructed" society and its "noble lies" in anattempt to show us that man "is something to be overcome." Inthis book, he attempted to debase all of society by proving that values andethics are errors of humanity.

From this work by Nietzsche we can beginto understand "will to power" and the nihilism which, asNietzsche believes, powers society.

This is an excellent book foranyone trying to understand what "nihilism" and the "will toknowledge and power" are.There is no philosopher who can explainthis better than Nietzsche, nor is there a book that explains this betterthan"Nietzsche's Genealogy: Nihilism and the Will toKnowledge." ... Read more

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“The last fumes of the evaporating reality” are for Nietzsche philosophical concepts, such as truth, being, or good. Nietzsche thought an “active nihilist” should do away with these fumes. The author, reflecting on Nietzsche’s insight, argues that concepts of this sort are the conditions of thought, so you cannot avoid using them, more or less knowingly. Philosophical concepts are frail and typically inconsistent entities, but they are at the same time unavoidable. The author reconsiders metaphysical and epistemological nihilism from this perspective. One cannot be substantively nihilist: one cannot deny truth, being and good (because you need them in order to deny anything). But, as Hegel held, nihilism is the first awareness of philosophy as it reveals the nature of philosophical concepts, and guarantees the preliminary freedom that is needed in philosophical reasoning and arguing.The Last Fumes: Nihilism and the nature of philosophical concepts explores contemporary debates — on truth, paradoxes, contradiction, non-existent objects — in both continental and analytical philosophy. The work proposes a new philosophical perspective through combining an original reading of Hegel with the account of being and truth typical of analytical philosophers sensitive to conceptual dialectics, and develops an original synthesis, based on the fundamental convergence of analytic and continental philosophy on topics of general interest such as nihilism and scepticism, truth, and existence. ... Read more

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Although commentary on Descartes is extensive, the importance of morality in his thought has been all but overlooked in contemporary English-language scholarship. Considered to be the first modern philosopher, Descartes is often interpreted as a wholly secular thinker who acknowledged no authority above the human will. In this important reassessment of the great French philosopher, Gary Steiner shows the influence of Christian thought on the moral foundations of Descartes's philosophy.

Descartes's commitment to Christian piety and to the autonomy of human reason stand in an uneasy tension with one another. In DESCARTES AS A MORAL THINKER, Steiner examines this tension between the "angelic" aspirations in Descartes's Christian commitments and the "earthly" or technological aspirations reflected in his endeavor to use reason to ground scientific practice. Steiner provides a close analysis of all Descartes's texts and correspondence that bear on morality. By placing Descartes's work in historical context, Steiner demonstrates Descartes's indebtedness not only to Galileo and Bacon in developing his conception of autonomous human reason but also to Augustine and Aquinas in conceptualizing the human condition and the role of belief in God. Providing a detailed survey of German, French, and English scholarship on Descartes, Steiner concludes with an in-depth examination of contemporary debates about secularization, nihilism, and modernity in such thinkers as Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Hans Blumenberg, and Karl Lowith. Steiner shows how Descartes's own ambivalence about the relation between faith and reason can shed light on contemporary controversies regarding what Blumenberg calls "the legitimacy of the modern age." ... Read more

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fantastic scholarly work: a new Descartes

The great 17th century thinker René Descartes is known mostly for his efforts in metaphysics and epistemology, and for his pivotal role in articulating the metaphysical commitments orienting modern science.Descartes rarely is thought to have much to offer moral philosophy.Dr. Gary Steiner's Descartes as a Moral Thinker: Christianity, Technology, Nihilism should open a space for new paths of Descartes scholarship by showing not only that Descartes must be taken seriously as a moral thinker, but also that his thought has much to contribute to contemporary controversies in ethics.Acrimonious debate has swirled around the sincerity of Descartes' remarks about his commitment to ethics and especially his commitment to living the life of a devoted Christian.Steiner argues that moral concerns motivate nearly every feature of Descartes' thought, and, in fact, that Descartes' "earthly" concern with human technological mastery of nature derives from his Christian faith.Descartes as a Moral Thinker is so well documented and argued, and its analysis of Descartes' work so synoptic, that it may well deserve to be taken as the final word in disputes about the authenticity of Descartes' professions of faith.

Descartes typically is characterized as a champion (indeed, as a key founder) of modern secular rationalism.Steiner's analyses of Descartes' indebtedness to Augustine and Thomas Aquinas and of his role in theological disputes among Jansenists and Molinistsmakes clear that Descartes should be seen instead as a transitional thinker, standing with one foot planted in the late medieval Europe saturated with Christian piety, and with one foot in the modern secular world characterized by a commitment to autonomous rationality, the technological ethos, and the "spirit of earthly self-assertion."Since historians and philosophers see Descartes as decisive for the development of modernity, our misunderstanding of the significance of his work, Steiner claims, distorts our understanding of ourselves.Whereas much of Steiner's book will be of interest primarily to Descartes scholars and intellectual historians, its final chapter should prove very useful to a broader audience interested in problems connected with nihilism, Western secularism, and the problem Hans Blumenberg refers to as the "legitimacy of the modern age."This last chapter places Descartes in conversation with Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Blumenberg, and Karl Löwith.Steiner thinks that engagement with Descartes will help us think through the problem that autonomous, instrumental reason seems inadequate to ground wisdom or establish meaning in lived experience.He argues that whereas Descartes paves the way for the modern commitment to the autonomy of reason, he nevertheless believes that human existence is rooted in an ultimately mysterious and infinite divine will towards which we must turn for guidance; this ambiguity betrays an ambivalence or tension in his thinking that we have inherited and the cultural implications of which we are still coming to understand.
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Incorporating a diversity of approaches from a variety of disciplines, this book provides a major reassessment of the question of nihilism in modernity and interrogates this through the growing interest in angels and demons in contemporary philosophy. The collection examines the uncanny return of angelic and demonic principles in current cultural production and thinking and aims to show that the repression of thought about spiritual entities at the onset of modernity is linked to the appearance of a new form of evil that manifests itself through nihilism. ... Read more

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In this work the author presents Nietzsche as a counter-nihilistic philosopher-educator who aimed, very much like Plato and Rousseau, to set forth a healing education for western man in a characteristically decadent era. The principal pedagogical or edifying dimension of his philosophy, it is argued, consists of a redefinition of the educational aim of modern humanity-formulated in medical and cultural terms-as the recovery of health and worth. The work considers Nietzsche's investigations of noble and nihilistic forms of life as well as his doctrines of the Dionysian, the Will to Power, and the Overman, as aiming to establish a new wisdom-delineating the conditions necessary for the evaluation, enhancement, and prosperity of man. A useful book for courses in philosophy, philosophy of education, history of education and ethics. ... Read more

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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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To find more information on Rowman & Littlefield titles, please visit us at www.rowmanlittlefield.com. ... Read more

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Based on the author's Page-Barbour lectures, delivered at the University of Virginia in 2005,The Conversation of Humanity critically examines the idea that the nature of language can best be understood in terms of the model or figure of conversation. According to this idea, language has an essentially dialogical or discursive structure, reflecting the ways in which different dimensions of the cultural economy bear upon each other. Mulhall addresses the peculiar way in which philosophy must be understood both as one of those interlocking elements and as the place in which the culture reflects upon its own overarching unity. The book explores the articulation of these ideas in the work of Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and Cavell in ways that cross the divide between the "analytical" and "Continental" philosophical traditions, and shows how they bear upon the idea of moral perfectionism and its conception of the internal structure of self.

The link Mulhall clarifies between the fate of philosophy and the fate of culture helps explain why sophistry or nihilism is such a profound threat, both to philosophy and to culture. Resistance to nihilism, in fact, comes to appear as the central concern of a certain tradition of moral perfectionism that Cavell has associated with Emerson and Thoreau, and with a variety of other creative figures in philosophy, literature, and cinema.

The book concludes, as it begins, with an examination of the ways in which the interrelatedness of language and culture can be seen to draw upon and reconfigure essentially religious forms of thought.

Page-Barbour Lectures