Introductory description

This module provides an advanced introduction to Nietzsche, one of the most seminal thinkers in the tradition of continental philosophy.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Main reading: Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, trans. Walter Kaufmann.

Indicative syllabus [note: some topics and readings may differ]

Week 1: Introduction and Background: The Birth of Tragedy and the German Classicist Tradition
Primary Reading: BT (complete)
Optional Secondary Reading:
J.J. Winckelmann, Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture (La Salle: Open Court, 1987)
Silk, M.S. & Stern, J.P., Nietzsche on Tragedy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), Chapters 1, 3 & 6.
Goethe, "Winckelmann and his Age," in John Geary (ed.), Essays on Art and Literature 99–120 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986)
Geuss, Raymond, "Introduction" to The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)

Week 2: The Birth of Tragedy and the Problem of Pessimism
Primary Reading: Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation (WWR), Vol. 1: §§57–59, Vol. 2: Ch. 48.
BT Preface and §§3–5, 7, 10, 23–24.
Optional Secondary Reading:
Young, Julian, Nietzsche's Philosophy of Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), Chapter 1 & 2.
Nussbaum, Martha, "Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Dionysus," in Christopher Janaway (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Reginster, Bernard, "Art and Affirmation," in Daniel Came (ed.), Nietzsche on Art and Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
Soll, Ivan, "Pessimism and the Tragic View of Life: Reconsiderations of Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy," in Robert Solomon & Kathleen Higgins (eds.), Reading Nietzsche (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).
––––, "Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and the Redemption of Life through Art,” in Janaway (ed.), Willing and Unwilling: Schopenhauer as Nietzsche's Educator (New York: Clarendon Press, 1998).

Week 3: Wagner, German Romanticism, and Mythology
Primary Reading: Wagner, "The Artwork of the Future"
BT §§17, 19–20, 23
Optional Secondary Readings:
Gemes, Ken & Sykes, Chris, "Nietzsche's Illusion," in Daniel Came (ed.), Nietzsche on Art and Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
Ameriks, Karl, "Kant, Nietzsche, and the Tragic Turn in Late Modern Philosophy," in Kant's Elliptical Path (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
Gemes, Ken & Sykes, Chris, "The Culture of Myth, and the Myth of Culture," in Julian Young (ed.), Individual and Community in Nietzsche's Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015)
Huddleston, Andrew, Nietzsche on the Decadence and Flourishing of Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), Chapter 1.
Nassar, Dalia, The Romantic Absolute (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014), Chapter 8.
Young, Julian, Nietzsche's Philosophy of Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), Chapter 2.
Week 4: The Metaphysics of The Birth of Tragedy
Primary Reading: Schopenhauer, WWR 2, Ch. 50
Nietzsche, 'On Schopenhauer,' in Raymond Geuss, Alexander Nehamas, & Ladislaus Löb (eds.), Writings from the Early Notebooks, 1-8 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)
BT §§4–5, 17–18, 24
Optional Secondary Reading:
Stoll, Timothy, "Myth and Metaphysics in The Birth of Tragedy" (manuscript)
Schopenhauer, WWR 1 §§17–23
Han-Pile, Beatrice, "The Metaphysics of The Birth of Tragedy," European Journal of Philosophy, 14 (2006): 373-403.
Poellner, Peter, "Myth, Art, and Illusion in Nietzsche," in Peter Poellner & Michael Bell (eds.), Myth and the Making of Modernity: the Problem of Grounding in Early Twentieth-Century Literature (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998)
Ridley, Aaron, Nietzsche on Art (London: Routledge, 2007), Ch. 1
Young, Julian, Friedrich Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 86–95
Clark, Maudemarie, "Deconstructing The Birth of Tragedy," in Nietzsche on Ethics and Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015)
Janaway, Christopher, "Schopenhauer as Nietzsche's Educator," in Janaway (ed.), Willing and Unwilling: Schopenhauer as Nietzsche's Educator (New York: Clarendon Press, 1998).
Week 5: The Apollonian and Beautiful Semblance
Primary Reading: Friedrich Schiller, Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man, Letters 25–27
BT §§1–§10
Optional Secondary Reading:
Schiller, On Naive and Sentimental Poetry
Lessing, Laocoön: an Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry, in J.M. Bernstein (ed.), Classic and Romantic German Aesthetics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
Stoll, Timothy, “Nietzsche and Schiller on Aesthetic Semblance,” The Monist, 102:3 (2019), 331–348.
Came, Daniel, "The Themes of Affirmation and Illusion in The Birth of Tragedy and Beyond," in Ken Gemes & John Richardson (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Nietzsche (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).
Janway, Christopher, "Beauty is False, Truth Ugly: Nietzsche on Art and Life," in Daniel Came (ed.), Nietzsche on Art and Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).

READING WEEK

Week 7: The Dionysian, Music, and the Chorus
Primary reading: Schopenhauer, WWR 1, §52; WWR 2, Ch. 39
Schiller, "On the Use of the Chorus in Tragedy"
BT §§5–9, 16–17, 19.
Optional Secondary Reading:
Ridley, Aaron, "Nietzsche and Music," in Daniel Came (ed.), Nietzsche on Art and Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
Stoll, Timothy, "Tragedy as a Symbol of Autonomy in Schiller's Aesthetics," British Journal of Aesthetics 63 (2023): 25–39.
Huddleston, Andrew, "Schopenhauer on Music," in Bather-Woods and Stoll (eds.), The Schopenhauerian Mind (London: Routledge, 2023).
A.W. Schlegel, A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature, translated by A.J.W. Morrison (New York: AMS Press, 1965), Lecture 5.

Week 8: The Paradox of Tragedy
Schiller, "On the Sublime: Toward the Further Development of Some Kantian Ideas"
BT §§20–24
Optional Secondary Reading:
Raymond, Christopher, "Nietzsche on Tragedy and Morality," in Daniel Came (ed.), Nietzsche on Art and Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
Ridley, Aaron, "Tragedy," in Jerrold Levinson (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)
Young, Julian, The Philosophy of Tragedy from Plato to Zizek (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp. 176–83.

Week 9: Socrates, Euripides and the Death of Tragedy
A.W. Schlegel, Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature, Lectures 8–10
BT §§11–15
Optional Secondary Reading:
Kaufmann, Walter, "Nietzsche's Admiration for Socrates," Journal of the History of Ideas 9 (1948): 472–491
Nehamas, Alexander, The Art of Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), Chapter 5.

Week 10: The Ultimate Value of Tragedy
Readings TBD

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• have a sound and scholarly understanding of Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy and important themes from his philosophy as they appear there.
• discuss incisively and critically key concepts and ideas in seminar discussions.
• discuss incisively and critically key concepts and ideas in written work.

Indicative reading list

The main reading for this module is The Birth of Tragedy. This is available in multiple translations, of which the two best are:

1. The translation by Walter Kaufmann, which is available in two different editions: Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner (New York: Vintage, 1967); Nietzsche, Basic Writings of Nietzsche (New York: Modern Library, 2000)
2. The Ronald Speirs translation: Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)
   Both of these translations are of high quality. The Speirs has the advantage of including some additional early texts. The Kaufmann has the advantage of being inexpensive. The choice is yours.

Subject specific skills

Close textual reading skills. Hermeneutic skills. Advanced reasoning skills. Fluency in essay writing.

Transferable skills

Strong presentation skills, verbally and in writing. Skills in logical and analytical reasoning. Skills in creative thinking.