James Davison Hunter
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730803
- eISBN:
- 9780199777082
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730803.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Power now does the work that culture used to do. This is seen in the tendency toward the politicization of nearly everything. Politicization is most visibly manifested in the role ideology has come ...
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Power now does the work that culture used to do. This is seen in the tendency toward the politicization of nearly everything. Politicization is most visibly manifested in the role ideology has come to play in public life, the well-established predisposition to interpret all of public life through the filter of partisan beliefs, values, ideals, and attachments. As a consequence, we find it difficult to think in ways to address public problems or issues in any way that is not political. Politicization means that the final arbiter within most of social life is the coercive power of the state. Our times amply demonstrate that it is far easier to force one’s will upon others through legal and political means than it is to persuade them or negotiate compromise with them. What adds pathos to this situation is the presence of ressentiment, defined by a combination of anger, envy, hate, rage, and revenge.Less
Power now does the work that culture used to do. This is seen in the tendency toward the politicization of nearly everything. Politicization is most visibly manifested in the role ideology has come to play in public life, the well-established predisposition to interpret all of public life through the filter of partisan beliefs, values, ideals, and attachments. As a consequence, we find it difficult to think in ways to address public problems or issues in any way that is not political. Politicization means that the final arbiter within most of social life is the coercive power of the state. Our times amply demonstrate that it is far easier to force one’s will upon others through legal and political means than it is to persuade them or negotiate compromise with them. What adds pathos to this situation is the presence of ressentiment, defined by a combination of anger, envy, hate, rage, and revenge.
James Davison Hunter
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730803
- eISBN:
- 9780199777082
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730803.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Politically conservative Christians are animate by a mythic ideal concerned with the “right-ordering” of society. They want the world in which they live reflect their own likeness. A legacy of a ...
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Politically conservative Christians are animate by a mythic ideal concerned with the “right-ordering” of society. They want the world in which they live reflect their own likeness. A legacy of a Christian origin is understood as providing a sense of ownership over America and “radical secularists” have taken this away. The effect is harming to America, and people of faith, marginalizing them in public life. Their response has been one of political engagement, often conflating Christian faith and national identity in the political imagination. There are changes occurring among the Religious Right. However, though the tactics have expanded to include worldview and culture, the logic at work—that America has been taken over by secularists, that it is time to “take back the culture” for Christ—is identical to the longstanding approach of the Christian Right. This is because the underlying myth that defines their goals and strategy of action has not changed.Less
Politically conservative Christians are animate by a mythic ideal concerned with the “right-ordering” of society. They want the world in which they live reflect their own likeness. A legacy of a Christian origin is understood as providing a sense of ownership over America and “radical secularists” have taken this away. The effect is harming to America, and people of faith, marginalizing them in public life. Their response has been one of political engagement, often conflating Christian faith and national identity in the political imagination. There are changes occurring among the Religious Right. However, though the tactics have expanded to include worldview and culture, the logic at work—that America has been taken over by secularists, that it is time to “take back the culture” for Christ—is identical to the longstanding approach of the Christian Right. This is because the underlying myth that defines their goals and strategy of action has not changed.
James Davison Hunter
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730803
- eISBN:
- 9780199777082
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730803.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Progressives have always been animated by the myth of equality and community and therefore see history as an ongoing struggle to realize these ideals. The key word in the progressive lexicon is ...
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Progressives have always been animated by the myth of equality and community and therefore see history as an ongoing struggle to realize these ideals. The key word in the progressive lexicon is justice. The biblical tradition that Christian progressives appeal to is the prophetic tradition in its condemnation of the wealthy for their abuse of the poor, the weak, and the marginalized. However, in its commitment to social change through politics and politically oriented social movements, in its conflation of the public with the political, in its own selective use of Scripture to justify political interests, and in its confusion of theology with national interests and identity, the Christian Left imitates the Christian Right.Less
Progressives have always been animated by the myth of equality and community and therefore see history as an ongoing struggle to realize these ideals. The key word in the progressive lexicon is justice. The biblical tradition that Christian progressives appeal to is the prophetic tradition in its condemnation of the wealthy for their abuse of the poor, the weak, and the marginalized. However, in its commitment to social change through politics and politically oriented social movements, in its conflation of the public with the political, in its own selective use of Scripture to justify political interests, and in its confusion of theology with national interests and identity, the Christian Left imitates the Christian Right.
James Davison Hunter
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730803
- eISBN:
- 9780199777082
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730803.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Politics has become a “social imaginary” that defines the horizon of understanding and the parameters for action. What is never challenged is the proclivity to think of the Christian faith and its ...
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Politics has become a “social imaginary” that defines the horizon of understanding and the parameters for action. What is never challenged is the proclivity to think of the Christian faith and its engagements with culture in political terms. For all, the public has been conflated with the political. But the ressentiment that marks the way they operate makes it clear that a crucial part of what motivates politics is a will to dominate. However, for politics to be about more than power, it depends upon a realm that is independent of the political process. The deepest irony is that the Christian faith has the possibility of autonomous institutions and practices that could be a source of ideals and values that could elevate politics to more than a quest for power. Instead, by nurturing its resentments, they become functional Nietzcheans, participating in the very cultural breakdown they so ardently strive to resist.Less
Politics has become a “social imaginary” that defines the horizon of understanding and the parameters for action. What is never challenged is the proclivity to think of the Christian faith and its engagements with culture in political terms. For all, the public has been conflated with the political. But the ressentiment that marks the way they operate makes it clear that a crucial part of what motivates politics is a will to dominate. However, for politics to be about more than power, it depends upon a realm that is independent of the political process. The deepest irony is that the Christian faith has the possibility of autonomous institutions and practices that could be a source of ideals and values that could elevate politics to more than a quest for power. Instead, by nurturing its resentments, they become functional Nietzcheans, participating in the very cultural breakdown they so ardently strive to resist.
Michael Moore
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199599493
- eISBN:
- 9780191594649
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199599493.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
This chapter argues for a kind of ‘equal protection’ for retributive justice amongst the kinds of justice. Other forms of justice – distributive, corrective, natural right, promissory – have ...
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This chapter argues for a kind of ‘equal protection’ for retributive justice amongst the kinds of justice. Other forms of justice – distributive, corrective, natural right, promissory – have respected places within our pantheon of plausible theories of legal institutions. The question put is why retributive justice has in modern times been so discriminated against. A variety of explanations are considered; the emotional nature of retributive judgments is ultimately singled out. That emotional nature is given extended treatment, along Nietzschean lines. Despite the conceded force of many of the Nietzschean objections to the emotional basis for retributive judgments, a virtuous emotional base for retributive judgments is argued to lie in feelings of guilt.Less
This chapter argues for a kind of ‘equal protection’ for retributive justice amongst the kinds of justice. Other forms of justice – distributive, corrective, natural right, promissory – have respected places within our pantheon of plausible theories of legal institutions. The question put is why retributive justice has in modern times been so discriminated against. A variety of explanations are considered; the emotional nature of retributive judgments is ultimately singled out. That emotional nature is given extended treatment, along Nietzschean lines. Despite the conceded force of many of the Nietzschean objections to the emotional basis for retributive judgments, a virtuous emotional base for retributive judgments is argued to lie in feelings of guilt.
Ryan Litsey
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462388
- eISBN:
- 9781626746831
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462388.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Meanwhile, Ryan Litsey suggests a reading of the Joker as a “Nietzschean Superman.” Applying Nietzsche to his reading of the video game Batman: Arkham City, Litsey argues that the “will to power” – a ...
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Meanwhile, Ryan Litsey suggests a reading of the Joker as a “Nietzschean Superman.” Applying Nietzsche to his reading of the video game Batman: Arkham City, Litsey argues that the “will to power” – a key feature of Nietzsche’s notion of the Superman – “is evident in all things the Joker does.” Suggesting by extension that Batman represents Nietzsche’s “man of ressentiment” – the slave morality to the Joker’s master morality – Litsey offers a careful exploration of the Batman/Joker duality, the applicability of which extends well beyond a single ludic narrative. “Understanding the Joker in this way,” Litsey suggests, “can give us new insight into the appeal and power the Joker has traditionally held for audiences – the attraction of the Superman, latent in all of us, is made manifest in him.”Less
Meanwhile, Ryan Litsey suggests a reading of the Joker as a “Nietzschean Superman.” Applying Nietzsche to his reading of the video game Batman: Arkham City, Litsey argues that the “will to power” – a key feature of Nietzsche’s notion of the Superman – “is evident in all things the Joker does.” Suggesting by extension that Batman represents Nietzsche’s “man of ressentiment” – the slave morality to the Joker’s master morality – Litsey offers a careful exploration of the Batman/Joker duality, the applicability of which extends well beyond a single ludic narrative. “Understanding the Joker in this way,” Litsey suggests, “can give us new insight into the appeal and power the Joker has traditionally held for audiences – the attraction of the Superman, latent in all of us, is made manifest in him.”
David Wood
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823281367
- eISBN:
- 9780823286010
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823281367.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
Deep Time, Dark Times takes its bearing from Nietzsche’s concern that a surfeit of history can extinguish the passion for life, especially when we are reminded of our capacity for cruelty and folly. ...
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Deep Time, Dark Times takes its bearing from Nietzsche’s concern that a surfeit of history can extinguish the passion for life, especially when we are reminded of our capacity for cruelty and folly. The prospect of devastating climate change extends our sense of the past onto a geological scale, arousing debilitating passion, especially anger, ressentiment and resignation. What can Nietzsche teach us here? Hume’s sense that reason is but a slave to the passions cautions us against new utopian blueprints that fail to address the mood of today. Although climate change can rightly be laid at the feet of industrialization, corporate greed, fossil fuel companies … Deep Time challenges us to re-imagine ourselves as a species, through a geological consciousness. This expands Nietzsche’s sense of “life” to include our fellow terrestrials, and accentuates his sense of critical history, navigating between conflicting passions. Such a consciousness would be ecological (embracing yet another wound to our sovereignty), and it would acknowledge the advent of the Anthropocene. Deep Time draws on Heidegger’s call for a new attunement, one that connects contemporary anger and frustration with the agency vacuum created by the failure of global democracy. The question of who “we” are, when we imagine emergent forms of agency, or when we consider the constituencies impacted by climate change, is explicitly thematized. Information technology, for all its liabilities, offers new possibilities of group identity-formation, communication, and economic transaction that just might make a difference. We have to will the impossible to avoid the unthinkable.Less
Deep Time, Dark Times takes its bearing from Nietzsche’s concern that a surfeit of history can extinguish the passion for life, especially when we are reminded of our capacity for cruelty and folly. The prospect of devastating climate change extends our sense of the past onto a geological scale, arousing debilitating passion, especially anger, ressentiment and resignation. What can Nietzsche teach us here? Hume’s sense that reason is but a slave to the passions cautions us against new utopian blueprints that fail to address the mood of today. Although climate change can rightly be laid at the feet of industrialization, corporate greed, fossil fuel companies … Deep Time challenges us to re-imagine ourselves as a species, through a geological consciousness. This expands Nietzsche’s sense of “life” to include our fellow terrestrials, and accentuates his sense of critical history, navigating between conflicting passions. Such a consciousness would be ecological (embracing yet another wound to our sovereignty), and it would acknowledge the advent of the Anthropocene. Deep Time draws on Heidegger’s call for a new attunement, one that connects contemporary anger and frustration with the agency vacuum created by the failure of global democracy. The question of who “we” are, when we imagine emergent forms of agency, or when we consider the constituencies impacted by climate change, is explicitly thematized. Information technology, for all its liabilities, offers new possibilities of group identity-formation, communication, and economic transaction that just might make a difference. We have to will the impossible to avoid the unthinkable.
Simon May
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199231560
- eISBN:
- 9780191716119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231560.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter argues that a central, but usually overlooked, condition for attaining freedom in Nietzsche's sense is to overcome that most fundamental form of ressentiment: against time. Time is the ...
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This chapter argues that a central, but usually overlooked, condition for attaining freedom in Nietzsche's sense is to overcome that most fundamental form of ressentiment: against time. Time is the ‘dimension’ of living that makes us feel most powerless (and so is the greatest stimulus to ressentiment). Unlike that better-known object of ressentiment, the ‘masterly type’, which can be subdued through ‘slave morality’, and especially through a certain valuation of pity, equality, and truthfulness, there is nothing we can do to change the past. So the hardest test of whether we can affirm our own particular life is not merely to recognize the inevitability of the past that has made us what we are, but actively to ‘will’ it. The chapter argues that abandoning a metaphysical worldview does not, therefore, just mean abandoning absolute standards or sources of value, such as God, Reason, or The Good. It also means seeing life as inescapably in time, as structured by time, with no timeless realm to give it meaning. But what is the history in which any contemporary Western self is situated and with which it must reckon if it is to achieve sovereignty? The answer is that our history — the history of Judeo-Christian cultures — is the history of nihilism. A sovereign life must therefore be a coming-to-grips with the challenge of overcoming nihilism — that is, of overcoming Western history as the history of the ascetic ideal, as the history of the ‘will to nothingness’. This claim involves elucidating aspects of the complex relationship between Nietzsche's concepts of selfhood, autonomy and nihilism.Less
This chapter argues that a central, but usually overlooked, condition for attaining freedom in Nietzsche's sense is to overcome that most fundamental form of ressentiment: against time. Time is the ‘dimension’ of living that makes us feel most powerless (and so is the greatest stimulus to ressentiment). Unlike that better-known object of ressentiment, the ‘masterly type’, which can be subdued through ‘slave morality’, and especially through a certain valuation of pity, equality, and truthfulness, there is nothing we can do to change the past. So the hardest test of whether we can affirm our own particular life is not merely to recognize the inevitability of the past that has made us what we are, but actively to ‘will’ it. The chapter argues that abandoning a metaphysical worldview does not, therefore, just mean abandoning absolute standards or sources of value, such as God, Reason, or The Good. It also means seeing life as inescapably in time, as structured by time, with no timeless realm to give it meaning. But what is the history in which any contemporary Western self is situated and with which it must reckon if it is to achieve sovereignty? The answer is that our history — the history of Judeo-Christian cultures — is the history of nihilism. A sovereign life must therefore be a coming-to-grips with the challenge of overcoming nihilism — that is, of overcoming Western history as the history of the ascetic ideal, as the history of the ‘will to nothingness’. This claim involves elucidating aspects of the complex relationship between Nietzsche's concepts of selfhood, autonomy and nihilism.
Hye Seung Chung
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036699
- eISBN:
- 9780252093791
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036699.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This study investigates the controversial motion pictures written and directed by the independent filmmaker Kim Ki-duk, one of the most acclaimed Korean auteurs in the English-speaking world. ...
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This study investigates the controversial motion pictures written and directed by the independent filmmaker Kim Ki-duk, one of the most acclaimed Korean auteurs in the English-speaking world. Propelled by underdog protagonists who can only communicate through shared corporeal pain and extreme violence, Kim's graphic films have been classified by Western audiences as belonging to sensationalist East Asian “extreme” cinema, and Kim has been labeled a “psychopath” and “misogynist” in South Korea. Drawing upon both Korean-language and English-language sources, the book challenges these misunderstandings, recuperating Kim's oeuvre as a therapeutic, yet brutal cinema of Nietzschean ressentiment (political anger and resentment deriving from subordination and oppression). The book argues that the power of Kim's cinema lies precisely in its ability to capture, channel, and convey the raw emotions of protagonists who live on the bottom rungs of Korean society. It provides historical and postcolonial readings of victimization and violence in Kim's cinema, which tackles such socially relevant topics as national division in Wild Animals and The Coast Guard and U.S. military occupation in Address Unknown. The book also explores the religious and spiritual themes in Kim's most recent works, which suggest possibilities of reconciliation and transcendence.Less
This study investigates the controversial motion pictures written and directed by the independent filmmaker Kim Ki-duk, one of the most acclaimed Korean auteurs in the English-speaking world. Propelled by underdog protagonists who can only communicate through shared corporeal pain and extreme violence, Kim's graphic films have been classified by Western audiences as belonging to sensationalist East Asian “extreme” cinema, and Kim has been labeled a “psychopath” and “misogynist” in South Korea. Drawing upon both Korean-language and English-language sources, the book challenges these misunderstandings, recuperating Kim's oeuvre as a therapeutic, yet brutal cinema of Nietzschean ressentiment (political anger and resentment deriving from subordination and oppression). The book argues that the power of Kim's cinema lies precisely in its ability to capture, channel, and convey the raw emotions of protagonists who live on the bottom rungs of Korean society. It provides historical and postcolonial readings of victimization and violence in Kim's cinema, which tackles such socially relevant topics as national division in Wild Animals and The Coast Guard and U.S. military occupation in Address Unknown. The book also explores the religious and spiritual themes in Kim's most recent works, which suggest possibilities of reconciliation and transcendence.
Mathias Risse
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195305845
- eISBN:
- 9780199851539
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305845.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This study explores Nietzsche's views on selfishness and its role within his envisaged “revaluation of values” (TI, Preface; EH, Clever, 9). Nietzsche advocates selfishness only for the “higher men” ...
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This study explores Nietzsche's views on selfishness and its role within his envisaged “revaluation of values” (TI, Preface; EH, Clever, 9). Nietzsche advocates selfishness only for the “higher men” those characters who embody human excellence and whom he hopes will replace the person of guilt and ressentiment. Important parts of Nietzsche's mature work can be read as offering approaches to traditional philosophical problems in the spirit of the emerging biological sciences of his day, in particular physiology and evolutionary biology. Particularly striking in this context is his effort to offer explanations in the spirit of these sciences for the emergence of norms of conduct commonly seen as moral.Less
This study explores Nietzsche's views on selfishness and its role within his envisaged “revaluation of values” (TI, Preface; EH, Clever, 9). Nietzsche advocates selfishness only for the “higher men” those characters who embody human excellence and whom he hopes will replace the person of guilt and ressentiment. Important parts of Nietzsche's mature work can be read as offering approaches to traditional philosophical problems in the spirit of the emerging biological sciences of his day, in particular physiology and evolutionary biology. Particularly striking in this context is his effort to offer explanations in the spirit of these sciences for the emergence of norms of conduct commonly seen as moral.
Ruth Abbey
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195134087
- eISBN:
- 9780199785766
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195134087.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Friedrich Nietzsche believes that self-love is a necessary ingredient for healthy individualism. This chapter explores the connections between his conceptions of egoism, self-love, and vanity in the ...
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Friedrich Nietzsche believes that self-love is a necessary ingredient for healthy individualism. This chapter explores the connections between his conceptions of egoism, self-love, and vanity in the middle period works. It is argued that the roots of Nietzsche’s later concept of ressentiment appear in these works, for several of the features associated with vanity, such as heteronomy and the absence of self-love, come to be characteristic of ressentiment. The chapter then moves into a discussion of what room there might be for a conception of justice, in an analysis that imputes so much power to egoism.Less
Friedrich Nietzsche believes that self-love is a necessary ingredient for healthy individualism. This chapter explores the connections between his conceptions of egoism, self-love, and vanity in the middle period works. It is argued that the roots of Nietzsche’s later concept of ressentiment appear in these works, for several of the features associated with vanity, such as heteronomy and the absence of self-love, come to be characteristic of ressentiment. The chapter then moves into a discussion of what room there might be for a conception of justice, in an analysis that imputes so much power to egoism.
Robert C. Solomon
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195160147
- eISBN:
- 9780199835065
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195160142.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Nietzsche's moral perspectivism is one of the central and best-known themes of his philosophy. I interpret his genealogical argument in On the Genealogy of Moralsas an ad hominem argument, not so ...
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Nietzsche's moral perspectivism is one of the central and best-known themes of his philosophy. I interpret his genealogical argument in On the Genealogy of Moralsas an ad hominem argument, not so much history as moral psychology. In particular, Nietzsche mentions resentment (ressentiment) as a diagnostic tool in moral criticism. But Nietzsche has mixed intentions here. On the one hand, he adopts what I call a “blaming” perspective.” On the other, he urges us to get “beyond judgment.”Less
Nietzsche's moral perspectivism is one of the central and best-known themes of his philosophy. I interpret his genealogical argument in On the Genealogy of Moralsas an ad hominem argument, not so much history as moral psychology. In particular, Nietzsche mentions resentment (ressentiment) as a diagnostic tool in moral criticism. But Nietzsche has mixed intentions here. On the one hand, he adopts what I call a “blaming” perspective.” On the other, he urges us to get “beyond judgment.”
Robert C. Solomon
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195160147
- eISBN:
- 9780199835065
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195160142.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
In this chapter, I discuss why resentment (ressentiment) is so important to Nietzsche’s theory and what is wrong with it. I also discuss Nietzsche on love and pity and his several metaphors of ...
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In this chapter, I discuss why resentment (ressentiment) is so important to Nietzsche’s theory and what is wrong with it. I also discuss Nietzsche on love and pity and his several metaphors of strength and weakness, masters and slaves, eagles and lambs, health and illness.Less
In this chapter, I discuss why resentment (ressentiment) is so important to Nietzsche’s theory and what is wrong with it. I also discuss Nietzsche on love and pity and his several metaphors of strength and weakness, masters and slaves, eagles and lambs, health and illness.
Peter Poellner
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198250630
- eISBN:
- 9780191598258
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198250630.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
As well as drawing sceptical conclusions, Nietzsche rejects the concept of absolute or metaphysical truth as unintelligible. Nietzsche's views are elucidated by contrasting his arguments with ...
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As well as drawing sceptical conclusions, Nietzsche rejects the concept of absolute or metaphysical truth as unintelligible. Nietzsche's views are elucidated by contrasting his arguments with alternative accounts of ‘objective reality’ belonging to the philosophical canon. It ensues that Nietzsche espouses a variety of anti‐metaphysics premised on the mutual determination of reality and interest. He believes that objective reality cannot be conceived without volitional and intentional agency on the part of subjects who experience themselves as acted upon (‘resisted’) by the contents of their representations. Having elaborated and explained the prominence of Nietzsche's denial of metaphysical fact, the discussion turns to the origin and significance of the desire for metaphysical truth. In identifying the embracing of metaphysical truth for its own sake (the ‘will to truth’) with the ascetic ideal, Nietzsche intends to contrast practical engagement with the world with a preference for evaluation divorced from the subject's actual experiences and desires. Belief in objective value and ‘the will to truth’ are subsumed under a general psychological disposition designated ‘the ascetic ideal’, characterized by self‐deception or ressentiment.Less
As well as drawing sceptical conclusions, Nietzsche rejects the concept of absolute or metaphysical truth as unintelligible. Nietzsche's views are elucidated by contrasting his arguments with alternative accounts of ‘objective reality’ belonging to the philosophical canon. It ensues that Nietzsche espouses a variety of anti‐metaphysics premised on the mutual determination of reality and interest. He believes that objective reality cannot be conceived without volitional and intentional agency on the part of subjects who experience themselves as acted upon (‘resisted’) by the contents of their representations. Having elaborated and explained the prominence of Nietzsche's denial of metaphysical fact, the discussion turns to the origin and significance of the desire for metaphysical truth. In identifying the embracing of metaphysical truth for its own sake (the ‘will to truth’) with the ascetic ideal, Nietzsche intends to contrast practical engagement with the world with a preference for evaluation divorced from the subject's actual experiences and desires. Belief in objective value and ‘the will to truth’ are subsumed under a general psychological disposition designated ‘the ascetic ideal’, characterized by self‐deception or ressentiment.
Peter Poellner
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198250630
- eISBN:
- 9780191598258
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198250630.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Argues that Nietzsche's pronouncements on psychology advert to basic facts about the constitution of inner experience and are thus incompatible with his anti‐essentialism. Nietzsche's analysis of ...
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Argues that Nietzsche's pronouncements on psychology advert to basic facts about the constitution of inner experience and are thus incompatible with his anti‐essentialism. Nietzsche's analysis of non‐egoistic behaviour, his proto‐Freudian presentation of mental life as driven by processes inaccessible to self‐consciousness, and his analysis of the ascetic ideal, ressentiment, and self‐deception amount to a picture of human agency in which all significant aspects of inner experience are ‘in reality’ desires for the experience of power.Less
Argues that Nietzsche's pronouncements on psychology advert to basic facts about the constitution of inner experience and are thus incompatible with his anti‐essentialism. Nietzsche's analysis of non‐egoistic behaviour, his proto‐Freudian presentation of mental life as driven by processes inaccessible to self‐consciousness, and his analysis of the ascetic ideal, ressentiment, and self‐deception amount to a picture of human agency in which all significant aspects of inner experience are ‘in reality’ desires for the experience of power.
Bruce Ellis Benson
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823230457
- eISBN:
- 9780823235223
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823230457.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter focuses on Merold Westphal's analysis of the views of Friedrich Nietzsche about faith and theology (through Nietzsche's Suspicion and Faith: The Religious Uses ...
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This chapter focuses on Merold Westphal's analysis of the views of Friedrich Nietzsche about faith and theology (through Nietzsche's Suspicion and Faith: The Religious Uses of Modern Atheism). It discusses how these views are appropriated, and how Christians and other religious people could learn from them. Other topics that are discussed in the chapter include ressentiment (resentment, hostility), and perversions of pity and love.Less
This chapter focuses on Merold Westphal's analysis of the views of Friedrich Nietzsche about faith and theology (through Nietzsche's Suspicion and Faith: The Religious Uses of Modern Atheism). It discusses how these views are appropriated, and how Christians and other religious people could learn from them. Other topics that are discussed in the chapter include ressentiment (resentment, hostility), and perversions of pity and love.
Manuel Dries and P. J. E. Kail (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198722236
- eISBN:
- 9780191789083
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198722236.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This book discusses important aspects of Nietzsche’s philosophy in connection with its two major themes: mind and nature. Among the various aspects addressed in the book are the following. What is ...
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This book discusses important aspects of Nietzsche’s philosophy in connection with its two major themes: mind and nature. Among the various aspects addressed in the book are the following. What is Nietzsche’s conception of mind? How does mind relate with the (rest of) nature? And what is Nietzsche’s conception of nature? The contributions to this volume all express the thought that Nietzsche’s views on these matters are of great philosophical value, either because those views are consonant with contemporary thinking to a greater or lesser extent, or because they represent a rich alternative to contemporary attitudes.Less
This book discusses important aspects of Nietzsche’s philosophy in connection with its two major themes: mind and nature. Among the various aspects addressed in the book are the following. What is Nietzsche’s conception of mind? How does mind relate with the (rest of) nature? And what is Nietzsche’s conception of nature? The contributions to this volume all express the thought that Nietzsche’s views on these matters are of great philosophical value, either because those views are consonant with contemporary thinking to a greater or lesser extent, or because they represent a rich alternative to contemporary attitudes.
Ashraf H.A. Rushdy
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- June 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190851972
- eISBN:
- 9780190852009
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190851972.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
After Injury explores the practices of forgiveness, resentment, and apology in three key moments when they were undergoing a dramatic change: early Christian history (for forgiveness), the shift from ...
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After Injury explores the practices of forgiveness, resentment, and apology in three key moments when they were undergoing a dramatic change: early Christian history (for forgiveness), the shift from British eighteenth-century to Continental nineteenth-century philosophers (for resentment), and the moment in the 1950s postwar world in which ordinary language philosophers and sociologists of everyday life theorized what it means to express or perform an apology. The debates in those key moments have largely defined the contemporary study of these practices. The first premise of this book is that because these three practices are interlinked—forgiveness is commonly defined as a forswearing of resentment in response to an apology—it makes sense to study these practices together. The second premise is that each practice has a different historical evolution. It thus makes sense to identify a key moment to examine what is arguably the most important mutation in the evolution of each practice. After looking at the debates in those three key moments, After Injury takes up the important contemporary questions about each of the practices. For the practice of forgiveness, those questions center on whether forgiveness is possible, and what place it occupies in relation to retribution. For resentment, the questions involve the value and risks of holding on to what is admittedly the disabling emotion of resentment in order to affirm the injustice of the past. For the practice of apology, a key question is what to make of a shift from personal to collective, from private to public apologies.Less
After Injury explores the practices of forgiveness, resentment, and apology in three key moments when they were undergoing a dramatic change: early Christian history (for forgiveness), the shift from British eighteenth-century to Continental nineteenth-century philosophers (for resentment), and the moment in the 1950s postwar world in which ordinary language philosophers and sociologists of everyday life theorized what it means to express or perform an apology. The debates in those key moments have largely defined the contemporary study of these practices. The first premise of this book is that because these three practices are interlinked—forgiveness is commonly defined as a forswearing of resentment in response to an apology—it makes sense to study these practices together. The second premise is that each practice has a different historical evolution. It thus makes sense to identify a key moment to examine what is arguably the most important mutation in the evolution of each practice. After looking at the debates in those three key moments, After Injury takes up the important contemporary questions about each of the practices. For the practice of forgiveness, those questions center on whether forgiveness is possible, and what place it occupies in relation to retribution. For resentment, the questions involve the value and risks of holding on to what is admittedly the disabling emotion of resentment in order to affirm the injustice of the past. For the practice of apology, a key question is what to make of a shift from personal to collective, from private to public apologies.
K. M. Newton
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748636730
- eISBN:
- 9780748652082
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748636730.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter illustrates the influence of Nietzsche's ideas on the tragic philosophy. The play in which the influence of Nietzsche is perhaps strongest is Ibsen's The Master Builder. In this play, ...
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This chapter illustrates the influence of Nietzsche's ideas on the tragic philosophy. The play in which the influence of Nietzsche is perhaps strongest is Ibsen's The Master Builder. In this play, Nietzschean oppositions are central to the play's dramatic structure. Auguste Strindberg, in The Father and Miss Julie, subjects traditional tragic form to restructuring and revision by confronting Nietzsche's negative critique, particularly his concept of ‘ressentiment’ and his claim that in the modern world ‘slave morality’ has gained ascendancy over ‘noble’ or ‘master morality’. Strindberg does not suggest any alternative to the tragic condition of being a woman, other than by adopting the strategies of ressentiment in the manner of Laura in The Father.Less
This chapter illustrates the influence of Nietzsche's ideas on the tragic philosophy. The play in which the influence of Nietzsche is perhaps strongest is Ibsen's The Master Builder. In this play, Nietzschean oppositions are central to the play's dramatic structure. Auguste Strindberg, in The Father and Miss Julie, subjects traditional tragic form to restructuring and revision by confronting Nietzsche's negative critique, particularly his concept of ‘ressentiment’ and his claim that in the modern world ‘slave morality’ has gained ascendancy over ‘noble’ or ‘master morality’. Strindberg does not suggest any alternative to the tragic condition of being a woman, other than by adopting the strategies of ressentiment in the manner of Laura in The Father.
Coretta Phillips
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199697229
- eISBN:
- 9780191760556
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199697229.003.0006
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
Here prisoners' perspectives on their institutional treatment as racialized prisoners are explored. The chapter considers equating the pains and deprivations of imprisonment with the pains of racist ...
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Here prisoners' perspectives on their institutional treatment as racialized prisoners are explored. The chapter considers equating the pains and deprivations of imprisonment with the pains of racist treatment and religious discrimination, but goes further to illustrate the ways in which younger and older prisoners from diverse ethnic groups experience the new race equality agenda of the Prison Service, in both positive and negative ways. Fatalistic, oppositional, and retreatist adaptive responses to discriminatory treatment by prison officers are described. The chapter also examines resentment of race equality policies amidst white retrenchment, alongside claims of discrimination and racism being used instrumentally and mischievously by minority ethnic and Muslim prisoners, leading to white majority disadvantage.Less
Here prisoners' perspectives on their institutional treatment as racialized prisoners are explored. The chapter considers equating the pains and deprivations of imprisonment with the pains of racist treatment and religious discrimination, but goes further to illustrate the ways in which younger and older prisoners from diverse ethnic groups experience the new race equality agenda of the Prison Service, in both positive and negative ways. Fatalistic, oppositional, and retreatist adaptive responses to discriminatory treatment by prison officers are described. The chapter also examines resentment of race equality policies amidst white retrenchment, alongside claims of discrimination and racism being used instrumentally and mischievously by minority ethnic and Muslim prisoners, leading to white majority disadvantage.