NIETZSCHE AND MONTAIGNE

Description

This book is a historically informed and textually grounded study of the connections between Montaigne, the inventor of the essay, and Nietzsche, who thought of himself as an “attempter.” In conversation with the Essais, Nietzsche developed key themes of his oeuvre: experimental scepticism, gay science, the quest for drives beneath consciousness, the free spirit, the affirmation of sexuality and the body, and the meaning of greatness. Robert Miner explores these connections in the context of Nietzsche's reverence for Montaigne—a reverence he held for no other author—and asks what Montaigne would make of Nietzsche. The question arises from Nietzsche himself, who both celebrates Montaigne and includes him among a small number of authors to whose judgment he is prepared to submit. Front Matter ....Pages i-xii Introduction: Why Montaigne and Nietzsche? (Robert Miner)....Pages 1-4 Scepsis (Robert Miner)....Pages 5-41 Gay Science and the Practice of Perspectivism (Robert Miner)....Pages 43-93 The Drives (Robert Miner)....Pages 95-127 The Free Spirit (Robert Miner)....Pages 129-169 Overcoming Asceticism and Cultivating the Body (Robert Miner)....Pages 171-205 Montaigne on Greatness (Robert Miner)....Pages 207-236 Nietzsche on Greatness (Robert Miner)....Pages 237-267 Back Matter ....Pages 269-294