From Automaton to Spectator: The Middle Period Problem

Welcome to season 6! Part I of III. In this first episode, we'll lay the groundwork for Klossowski's critical reading of Nietzsche, beginning with the material from the first two chapters. Klossowski applies Nietzsche's own methodology to Nietzsche's works, and reads his philosophy as a sign-language of impulses. The valetudinary states that dominated Nietzsche's life are reinterpreted in a radical way, with Klossowski's assertion that Nietzsche oftentimes saw thought as a source of suffering, and sided with the "attacks" of his body against the conscious, rational agent.