225 - Alexander Nehamas: Nietzsche, Eternal Recurrence, and the Will to Power

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Alexander Nehamas is the Edmund N. Carpenter II Class of 1943 Professor in the Humanities, both of philosophy and comparative literature, at Princeton University. He is best known for his work on ancient philosophy, literary theory, the philosophy of art, and his scholarship on Friedrich Nietzsche. In this episode, Robinson and Alexander primarily discuss the latter, though they also delve into some of his other work. More particularly, they discuss Nietzsche’s writings on eternal recurrence, the will to power, and morality, among other topics, as well as the perils of doing history as a philosopher, the infamous Elgin marbles, great works of literature, and personal style. Alexander’s most well-known work on Nietzsche is Nietzsche: Life as Literature (Harvard, 1987).

Nietzsche: Life as Literature: https://a.co/d/7V3MYk0

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

3:07 The Essentials of Nietzsche

11:42  Nietzsche and Eternal Recurrence 

14:46  Nietzsche on Free Will

19:06  Nietzsche on Art and the Ideal Life

20:41  Nietzsche on Herd Morality and Mediocrity

23:20  Nietzsche on the Will to Power

27:02 Nietzsche on Our Dominance Over Animals  

30:41 Was Nietzsche an Anti-Semite? 

33:02 Nietzsche’s Relationship to Animals

36:53 Was Nietzsche an Enemy of Morality?  

39:54 Nietzsche and the Worship of Greatness 

41:06 Favorite Literature 

48:39 Nietzsche and the Perils of the History of Philosophy  

1:05:43 The Elgin Marbles

1:13:50 On Plato and Ancient Philosophy  

1:22:34 Nietzsche on Animal Agriculture

1:29:10 Nietzsche on Seeing Life as a Literary Work

1:34:10 Nietzsche on the Weak and the Great

1:39:32 Philosophy and Life  

1:46:11 On Philosophy and Fashion

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between.