Schopenhauer and Nietzsche (A Series of Lectures)

Author: (German) Georg Simmel, translated by Mo Guanghua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: This book is a collection of lectures by Simmel on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. The lectures are not merely a report; they go beyond the content of the doctrines, critically linking cultural facts, spiritual relationships, standards of cognition, and ethical values. The author selects a concise, unified, and important thread from his entire argument, reflecting the core of his thought, to discuss the intrinsic core of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche's philosophies that objectively holds value and is truly enduring, aiming to contribute to the general history of the spiritual culture and the eternal significance of understanding the thoughts of these two philosophers. Lectures on the Position of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche in the History of Thought. The Ultimate Value and Christianity. Schopenhauer's Will Philosophy as a Characteristic of the Contemporary Spiritual State. The Loss of the Absolute Life Purpose and the Continuing Existence of the Demand for It. Nietzsche Elevates the Life Process Itself as a Relative Life Purpose to Replace the Absolute Life Purpose: "übermensch" as a Model of Human Development That Transcends All Existing Stages. The Relationship Between These Two Doctrines With the Same Starting Point Is Their Fundamental Difference.
Lecture 2: Schopenhauer
The World as Phenomena in Our Consciousness and the Unknowable "Thing-in-itself" as the Opposition. The Human Soul as the Meeting Point of Two Worlds. Our Will as the Absolute Reality of Ourselves, the Only Content of Our Existence Outside the Realm of Representation. The Distinction Between the Fundamental Will and the Psychological Phenomena in Which It Exists. Humans Are Interpreted as Rational Beings; the Transformation of the Concept of Humanity in Modern Philosophy and Schopenhauer.
Lecture 3: Schopenhauer
The Diversity of Will Metaphysics as the Phenomenal Form of Dasein, the Intrinsic Nature of Dasein as Absolute Unity. The Essence of Humanity, as Reasonably Transferred to the Metaphysical Attributes of All Dasein: the World as the Phenomenon of the Metaphysical Will. Refuting the Charge That Schopenhauer Personifies the Worldview with Mysticism. The Contradictions in the Will and the Principle of the Impossibility of Its Satisfaction. The Incomprehensibility of Existence and Its Degradation Through Interpretation as Will. The Unity of the Will as the Motivation for Pessimism.
Lecture 4: Schopenhauer
Pessimistic Happiness as the Simple Cessation of the Pain of Lack. Psychologically Inconsistent Division of Life: No Pain and Possessing No Happiness. Anticipated Happiness Approaching Possession. The Main Motivation for Schopenhauer's Mistake: Unifying Will Metaphysics and Pessimism in a Forced and Systematic Manner. The Accounting of Pleasure and Pain, and the Absolute Meaning of Pain. Cruelty. Metaphysical Justice, and the Empirical Distribution of Pleasure and Pain.
Lecture 5: Schopenhauer
Art Metaphysics The Pure Representational Content of Things Freeing Itself from Reality. "Idea" as the Content of Art. The Subject and Object of the Aesthetic State That Transcends the World as Will, Causality, and Individuality. The Meaning of Space. Realism. The Artist Problem. Music as the Direct Artistic Expression of the Metaphysical Will. The Happiness of Art and Pessimism. Art as the Opposite Unity of Life.
Lecture 6: Schopenhauer
Morality and the Self-Emancipation of the Will Morality as the Negation of the Individual Form of the Will. Schopenhauer's Abandonment of All Objective Norms and the Motivation for His Pessimism. The Metaphysical Unity of Essence as the Foundation of Morality. In Contrast: The Ethical Significance of Duality. Love as Empathy. The Negative Commonality of Life Value. Existence and What-Ought-to-Be. Freedom. Asceticism as the Negation of the Will. Suicide. The Ultimate Emancipation.
Lecture 7: Nietzsche
Human Value and Decadence The Historical Enhancement of Life Intensity as the Ultimate Value. The Inversion of This Value by Christianity and Democracy. Its De Facto Consistency with the Christian Ideal. The Distinction Between the Concept of Humanity and Society, and Their Relationship to Individuality. Natural Distance as a Condition for Human Development. Psychological Difference Sensitivity and the Ethics of Maeterlinck. The Measurement of Value in an Era, Both Average and Peak. The Meaning of Antimoralism.
Lecture 8: Nietzsche
Noble Morality The Objective Characteristics of Nietzsche's Morality. The Noble Ideal. Existence and Action. The Cost of Upward Cultivation. Neither Egoism nor Hedonistic Individualism. Responsibility. The Eternal Recurrence of the Same in the Ethical and Metaphysical Sense. The Absolute This-worldliness of Nietzsche's Ideal. The Very Evaluation of the Life Process Itself as the Profound Difference-Making Motivation Between Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.