Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Philosophy, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

[pt] Esta dissertação tem como objetivo proceder a uma análise da obra ficcional de Almada Negreiros, artista português polivalente, em uma perspectiva solar, otimista, na sua forma de reinventar o mundo, de reinventarse na trajetória de ingenuidade consciente que empreende. Apresenta a obra de Almada como um projeto existencial, no qual se descortinam as diversas possibilidades do sujeito em busca de sua unidade pessoal - encontro do eu consigo. O trabalho, também por força de uma sistematização, toma de empréstimo as metamorfoses do espírito - fase camelo, fase leão e fase criança - de Nietzsche, em Assim falava Zaratustra, correlacionando-as aos aspectos vivenciais do intelectual Almada - moderno por excelência. Discute questões cruciais relativas ao modernismo português: tradição e inovação, representadas por nomes de peso do movimento. Como pano de fundo, o espaço alternativo de Orpheu a conciliar contrários. Destaca o valor fundamental do romance de aprendizagem Nome de Guerra, obra que constrói o personagem Antunes e a ficcionalidade do sujeito Almada Negreiros, no enfoque do autoconhecimento. / [en] This thesis analyses the fiction of the Portuguese multiartist Almada Negreiros, marked by a solar perspective, optimistic in his way of reinventing the world and himself in the path of conscious naïveté he sets out on. His work is presented as an existential project in which the various possibilities of the subject in search of personal unity are unveiled: the self meets itself. For the sake of systematization, this study borrows the concept of metamorphoses of the spirit - the camel, the lion and the child phases - from Nietzsche`s Thus spoke Zarathustra, relating them to aspects of the existence of Almada Negreiros as intellectual and modern par excellence. It discusses crucial issues of Portuguese Modernism: tradition and innovation, represented by important participants in the movement. The background is the dissenting space of Orpheu, conciliating opposites. Emphasis is given to the fundamental role of Almada Negreiro`s Nome de guerra, a Bildungsroman that develops the character Antunes and the fictional aspect of the man Almada Negreiros, focusing on self-knowledge.

[pt] A presente tese investiga o tema do esquecimento e da memória na filosofia de Nietzsche, analisando as diversas nuanças da relação entre ambos na constituição do conhecimento, da linguagem, das formas históricas e da moral nos textos Verdade e mentira no sentido extramoral, Segunda consideração intempestiva e Genealogia da moral, respectivamente. / [fr] Cette thèse fait une enquête sur le thème de l oubli et de la mémoire dans la philosophie de Nietzsche, en analysant les diverses nuances de la relation entre ceux-ci dans la constituition de la conaissance, du language, des formes historiques et de la morale dans les textes Vérité et mensonge au sense extramoral, Deuxième Considération inactuelle et La généalogie de la morale.

本篇論文主要在於探討一位與群眾最為疏遠的德國思想家：尼采（FRIEDRICH WILHEL N NIETZSCHE，１８４４－１９００） 如何看待「群眾」的問題。這工作所以能做是 因為尼采的確有許多檢討群眾的文字傳世，而「群眾意識」雖然只是尼采「超人哲學 」的襯托背景，同時卻是左右尼采思想的重要來源。此來源有些或為尼采所自知，並 形諸文字；有些則隱而不顯，甚至連尼采本人都無由察覺。因此有關「尼采群眾意識 」的探究，除了採用尼采的著作之外，還必須瞭解他生存期間的歷史與時代背景。而 經由諸多觀念的排比論衡，再參酌尼采一生重要活動予以考量，方才可以較週全的瞭 解尼采其人及思想。如此考量，可以發現尼采所以關注人類、批判群眾，並非他本人 突發的奇想，而是歷史與時代條件連帶人類觀念的消長有以致之：尼采思想十足是時 代的產物。 自從宗教信仰隕落之後，俗世成為人類的唯一生活空間，廣大的平庸群眾又是人類的 主體，他們了無大志，在人間的舞台上倏爾去來，卻又經常成為偉大心靈的壓力，這 是尼采棄絕天國、投入俗世之後，造成期許與逃避群眾 兩難猶豫心境之原因。「超 人意志」則是尼采抵斥群眾的生命寄托，然而由於尼采悲劇式的發掘出「充滿平庸群 眾的俗世是人類唯一的生活空間」，其心靈的挫折不言可喻。果真如此，「超人意志 」的創獲雖然激勵尼采生命意志的昂揚，但是不可否認，「群眾意識」的潛藏變幻卻 令尼采無法同時獲致心靈的平靜。 本論文一共分五章。第一章為緒論，第二章介紹尼采群眾意識的時代背景，第三章析 論尼采群眾意識之發展，第四章則對尼采群眾意識加以評鑑，第五章結論認為「群眾 意識」固然是尼采「超人意志」的重要來源，卻也是「超人意志」的沈重負擔。

A rich relationship unites the composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) and the history of psychology, especially if one considers his attempt to make music speak with the clarity of verbal language. Wagner's musical discourse participated in the development of psychology in the nineteenth century in three distinct areas. First, Wagner shared in the non-reductive materialist discourse on mind that characterized many of the thinkers who made psychology into an autonomous intellectual pursuit. Second, Wagner's theories and theatrical productions directly influenced two important psychologists - Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Christian von Ehrenfels (1859-1932). Finally, the experiences of music achieved by Wagner at his Bayreuth festivals created greater sensitivity toward psychology, especially among the more sympathetic participants. In tracing a narrative from Wagner's first conception of a festival in 1849 to the premiere of Parsifal in 1882, one can also see several arcs in the evolution of Wagner's musical discourse. These include the shift from mnemonic to hypnotic techniques for giving music a voice, as well as the transition from a socially critical festival to one of personal affirmation. Connected to both of these augmentations of musical discourse was the volatile relationship between music and text in Wagner's compositions. Important in facilitating these transformations was not only Wagner's discovery of Schopenhauer's philosophy, but also the larger contingencies of instituting a festival in the Griinderzeit. In looking at the reception side of theatrical productions, in addition to their staging, this thesis has been able to identify psychologically-related links important to the history of music, science, and culture.

This study offers a comparative investigation into selected figurative and nonfigurative, monochromatic (and mainly monochromatic) artworks by Ad Reinhardt, Ultimate Painting nr 39 (1963), Yves Klein, Monochrome bleu (IKB 3) (1956) and The thin red line (1970) by Douglas Portway. The aim of this research is to examine the possible subjective, meaningful function of the seemingly objective artworks. The selected artworks represent the formalist tendency of the high-Modernist conception of art-as-art, or the artwork as an autonomous objective object. At first sight the objective artworks seem to refute the subjective intentions of the artists who present them as both an externalisation of subjective experience and as possibly meaningful to the viewer. The investigation into the possible subjectively meaningful artworks is guided by an Existential approach to the aesthetic experience, as proposed by Nietzche’s Dionysian and Apollonian concepts as well as Sartre’s conceptualisation of néantisation and the imagination respectively. Both philosophers describe aesthetic experience as a meeting between both subjective and objective elements of their philosophy. The experience of the aesthetic (in the artworks) ultimately leads to a subjective space within which the seemingly objective artworks function as a subjective platform on which the Existential search for meaning can be considered (and possibly relieved). / MA (History of Art), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

This study offers a comparative investigation into selected figurative and nonfigurative, monochromatic (and mainly monochromatic) artworks by Ad Reinhardt, Ultimate Painting nr 39 (1963), Yves Klein, Monochrome bleu (IKB 3) (1956) and The thin red line (1970) by Douglas Portway. The aim of this research is to examine the possible subjective, meaningful function of the seemingly objective artworks. The selected artworks represent the formalist tendency of the high-Modernist conception of art-as-art, or the artwork as an autonomous objective object. At first sight the objective artworks seem to refute the subjective intentions of the artists who present them as both an externalisation of subjective experience and as possibly meaningful to the viewer. The investigation into the possible subjectively meaningful artworks is guided by an Existential approach to the aesthetic experience, as proposed by Nietzche’s Dionysian and Apollonian concepts as well as Sartre’s conceptualisation of néantisation and the imagination respectively. Both philosophers describe aesthetic experience as a meeting between both subjective and objective elements of their philosophy. The experience of the aesthetic (in the artworks) ultimately leads to a subjective space within which the seemingly objective artworks function as a subjective platform on which the Existential search for meaning can be considered (and possibly relieved). / MA (History of Art), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The question of this thesis is whether the individual can resolve the problem of culture crisis in her own case. Culture crisis is a historical moment in which our culture leads us to expect a world drastically different from the one in which we find ourselves. This thesis will focus on the experience of Generation Y in the fall-out of the 2008 Recession. It will be argued that we need a Wittgensteinian view of language in order to account for the phenomenon of culture crisis. It will be suggested that our individual has to be a Nietzschean individual in order to resolve the problem of culture crisis in her own case. Potential incompatibilities between a Wittgensteinian view of language and the Nietzschean individual will be considered and rejected. It will be concluded that in order to resolve the problem of culture crisis in her own case the individual must change the way she lives.

In the following study I reappraise the nineteenth century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897). Burckhardt is traditionally known for having served as the elder colleague and one-time muse of Friedrich Nietzsche at the University of Basel and so his ideas are often considered, by comparison, outmoded or inapposite to contemporary currents of thought. My research explodes this conception by abandoning the presumption that Burckhardt was in some sense "out of touch" with modernity. By following and significantly expanding upon the ideas of historians such as Allan Megill, Lionel Gossman, Hayden White, Joseph Mali, John Hinde and Richard Sigurdson, among others, I am able to portray Burckhardt as conversely inaugurating a historiography laden with elements of insightful social criticism. Such criticisms are in fact bolstered by virtue of their counter-modern characteristic. Burckhardt reveals in this way a perspicacity that both anticipates Nietzsche's own critique of modernity and in large part moves well beyond him. Much of this analysis is devised through a genealogical approach to Burckhardt which places him squarely within a cohesive branch of post-Kantian thought that I have called heterodox post-Kantianism. My study revaluates Burckhardt through the alembic of a "discursive" post-Kantian turn which reinvests many of his outré ideas, including his radical appropriation of historical representation, his non-teleological historiography, his various pessimistic inclinations, and additionally, his non-empirical, "aesthetic" study of history, or "mythistory," with a newfound philosophical germaneness. While I survey the majority of Burckhardt's output in the course of my work, I invest a specific focus in his largely unappreciated Greek lectures (given in 1869 but only published in English in full at the end of the twentieth century). Burckhardt's "dark" portrayal of the Greeks serves to not only upset traditional conceptions of antiquity but also the manner in which self-conception is informed through historical inquiry. Burckhardt returns us then to an altogether repressed antiquity: to a hidden, yet internal "dream of a shadow." My analysis culminates with an attempt to reassess the place of Burckhardt's ideas for modernity and to correspondingly reexamine Nietzsche. In particular, I highlight the disparity between Nietzsche's and Burckhardt's reception of the "problem of power," including the latter's reluctance - which was attended by ominous and highly prescient predictions of future large-scale wars and the steady "massification" of western society - to accept Nietzsche's acclamation of a final "will to power." Burckhardt teaches us the value of history as an active counterforce to dominant modern reality-formations and in doing so, his work rehabilitates the relevance of history for a world which, as Burckhardt once noted, suffers today from a superfluity of present-mindedness.

This thesis reconsiders the generally held view that Friedrich Nietzsche's works are misogynist. In doing so it provides an interpretation of Nietzsche's texts with respect to the metaphor "woman," sets this interpretation into an historical context of Nietzsche reception and follows the extension of Nietzsche's metaphor "woman" into French feminist theory. It provides an interpretation that shows that a misogynist reading of Nietzsche is in error because such a reading fails to consider the multiple perspectives that operate in Nietzsche's texts.