Thesis--Munich, 1915. / Bibliography p. 107-110.

Inaug.-Diss.--Marburg. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 232-236).

Thesis--Freie Universität Berlin. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-199).

Freiburg (Breisgau), Univ., Diss., 2008

Zugl.: Dresden, Univ., Diplomarbeit, 2005. / Hergestellt on demand.

I argue in this dissertation that Nietzsche’s struggle to free himself from Schopenhauer and Wagner’s influence interferes with his understanding of Buddhism, which he tends to tar with the same brush that he used on his mentors. I claim that Nietzsche has more in common with Mahayana Buddhism than he realizes, and suggest that he would have had more sympathy for Buddhist strategies for confronting suffering if his conception of such strategies had been more adequate. I offer a reading of the eternal recurrence according to which it promotes an existential reorientation towards the present moment that is very much in the spirit of Zen. I contend that the apparently irresoluble differences between the Nietzschean and Buddhist positions on questions relating to a karmic “moral world order” can be overcome on a careful interpretation, and that there are more than superficial parallels between the way that both Nietzsche and Zen thinkers ascribe spiritual significance to a certain kind of spontaneous action. / text

The concept of ‘risk’ has become one of the main ontological, existential, and epistemological categories in the modern Western world. People are continually confronted with considerable amounts of information concerning what constitutes risks and how they are to be mediated and avoided. Along side this growing concern with risk and risk avoidance, a large segment of the population continues to seek out risk itself. Although substantial sociological research has been undertaken to try and understand why people engage with risk, these theories and subsequent research falls short in ontological, existential, and epistemological breadth. As a response, this thesis presents a new avenue to understanding risk-taking that is based upon Nietzschean aesthetic theory and its conceptualization of the ‘Apollonian’ and ‘Dionysian’ drives that structure human existence. The world of high-risk skiing is the focal point upon which Nietzsche’s theory is applied, with the hope of not only understanding this specific area of social life, but also to demonstrate the importance that risk can play as an ontological, existential, and epistemological emancipatory category. Chapter two provides an overview of the historical inception of the concept of risk and the popular theoretical perspectives used to understand its place within the social whole. Following this, chapter three reviews the dominant theories used within the sociology of sport to understand risk-taking within the world of sport. Finally, chapter four engages Nietzsche’s theory showing how the high-risk skiing community is analogous to pre-Socratic Greek tragedy, in that it enables adherents to properly balance both Apollonian and Dionysian drives allowing them to escape the ‘reactive nihilism’ that defines the modern Western world. It is concluded that such a perspective not only provides researchers with new tools that are based around the social importance of art and aesthetics, but also that risk is an important ontological, existential, and epistemological category that allows risk-takers to experience a more complete level of existence based upon an understanding of life that celebrates both its positive and negative aspects. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2009-10-29 19:14:15.441

In this thesis Didiodato addresses a central theme in Nietzsche’s thought: namely, “life”. Nietzsche uses this term in a number of ways throughout his writings in many metaphorical, aphoristic, and often seemingly contradictory ways. This thesis attempts to flesh out what Nietzsche means by “life” by examining each of the particular ways Nietzsche uses the term in isolation. Ultimately, Didiodato argues that “life” is used in several fundamentally different ways which demonstrates Nietzsche’s criticism of metaphysical descriptions, while at the same time speaking to his emphasis on perspectivism. The thesis closes with a reflection on Nietzsche’s notion of the “affirmation of life” wherein this thesis argues that the diversity of accounts of life Nietzsche provides can find something of a unity.

Since the 1960’s it has been common for many historians to treat Friedrich Nietzsche as a proto-postmodernist. Nietzsche’s scepticism and apparent embrace of aestheticism have fueled the belief among historians that Nietzsche’s philosophy anticipated a postmodern understanding of history. This project seeks to challenge the proto-postmodernist reading of Nietzsche’s philosophy of history by arguing that Nietzsche’s thought underwent a significant change after the termination of his friendship with the German composer Richard Wagner. Utilizing Nietzsche’s personal correspondence, material from his many notebooks, records of the books he read and owned, as well as the works he published, this thesis attempts to unravel the protopostmodern reading of Nietzsche’s philosophy in favour of a naturalist interpretation of his thought. It will then attempt to outline what the consequences of Nietzsche’s naturalism are for his philosophy of history. / Graduate

In this thesis I explore the attempt by Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche and Georges Bataille to confront the problem of the meaning and value of existence. I consider each of these philosophers as involved in the development of a stream of post-Kantian thought that, following Nick Land, I call libidinal pessimism. Libidinal pessimism is both the metaphysical principle of the primacy of willing as the fundamental reality, and the moral principle that the greatest value to our existence is to be found in liberating willing from the small-scale concern of the good of individual beings. Each sees a crisis in the dominance of optimism: the belief that willing is commensurate with the good of individuated beings. They attack the dominance of optimism not just in the history of philosophy, but also in the values that dominate the culture at large. My contention is that these thinkers were provoked to think about the meaning and value of existence by encountering the tragic sublime: a pleasure in the destruction of the happiness of the individual. This affective intensity provokes them to the realisation that our will is not directed towards the happiness of the individual, contra the dominant values of our culture. Yet since the tragic sublime is non-conceptual, its implications for the meaning and the value of existence are not explicit. The task of philosophy is to conceptualise this affective intensity to specify the inadequacy of the values that dominate the age, and to assert the values that can liberate human possibility from its current wretchedness to a new glory. To structure the thinking of these philosophers on the problem of existence, I analyse their thinking using the following logical model: 1) specifying what they regard as the predominant symptoms of the problem regarding existence, our current wretchedness; 2) their diagnosis of the source of this wretchedness in the dominant optimism; 3) their pronouncement of the solution to this problem, through liberating willing from the small-scale; and 4) their prescription for how to overcome this problem, for how the tragic sublime can liberate willing from the fetters of a concern for individuated beings. In elaborating upon the thinking of these philosophers as a definite stream of post- Kantian thought, I also highlight how each engages with the thinking of the earlier of the philosophers. I explore how Schopenhauer's philosophy develops out of Kant's philosophy, how Nietzsche develops the thinking of Schopenhauer and how Bataille develops the problematics of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Through this I attempt to explore how these three philosophers mark a development in the attempt to conceptualise the tragic sublime as the key to address the problem of the meaning and value of existence.