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‘The%Attraction%of%Everything%Problematic’%%

Nietzsche’s%Suspicions%and%Affirmations%of%Language%%

By#Joshua#Windsor#

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Introduction%!The! ‘old!philologist’!Friedrich!Nietzsche!had!a!deep! fascination!with! language.! In!both!substance!and!style,!his!work!represents!a!provocative!engagement!with!the!limits! and! possibilities! of! our! linguistic! condition.! An! early! lecture! note! offers! a!formative!reflection:!!!

Language! is! the! most! quotidian! thing! of! all:! it! needs! a! philosopher! to! occupy!himself! with! it.! Those! who! find! language! interesting! in! itself! and! others! who!recognize!in!it!nothing!but!the!medium!of!interesting!thoughts.1!

!Nietzsche! is! frequently! cited! as! a! forerunner! of! the! soFcalled! ‘linguistic! turn’! in!philosophy.!!Michel!Foucault,!for!one,!credited!him!with!being!‘the!first!to!connect!the! philosophical! task! with! a! radical! reflection! upon! language’,! opening! up! a!‘philosophicalFphilological! space’! where! ‘language! wells! up! in! an! enigmatic!multiplicity!that!must!be!mastered.’2!Developments!in!philosophical!hermeneutics!also! owe! Nietzsche! a! nod,! in! light! of! his! thesis! on! the! global! nature! of!interpretation! and! linguistic! mediation! of! experience.! At! the! other! end! of! the!philosophical! spectrum,! even! the! logical! positivists! of! the! Vienna! Circle,! while!employing! very! different! methods,! followed! Nietzsche! in! interrogating!metaphysical!assumptions!through!an!examination!of!language.!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!Friedrich!Nietzsche,!‘Homer!and!Classical!Philology’,!quoted!on!front!matter!page!of!Claudia!Crawford,!The#Beginnings#of#Nietzsche’s#Theory#of#Language!(Berlin:!De!Gruyter,!1988).!!!2!Michel!Foucault,!The#Order#of#Things:#An#Archaeology#of#the#Human#Sciences!(New!York:!Vintage!Books,!1994),!p.!305.!!

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Particularly!conspicuous!in!recent!decades!has!been!Nietzsche’s!appropriation!by!‘postmodernism’!and! ‘deconstructionism’,!where!he! is!hailed!as!a!patron!saint!of!textual!play!and!plurality.!One!wonders,!however,!whether!this!reading!dovetails!a!little! too!neatly!with! a! prevailing! cultural! climate! that! spurns! radical! projects! in!favor! of! piecemeal! solutions! to! socioFpolitical! problems.! Has! the! ‘master! of!suspicion’! and! ‘untimely! wanderer’! really! found! his! final! resting! place?! Gianni!Vattimo! ironically! observes! that! today! anyone! who! draws! inspiration! from!Nietzsche! seems! to!do! ‘so!only! as!part! of! a! “revolution”!whose! sites! are!writing,!style,!and!texts…’!3!This!is!not!the!place!to!survey!the!political!impact!of!Nietzsche’s!thought,! and! suffice! to! say! its! historical! influence! has! been! unfortunate. 4!Nevertheless,! against! textFcentric! and! aestheticized! readings,! to! do! Nietzsche’s!work! justice,! the! question! of! language! and! style! should! be! traced! back! to!something!that!lies!between!form!and!content,!mind!and!matter:!life.!‘What!good!is!a!book!that!does!not!carry!us!beyond!all!books?’!5,!he!asks.!We!might!say!that!for!Nietzsche,! inverting! the! Socratic! injunction,! ‘the! unlived! life! is! not! worth!examining.’6!Because! Nietzsche’s! primary! problem! was! how! to! live! not! how! to!write,! language!must! be! fathomed! in! its! physiological! and! existential! conditions.!The! question! of! language! is! raised! to! the! extent! that! it! contributes! to! the!enhancement!or!impoverishment!of!life!energies.!!!To!date!much!scholarly!ink!has!been!spilt!on!the!topic!of!Nietzsche!and!language.!Typically!commentators!have! focused!on!either!one!of! two!poles:! (1)!Nietzsche’s!substantive!claims!about! language!in!regards!to#questions!of!rhetoric,!knowledge!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!3!Gianni!Vattimo,!Dialogue#with#Nietzsche,!trans.!William!McCuaig!(New!York:!Columbia!University!Press,!2006),!p.!202.!!4!I!am,!of!course,!referring!to!the!willful!Nazi!appropriation!of!Nietzsche’s!ideas!as!abetted!by!Elisabeth!FörsterFNietzsche.!It!should!be!mentioned!that!Nietzsche!was!a!significant!inspiration!on!the!emancipatory!projects!and!political!ideas!of!such!thinkers!as!Foucault!and!Gilles!Deleuze!and!Félix Guattari.!!!5!GS,!§248.!!6!In!EH!Nietzsche!claims!that,!‘Ultimately!no!one!can!hear!in!things!–!books!included!–!more!than!he!already!knows.!If!you!have!no!access!to!something!from!experience,!you!will!have!no!ear!for!it.’!–!EH,!‘Why!I!Write!Such!Good!Books’,!§1.!!!

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and!truth7;!or!(2)!Nietzsche’s!idiosyncratic!use!of!language!variously!celebrated!for!its! performative! flair8,! or! criticized! as! a! deviation! from! established! ideals! of!philosophical! clarity,! objectivity! and! neutrality. 9 !What! has! been! left! underFaddressed,!however,!is!how!Nietzsche’s!‘theory’!and!‘practice’!of!language!might!be!related.! After! outlining! the! basic! context! of! Nietzsche’s! project,! this! paper! will!comprise!a!critical!elaboration!and!connection!of!the!following:!!!

I) Suspicions:! Nietzsche’s! conception# and# critique! of! language,! from! TL!through!to!his!later!works.!!

II) Affirmations:! Nietzsche’s! use! of! language! –! in! particular! his! literary!styles!and!penchant!for!writing!in!aphorisms.!!

!Nietzsche%as%Cultural%Physician%

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In! Nietzsche’s! view! the! Western! tradition! was! responsible! for! a! colossal!miscarriage:!namely,!the!devaluation!of!the!terrestrial!sphere!before!the!lure!of!the!transcendental! or! absolute.! With! escalating! urgency! he! sought! to! combat! its!various! manifestations,! whether! it! was! the! religious! faith! in! an! ‘Afterlife’! or!‘Beyond’,! or! the! rationalistic! pursuit! of! an! objective! and! universal! ‘Reality’.! In!principle! Nietzsche! concurred!with! Kant! that! the! ‘thingFinFitself’! is! unknowable,!though!of!course!he!did!not!draw!Kant’s!theistic!conclusion.!Depending!on!where!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!7!This!is!a!common!approach!in!the!soFcalled!analytic!tradition.!See,!for!example,!Maudemarie!Clark,!Nietzsche#on#Truth#and#Philosophy!(Cambridge:!Cambridge!University!Press,!1990).!!!8!As! is!well!known,!Nietzsche’s! literary!styles!have!frequently!been!an!inspiration!amongst!artists!and! writers.! Nietzsche’s! styles! have! also! been! favorably! construed! in! soFcalled! Continental!philosophy,!where!metaphor!and!literary!approaches!are!often!openly!employed.!Illustrative!of!this!approach!are!Jacques!Derrida,!Spurs:#Nietzsche’s#styles,!trans.!Barbara!Harlow!(Chicago:!University!of!Chicago!Press,!1981),!and!Sarah!Kofman,!Nietzsche#and#Metaphor,!trans.!Duncan!Large!(London:!A&C!Black,!1993).!#!9!Arthur!Danto’s!position!is!exemplary!here.!He!contends!that!while!there!is!an!underlying!unity!to!Nietzsche’s!thought,!he!did!not!possess!the!clarity!and!rigor!to!make!this!explicit.!Danto!thus!endorses!a!strict!separation!between!‘Nietzsche!the!rhetorician’!and!‘Nietzsche!the!philosopher’,!where!Nietzsche’s!styles!are!seen!as!an!impediment!in!comprehending!the!latter.!–!Arthur!Danto,!Nietzsche#as#Philosopher!(New!York:!Columbia!University!Press,!1980),!p.!19.!#

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one! reads,! such! a! realm! is! either! declared! to! be! inconsequential! in! its!inaccessibility10,!‘an!idle!hypothesis’11,!or!based!upon!a!spurious!opposition.12!!If! a! synoptic! directive! can! be! gathered! from! Nietzsche’s! philosophy! which! is!otherwise!suspicious!of!sweeping!prescriptions,! it!would!be!this:!be!healthy.! It! is!arguably!here!that!the!vicissitudes!of!his!ideas!reveal!an!underlying!existential!and!pragmatic! consistency.! Adopting! the! conditional! ‘perspective! of! life’,! Nietzsche!posits! ‘health’! as! his! guiding! value.! Epistemology! is! thus! qualified! by! a!symptomatology;!the!question!‘what!can!we!know’!submitted!to!the!psychological!one,!‘What#really!is!it!in!us!that!wants!“the!truth”?’13!14!As!Robert!C.!Solomon!aptly!notes:! ‘Nietzsche! is! concerned!not! so!much!with! the! analysis! and! justification!of!philosophical!concepts!and!doctrines!but!rather!with!an!understanding!of!the!type!of! people! who! would! formulate! such! concepts! and! believe! such! doctrines.’15!If!Truth!was!valued!as!transcendental,!eternal!and!univocal,!health!is!neither!a!stable!state!or!fixed!goal,!but!a!value!that!entails! ‘becoming’,! ‘selfFovercoming’!and!even!‘illness’! and! ‘convalescence’! as! its! condition.16 !# The! ‘free! spirit’! is! ‘grateful’,!Nietzsche! writes,! ‘even! to! distress! and! changeful! illness! because! it! has! always!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!10!As!Nietzsche!puts!it,!‘even!more!inconsequential!than!the!knowledge!of!the!chemical!analysis!of!water!must!be!to!the!boatman!facing!a!storm.’!–!HAH,#§9.!#!11!WP,!§560.!!!12!TI,!‘How!the!“Real!World”!at!last!Became!a!Myth’,!§6.!!!13!BGE,!§1.!!14!Nietzsche!makes!a!similar!point!in!GS:!‘All!those!bold!insanities!of!metaphysics,!especially!answers!to!the!question!about!the!value!of!existence,!may!always!be!considered!first!of!all!as!the!symptoms!of!certain!bodies![…]!what!is!at!stake!in!all!philosophizing!hitherto!was!not!at!all!“truth”!but!something!else!–!let!us!say,!health,!future,!growth,!power,!life.’!–!GS,!‘Preface!for!the!Second!Edition’,!§2.!#!15!Robert!C.!Solomon,!‘Nietzsche!ad#hominem:!Perspectivism,!Personality!and!Ressentiment’,!in!Bernd!Magnus!and!Kathleen!M.!Higgens!(eds.),!The#Cambridge#Companion#to#Nietzsche!(Cambridge:!Cambridge!University!Press,!1996),!p.!184.!!!16!While!Nietzsche’s!discussions!of!health!are!not!(primarily)!made!from!a!biological!perspective,!one!is!reminded!of!the!ideas!of!Georges!Canguilhem!here.!For!Canguilhem,!like!Nietzsche,!health!is!an!excessive!capacity!F!‘health!as!more!than!healthy’!F!pertaining!to!the!values!arising!through!the!individual’s!ability!to!create!new!norms.!Health!is!not!a!matter!of!bare!adaptation!to!a!personal!milieu,!just!as!recovery!from!an!illness!is!not!‘a!return!to!a!previous!state!but![…]!the!accession!to!a!“new!individual!norm.”’!–!Jean!Gayon,!‘The!Concept!of!Individuality!in!Canguilhem’s!Philosophy!of!Biology’,!in!Journal#of#the#History#of#Biology,!Vol.!31,!No.!3,!1998,!p.!310.!!

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liberated! us! from! some! rule! and! its! “prejudice”…’ 17 !A! ‘great# health’! is! not!something!simply!attained,!but!continually!acquired!‘because!one!gives!it!up!again!and! again,! and! must! give! it! up.’18!Importantly,! there! is! no! ‘health! in! itself’! for!Nietzsche:! ‘the! determination! of!what! is! healthy! for! your!body! depends! on! your!goal,! your! horizon,! your! energies,! your! impulses,! your! errors! […]! there! are!innumerable!healths!of!the!body…’19!!

But!health! is!not!what!Nietzsche! found!when!surveying!his! contemporary! scene.!Rather,!he!discerned!a!culture!beleaguered!by!industrialization,!rationalization!and!dehumanizing! mechanistic! paradigms.20!Yet! at! the! same! time! society! remained!complacently!beholden!to!the!metaphysical!comforts!of!Christianity.!In!Nietzsche’s!view,! Christianity! had! become! a! diversionary! crutch! that! teetered! over! the! raw!details! of! existence.! He! thus! aimed! to! articulate! a! crisis,! where! the! crisis! par#excellence! was! a! situation! where! crisis! was! not! recognized.! This! is! vividly!illustrated!in!GS!by!the!madman’s!premature!visit!to!the!marketplace!to!announce!the!death!of!God.21!For!Nietzsche,!the!divine!fatality!was!emblematic!of!a!broader!breakdown!of!all!absolute!foundations!and!the!baselessness!of!hitherto!esteemed!values.! This! was! not! a! result! of! external! distress! but! the! outworking! of! their!internal!logic,!where!‘the#highest#values#devalue#themselves.’!22!!This!included!a!faith!in! reason! and! the! scientific! enterprise! to! liberate! humankind! and! unlock! the!enigmas! of! the! universe.23 !In! Nietzsche’s! view,! the! erosion! of! tradition! and!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!17!BGE,!§44.!!18!GS,#§382.!!19!GS,!§120.!!#20!Assessing!the!pitiful!condition!of!modern!humans,!Zarathustra!announces:!‘Verily,!my!friends,!I!walk!among!men!as!among!the!fragments!and!limbs!of!men.!This!is!what!is!terrible!for!my!eyes,!that!I!find!man!in!ruins!and!scattered!as!over!a!battlefield!or!a!butcherFfield.!And!when!my!eyes!flee!from!the!now!to!the!past,!they!always!find!the!same:!fragments!and!limbs!and!dreadful!accidents!–!but!no!human!beings.’!–!Z,!‘On!Redemption’.!!21!See!GS,!§125.!!!22!WP,!‘Book!One:!European!Nihilism’,!§2.!!!23!Parenthetically,!it!should!be!noted!that!Nietzsche!had!nuanced!and!often!ambivalent!views!regarding!science!and!the!scientific!‘attitude’.!In!his!‘positivistic!period’!of!HAH,!he!advocates!a!‘chemistry!of!concepts!and!feelings’!(§1)!and!celebrates!‘humble!truths![…]!discovered!by!a!strict!method,!rather!than!the!gladdening!and!dazzling!errors!that!originate!in!metaphysical!and!artistic!

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religious!certainties!simply!amplifies!the!problem!of!meaning.24!As!he!saw!acutely,!without! a! concomitant! creative! and! affirmative! moment,! critique! can! quickly!become! its! own!prison.! In! the!words! of! Zarathustra:! ‘Free! from#what?!As! if! that!mattered!to!Zarathustra!!But!your!eyes!should!tell!me!brightly,!free!for!what?’25!!!In! confronting! this! challenge! Nietzsche! assumed! the! role! of! ‘cultural! physician’.!This! has! two! aspects.! Firstly,! Nietzsche! plays! the! diagnostician,! identifying! the!alleged! lifeFnegating! blunders! of! the!Western! tradition! –! be! they! God,! morality,!Truth,! or,! as! we! will! see,! attitudes! towards! language.! Secondly,! he! plays! the!therapist,!concocting!a!host!of!alternative!figures!–!such!as!‘will!to!power’,!‘eternal!recurrence’! and! the! ‘Übermensch’! –! geared! towards! liberating! lifeFenergies! from!slavish!submission!to!the!status!quo.!These!are!proffered!as!more!‘downFtoFearth’!and! lifeFaffirming! models! than! the! eschatological! and! theodicean! motifs! of!Christianity.!While!masquerading!as!doctrines! they!are! in! fact! counterFdoctrines,!orientated!not! towards! transcendental! fixities!but! to! the!dynamic!and!conflictual!textures! of! experience.! They! are! perhaps! akin! to! the! propositions! of! Ludwig!Wittgenstein’s!‘ladder’:!cast!in!propositionalFdoctrinal!form!because!calibrated!for!contemporary! reception,! but! to! be! dispensed!with,! or! envisioned! afresh,! having!achieved!their!therapeutic!effect!of!‘selfFovercoming’.!If!‘overcoming’!in!the!JudeoFChristian!tradition!denotes!a!transcendence!of!our!fallen!selves!to!attain!salvation!in! the! Afterlife;! for! Nietzsche,! ‘overcoming’! would! involve! a! triumph! over!everything! that! proceeds! from! timorousness! towards! the! world.! This! would!consist!of!the!ability!to!affirm!life!in!its!pandemonium,!where!becoming!is!‘justified!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ages!and!men’!(§3).!In!other!places!he!challenges!the!assumption!of!an!‘intrinsic!value!of!truth’!buoyed!by!science:!‘there!does!not!exist!a!science!without!its!“hypotheses”![…]!a!philosophy,!a!faith,!must!always!exist!first!to!enable!science!to!gain!thereby!a!direction,!a!meaning…’!F!GM,!‘What!Is!the!Meaning!of!Ascetic!Ideals?’,!§24.!In!the!unchecked!ascendency!of!modern!science,!Nietzsche!sees!the!latest!expression!of!the!ascetic!ideal:!‘it![…]!represents!the!progressive!force!in!the!inner!evolution!of!that!ideal![…!resting]!on!the!same!basis![…]!of!the!same!overFappreciation!of!truth!(more!accurately!the!same!belief!in!the!impossibility!of!valuing!and!of!criticizing!truth)…’!GM,!‘What!Is!the!Meaning!of!Ascetic!Ideals’,!§25.!#!24!As!Nietzsche!queries:!‘Has,!perchance,!man!grown!less#in#need#of!a!transcendental!solution!of!his!riddle!of!existence,!because!since!that!time!this!existence!has!become!more!random,!casual,!and!superfluous!in!the!visible!order!of!the!universe?’!–!GM,!‘What!is!the!Meaning!of!Ascetic!Ideals?’,!§25.!!!25!Z,!‘On!the!Way!of!the!Creator’.!!!!

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at!every!moment’26,!and!to! live!independently!and!free!of!metaphysical!comforts,!where!pain!is!exuberantly!welcomed!alongside!life’s!joys.!!%

Returning! to! the! main! theme! of! this! paper,! the! interplay! between! diagnostic!suspicions! and! therapeutic! affirmations! can! also! be! witnessed! in! Nietzsche’s!treatment!of!language.!To!motivate!further!discussion,!we!can!start!by!pointing!out!a! tension! in! his! work.! On! one! hand,! Nietzsche! makes! a! range! of! deflationary!remarks! about! how! language! misleads.! For! example,! he! declares! that,! ‘in! their!belief! in! language! [men]! have! propagated! a! monstrous! error’ 27 ,! and,! a!‘philosophical!mythology! lies! concealed! in! language,!which!breaks! forth! again! at!every!moment,!however!careful!we!may!otherwise!be.’28!But!on!the!other!hand,!we!find! abundant! evidence! of! Nietzsche’s! practical! mastery! of! language! F! what! he!could!do! with!words.! Notoriously,! Nietzsche!was! at! no! pains! to! downplay! these!virtues,!claiming!to!handle!his!‘language!like!a!supple!blade![…]!that!wants!to!bite,!hiss,!cut.’29!He!also!professed!to!have!‘the!most!multifarious!art!of!style!anyone!has!ever!had!at!their!disposal’;!that!before!him,!‘people!did!not!know!what!can!be!done!with! the! German! language! –! what! can! be! done!with! language! tout# court.’30!This!tension!will!provide!the!guiding!thread!of!this!paper,!and!it!will!be!maintained!that!it!is!around!the!theme!of!‘health’!that!it!can!best!be!understood.!#!!!!!!!#

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!26!WP,#§708.!!27!HAH,!§10.!!28!WS,!§11.!!!29!BGE,!§246.!!!30!EH,!‘Why!I!Write!Such!Good!Books’,!§4.!!!

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I.%SUSPICIONS:%Nietzsche’s%Conception%and%Critique%of%Language%%

One! can! easily! grasp!why! language!would! be! a! site! of! Nietzschean! scrutiny.! His!paradigmatic!diagnostic!gesture!is,!of!course,!the!excavation!of!the!unknown!in!the!known!and!to!prod!it!and!pose!it!questions.!‘What!is!familiar’,!Nietzsche!observes,!‘is!what!we!are!used!to;!and!what!we!are!used!to!is!most!difficult!to!“know”!–!that!is,!to!see!as!a!problem…’31!This!is!certainly!the!case!with!language.!As!the!medium!of! social! life,! it! is!both!what! is! ‘closest’!–!as!Nietzsche!says,! ‘we! think!only! in! the!form!of!language![…]!We#cease#to#think#when#we#refuse#to#do#so#under#the#constraint#of#language…’32!–!and!is!for!this!very!reason!‘distanced’.!#%

It! should! be! mentioned! at! the! outset! that! Nietzsche! does! not! offer! a! theory! of!language! in! any! conventional! sense.!Besides!TL! and! some!early! lecture!notes! on!ancient! rhetoric,! his! thoughts! on! language! are! not! organized! in! a! systematic!fashion.! This! is! perhaps! unsurprising.! Typically,! Nietzsche! does! not! present!sustained!arguments!and!refutations!–!as!would!befit!a!philosophical!treatise!–!so!much!as!propose!positive!substitutions!for!‘healthier’!attitudes.33!!Furthermore,!on!most! subjects,! Nietzsche’s! views! are! multiFlayered! and! contextFvariable. 34!Nevertheless,!despite!the!somewhat!fragmentary!nature!of!his!views!on!language,!as!well!as!certain!shifts!in!his!thinking,!there!are!some!recurring!themes!that!will!be!focused!on!in!this!section.!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!31!GS,!§301.!!32!WP,!§522.!!33!For!example,!regarding!his!engagement!with!Paul!Ree’s!The#Origin#of#the#Moral#Emotions,!Nietzsche!writes:!‘for#what#have#I#got#to#do#with#mere#refutations#–#but#substituting,#as#is#natural#to#a#positive#mind,!for!an!improbable!theory!one!which!is!more!probably,!and!occasionally!no!doubt!for!one!philosophical!error!another.’!–!GM,!Preface,!§4.!My!emphasis!added.!!!34!Robert!Wicks,!Nietzsche!(Oxford:!Oneworld!Publications,!2002),!p.!91.!!!!

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Early%Nietzsche:!‘Truth%and%Lies%in%a%Nonmoral%Sense’!

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‘…!what!about!these!linguistic!conventions!themselves?!Are!they!perhaps!products!of!knowledge,!that!is,!of!the!sense!of!truth?!Are!designations!congruent!with!things?!Is!

language!the!adequate!expression!of!all!realities?’35!!!

While! early,! unpublished,! and! often! criticized36,! TL# is! a! useful! touchstone! in!regards!to!Nietzsche’s!conception!and!critique!of! language.! It!also!resonates!with!several! significant! ideas! in! his! later! work.! As! indicated! above,! a! key! feature! of!Nietzsche’s! critical! method! is! the! interrogation! of! the! often! unstable! and!contingent!sources!of!our!esteemed!knowledge!and!values.!TL!is!no!exception.!If,!as!Martin!Heidegger!claimed,!it!was!Aristotle!who!saw!the!faculty!of!judgment!as!the!locus!of!truth37,!with!Nietzsche!the!supposed!determinacy!and!transparency!of!the!judgment!comes!under!suspicion!through!reference!to!the!ambiguous!status!of!its!medium.38!In!a! formative!way,!TL!examines!the! fallible!provenance!of!our!words,!concepts,!knowledge,!and!ultimately!‘drive!for!truth.’!!!A!‘stammering!translation’!

TL! extends! the! Kantian! thesis! F! that! the! world! we! ‘know’! is! in! some! sense!constituted!by!us!F!to!language!itself.!Consequently,!reason!is!no!longer!conceived!as! something! extrinsic! to! language! that! legislates!over! it! from! the! ‘outside’,! as! it!were.! Nietzsche! argues! that! language! and! concepts! are! founded! on! humans’!capacity! for! the! ‘formation! of! metaphors.’39!Here! metaphor! is! used! in! a! general!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!35!TL,!p.!81.!!!36!One!prominent!criticism!is!Maudemarie!Clark’s,!who!proposes!that!Nietzsche’s!critique!of!Truth!in!TL#is!incompatible!with!his!later!project!–!that!without!a!normative!notion!of!truth,!Nietzsche’s!vaunted!transvaluation!can!have!no!traction.!According!to!Clark,!such!a!project!depends!on!Nietzsche’s!ability!to!defend!a!more!‘factual’!interpretation!of!morality!than!that!propagated!by!the!JudeoFChristian!tradition.!F!Maudemarie!Clark,!Nietzsche#on#Truth#and#Philosophy!(Cambridge:!Cambridge!University!Press,!1990).!!37!Martin!Heidegger,!Being#and#Time,!trans.!John!MacQuarrie!and!Edward!Robinson!(Oxford:!Basil!Blackwell,!1962),!section!44.!!!38!Wayne!Klein,!Nietzsche#and#the#Promise#of#Philosophy!(Albany:!State!University!of!New!York,!1997),!p.!60.!!!39!TL,!p.!89.!!!!!

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sense! to! denote! a! process! of! transference,! where! language! is! seen! to! involve! a!selective!and!creative!‘carryingFover’!between!different!experiential!domains.!This!proceeds!from!the!physiological!(nerveFstimuli),!to!the!intellectual!(images),!to!the!acousticFlinguistic! (words),! and! finally! to! the! abstract! (concepts).40!Importantly,!even! at! the! level! of! soFcalled! ‘pure! perception’!metaphor! is! already! operative.41!!Where! the! word! is! an! abstraction! from! a! sensory! origin,! the! concept! is! an!abstraction! from! all! sensory! residues! of! the! word,! and! at! no! point! do! we! have!direct!or!unmediated!access!to!a!cause!outside!ourselves.!!!

What! is! a! word?! It! is! the! copy! in! sound! of! a! nerve! stimulus.! But! the! further!inference!from!the!nerve!stimulus!to!a!cause!outside!of!us!is!already!the!result!of!a!false!and!unjustifiable!application!of!the!principle!of!sufficient!reason.42!!

!Like!Hamann!and!Herder!before!him,!Nietzsche!conceives!language!as!containing!a!constitutive! creative! element.43!Because! language! is! in! a! sense! ‘worldFdisclosive’,!the! relationship! between! language! and! reality! is! not! a! question! of! adequate!representation,! but! rather! involves! the! production! of! what! Nietzsche! sees! as!inevitable!‘errors’.!Nietzsche!characterizes!the!‘carryingFover’!that!finally!arrives!at!the!‘comprehending’!concept!as!a!‘stammering!translation’44!with!no!criterion!for!a!‘proper’!or!‘literal’!correspondence.!On!this!view,!language!is!not!a!stock!of!labels!that!somehow!hook!up!to!preFexisting!concepts,!as!they!might!have!been!for!Plato!or! St.! Augustine.! Rather! concepts! are! the! concretions! of! language,! and! ‘a! word!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!40!In!an!early!lecture!note!Nietzsche!makes!similar!observations!regarding!the!selectivity!and!partiality!of!language:!‘language!never!expresses!something!completely!but!displays!only!a!characteristic!which!appears!to!be!prominent!to!it![…]!A!partial!perception!takes!the!place!of!the!entire!and!complete!intuition.’!–!RRL,!p.!23.!!!41!Alan!D.!Schrift,!Nietzsche#and#the#Question#of#Interpretation:#Between#Hermeneutics#and#Deconstruction#(New!York:!Routledge,!1990),!p.!137.!!!42!TL,!p.!81.!!!43!Andrew!Bowie,!Introduction#to#German#Philosophy:#From#Kant#to#Habermas!(Cambridge:!Polity!press,!2003),!p.!140.!!!44!TL,#p.!86.!!#

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becomes! a! concept! insofar! as! it! simultaneously! has! to! fit! countless!more! or! less!similar!cases![…]!Every!concept!arises!from!the!equation!of!unequal!things.’45!!!In!TL,#Nietzsche!notably!employs!a!KantianFSchopenhauerian!distinction!between!appearances!or!phenomena!and!the!‘thing!in!itself’.!The!hypothetical!notion!of!an!adequate!access!to!the!‘thing!in!itself’!is!used!to!cast!suspicion!on!the!pretensions!of!human!knowledge.!While!Nietzsche!later!challenges!this!distinction!altogether46,!it!is!retained!here!as!a!check!on!dogmatic!proposals,!either!positive!or!negative.47!Since!‘things’!are!only!given!to!us!as!a!‘sum!of!human!relations’48,!Nietzsche!argues!that! the! anthropomorphic! origins! of! our! words! and! concepts! render! them!inadequate! to! grasp! ‘things! in! themselves’.49 !And! because! concepts! follow! a!subsumptive!logic,!they!are!unable!to!express!singularities.!!‘Forgetfulness’!

An!upshot!of!Nietzsche’s!view!is!that!the!traditionally!assumed!order!of!linguistic!derivation!–!that!the!figurative!is!somehow!secondary!to!the!literal!–!is!no!longer!sustainable.!Because!language!stands!in!a!creative!relationship!to!‘reality’,!and!the!internal! resources! of! language! itself! delineates! both! the! literal! and! figurative!domains,! the! boundary! separating! them! is,! strictly! speaking,! undecideable.! As!Wayne! Klein! puts! it:! ‘the! suspension! of! language! between! these! two! poles!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!45!TL,!p.!83.!!!46!‘We!have!abolished!the!real!world:!what!world!is!left?!The!apparent!world!perhaps?!…!But!no!!with#the#real#world#we#have#also#abolished#the#apparent#world!’!F!TI,!‘How!the!‘Real!World’!at!last!Became!a!Myth’,!§6.!Conversely,!in!TL,!the!use!of!the!term!‘transference’!or!‘copying’!does!seem!to!imply!that!there!is!some!‘original’.!!47!For!example,!regarding!the!conceptual!distinction!between!species!and!individuals,!Nietzsche!avers!that!‘we!should!not!presume!to!claim!that!this!contrast!does!not!correspond!to!the!essence!of!things:!that!would!be!a!dogmatic!assertion!and,!as!such,!would!be!just!indemonstrable!as!its!opposite.’!–!TL,!p.!84.!!!48!TL,!p.!84.!!49!Nietzsche!echoes!this!point!in!a!later!note!from!WP:!‘[t]he!demand!for!an!adequate!mode!of!expression!is!senseless:!it!is!of!the!essence!of!language,!a!means!of!expression,!to!express!a!mere!relationship!–!The!concept!“truth”!is!nonsensical.!The!entire!domain!of!“trueFfalse”!applies!only!to!relations,!not!to!an!“inFitself”!–!There!is!no!“essenceFinFitself”!(it!is!only!relations!that!constitute!an!essenceF),!just!as!there!can!be!no!“knowledgeFinFitself.”’!–!WP,#§625.!!!

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threatens! to! undermine! any! order! that! seeks! to! exclude! one! or! the! other.’50!However!in!his!account!of!knowledge,!Nietzsche!maintains!that!this!suspension!is!necessarily! missed.# Despite! the! fourFstage! ‘stammering! translation’! from! the!originating!physiological! stimulus! to! the! abstract! concept,! by! a!paradoxical! shift,!the!concept!is!projected!as!essence:!‘we!believe!that!we!know!something!about!the!things! themselves!when!we! speak!of! trees,! colours,! snow,! and! flowers…’51!While!language! is! founded! on! humans’! metaphoric! capacity,! it! involves! a! doubleFmovement,!whereby!this!origin!is!‘forgotten’:!‘Only!by!forgetting!that!he!himself!is!an! artistically# creating# subject,! does! man! live! with! any! repose,! security,! and!consistency.’52!The! exigencies! of! social! life! coordinate! language! as! a! stabilizing!force,!implanting!the!assumption!that!what!is!known!is!stable,!and!what!is!stable!is!known.!Thus! language!promotes! ‘the!creation!of!a!new!world!of! laws,!privileges,!subordinations,! and! clearly! marked! boundaries! –! a! new! world,! one! which!confronts! that! other! vivid! world! of! first! impressions! as! more! solid,! more!universal…’53!!

One!might!wonder!what!exactly!Nietzsche!recommends.! Is!he!suggesting!that!we!overcome!our!amnesia!regarding! language’s!metaphorical!origins?!Are!we!to! live!like! the! intuitive! man! that! Nietzsche! discusses! in! the! second! part! of! TL,! who!dispenses!with!the!hardened!edifice!of!concepts!to!sympathize!with!intuition!and!first! impressions?! Is! that! what! an! honest! and! ‘healthy’#perspective! on! language!would!entail?!More!plausibly!it!seems!Nietzsche!is!suggesting!that!insofar!as!social!existence!just!is!linguistically!mediated,!a!dissimulation!of!language’s!metaphorical!origins!is!integral!to!life!as!we!know!it.!To!dispense!with!dissimulation,!Nietzsche!writes,! would! be! to! ‘dispense! with! man! himself.’ 54 55 !Furthermore,! this!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!50!Klein,!Nietzsche#and#the#Promise#of#Philosophy,!p.!30.!!51!TL,!p.!83.!Nietzsche!reiterates!a!very!similar!point!later!in!HAH,#§11.!!!52!TL,!p.!86.!!53!TL,!p.!84.!!54!TL,#p.!89.!!55!This!sentiment!is!echoed!later!in!BGE!where!Nietzsche!writes,!‘The!falseness!of!a!judgement!is!to!us!not!necessarily!an!objection!to!a!judgement:!it!is!here!that!our!new!language!perhaps!sounds!strangest.!The!question!is!to!what!extent!it!is!lifeFadvancing,!lifeFpreserving,!speciesFpreserving,!

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dissimulation!is!not!something!that!can!be!identified!with!a!particular!individual!or!group.! It! is!a! forgetfulness! inscribed! in! the!use!of! language! itself! that! leads!us! to!think!of!words!as!situated!in!direct!correspondence!with!things.56!!!Nietzsche!thus!counters!any!conception!of!language!as!‘a!transparent!medium’!or!pure!‘instrument!of!knowledge.’57!Significantly,!the!institution!of!‘Truth’!as!the!preFeminent!governing!principle!of!language!is!also!seen!to!entail!a!dissimulation!of!its!social! invention,! via! the! projection! of! a! ‘myth’! of! ‘pure’! origin.! In! the! case! of!language!as!a!whole,! this!was!the!projection!of!a!world!of!objects! ‘inFthemselves’!that!language!supposedly!neutrally!describes;!in!the!case!of!‘Truth’,!this!is!a!‘purity’!secured! through! the! positing! of! an! antithetical! other! –! the! ‘lie’.! 58 ! 59 !! The!controversial! contention! of!TL! is! that! since! ‘Truth’! is! itself! just! another! abstract!noun!and!product!of!metaphorical!transference,!it!is!in!fact!a!rigid!species!of!‘lie’!–!a!metaphor!that!has!‘become!worn!out!and![…]!drained!of!sensuous!force…’60!If!the!value! of!metaphor! lies! in! its!mobility! and! exchange! value,! ‘Truth’! represents! an!obstinate! fixity,! like! ‘coins! which! have! lost! their! embossing! and! are! now!considered! as!metal! and!no! longer! coins.’61!For!Nietzsche! ‘God’! and! the! ‘Beyond’!were! just! such! fixities.! Today! we! might! think! of! concepts! such! as! ‘freedom’,!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!perhaps!even!speciesFbreeding![…]!to!renounce!false!judgements!would!be!to!renounce!life,!would!be!to!deny!life…’!–!BGE,!§4.!#!56!Klein,!Nietzsche#and#the#Promise#of#Philosophy,!p.!76.!!57!Klein,!Nietzsche#and#the#Promise#of#Philosophy,!p.!84.!!!58!Klein,!Nietzsche#and#the#Promise#of#Philosophy,!p.!66.!!!59!Nietzsche!frequently!challenges!such!oppositional!logic!in!his!work.!For!instance,!in!HAH!he!writes:!‘how!can!something!arise!from!its!opposite!–!for!example,!reason!from!unreason,!sensation!from!the!lifeless,!logic!from!the!illogical,!disinterested!contemplation!from!covetous!desire,!altruism!from!egoism,!truth!from!error?!Until!now,!metaphysical!philosophy!has!overcome!this!difficulty!by#denying#the#origin#of#the#one#from#the#other,!and!by!assuming!for!the!more!highly!valued!things!some#miraculous#origin,#directly#from#out#of#the#heart#and#essence#of#the#“thing#in#itself.”#–!HAH,!§1.!My!emphasis!added.!Similarly!Nietzsche!claims!in!BGE#that,!‘The!fundamental!faith!of!the!metaphysicians!is!the#faith#in#antithetical#values.’!–!BGE,!§2.!!60!TL,!p.!84.!!61!TL,!p.!84.!!

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‘equality’,! or! ‘democracy’! that! by! failing! to! be! constantly! reevaluated! and!negotiated!anew!can!also!seem!‘drained!of!sensuous!force’.62!!!!

Critics!are!of!course!quick!to!point!out!the!ostensible!performative!contradictions!in!Nietzsche’s!position;!that!he!seems!to!claim!with#truth!that!there!is!no!such!thing!as! truth. 63 !In! characterizing! language! as! necessarily! implicated! in! ‘errors’,!‘illusions’! and! ‘lies’,!he! seems! to! run!up!against! the! standard!objection! to! radical!skepticism!–!namely,!that!it!is!selfFrefuting.!According!to!Nietzsche’s!own!logic,!it!is!unclear! from! what! standpoint! he! can! claim! to! lay! bare! these! processes! of!dissimulation.! Must! his! position! not! also! be! ‘infected’! by! a! forgetfulness! of!language’s!metaphorical! origins?! If! so,! then!what! is! the! status! of! the! distinction!between!appearance!and!the!‘thing!in!itself’!that!Nietzsche!leverages!off!in!making!his! claims! –! is! that! a!metaphoric! extension! too?! Such! dilemmas! are! problematic!and!perhaps!partly!explain!why!Nietzsche!decided!to!leave!TL!unpublished.!!!While! there! are! certainly! places!where! it! seems! reasonable! to! charge! Nietzsche!with! inconsistency,! important! aspects! of! his! outlook! are! arguably! missed! if! an!assessment! goes! no! further! than! the! identification! of! logical! blunders.! Even! as!early!as!TL,!there!is!a!therapeutic!intent!that!goes!beyond!the!substantive!points!he!makes!about!the!structure!of!language.!For!example,!‘forgetting’!can!be!construed!in! a! positive! and! existential! sense,! not! simply! as! the! obviation! of! singularities!resistant! to! linguisticFconceptual! subsumption,! but! as! an! enabling! ‘horizon’! –! a!horizon!that!is!in!some!sense!of!our!own!making,!with!the!implication!that!it!might!be!remade.64!65!We!can!usefully!recall!the!Apollonian!tempering!of!Dionysian!chaos!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!62!In!a!note!from!WP#entitled!‘Toward#a#critique#of#the#big#words’,#Nietzsche!claims!that!the!value!of!such!terms!lies!precisely!in!their!negotiation!F!in!‘a!fight’!F!and!not!in!any!final!object.!He!writes:!!‘Christianity,!the!revolution,!the!abolition!of!slavery,!equal!rights,!philanthropy,!love!of!peace,!justice,!truth:!all!these!big!words!have!value!only!in!a!fight,!as!flags:!not!as!realities!but!as!showy#words!for!something!quite!different!(indeed,!opposite!).’!–!WP,!§80.!!!63!As!Julian!Young!argues,!for!Nietzsche!‘it!seems,!there!is,!after!all,!the!possibility!of!knowing!the!truth!about!the!world!–!of!at!least!a!philosopher’s!knowing!that!truth.!Nietzsche!knows!that!behind!the!veneer!of!civilization!the!human!animal!is!a!wild!beast.!So!truth!is!an!illusion!and!Nietzsche!knows!the!truth.!A!contradiction.’!–!Julian!Young,!Friedrich#Nietzsche:#A#Philosophical#Biography!(Cambridge:!Cambridge!University!Press,!2010),!p.!160.!!!64!The!theme!of!horizon!will!reappear!later!in!discussion!of!Nietzsche’s!aphoristic!writing.!!!

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that!Nietzsche! discusses! in! his! analysis! of! Greek! tragedy.66!This! too!was! seen! to!provide! a! horizon! from! which! one! can! confront! the! surging! life! forces! without!being! consumed! by! them! –! but! while,! at! the! same! time,! not! being! able! to!definitively!decipher!them.!!Recasting!truth!!

Although! for! Nietzsche! our! horizon! is! limited! by! linguistic,! physiological,!instinctual! and! socioFhistorical! conditions,! it! would! be! unfair! to! ascribe! him! a!radical! relativism.!He! is!not! stipulating! that! there!are!no! standards!by!which!we!can!make! judgments,! just! that! there! are! no! universal! standards.! Schrift! explains!that!for!Nietzsche!‘error!which!the!dogmatist!makes!is!not!so!much!substantive,!in!that! he! arrives! at! the! wrong! truth,! but! methodological,# in! that! he! denies!perspective.’67!To! this! end,! TL! lends! formative! expression! to! why! an! unbridled!‘drive!to!Truth’,!the!pursuit!of!TruthFatFallFcosts,!Truth!in!its!absolute!sense,!would!become!so!problematic! for!Nietzsche!and! ‘a!symptom!of!declining#life…’68!Insofar!as! dissimulation! and! perspectivity! are! integral! to! life,! the! attempt! to! peel! back!every! veil! of! illusion,! to! evacuate! all! appearances! from! Reality,! to! arrive! at! the!unconditional,!aspires!to!nothing!else!but!tearing!the!fabric!of!life!itself!–!‘a!will!to!Nothingness’69,!as!he!later!calls!it.!!!In! regards! to! language,! the! ‘death! of! God’! reverberates! here! as! the! death! of!metaphysical! correspondence! truth! and! referential! theories! of! meaning.! In! his!later!work,!Nietzsche!invokes!the!figure!of!‘truth!as!a!woman’,!suggesting!that!it!is!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!65!Nietzsche’s!‘perspectivism’!can!also!be!construed!in!a!parallel!sense,!not!only!in!terms!of!partiality!and!incompleteness,!but!also!as!precisely!what!makes!experience!of!the!world!manageable.!In!HAH,!Nietzsche!attributes!a!similar!function!to!art:!‘As!shadow!is!necessary!to!beautify,!so!“muffling”!is!necessary!in!order!to!make!clearer.!Art!renders!the!sight!of!life!bearable!by!laying!over!it!the!gauze!of!impure!thinking.’!–!HAH,!§151.!Note!the!shift!here!from!BOT:!life!is!no!longer!seen!to!be!‘justified’!as!an!aesthetic!phenomenon,!but!rather!rendered!‘bearable’.!!!66!See!BOT.!!!67!Alan!D.!Schrift,!Nietzsche#and#the#Question#of#Interpretation:#Between#Hermeneutics#and#Deconstruction#(New!York:!Routledge,!1990),!p.!157.!!68!TI,!‘!“Reason”!in!Philosophy’,!§6.!!!69!GM,!‘What!Is!the!Meaning!of!Ascetic!Ideals?’,!§28.!!!

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something! best! approached! indirectly. 70 !For! example,! in! BGE,# he! chastises!dogmatic! philosophers! as! demonstrating! ‘little! understanding! of! women…’! The!‘gruesome!earnestness’!and!‘clumsy!importunity’!with!which!they!pursue!truth!is!considered! a! ‘inept! and! improper! means! of! winning! a! wench…’71!72!Against! the!dogmatic!philosophers!campaign!to! ‘get!the!woman!naked’!–!to!reveal!the! ‘naked!truth’! F! Nietzsche! counterposes! the! image! of! a! veiling! daimon,! who! to! undress!would!be! to! lose!completely.73!The! implications!of! this!reformulation!of! truth! for!Nietzsche’s! use# of! language! will! be! explored! later.! For! now! we! can! note! that!Nietzsche!is!not!denying!truth.!Rather,!he!is!suggesting!that!it!might!be!something!better! expressed! through! the! resources! of! art,! including! poetic! language,! rather!than! as! a! clear! standard! for! the! evaluation! of! statements! and! propositions.! It! is!from!this!perspective!that,!while!Nietzsche’s!writing!certainly!does!not!exclude!the!direct! and! literalistic,! it! is! opened! out! towards! an! expanded! repertoire! of!philosophical!expression.#!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!70!Scarlett!Marton!formulates!this!nicely:!‘truth,!being!a!woman,!knows!well!that!such![absolute]!truth!doesn’t!exist,!for!she!isn’t!the!truth!she!is!believe!to!be.!In!other!words,!truth,!being!a!woman,!takes!the!doctrinal!truth!they!pursue!as!an!affront.!With!her!garments!and!adornments!she!moves!out!of!their!reach;!bashful,!she!operates!on!a!different!record.’!–!Scarlett!Marton,!‘Afternoon!Thoughts:!Nietzsche!and!the!Dogmatism!of!Philosophical!Writing’,!in!João!Constâncio!and!Maria!João!Mayer!Branco!(eds.),!Nietzsche#on#Instinct#and#Language#(Berlin:!De!Gruyter,!2011),!p.!168.!!!71!BGE,!‘Preface’.!!!72!There!are!many!associations!between!truth!and!women!in!Nietzsche’s!work.!For!example,!in!HAH!he!writes:!‘It!is!true!that!we!still!live!in!the!youth!of!science,!and!tend!to!pursue!truth!like!a!pretty!girl;!but!what!will!happen!when!she!has!one!day!turned!into!an!elderly,!scowling!woman?’!–!HAH,#§!257.!In!TI:!‘Among#women.#–!“Truth?!Oh,!you!don’t!know!the!truth,!do!you!!Is!it!not!an!outrage!on!all!our!pudeurs?”[’#–#TI,!‘Maxims!and!Arrows’,!§17.!Notably,!the!‘ugliest!man’!in!Z!also!attributes!a!parallel!obtrusiveness!to!the!panoptic!gaze!of!God:!‘But!he!had!to!die:!he!saw!with!eyes!that!saw!everything;!he!saw!man’s!depths!and!ultimate!grounds,!all!his!concealed!disgrace!and!ugliness.!His!pity!knew!no!shame:!he!crawled!into!my!dirtiest!nooks.!This!most!curious,!overobstrusive,!overpitying!one!had!to!die.!He!always!saw!me:!on!such!a!witness!I!wanted!to!have!revenge!or!not!live!myself.!The!god!who!saw!everything,!even#man!–!this!god!had!to!die!!Man!cannot!bear!it!that!such!a!witness!should!live.’!–!Z,!‘The!Ugliest!Man’.!!#73!In!GS,#Nietzsche!lauds!the!ancient!Greek’s!ability!‘to!stop!courageously!at!the!surface,!the!fold,!the!skin,!to!adore!appearance,!to!believe!in!forms,!tones,!words,!in!the!whole!Olympus!of!appearance.!Those!Greeks!were!superficial!–!out#of#profundity.’!F!GS,!‘Preface’,!§4.!!

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Later%Nietzsche%

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While!in!his!later!work!Nietzsche!largely!dispenses!with!the!rhetorical!vocabulary!of! ‘tropes’!and!‘metaphors’!that!he!employs!in!TL,!he!continues!to!interrogate!the!‘human!all!too!human’!nature!of!language.74!Increasingly!promoting!a!‘philosophy!of! flux’,! he! places! the! abstractions! of! philosophers! before! the! jury! of! contingent!histories,!the!dynamism!of!nature,!and!the!multifaceted!folds!of!experience.!Where!in!TL,!Nietzsche!challenged!the!assumption!that!what!is!stable!is!better!known,!in!TI! he! similarly! denounces! the! ‘conceptual! mummies’! handled! by! philosophers!beholden!to!the!belief!that,!‘What!is!does!not!become;!what!becomes,!is!not!…’75!On!Nietzsche’s!diagnosis,!everything!upon!which!change!is!inscribed!–!the!senses,!the!body,! growth,! decay! –! have! been! cast! as! articles! of! deception,! ‘something!which![leads]!us!astray.’76!Echoing!the! insights!of!TL,!Nietzsche!continues!to!contest!the!myth!of!pure!origins!and!stable!structures.!‘Knowledge!and!becoming!exclude!one!another’77,! he!writes,! and! in! the! positing! of! ‘unity,! identity,! duration,! substance,!cause,! materiality! [and]! being’,! reason! has! ‘language! as! a! perpetual! advocate.’78!While!Nietzsche’s!ideas!are!constantly!evolving!in!his!later!work,!as!he!relentlessly!revisits! old! problems! from! new! perspectives,! several! recurring! and! often!overlapping! suspicions! regarding! language! are! discernable.! These! can! be! briefly!outlined!thus:!!

1) The#obscuring#of#experiential#complexity#and#subtlety##

2) The#reifications#and#‘illusions’#implicit#in#grammar#

3) The#mistaking#of#the#‘last’#for#the#‘first’#

4) The#reduction#to#what#is#‘herd’##

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!74!‘Later!work’!here!refers!to!Nietzsche’s!writings!from!HAH!onwards.!According!to!the!customary!categorization!of!Nietzsche’s!corpus,!this!entails!both!his!soFcalled!‘middle’!and!‘late’!periods.!!!75!TI,!‘!‘‘Reason”!in!Philosophy’,!§1.!!!76!TI,!‘!‘‘Reason”!in!Philosophy’,!§5.!! !#77!WP,!§517.!!78!TI,!‘!“Reason”!in!Philosophy’,!§5.!#

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1.!The!obscuring!of!experiential!complexity!and!subtlety!

In! Nietzsche’s! view! language! operates! through! reductive! equivalences! and!antitheses!and!is!thus!unable!to!grasp!subtle!gradations!and!degrees.!79!In!relation!to!the!‘inner!processes!and!drives’,!he!claims!that!words!and!concepts!isolate!only!‘superlative# degrees! […]! and! where! words! are! lacking,! we! are! accustomed! to!abandon! exact! observation! because! exact! thinking! there! becomes! painful…’80!Where! in! TL! Nietzsche! described! how! concepts! are! a! selective! and! distant!abstraction! from! physiological! stimuli,! in! his! later! work! he! emphasizes! how!concepts! turn! around! and! circumscribe! what! is! registered! as! experientially!valuable!and!significant.!As!he!puts!it:!‘we!are!not!simply!designating#things![with!words!and!concepts],!we!originally! think! that! through! them!we!are!grasping! the!essence!of!things.’81!!One! hears! echoes! of! Henri! Bergson’s! critique! of! conceptual! intelligence! here.!Bergson!maintains! that! any! attempt! to! conceptualize! life! inevitably! sectionalizes!what! is! in! fact! flowing! and! indivisible.! All! our! conceptual! ‘moulds! crack’82,! he!writes.!With!a!marked!Nietzschean!resonance!Bergson!claims!that!soFcalled!‘clear’!states! are! like! ‘the! beats! of! the! drum! which! break! forth! here! and! there! in! the!symphony.!Our!attention!fixes!on!them!because!they!interest!it!more,!but!each!of!them! is! borne! by! the! fluid! mass! of! our! whole! psychical! existence.’83!Similarly,!Nietzsche!observes!that!‘one!speaks!of!moral!feelings,!religious!feelings,!as!if!they!were!all!unities;!in!truth!they!are!rivers!with!a!hundred!sources!and!tributaries![…]!the! unity! of! the! word! does! not! guarantee! the! unity! of! the! thing.’84!A! dynamic!continuum! of! affects,! feelings! and! sensations! thus! risks! being! obscured! by! the!simplicity!of!the!linguistic!unit.!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!79!See!BGE,!§24.!!!80!D,#§115.!!!81!WS,!§11.!!!82!Henri!Bergson,!Creative#Evolution,#trans.!A.!Mitchell!(New!York:!Dover,!1988),!p.!x.!!83!Henri!Bergson,!‘The!Endurance!of!Life’,!in!Keith!AnsellFPearson!and!John!Mullarkey!(eds.),!Henri#Bergson:#Key#Writings#(New!York:!Continuum,!2002),!p.!210.!!84!HAH,!§14.!See!also!BGE,!§19.!!

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!Some!objections!might!be!raised!here.!Surely!philosophy!of!all!activities! is! in! the!business! of! using! language! to! make! fineFgrained! distinctions,! furnishing! nuance!rather!than!obscuring!it.!Indeed,!Nietzsche’s!work!itself!seems!intent!on!sensitizing!his! readers! to! subtle! details! that! the! metaphysical! tradition! has! tended! to!overlook. 85 !It! seems! plausible! that! it! is! precisely! through! the! learning! and!expansion! of! one’s! linguistic! resources! that! a! freedom! from! the! environment! is!attained! and! a! position! from! which! it! is! possible! to! meaningfully! appreciate!nuance.86!Nietzsche’s!seemingly!sweeping!critique!seems!to!overlook!the!capacity!of! language! to! open! and! enrich! experiential! possibilities! rather! than! simply!delimiting!them.!It!certainly!does!not!follow!that!the!unity!of!a!word!–!say!‘love’!–!heralds!an!experiential!enclosure!of!all!that!can!be!implied,!incited,!or!induced!by!it.!!!Nietzsche’s! critique! of! language! cannot! be! categorical.! It! is! more! reasonable! to!read! him! as! expressing! suspicions! towards! particular! linguistic! uses! and!orientations,!rather!than!a!radical!skepticism!regarding!language!simpliciter.!While!it! is! true! that!Nietzsche!often!appears! to! exalt!preFlinguistic! sensations! and!vital!forces,!his!prescription! is!not! that!we!silently! commune!with! the! immediate!and!ineffable! pulse! of! life.! 87 !And! he! demonstrably! believed! that! some! ways! of!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!85!Although!one!might!query!to!what!extent!Nietzsche!actually!achieves!this!–!namely,!whether!he!evades!the!antitheses!that!he!decries!in!the!metaphysical!tradition.!For!example,!his!typology!of!‘master’!and!‘slave’!morality!might!appear!to!instantiate!the!kind!of!absolute!opposition!that!he!otherwise!rejects.!##86!HansFGeorg!Gadamer,!for!one,!has!given!exemplary!voice!to!the!positive!values!and!freedoms!associated!with!our!linguistic!being.!He!writes:!‘unlike!all!other!living!creatures,!man’s!relationship!to!the!world!is!characterized!by!freedom#from#environment.!This!freedom!implies!the!linguistic!constitution!of!the!world.!Both!belong!together.!To!rise!above!the!pressure!of!what!impinges!on!us!from!the!world!means!to!have!language!and!have!“world.”![…]!the!verbal!constitution!of!the!world!is!far!from!meaning!that!man’s!relationship!to!the!world!is!imprisoned!within!a!verbally!schematized!environment.!On!the!contrary,!wherever!language!and!men!exist,!there!is!not!only!a!freedom!from!the!pressure!of!the!world,!but!this!freedom!from!the!environment!is!also!freedom!in!relation!to!the!names!that!we!give!things…’!–!HansFGeorg!Gadamer,!Truth#and#Method!(London:!Bloomsbury,!2013),!p.!460.!##87!Indeed!there!are!many!places!in!Nietzsche’s!work!where!he!expresses!an!aversion!to!any!unqualified!elevation!of!the!senses.!!In!BGE,#he!favorably!cites!the!scientific!discoveries!of!Copernicus!and!Boscovich!as!achieving!a!great!‘triumph!over!the!senses’:!‘while!Copernicus!persuaded!us!to!believe,!contrary!to!all!the!senses,!that!the!earth!does!not!stand!firm,!Boscovich!taught!us!to!abjure!belief!in!the!last!thing!of!earth!that!“stood!firm”,!belief!in!“substance”,!in!“matter”,!in!the!earthFresiduum!and!particle!atom:!it!was!the!greatest!triumph!over!the!senses!

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communicating!to!be!less!misleading!than!others!and!more!attuned!to!complexity!and!nuance.!However!the!standard!of! this! is!not!correspondence!with!something!residing!outside!all!matrices!of!human!interpretation!–!but!the!question!of!what!is!most! lifeFaffirming.! To! this! end,! Nietzsche! seems! concerned!with! disabusing! his!readers!of!a! certain!existential!attitude! that!would!see!such!nonFcorrespondence!(in! its! metaphysical! sense)! as! a! problem.! That! his! own! views! are! also!acknowledged!as!an!interpretation!is!not!seen!by!Nietzsche!as!a!deficiency,!but!as!preferable! to!any!appeal! to!universality.88!His!views!are!not!presented!as! ‘a!pure,!disinterested!description!of!reality,!but!rather!as!the!result!of!a!particular!stance!–!a!critical!and!evaluative,!as!well!as!creative!stance.’89!We!might!recall!Zarathustra’s!words:! ‘“This!is!my#way;!where!is!yours?”!–!thus!I!answered!those!who!asked!me!“the!way.”!For! the!way!–! that!does!not!exist.’90!So! instead!of!positing! fixed! forms!behind! flows! and! flux! –! what! Nietzsche! derides! as! the! ‘atomistic! need’91!–! his!critique!of!language!here!is!a!therapeutic!reminder!of!the!experiential!complexity!that! often! disappears! behind! the!words! and! concepts!we! use.! By! demanding! an!individual! engagement! with! such! complexity,! Nietzsche! hope! to! pave! the! way!towards!a!‘healthier’!and!more!‘downFtoFearth’!linguistic!attitude!that!coheres!with!life!as!he!sees!it.!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!hitherto!achieved!on!earth.’!–!BGE,!§12.!For!a!contrasting!perspective!on!the!status!of!the!senses!see!GS,!§372.!!!88!‘Granted!this!too!is!only!interpretation!–!and!you!will!be!eager!enough!to!raise!this!objection?!–!well,!so!much!the!better.’!–!BGE,!§22.!!!89!João!Constâncio!and!Maria!João!Mayer!Branco,!‘Editors!Introduction’,!in!João!Constâncio!and!Maria!João!Mayer!Branco!(eds.),!Nietzsche#on#Instinct#and#Language#(Berlin:!De!Gruyter,!2011),!p.!xviii.!!90!Z,#‘On!the!Spirit!of!Gravity’,!§2.!!!91!‘One!must![…]!declare!war,!a!remorseless!war!of!the!knife,!on!the!“atomistic!need”’,!Nietzsche!writes,!‘which,!like!that!more!famous!“metaphysical!need”,!still!goes!on!living!a!dangerous!afterFlife!in!regions!where!no!one!suspects!it…’!–!BGE,!§12.!!

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2.!The!reifications!and!‘illusions’!implicit!in!grammar!

In! its! struggle! to! register! becoming,! Nietzsche! claims! that! language! installs!mystifying! words! at! the! limits! of! our! knowledge! F! ‘at! the! point! where! our!ignorance!begins.’92!93!This!idea!relates!to!another!significant!feature!of!Nietzsche’s!critique! of! language:! the! misleading! reifications! and! ‘illusions’! that! implicit! in!grammar.! He! denigrates! as! a! ‘metaphysics! of! the! people’94!the! assumption! that!grammatical!structures!mirror!the!structure!of! the!world,! imputes!the!edifices!of!dogmatic! philosophy! to! a! ‘grammatical! seduction’ 95 ,! and,! most! notoriously,!declares!that!‘we!are!not!getting!rid!of!God!because!we!still!believe!in!grammar…’96!The! implication!here! is! that!our!belief! in! the!mimetic!accuracy!of!grammar!has!a!quasiFtheological! certitude.! That! is,! it!makes! ontological! commitments! similar! to!the!belief!in!divine!arrangement!or!a!universal!rational!order.!‘[B]elief!in!the!same#facts! and! in! isolated! facts’,! Nietzsche! writes,! ‘has! its! perpetual! evangelist! […]! in!language.’97!!!We!have!a! tendency! to! think!of,! and!distinguish!between,!nouns!as! representing!‘things’,!and!verbs!as!the! ‘doings’!of!these! ‘things’.!Discussing!the!phenomenon!of!lightning,! Nietzsche! argues! that! lightning! just! is! the! flashing,! not! the! separate!‘working! of! a! subject! which! is! called! lightning! […]! there! is! no! such! substratum,#there! is! no! “being”! behind! doing,! working,! becoming;! “the! doer”! is! a! mere!appanage! to! the! action.’98!Similarly,! regarding! the! grammatical! ‘I’! as! the! alleged!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!92!WP,!§267.!!!93!A!similarity!to!John!Dewey!and!his!discussion!of!eulogistic!predicates!could!be!noted!here.!Dewey!writes:!‘Permanence,!real!essence,!totality,!order,!unity,!rationality!…!are!eulogistic!predicates.!When!we!find!such!terms!used!to!describe!the!foundations!and!proper!conclusions!of!a!philosophic!system,!there!is!ground!for!suspecting!that!an!artificial!simplification!of!existence!has!been!performed.’!–!John!Dewey,!Experience#and#Nature#(New!York:!Dover,!1958),!p.!28.!Like!Dewey,!Nietzsche!is!concerned!with!what!such!terms!tend!to!conceal,!and!is!suspicious!of!conferring!them!any!real!explanatory!power.!!!94!GS,#§354.!!95!BGE,!‘Preface’.!!!96!TI,!‘!“Reason”!in!Philosophy’,!§5.!!97!WS,!§11.!!98!GM,!‘!“Good!and!Evil,”!“Good!and!Bad”’,!§13.!!!

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ground!of!thought,!Nietzsche!writes:!‘a!thought!comes!when!“it”!wants,!now!when!“I”!want;!so!that!it!is!a!falsification!of!the!facts!to!say:!the!subject!“I”!is!the!condition!of! the! predicate! “think.”’99 !And! even! this! ‘it’,! he! notes,! ‘already! contains! an!interpretation! of! the!event!and!does!not!belong! to! the!event! itself.!The! inference!here! is! in! accordance! with! the! habit! of! grammar…’100 !In! a! parallel! fashion,!Nietzsche! also! challenges! the! linguisticFconceptual! determinations! of! ‘will’101 ,!‘cause!and!effect’102,!and!the!‘soul’103.!!!In!accordance!with!the!reformulation!of!‘truth!as!woman’!discussed!above,!we!can!note! that!Nietzsche’s! critique!of!grammar!does!not!dispose!of! these!grammatical!‘things’!so!much!as!imbue!them!with!alternative!values!and!weightings.!He!places!them! in!new!relations!and!contexts! that! rob! them!of! their!original! selfFevidence.!For!example,!regarding!the!‘soul’,!he!writes:!!!

Between!ourselves! it! is!not!at! all!necessary! […]! to!get! rid!of! [it…]!as! is!often! the!case!with!clumsy!naturalists,!who!can!hardly!touch!‘the!soul’!without!losing!it.!But!the! road! to! new! forms! and! refinements! of! the! soulFhypothesis! stands! open! […]!such!conceptions!as!“mortal!soul”!and!“soul!as!multiplicity!of!the!subject”!and!“soul!as!social!structures!of!the!drives!and!emotions”…!104!!

!The!deepest!suspicion!of!Nietzsche’s!critique!of!grammar,!however,!that!is!that!due!to!the!unconscious!influence!of!grammatical!functions,!the!scope!of!our!conscious!expressions! is! in! some! sense! predetermined.105!! ! As! he! puts! it:! the! linguisticFhistorical!configuration!we!find!ourselves!in!bar!us!from!‘certain!other!possibilities!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!99!BGE,!§17.!!100!BGE,!§17.!!101!See!BGE,#§19.!!!102!See!TI,!‘The!Four!Great!Errors’!and!GS,!§112.!!!103!See!BGE,#§54.!!!104!BGE,!§12.!!105!Nietzsche!makes!a!parallel!point!in!an!early!lecture!note:!‘[t]he!deepest!philosophical!insights!are!already!implicitly!contained!in!language![…]!Just!think!of!subject!and!object;!the!concept!of!judgment!is!abstracted!from!the!grammatical!sentence.’!–#OL,#p.!209.!!!

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of!world!interpretation.’106!The!concern!that!grammar!places!constraints!on!what!can!be!expressed!has!been!an!issue!confronted!by!several!figures!in!the!history!of!philosophy.!Heidegger,! for! one,! grappled!with! the!dilemma! that! logical! grammar!leads! us! to! talk! of! Being! as! a! being! –! to! treat! Being! as! a! ‘thing’.! He! tried! to! get!around! this! by! employing! the! technique! of! writing! under! erasure! (‘Being’,! or!dispensing! with! the! verb! ‘is’),! and! later! by! adopting! nonFliteralistic! modes! of!expression.! For!Nietzsche,! like!Heidegger,! the! grammatical! traps! of! language! are!not! something! that! logical! clarification! can! surmount. 107 !And! because!interpretation! goes! all! the!way! down! for!Nietzsche108,! neither! linguistic! analysis!nor! the! construction! of! a! logically! ‘perfect’! language! could! provide! a! privileged!description!of!reality!to!legislate!all!others.109!#%

While!in!a!speculative!moment!Nietzsche!wonders!whether!the!philosophers!of!the!future!may!one!day!accustom!themselves!to!doing!without!even!the!grammatical!‘it’110,! his! interests! are! largely!more!pragmatic.!As! Josef! Simon!avers,!Nietzsche’s!concern! is! that,! belief! ‘in! the! thing! is! transformed! into! belief! in! grammar,! and,!under!the!lordship!of!this!faith,!language!becomes!an!alienated!“force!for!itself,”!an!object!of!consciousness!dominating!consciousness.’111!If!grammar! is,!as!Nietzsche!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!106!The!full!quote!reads:!‘Where!there!exists!a!language!affinity!it!is!quite!impossible,!thanks!to!the!common!philosophy!of!grammar!–!I!mean!thanks!to!unconscious!domination!and!directing!by!similar!grammatical!functions!–!to!avoid!everything!being!prepared!in!advance!for!a!similar!evolution!and!succession!of!philosophical!systems:!just!as!the!road!seems!to!be!barred!to!certain!other!possibilities!of!world!interpretation.’!–!BGE,#§20.!See!also!GM,!‘!“Good!and!Evil,”!“Good!and!Bad”’,!§13.!!107!In!this!sense,!while!Nietzsche!would!have!endorsed!the!logical!positivists!rejection!of!metaphysics,!he!would!not!have!countenanced!their!theoretical!framework.!!108!In!GS!Nietzsche!asks!‘whether!existence!without!interpretation,!without!“sense,”!does!not!become!“nonsense”;!whether![…]!all!existence!is!not!essentially!engaged!in!interpretation.’!He!suggests!that!‘the!world!has!become!“infinite”!for!us!all!over!again,!inasmuch!as!we!cannot!reject!the!possibility!that!it#may#include#infinite#interpretations.’#–!GS,!§374.!!!109!Rex!Welshon,!The#Philosophy#of#Nietzsche!(Bucks:!Acumen!Publishing!Limited,!2004),!p.!122.!!110!BGE,!§17.!!!111!Josef!Simon,!‘Grammar!and!Truth:!On!Nietzsche’s!Relationship!to!the!Speculative!Sentential!Grammar!of!the!Metaphysical!Tradition’,!in!Babette!E.!Babich!and!Robert!S.!Cohen!(eds.),!Nietzsche,#Theories#of#Knowledge,#and#Critical#Theory!(AA!Dordrecht:!Kluwer!Academic!Publishers,!1999),!p.!135.!!

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suggests,!a!‘scheme!that!we!cannot!shake!off’112,!then!the!task!is!one!of!reFvaluating!our! relationship! to! it.! Unlike!Wittgenstein,! Nietzsche!would! not! be! content!with!showing!how!metaphysical!problems!and!assumptions!only!arise!when! language!‘goes! on! holiday.’113!Nietzsche’s! primary! gripe!with! the!metaphysical! tradition! is!not! that! it! deals! in!metaphorical! projections,! but! rather!with! the! values! that! are!thereby!posited!as!ideal,!where!‘abstractions!turn!into!substitutes!for!or!denials!of!life! –! as! in! the! scientific! ‘optimism’! of! Socratic! culture.’114!The! free! and! lifeFembracing!spirits,! the!one’s!who!re!capable!of!creating!new!concepts!and!values,!are!crippled!by!being!held!rigidly!accountable!to!established!criteria!of!truth!and!accuracy.115!%

3.!The!mistaking!of!the!‘last’!for!the!‘first’!!

A!third!component!of!Nietzsche’s!critique!of!language!–!and!on!the!is!closely!with!(2)!–! is!cashed!out!as!the!mistaking!of! the! ‘last’! for! the! ‘first.’116!Paul!Ricoeur!has!examined! this! in! terms! of! the! rhetorical! maneuver! of! metalepsis! –! metonymic!substitutions! or! inversions! –! where! what! was! traditionally! posited! as! cause! is!recast!as!an!effect!of!its!effects.117!As!Nietzsche!frames!it:!‘The!ideas!engendered!by!a!certain!condition!have!been!misunderstood!as! the!cause!of! that!condition.’118!A!significant!continuity! in!Nietzsche’s! thinking!can!be! flagged!here.!The!notion!of!a!‘doubleFmovement’! of! origination!and! ‘forgetting’! discussed! in!TL! F!which! ‘posits!the! concept! as! essence! and! concurrently! dissimulates! its! tropological! origin! in!favor! of! a! mimetic,! referential! structure’119!F! follows! the! same! argumentative!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!112!WP,!§522.!!!113!Ludwig!Wittgenstein,!Philosophical#Investigations,!trans.!G.!E.!M.!Anscombe!(Oxford:!Basil!Blackwell,!1972),!§38.!!!114!Douglas!Burnham!and!Martin!Jesinghausen,!Nietzsche’s#The#Birth#of#Tragedy!(New!York:!Continuum,!2010),!p.!77.!!115!Leo!Spinks,!Friedrich#Nietzsche!(London:!Routledge,!2003),!p.!8.!

116!TI,!‘!“Reason”!in!Philosophy’,!§4.!!117!Paul!Ricoeur,!Oneself#as#an#Other#(Chicago:!University!of!Chicago!Press,!1992).!!!118!TI,!‘The!Four!Great!Errors’,!§4.!!!119!Wayne!Klein,!Nietzsche#and#the#Promise#of#Philosophy!(Albany:!State!University!of!New!York,!1997),!p.!73.!!

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strategy!employed! in!TI.#For!example,!Nietzsche!highlights! the! ‘error’! of!positing!‘ego!as!being![…]!the!ego!as!substance’!and!the!projection!of!this!‘belief!in!the!egoFsubstance!on! to!all! things!–!only! thus!does! it!create! the! concept! “thing”…’120!Our!‘highest!concepts’!such!as!‘God’!are!placed!‘at!the!beginning!as!the!beginning![…]!as!cause!in!itself’,!where!in!fact!it!is!what!is!most!general!and!empty!–!‘the!last!fumes!of!evaporating!reality…’121!!Like! we! saw! in! TL,! Nietzsche! does! not! think! that! such! a! diagnosis! is,! of! itself,!liberating.!Nietzsche!notes! that! the!development!of!culture!has!necessarily!relied!on! a! belief! that! language! penetrates! the! essence! of! things! –! that! words! are! not!arbitrary! labels! but! ‘aeternae# veritates’! F! a! ‘belief# in# found# truth! from! which! the!mightiest!sources!of!strength!flowed.’122!‘Fortunately’,!he!adds,! ‘it!is!too!late!to!be!able! to! revoke! the! development! of! reason,! which! rests! on! that! belief.’123 !By!‘fortunately’,! Nietzsche! means! that! such! beliefs! are! not! to! be! construed! as! a!dispensable!veil!that!has!been!thrown!over!reality,!since,!in!a!sense,!they!constitute!that!reality!itself.!As!he!puts!it!in!GS:!!!

What! things! ‘count! for’! in! language! ‘grows! from! generation! unto! generation,!merely!because!people!believe!in!it,!until!it!gradually!grows!to!be!part!of!the!thing!and! turns! into! its! very! body.!What! at! first!was! appearance! becomes! in! the! end,!almost!invariably!the!essence!and!is!effective!as!such.124!!

!We!should!also!not!overlook!Nietzsche’s! frequent!ambivalence!on! these!matters,!however,! vacillating! as! he! often! does! between! the! endorsement! of! ‘enlivening!falsehoods’! and! the! desire! to! disclose! terrible! truths.125!On! one! hand! Nietzsche!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!120!TI,!‘!“Reason”!in!Philosophy’,!§5.!!!121!TI,!‘!“Reason”!in!Philosophy’,!§4.!!!122!HAH,!§11.!!123!HAH,!§11.!!!124!GS,!§58.!!125!Wicks,!Nietzsche,!p.!44.!!!

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celebrates! ‘truths’! at! the! level! of! shimmering! surfaces,! pulsating! skins! and! everFgrowing!masks;!and!on!the!other,!he!sees!truth!as!something!too!unbearable!and!overwhelming!to!be!fully!fathomed!–!something!that!can!only!be!looked!at!awry.!In!other! places! he! presents! the! unconscious! drives,! psychological! motives,! and!physiological! exigencies! as! a! kind! of! superior! ‘reality’.126!Robert! Wicks! nicely!encapsulates! Nietzsche’s! ambivalence:! where! ‘Nietzsche! the! philosopher! and!scientist!aimed!to!uncover! the! truth!of! the!world! […]!Nietzsche! the!artist!had!no!taste!at!all! for! this! fundamentally! intrusive!enterprise.!Nietzsche!wanted!and!did!not!want!the!absolute!truth…’127!!In! the!above!passage! from!GS!however,!Nietzsche!appears! to!be!emphasizing!the!ineluctably!interpretive!nature!of!this!whole!enterprise.!Conceived!accordingly,!the!mistake!of!mistaking!the!‘last’!for!the!‘first’,!then,!is!not!so!much!that!what!has!been!named!as!‘first’!or!‘essence’!is!not!the!‘real!thing’!–!that!the!object!has!simply!been!misidentified.! Rather! Nietzsche! is! gesturing! at! the! constitutive! role! of!interpretation! in! human! life.! And! where! interpretations! have! a! tendency! to!become!sedimented!and!restrictive,!he!also!offers!the!therapeutic!suggestion!that!‘it! is! enough! to! create! new! names! and! estimations! and! probabilities! in! order! to!create!in!the!long!run!new!“things.”’128!#!The! mistaking! of! the! ‘last’! for! the! ‘first’! can! also! be! seen! to! run! parallel! with!Nietzsche’s! ‘genealogical’! method.! In! GM,! Nietzsche! charts! the! advent! and!deleterious! effects! of! soFcalled! ‘slave! morality’,! how! slave! morality! got! its!interpretations!and!words!in!F!where!words!are!not!only!the!descriptors!of!events!but!also! the! shapers!of! them.129!By! revealing!how! the!designations!of! ‘Good’! and!‘Evil’!are!a!product!of!ressentiment!and!a!particular!‘response!to!historical!needs,!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!126!In!GS,!for!example,!Nietzsche!claims!that!knowledge!and!intelligence!‘is!actually!nothing!but!a!certain#behavior#of#the#instincts#toward#one#another.’#–#GS,!§333.!!!127!Wicks,!Nietzsche,!p.!94.!!128!GS,!§58.!!129!Crawford,!The#Beginnings#of#Nietzsche’s#Theory#of#Language,!p.!XIII.!!

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circumstances,! and! pressures…’ 130 ,! the! critical! implication! of! Nietzsche’s!genealogical! approach! is! that! society! might! spin! more! lifeFaffirming! and! nonFmetaphysical! linguisticFconceptual! webs.131!His! enjoinder! is! that! we! should! not!reactively! accept! at! face! value! the! worldFview! that! language! invests! us! with,!particularly! where! one’s! capacity! for! selfFcreation! is! at! stake.132!Of! course,! in! a!strictly!formal!sense,!a!genealogical!critique!cannot!offer!a!knockout!blow!to!past!interpretations!(if!Nietzsche!ever!aimed!at!such!thing).!As!all!philosophers!know,!the!origins!of!a! thing!should!not!be!confused!with! its! justification!–! the!soFcalled!‘genetic! fallacy’.!But! insofar!as!a! justification!of!value!(e.g.!of!morality)! is!derived!from!an!appeal!to!origins!(e.g.!the!divine!commands!of!God),!then!by!suggesting!a!plausible!alternative#account#of!such!origins,!a!genealogical!critique!starts!to!gain!traction.!##

4.!The!reduction!to!what!is!‘herd’!

As!is!well!known,!few!things!aroused!Nietzsche’s!antipathy!more!than!the!traits!he!associated!with!the!term!‘herd’.!His!entire!philosophy!might!be!read!as!a!skirmish!with!the!reduction!to!what!is!‘common’!in!human!life,!and,!to!this!end,!he!identified!language!as!a!significant!risk.!If,!as!Nietzsche!maintains,!‘the!history!of!language!is!the!history!of!a!process!of!abbreviation’133,!it!does!so!in!a!way!that!not!only!fudges!the!complexity!of!experience!but!also!rehearses!our!‘herd’!nature.!This!is!conveyed!in!his!pseudoFnaturalistic!account!of!the!origins!of!language!where!he!posits!a!co[naissance! of! language,! sociality! and! selfFconsciousness.! The! development! of!language! is! not! seen! to! emerge! from! a! preFestablished! social! community,! but!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!130!Jonathan!Gray,!‘Hamann,!Nietzsche!and!Wittgenstein!on!the!Language!of!Philosophers’,!in!Lisa!Marie!Anderson!(ed.),!Hamann#and#the#Tradition!(Evanston:!Northwestern!University!Press,!2012),!p.!113.!!131!João!Constâncio!and!Maria!João!Mayer!Branco,!‘Editors!Introduction’,!in!João!Constâncio!and!Maria!João!Mayer!Branco!(eds.),!Nietzsche#on#Instinct#and#Language#(Berlin:!De!Gruyter,!2011),!p.!3.!!132!As!Nietzsche!writes:!‘[Philosophers]!must!no!longer!accept!concepts!as!a!gift,!not!merely!purify!and!polish!them,!but!first!make!and!create!them,!present!them!and!make!them!convincing.!Hitherto!one!has!generally!trusted!one’s!concept!as!if!they!were!a!wonderful!dowry!from!some!sort!of!wonderland…’!–!WP,!§409.!!133!BGE,!§268.!!

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rather! it! is!what!makes! this! community!possible,! and,! significantly,! always!bears!the!trace!of!this!heritage.!!!In! GS,! Nietzsche! characterizes! this! heritage! as! one! of! human! infirmity.134!While!strong!and!solitary!creatures!have!no!need!for!language,!our!weaker!‘herd’!nature!renders!effective!and!efficient!communication!necessary.!Consequently!‘a!world!of!unique!actions’!is!transformed!into!a!‘world!of!common!kinds!and!types,!of!shared!properties…’135!Established!as!a!mechanism! for! the!selfFpreservation!of! the!herd,!language! thus! seems! to! have! little! aptitude! in! the! restoration! of! the! unique! and!singular.136!But!it!is!not!only!linguistic!signs!that!are!shared.!To!live!in!a!linguistic!and! conceptually! articulated! social! world,! Nietzsche! claims,! ‘we!must! ultimately!have!our!experience! in#common’,!where! concepts!designate! ‘frequently! recurring!and!associated!sensations,!groups!of!sensations.’137!138!!!

It! was! only! as! a! social! animal! that! man! acquired! selfFconsciousness! […]! it! has!developed!subtlety!only!insofar!as!that!is!required!by!social!or!herd!utility![…]!the!world!of!which!we!can!become!conscious!is!only!a!surface!and!signFworld,!a!world!that!is!made!common!and!meaner![…]!all!becoming!conscious!involves!a!great!and!thorough! corruption,! falsification,! reduction! to! superficialities,! and!generalization.139!

!Once!expressed! in!words!and!mediated!by! the! ‘herd’!perspective,! an! individual’s!experience! thus! risks! losing! its! uniqueness.!As!Maria! João!Mayer!Branco! relates:!‘language!does!violence! to! the! individual! to! the!extent! that! it!suppresses! it!while!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!134!GS,!§354.!!135!Gray,!‘Hamann,!Nietzsche!and!Wittgenstein!on!the!Language!of!Philosophers’,!p.!111F2.!!!136!C.f.!TL!and!the!social!expedience!of!conceptual!subsumption.!!!!137!BGE,!§268.!!138!!For!Nietzsche!this!is!crucial!in!relation!to!our!order!of!values:!‘[e]xactly!which!group!of!sensations!are!awakened,!begin!to!speak,!issue!commands!most!quickly!within!a!soul,!is!decisive!for!the!whole!order!of!rank!of!its!values!and!ultimately!determines!its!table!of!desiderata.!A!human!being’s!evaluation!betray!something!of!the!structure!of!his!soul!and!where!it!sees!its!conditions!of!life,!its!real!needs.’!F!BGE,!§268.!!139!GS,!§354.!!

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naming! it! with! words! that! apply! to! several! cases.’140!Even! the! use! of! the! term!‘individual’!–!insofar!as!it!too!is!a!term!of!generic!application!–!would!seem!to!be!ensnared!by!this!condition.!But!‘Our!true!experiences!are!not!garrulous’,!Nietzsche!insists;! they! ‘could! not! communicate! themselves! if! they! wanted! to;! they! lack!words.! We! have! already! grown! beyond! whatever! we! have! words! for.’!141!So! by!articulating!the!entanglement!of!language!with!‘herd’!interests,!Nietzsche!seems!to!be! emphasizing! the! inevitable! alienation! or! loss! incurred! –! of! the! singular,!individual,!unique!F!in!assuming!a!position!as!a!social!and!speaking!subject.142!!!But! there! are! questions! to! be! asked! here.! Is! it! not! a! metaphysical! prejudice! to!assert! that! the!deeper! ‘reality’! lies! in! the! incommunicable! rather! than! in!what! is!shared!and!mutually!understood?!Hegel!certainly!made!an!extensive!case!against!this.143 !One! also! wonders! whether! Nietzsche’s! pseudoFnaturalistic! account! of!language!is!not!an!instance!of!the!kind!of!explanatory!reductionism!he!otherwise!denounces!(as!exhibited!in!his!critique!of!grammar).!‘Herd!utility’!surely!cannot!be!the!final!answer!in!accounting!for!the!rich!and!diverse!development!of!language.!In!(1)! we! considered! whether! language! is! not! precisely! what! opens! and! enriches!experiential! possibilities! rather! than! foreclosing! them.! Similarly,! it! might! be!suggested!that! language!is!what!enables!the!movement!of!differentiation!integral!to!an!appreciation!of!individuality.!For!example,!the!introduction!of!the!linguistic!‘I’!within!a!conceptually!articulated!environment!establishes! the!distance!necessary!to!take!a!critical!perspective!on!things,!where!there!is!no!predetermined!point!of!view.!In!itself,!the!development!of!language!and!the!formation!of!concepts!do!not!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!140!Maria! João! Mayer! Branco,! ‘The! Spinning! of! Masks.! Nietzsche’s! Praise! of! Language’,! in! João!Constâncio!and!Maria! João!Mayer!Branco! (eds.),!As#the#Spider#Spins:#Essays#on#Nietzsche’s#Critique#and#Use#of#Language#(Berlin:!De!Gruyter!Branco,!2012),!p.!234.!!141!TI,!‘Expeditions!of!an!Untimely!Man’,!§26.!!!142!We!might!recall!Foucault’s!evocation!of!such!alienation!here:!‘[h]ow!can!he!be!the!subject!of!a!language!that!for!thousands!of!years!has!been!formed!without!him,!a!language!whose!organization!escapes!him,!whose!meaning!sleeps!an!almost!invincible!sleep!in!the!words!he!momentarily!activates!by!means!of!discourse,!and!within!which!he!is!obliged,!from!the!outset,!to!lodge!his!speech!and!thought,!as!though!they!were!doing!no!more!than!animate,!for!a!brief!period,!one!segment!of!that!web!of!innumerable!possibilities?’!–Foucault,!The#Order#of#Things’,!p.!323.!!143!G.!W.!F.!Hegel,!The#Encyclopaedia#Logic,!trans.!T.!F.!Garaets,!W.!A.!Suchting!and!H.!S.!Harris!(Cambridge:!Hackett!Publishing!Company,!Inc.,!1991),!§61F78.!!#

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demonstrate! that! humans! have! turned! away! from! life,! but! rather! reveals! their!unique!mode!of!comportment.!As!Foucault!puts!it:!#!

Forming!concepts!is!a!way!of!living!and!not!a!way!of!killing!life;!it!is!a!way!to!live!in!a! relative!mobility! and! not! a!way! to! immobilize! life;! it! is! to! show,! among! those!billions!of! living!beings! that! inform!their!environment!and! inform!themselves!on!the!basis!of!it,!an!innovation!that!can!be!judged!as!one!likes,!tiny!or!substantial:!a!very!special!type!of!information.’144!

!More! sympathetically,! we! can! read! Nietzsche! as! posing! a! challenge! to! the!valorization!of! a! foundational! selfFconsciousness! in! the!Western! tradition!–! from!the! Delphic! maxim! ‘know! thyself’,! to! the! Cartesian! appeal! to! an! indubitable!immediacy!to!self.145!By!insisting!on!the!social!mediation!and!linguistic!saturation!of! consciousness,! and! a! protoFpsychoanalytic! emphasis! on! the! influence! of!unconscious!drives,! there!can!be!no!such! immediate!assurances! for!Nietzsche.146!But!he!does!not!see!this!as!a!point!of!despair.!Rather,!it!means!that!our!experience!cannot! be! definitively! fixed! by!words.! There! is! an! enabling! disjuncture! because!none! of! these! words! are! absolutely! ‘ours’.147!148!What! Nietzsche! critique! of! the!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!144!Michel! Foucault,! ‘Life:!Experience! and!Science’,! in! James!D.! Faubi! (ed.),!Aesthetics,#Method#and#Epistemology#(Essential#Works#of#Foucault,#1954[1984,#Vol.#2)!(New!York:!New!Press,!1999),!p.!475.!!#!145!Nietzsche’s!critique!of!such!indubitable!‘presenceFtoFself’!can!also!be!connected!with!the!positive!value!of!‘forgetting’!discussed!earlier.!Wayne!Klein!articulates!this!well:!‘[j]ust!as!knowing!what!one!is!would!prevent!one!from!actually!becoming!what!one!is,!so,!too,!if!forgetfulness!did!not!stand!before!consciousness!as!a!filter,!only!letting!a!fraction!of!the!stimuli!confronting!one!actually!be!experienced,!the!very!possibility!of!experience!as!such!would!be!undermined.’!As!such,!knowledge!depends!‘on!an!active!and!antecedent!faculty!of!forgetfulness.’!F!Klein,!Nietzsche#and#the#Promise#of#Philosophy,!p.!53.!!146!This!also!suggests!why!Nietzsche’s!perspectivism!cannot!be!conflated!with!a!subjectivism.!The!‘language’!of!religion,!art,!science!or!history,!for!example,!are!intersubjective!and!collective!‘settings’!for!how!the!world!is!apprehended.!Insofar!as!selfFconsciousness!is!in!some!sense!an!internalization!of!the!language!of!the!community!and!the!commonalities!of!expressions!it!contains,!the!‘subject’!of!a!perspective!is!itself!an!intersubjective!construct.!Hence,!as!Lawrence!J.!Hatab!argues,!‘Nietzsche’s!perspectivism!cannot!be!understood!apart!from!the!extraFindividual!spheres,!where!therefore!it!allows!for!certain!constraints!on!merely!“subjective”!states.’!F!Lawrence!J.!Hatab,!Nietzsche’s#On#the#Genealogy#of#Morality:#An#Introduction!(Cambridge:!Cambridge!University!Press,!2008),!p.!135.!#!147!Branco,!‘The!Spinning!of!Masks’,!p.!251.!!148!Relevant!here!is!the!qualification!of!the!‘herd’!function!of!language!that!Nietzsche!offers!in!WP,#where!he!draws!a!distinction!between!‘herd’!linguistic!formulas!and!their!creative!individual!interpretation.!He!writes:!‘The!individual!is!something!quite!new!which!creates!new!things,!

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‘herd’! entanglements! of! language! suggests,! then,! is! a! certain! nonFcoincidence!between! language! and! being! (or! better,! becoming).149!SelfFknowledge,! like! all!knowledge!for!Nietzsche,!involves!the!negotiation!of!a!‘surface!and!sign!world’150,!where!one!does!not!arrive!at!a!‘complete!set!of!determinations!that!define!us.’151!!As! we! have! seen! from! TL! onwards,! Nietzsche! outlines! the! perennial! tensions!between! the!material!and!social!aspects!of! language!and! the!abstract!pursuits!of!knowledge!and!truth!in!which!it!is!enlisted.!But!if!language!is!a!source!of!suspicion!for!Nietzsche,!inasmuch!as!he!is!concerned!with!culture!formation!and!not!merely!ineffable! individual! insights,! recuperation! cannot! not! involve! somehow! shifting!back!to!an!interpretive!position!before!or!behind!language.152!With!this!insight!we!can!proceed!to!the!second!section!of!this!paper.!#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!something!absolute;!all!his!acts!are!entirely!his!own.!Ultimately,!the!individual!derives!the!values!of!his!acts!from!himself;!because!he!has!to!interpret!in!a!quite!individual!way!even!the!words!he!has!inherited.!His!interpretation!of!a!formula!at!least!is!personal,!even!if!he!does!not!create!a!formula:!as!an!interpreter!he!is!still!creative.’!–!WP,!§767.!!149!‘We#are#none#of#us!that!which!we!appear!to!be!in!accordance!with!the!states!for!which!alone!we!have!consciousness!and!words…’!–!D,!§115.!!!150!GS,#§354.!!151!Branco,!‘The!Spinning!of!Masks’,!p.!242.!!152!Branco,!‘The!Spinning!of!Masks’,!p.!236.!!

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II.%AFFIRMATIONS:%Nietzsche’s%Use%of%Language%%%!‘Nietzsche!created,!so!to!speak,!a!new!style!in!philosophical!writing,!which!up!until!then!was!couched!in!academic!tones!or!in!effusive!poetry,!he!created!a!personalized#style;!Nietzsche!not!only!mastered!language!but!also!transcended!its!inadequacies.!What!had!

been!mute,!achieved!great!resonance.’153!!

‘Yes’!saying!

This! section! of! the! paper! will! examine! the! significance! of! Nietzsche’s! use! of!language:! namely,! his! literary! styles,! and! in! particular! his! employment! of! the!aphoristic! form;! how! this! relates! to! his! conception! and! critique! of! language!canvassed!above;!and!how!this!is!intended!to!furnish!a!‘healthier’!and!more!‘downFtoFearth’!means!of!philosophical!expression.!For!Nietzsche!any!philosophy!worthy!of!the!name!requires!both!a!‘no’!and!‘yes’!saying!F!a!task!that!is!both!formative!and!transformative,!not!simply!informative.154!In!BGE!he!declares!that!the!reduction!of!philosophy! to!a!disinterested! ‘“theory!of!knowledge”! […]! is!philosophy!at! its! last!gasp…’155 !Thus! to! simply! outline! the! limits! of! language! is! not! sufficient! for!Nietzsche.!To!miss!the!therapeutic!and!affirmative!side!is!like!being!stranded!at!the!second! stage! of! ‘the! Three! Metamorphoses’156 !in! Z! –! the! lion! stage.! Having!unmasked!the!transcendental!values!as!‘human!all!too!human’,!the!‘beast!of!prey’!is!incapable!of!creating!new!values!and!only!responds!negatively!to!those! ‘set! forth!by!whatever!god!or!gods!are!encountered.’157!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!153!Lou!Salomé,!Nietzsche,!trans.!Siegried!Mandel!(Redding!Ridge:!Black!Swan!Books,!1988),!p.!78!!154!Such!is!the!distinction!that!Nietzsche!draws!between!‘philosophical!laborers’!and!philosophers!proper.!The!former!takes!previous!‘assessments!of!value,!creations!of!value!which!have!become!dominant!and!are!for!a!while!called!“truths”![…]!to!identify!them!and!reduce!them!to!formulas![…]!these!scholars![…]!take!everything!that!has!hitherto!happened!and!been!valued,!and!make!it!clear,!distinct,!intelligible!and!manageable![…]!Actual#philosophers,#however#are#commanders#and#law[givers![…]!Their!‘knowing’!is!creating,!their!creating!is!a!lawFgiving,!their!will!to!truth!is!–!will#to#power.’!–!BGE,#§211.!‘After!all,!they!have!more!to!do!than!merely!know!something!new!–!namely!to!be!something!new,!to!signify!something!new,!to!represent!new!values!’!–!BGE,!§253.!#!155!BGE,#§204.!See!also!GM,!‘Preface’,!§2.!!156!Z,!‘On!the!Three!Metamorphoses’.!!157!C.!Ellsworth!Hood,!‘Nietzsche!contra!postmodernism’,!in!Philosophy#Today,!Vol.!41,!No.!3,!1997,!p.!425.!!!

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!An! adequate! account! of! ‘Nietzsche! and! language’! must,! therefore,! consider! the!ways! in!which!his! suspicions!and!affirmations!of! language!are! interwoven! in! the!goal!of! lifeFaffirmation.!Because! for!Nietzsche!the!world!that!we!count!as! ‘real’! is!(in! some! sense)! a! linguistic!determination,! a! categorical! dismantling!of! language!makes! no! sense! –! it! would! amount! to! tipping! the! baby! out!with! the! bathwater.!‘How!foolish!it!would!be!to!suppose!that!one!only!needs!to!point!out!this!origin!and!misty! shroud! of! delusion! in! order! to! destroy! the!world! that! counts! for! real,! soFcalled!“reality.”#We!can!destroy!only!as!creators.’158!!!The! ‘new!language’!of! ‘freeFspirited’!philosophers!that!Nietzsche!espouses!in!BGE!aims!at!the!creation!and!cultivation!of!new!values!such!as!selfFovercoming,!nobility!and! independence.! But! insofar! as! language! is! indexed! to! what! is! common! in!experience,!Nietzsche!cautions! that! ‘Tremendous!counterforces!have! to!be!called!upon! to! cross! this! natural,! all! too! natural! progressus# in# simile,! the! continuing!development! of! mankind! into! the! similar,! ordinary,! average,! herdlike…’159 !In!combating!the!‘spirit!of!gravity’,!Zarathustra!connects!the!philosophical!task!with!a!breaking! of! outworn! words,! the! breaking! of! ‘old! tablets’,! ‘tablets! created! by!weariness…’160!‘[M]an! is! a! grave! burden! for! himself’,! he! declares,! ‘because! he!carries!on!his!shoulders!too!much!that!is!alien!to!him![…]!he!loads!too!many!alien!grave!words!and!values!on!himself,!and!then!life!seems!a!desert!to!him.’161!Against!this! arid! vista,! Nietzsche! attempts! to! use! language! to! foster! ‘new! ears! for! new!music’! and! ‘new! eyes! for! the! most! distant! things.’162!If! there! is! an! aspect! of!‘falsification’!in!language,!Nietzsche’s!response!is!not!a!negative!legislation!–!such!as!Wittgenstein’s,!‘Whereof!one!cannot!speak,!thereof!one!must!be!silent’163!–!but!a!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!158!GS,!§58.!!!159!BGE,!§248.!!!160!Z,!‘On!Old!and!New!Tablets’.!!!161!Z,!‘On!the!Spirit!of!Gravity’.!!!162!A,!‘Foreword’.!!!163!Ludwig!Wittgenstein,!Tractatus#Logico[Philosophicus,!trans.!C.!K.!Ogden!(New!York:!Dover!Publications,!Inc.,!1999),!p.!108.!!!

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positive!substitution!for!new!linguistic!attitudes!and!associated!valueFinvestments.!The!unmasking!of!metaphysical!assumptions!and!‘illusions’!implicit!in!language!is!thus!of!a!piece!with!the!development!of!a!more!lifeFaffirming!language,!one!that!is!more!elemental,!perceptive!and!dynamic:!in!short,!one!more!consistent!with!life’s!energies!as!Nietzsche!sees!it.164!!!‘The!most!multifarious!art!of!style’!

A!keynote!of!the!modern!Zeitgeist#that!Nietzsche!helped!presage!was!a!discontent!regarding!inherited!modes!of!expression.165!This!sentiment!reverberated!in!many!sectors! of! cultural! production,! and! a! cursory! perusal! of! Nietzsche’s! writings!reveals!a!noticeable!dissonance!with!traditional!styles!of!philosophical!discourse.!His! wordsmithing! takes! language! to! its! limit! and! consequently! complicates!standard! evaluative! criteria.! What! seems! to! be! at! stake! in! Nietzsche’s! use! of!language!is!the!notion!that!dogmatic!and!metaphysical!assumptions!cannot!simply!be!contested!in!the!realm!of!ideas!without!also!attending!to!their!complicity!at!the!level!of!style!and!expression.!As!Claudia!Crawford!points!out,!in!Nietzsche’s!hands!language!‘becomes!a!dynamic!instance!of!interpretation!and!valuing’,!not!only!‘in!a!critical! sense! of! a! subject!who! interprets! value! and! then! speaks! or!writes! about!those!interpretations’,!but!also!‘in!a!creative!sense!where!the!speaking!or!writing!itself! is! the!new!value! force!embodied.’166!Nietzsche! thus!seeks! to!performatively!enact!what!is!being!philosophized!about,!and!suggests!a!deep!connection!between!writing!style!and!a!style!of!thinking!and!living.!Hence!his!remark!in!a!letter!to!Lou!AndreasFSalomé:! ‘Of!prime!necessity! is! life:!a!style!should! live.’167!This!dual!sense!of! ‘style’!should!be!emphasized!here.!On!the!one!hand!‘style’!denotes!a!particular!way! of!writing;! but! on! the! other,! it! refers! to! a! substantive! theme! in!Nietzsche’s!corpus! where! language! use! is! an! embodiment! of! underlying! physiological!conditions.! The! significance! of! ‘style’! in! this! latter! case,! is! that! it! represents! ‘a!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!164!Burnham!and!Jesinghausen,!Nietzsche’s#The#Birth#of#Tragedy,!p.!2.!!165!Walter!Kaufmann,!Nietzsche:#Philosopher,#Psychologist,#Antichrist#(New!Jersey:!Princeton!University!Press,!1974),!p.!92.!!!166!Crawford,!The#Beginnings#of#Nietzsche’s#Theory#of#Language,!p.!xiii.!!167!Published!in!Salomé,!Nietzsche,!p.!77.!!

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symptom!of,!and!means!of!access!for!the!careful!observer,!into!the!order!of!rank!of!the!stylist!and!the!basic!configuration!of!their!drives…’168!!!If!early!critics!approached!Nietzsche’s!literary!styles!with!caution,!perceiving!it!as!an! obstacle! to! unlocking! the! substance! of! his! thought,! recent! commentary! has!perhaps! overly! fetishized! his! volteFface! on! academic! norms. 169 !Generally,!Nietzsche’s!styles!are!not!indicative!of!some!laisser[aller!sensibility!or!an!exercise!but! are! calculated! for! precise! effects.! They! are! not! intended! to! undermine! a!capacity! for! critical! thought,! but! rather! to! probe! the! various! ways! one! can! be!convincing,!beyond!the!purely!rationalistic.!!!From! BOT# onwards! Nietzsche’s! writing! is! selfFconsciously! antiFacademic.! Vivid!imagery!and!metaphors!are!deployed!as!connotative!clusters,!designed!to!jolt!the!reader! out! of! conceptual! complacency! and! a! barren! literalism.# Against! the!heaviness!of!German!philosophical!prose,!Nietzsche!often!makes!a!stylistic!virtue!of!lightness,!brevity,!and!ebullience.170!Notably,!he!lauds!the!presto!associated!with!writers! and! thinkers! from! France! and! southern! Europe,! such! as! Michel! de!Montaigne,!Francois!de!La!Rochefoudcauld!and!Nicholas!Chamfort.171!!!Throughout!his!work,!Nietzsche!expertly!traverses!a!range!of!literary!genres,!from!the! essay! or! pamphlet,! to! aphorisms! and! short! numbered! paragraphs,!autobiography,!and!even!parables!and!poetry.!There!is!a!common!assumption!that!while!an!artist!might!be!entitled!to!a!range!of!stylistic!registers,!the!philosopher,!in!the! interests! of! impartiality! and!neutrality,! is! not.! For! example,! no!one! criticizes!Picasso! for! shifting! suddenly! from! the! style! of! his! ‘Rose! Period’! to! that! of! his!‘African! Period’,! except! those! that! take! issue! with! either. 172 !Certainly! not!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!168!Douglas!Burnham,!Reading#Nietzsche:#An#Analysis#of#Beyond#Good#and#Evil!(Stocksfield:!Acumen!Publishing!Limited,!2007),!p.!225.!!!169!Solomon,!Living#with#Nietzsche’,!p.!24.!!!170!‘The!German!is!virtually!incapable!of!presto!in!his!language:!thus,!it!may!be!concluded,!also!of!many!of!the!most!daring!and!delightful!nuances!of!free,!freeFspirited!thought.’!–!BGE,!§28.!!!171!Gray,!‘Hamann,!Nietzsche!and!Wittgenstein!on!the!Language!of!Philosophers’,!p.!109.!!172!This!idea!was!adapted!from!one!regarding!Wagner!in!Marion!Faber,!‘Introduction’,!in!HAH.!

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everything! Nietzsche!wrote!was! proffered! as! philosophically! profound.! But! as! a!selfFidentified!philosopher,!the!plurality!of!voices!he!adopts!–!the!caricaturist,!the!polemicist,! the!prophet,!the!social!critic,!and!even!the!gossip!–!pose!a!prima#facie!problem! for! any! unambiguous! interpretation.! Arguably! however,! such! stylistic!disjunctions!receive!an!existential!consistency,!reflecting!the!idea!that!it!would!be!oneFsided! not! to! experiment! with! a! range! of! expressive! possibilities. 173 !As!Nietzsche!puts! it! pithily:! ‘It! is! good! to! express! something! […]! in! redoubled! form!and!to!give! it!a!right!and!a! left! foot.!Truth!can!certainly!stand!upon!a!single! foot;!but!with!two,!it!can!move!and!travel!about.’174!!It! is! this! experimental! mobility! that! Nietzsche! deems! lacking! in! traditional!philosophical!discourse!couched!in!univocal!and!universal!terms.!In!GM,!he!likens!the!viewpoint!of!‘knowledge!in!itself’,!‘pure!reason’!or!‘absolute!spirituality’!to!that!of! a! cramped! and! directionless! eye! –! an! ‘intellectual! castration.’! ‘There! is! only!seeing!from!a!perspective,!only!a!“knowing”!from!a!perspective’,!he!writes,!‘and!the!more!emotion!we!express!over!a!thing,!the!more#eyes,!different!eyes,!we!train!over!the! same! thing,! the! more! complete! will! be! our! “idea”! of! that! thing,! our!“objectivity.”’175!176!Conceived!in!light!of!this!passage,!Nietzsche’s!itinerant!stylistic!repertoire! does! not! appear! as! an! arbitrary! quirk,! but! rather! a! concrete!manifestation!of!his!therapeutic!ambitions.!Such!an!approach!works!to!destabilize!the!idea!that!there!is!a!privileged!discourse!that!corresponds!to!a!‘true!world’!free!of!relationality!and!conditionality.!!!If! for!Nietzsche! language!exhibits! a! tendency! towards! reification!and!a! return! to!the!security!of!the!herd,!it!is!also!a!living!and!mutable!phenomenon.!In!attempting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!173!Kaufmann,!Nietzsche:#Philosopher,#Psychologist,#Antichrist’,!p.!85.!!!174!WS,!§13.!!175!GM,!‘What!is!the!Meaning!of!Ascetic!Ideals?’,#§12.!!#176!The!value!Nietzsche!sees!in!bringing!a!multitude!of!perspectives!into!play!is!also!articulated!in!HAH:!‘rather!than!making!ourselves!uniform,!we!may!find!greater!value!for!the!enrichment!of!knowledge!by!listening!to!the!soft!voice!of!different!life!situations,!each!bringing!its!own!views!with!it.!Thus!we!acknowledge!and!share!the!life!and!nature!of!the!many!by!not!treating!ourselves!like!rigid,!invariable,!single!individuals.’!–!HAH,!§618.!!!

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to! foment! this! fountainhead,!his!approach!was!seem!to!require!a!departure! from!both!the!systematizing!of!his!predecessors,!such!as!Kant!and!Hegel,!as!well!as!the!factFstating!approach!of!natural!science.!As!João!Constâncio!and!Maria!João!Mayer!Branco!aver,!Nietzsche’s! therapeutic!project! ‘is! fundamentally!aimed!at! changing!our! evaluations! and! liberating! our! emotional! experiences! from! traditional!morality,! and!not!presenting!a! scientific!description!of!what!our!evaluations!and!emotional!experiences!“really!are”.’177!!!A!dynamic!proximity!and!distance!#

One! way! to! approach! Nietzsche’s! affirmation! of! language! is! in! terms! of! a!reconstituted! relation! of! proximity! and! distance.! Earlier! in! this! paper,! it! was!suggested!that!language!is!both!what!is!closest!(the!medium!of!social!life)!and!for!this!very!reason!distanced!(hard!to!see!as!a!problem).!Enhancing!this!we!might!say!that! the! new! kind! of! proximity! Nietzsche! aims! at! is! a! physiologicalFaffective!connectedness,! where! style! bespeaks! a! spirit! of! selfFaffirmation.! ‘Style! ought! to!prove!that!one!believes! in!an!idea’,!Nietzsche!writes!to!Salomé;! ‘not!only!that!one!thinks! it! but! also! that! one! feels! it.’178!But! if! words! can! be! used! to! cultivate! and!convey! such!proximities,! they!are!not! to!be! fused!with! in!a!gesture!of!wholesale!identification.!Such!would!be!the!function!of!a!stylistic!dynamism!‘which!leaps!over!and!puts!behind!it!all#that#is#perilous!in!things!and!words.’179!Recalling!Nietzsche’s!formulation! of! ‘truth! as! woman’,# who! is! best! approached! with! subtlety! and!discretion,! there! needs! to! be! a! continual! ‘reFmasking’! and! distance! in! our!relationship! to! language! to! avoid! lapsing! into! a! naïve! faith! in! metaphysical!correspondence!or!oneFtoFone!transparency!again.!If!‘every!word’!is!a!‘mask’180!for!Nietzsche,! this! is! neither! an! intentional! deception! or! something! that! can! be!removed,!insofar!as!‘removing!the!mask!would!be!removing!oneself!from!historical!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!177!João!Constâncio!and!Maria!João!Mayer!Branco,!‘Editors!Introduction’,!in!João!Constâncio!and!Maria!João!Mayer!Branco!(eds.),!Nietzsche#on#Instinct#and#Language#(Berlin:!De!Gruyter,!2011),!p.#7.!#!178!Published!in!Salomé,!Nietzsche,!p.!77!!179!BGE,!§28.!My!emphasis!added.!!!180!BGE,!§289.!!

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conditions!–!another!transcendence.’181!In!seeking!new!dynamics!of!proximity!and!distance! we! might! say! with! Maria! João! Mayer! Branco! that! the! new! linguistic!orientation!Nietzsche!aims!for!is!‘neither!a!demand!for!asceticism,!deprivation,!nor!that! tyrannical,! dogmatic! violence! that! negates! the! relationship! by! aiming! to!consummate!it.’182!!So! what! is! a! limitation! from! one! perspective! (that! of,! Truth,! correspondence,!adequatio)!is!a!site!of!possibility!from!another.!In!the!latter!case,!language!is!action!and!creation!–!what!gives!voice!to!a!style!of!being!F!not!a!representation!or!reactive!expression! of! sedimented! assumptions.! Analyzing! the! relationship! between!creation! and! representation,! Alenka! Zupančič! notes! that! while! ‘a! picture! can!approach!its!subject!matter!in!a!manner!akin!to!a!curve!approaching!a!limitFpoint,!it!will!never!“catch!up!with!it”;!if!it!did!catch!up!with!it,!this!would!amount!to!the!very! destruction/negation! of! creativity.! The! only! way! out! of! this! is! to! pass! the!object…’183!Nietzsche’s! experimental!use! of! language! can! similarly! be! seen! as! an!attempt! at! such! a! creative! surpassing.! Given! his! rejection! of! transcendental!schemes!where! ‘there! is! no! “thing! in! itself”! […]! to!which! a!word! is! referred! for!verification,! the!word! itself! stands!as! the! things.’!And,!as!Crawford!puts! it,! every!‘act! of! language! has! the! potential! for! reinforcing! or! changing! the! existing! value!moment,! both!within! the! system! of! language! itself,! and! at! the! same! time,! in! the!broader!cultural!or!moral!systems!of!a!people!which!depend!on!it.’184!!!It!should!be!mentioned,!however,!that!the!dual!imperatives!of!creative!overcoming!and! downFtoFearth! philosophizing! do! sometimes! place! strains! on! Nietzsche’s!project!more! broadly.! For! example,! his! efforts! to! revitalize! ancient! Greek!motifs!can! have! a! regressive! ring,! just! as! the! futural! orientation! of! his!Übermensch! can!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!181!Douglas!Burnham,!‘Nietzsche,!Style,!Body’,!in!Ivan!Callus,!James!Corby!and!Gloria!LauriFLucente!(eds.),!Style#in#Theory:#Between#Literature#and#Philosophy!(New!York:!Bloomsbury!Publishing,!2012),!p.!106.!!!182!Branco,!‘The!Spinning!of!Masks’,!p.!250.!!183!Alenka!Zupančič,!The#Shortest#Shadow:#Nietzsche’s#Philosophy#of#the#Two!(London:!The!MIT!Press,!2003),!p.!157.!!!184!Crawford,!The#Beginnings#of#Nietzsche’s#Theory#of#Language,!p.!xiv.!!!

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seem!remote.!But!at!least!in!avowed!intent,!Nietzsche!aims!at!a!creativity!attuned!to!the!requirements!and!possibilities!of!the!present.!185!As!such,!he!sees!philosophy!as! firstFandFforemost! an! engagement,! not! a! description! F! participatory! not!spectatorial.! Like! a! dance,! it! demands! both! attentiveness! and! creativity:! in!following! a! pattern! of! steps,! a! successful! dancer,! by! their! flexibility! and! skill,!simultaneously!creates!something!new.186!!!

Nietzsche’s%Use%of%the%Aphorism%

!While! there! are! many! features! of! Nietzsche’s! styles! that! would! reward! close!examination,! it! is!beyond!the!scope!of!this!paper!to!offer!an!exhaustive!survey.!It!his!use!of!the!aphorism!that!will!be!focused!on!here!as!this!crystallizes!a!range!of!issues!pertinent!to!his!therapeutic!concerns.!While!certainly!not!all!of!Nietzsche’s!work!takes!the!aphoristic!form,!he!clearly!considered!it!an!important!device!in!the!kind!of!communication!he!wished!to!achieve.187!For!example,!in!EH!he!writes:!‘The!aphorism! […]! in! which! I! am! the! first! master! among! Germans,! are! the! forms! of!‘eternity’;!my!ambition!is!to!say!in!ten!sentences!what!everyone!else!says!in!a!book!–!what!everyone!else!does#not!say!in!a!book…’188!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!185!Insofar!as!Nietzsche!is!often!characterized!as!a!‘master!of!suspicion’,!one!might!also!query!to!what!extent!‘wonder’!rather!than!‘suspicion’!is!in!fact!the!more!‘downFtoFearth’!existential!comportment.!Berel!Lang!makes!this!point:!‘wonder,!unlike!suspicion,!is!attached!exclusively!to!the!present,!a!function!of!the!hereFandFnow.!As!a!motive!of!philosophy,!then,!wonder!compels!philosophy!to!begin!in!the!present,!that!is,!always!to!start!anew…’!F!Berel!Lang,!The#Anatomy#of#Philosophical#Style!(Oxford:!Basil!Blackwell!Ltd,!1990),!p.!152.!!186!Significantly,!Nietzsche!draws!an!association!with!dance!himself:!‘I!would!not!know!what!the!spirit!of!a!philosopher!might!wish!more!to!be!than!a!good!dancer.!For!the!dance!is!his!ideal,!also!his!art,!and!finally!also!his!only!piety,!his!“service!of!God.”’!–!GS,!§381.!!!!187!D#is!the!book!that!perhaps!comes!closest!to!a!‘pure’!aphoristic!work!F!in!the!sense!that!it!lacks!the!thematic!chapter!headings!that!(often!loosely)!structure!his!other!works.!!!188!TI,!‘Expeditions!of!an!Untimely!Man’,!§51.!!!

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New!horizons!

The!etymology!of!the!word! ‘aphorism’!hints!at!the!attraction!this! form!of!writing!held!for!Nietzsche.!It!derives!from!the!Greek!aphorismos!meaning!definition;!from!aphorizein,! meaning! to! define! or! to! set! limits! to;! and! from! horos,! meaning!boundary! or! horizon.189!! These! meanings! are! redolent! in! Nietzsche’s! work.! The!aphorism!provided!him!a!way!to!bracket!phenomena,!concentrate!and!distill!them,!render! the! familiar! unfamiliar,! probe! what! a! perspective! renders! possible! or!impossible,!and!negotiate!new!horizons!for!thought.!As!Babette!E.!Babich!indicates,!Hippocrates!was!the!first! to!use!the!term!aphorism,!and!in!his!work!it!receives!a!significant!medicinal!association.!Hippocrates’!Aphorisms#were!‘maxims!in!place!of!a! handbook!or! physicians!manual,! for! the!physician!who!would!have!no! time! to!consult! one! in! the! field…’190!This! medicinal! heritage! intersects! with! Nietzsche’s!concerns,!where! the! aphorism!becomes! a! vehicle! for! staging!both! sharp! cultural!diagnoses!and!therapeutic!challenges!in!the!art!of!good!living.!!It! is!not!incidental!that!Nietzsche’s!early!exploration!of!aphoristic!writing!in!HAH#coincided! with! his! period! of! philosophical! ‘convalescence’.191!Extricating! himself!from! the! influence! of! Richard! Wagner! and! Arthur! Schopenhauer! and! the!diversions! of! ‘metaphysical! comforts’,! Nietzsche’s! thinking! became! increasingly!corporeal!in!focus,!exploring!‘the!extent!to!which!ideas!can!transform!and!redirect!the!energies!of!the!body.’192!If!his!aphorisms!have!a!curative!purpose,!they!are!also!frequently!barbed.!Rather! than!offering! ‘homely’!wisdom!or!pithy!expressions!of!commonplace! ‘truths’,! they! attack! established! therapeutics! through! unsettling!reversals!and!images,!thwarting!‘[tendencies]!to!easy!agreement.’193!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!189!Collins#Softback#English#Dictionary,!3rd!ed.!(Glasgow:!HarperCollins!Publishers,!1992).!#190!Babette!E.!Babiche,!Words#in#Blood,#Like#Flowers:#Philosophy#and#Poetry#Music#and#Eros#in#Holderlin,#Nietzsche#and#Heidegger!(Albany:!State!University!of!New!York!Press,!2006),!p.!29.!!!191!In!EH,!Nietzsche!describes!HAH!as!a!‘monument!to!a!crisis![…]!a!book!for!free#spirits:!practically!every!sentence!in!it!expresses!a!victory!–!with!it!I!liberated!myself!from!what!in!my!nature!did#not#belong#to#me.’!F!EH,!‘Why!I!Write!Such!Good!Books’,!p.!55.!!192!Jill!Marsden,!‘Nietzsche!and!the!Art!of!the!Aphorism’,!in!Keith!Ansell!Pearson!(ed.),!A#Companion#to#Nietzsche!(Malden:!Blackwell!Publishing,!2006),!p.!24.!!!193!Gary!Shapiro,!‘Nietzschean!Aphorism!as!Art!and!Act’,!in!Man#and#World,!Vol.!17,!1984,!p.!408.!!

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!Aphorism!contra!systemIbuilding!

!In! TI! Nietzsche! notoriously! declares! that! ‘The! will! to! a! system! is! a! lack! of!integrity.’194!Nietzsche!is!not!faulting!philosophical!systems!simpliciter,!but!rather!the! will# to# systematization! F! the! idea! that! a! systematic! form! is! somehow! selfFlegitimating.!Steven!D.!Hales!suggests!that!what!Nietzsche!is!primarily!hostile!to!is!the! retention! of! ‘one’s!weaker! arguments! because! not! enough! of! a! curve! can! be!drawn! through! the! data! points! of! one’s! stronger! arguments…’195!To! get! off! the!ground,! philosophical! systems! must! be! based! on! premises! or! axioms! that!ultimately!go!unquestioned.!Nietzsche!would!have!seen!this!as!quietistic.!He!would!also! have! considered! it! reactive! and! paranoiac! to! assume! in! advance! that! a!coherent! and! integrative! grid! can!be! imposed!on! something! that!perhaps! resists!such!stabilization.!!!What!would! be! the! significance! of!writing! in! aphorisms! then?! Given!Nietzsche’s!insistence! on! historical! philosophizing! and! his! desire! to! be! consistent! with!processes! of! becoming,! the! aphorism! can! be! considered! an! appropriate! formal!vehicle!to!convey!‘a!loosely!organized,!shifting!whole!containing!specific!ideas!but!no! ironFclad! explanation! for! everything…’ 196 If! the! philosophical! task! is!traditionally!conceived!as!the!presentation!of!a!clearly!defined!position!bolstered!by!rigorous! lines!of!argumentation,!Nietzsche!probably!saw!such!an!approach!as!misleading! in!what! it! suggests! about! reality! and! the!human! condition.! Earlier! in!the!paper!Nietzsche’s!suspicions!regarding!the!metaphysical!‘illusions’!implied!by!a! faith! in! grammar! were! discussed.! A! similar! concern! perhaps! motivates! his!aphoristic! style.!Where! philosophical! treatises! often! employ! first! principles! and!generalizable! methods,! building! from! neatly! delineated! premises! to! single!conclusions,! they! similarly! suggest! that! the! world! towards! which! they! are!orientated! consists! of! rational! and! stable! structures.! Rich! in! meanings! and!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!194!TI,!‘Maxims!and!Arrows’,!§26.!!!195!Steven!D.!Hales,!‘Recent!Work!on!Nietzsche’,!American#Philosophical#Quarterly,!Vol.!37,!No.!4,!2000,!p.!321.!!196!Marion!Faber,!‘Introduction’,#in!HAH,#p.!xiv.!!!

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connotations,! aphorisms,! by! contrast,! ‘resist! […]! presenting! a! single! truth! or! an!exclusive,!definite!order.’197!!!A!strategic!ambiguity!

In! MOM,! Nietzsche! asks! of! his! reader:! ‘Do! you! think! that! this! work! must! be!fragmentary! because! it! is! (and! has! to! be)! given! to! you! in! pieces?’198!It!might! be!queried! whether! there! really! is! something! about! the! ideas! that! Nietzsche! is!engaging! with! that! necessitates! an! eschewal! of! systematic! form! and! sustained!argumentation,!or!whether!this!is!simply!symptomatic!of!an!inability!to!say!what!he!means!straight.199!Danto!certainly! thought! the! latter,!claiming!that!Nietzsche’s!style!gives!the!impression!that!his!work!was!‘assembled!rather!than!composed.’200!One! might! argue! that! if! Nietzsche’s! ideas! are! of! philosophical! importance,! they!should!be!capable!of!being!given!a!literal!and!determinate!formulation.!At!least!in!many! instances,! however,! it! seems! more! reasonable! to! view! his! aphorisms! as!aiming!at!a!strategic!‘incompleteness’.!For!Nietzsche!brevity!and!ambiguity!can!be!a!catalyst! F!a!way! to! implicate! the!reader!and!open!new! interpretive!vistas.! If!an!aphorism! appears! fragmentary,! it! need! not! be! viewed! pejoratively! as! a! lapse! in!consistency,!but!performatively!as!a!fragmenting!of!expectations.!!!A!heuristic!disorientation!is!amply!exhibited!in!BGE,!which!opens!with!a!series!of!outlandish! hypothetical! proposals,! incomplete! statements,! and! unanswered!questions.! Similarly,! in! HAH! Nietzsche! invokes! the! image! of! a! relief! sculpture!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!197!Julian!Baggini!and!Peter!S.!Fosl,!The#Philosopher’s#Toolkit:#A#Compendium#of#Philosophical#Concepts#and#Methods#(West!Sussex:!WileyFBlackwell,!2010),!p.!192.!!198!MOM,!§127.!!!199!One!is!also!reminded!here!of!Wittgenstein’s!comments!regarding!the!status!of!his!philosophical!‘fragments’:!‘After!several!unsuccessful!attempts!to!weld!my!results!together!into!such!a!whole,!I!realized!that!I!should!never!succeed.!The!best!that!I!could!write!would!never!be!more!than!philosophical!remarks;!my!thoughts!were!soon!crippled!if!I!tried!to!form!them!on!in!any!single!direction!against!their!natural!inclination.!F!And!this!was,!of!course,!connected!with!the!very!nature!of!the!investigation.!For!this!compels!us!to!travel!over!a!wide!field!of!thought!crissFcross!in!every!direction.!–!The!philosophical!remarks!in!this!book!are,!as!it!were,!a!number!of!sketches!of!landscapes!which!were!made!in!the!course!of!these!long!and!involved!journeyings.’!–!Ludwig!Wittgenstein,!Philosophical#Investigations,!trans.!G.!E.!M.!Anscombe!(Oxford:!Basil!Blackwell,!1972),!p.!vii.!!!200!Danto,!Nietzsche#as#Philosopher’,!p.!19.!!!

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which! is!powerful!precisely!because! it!appears! to! ‘to!be!on! the!point!of! stepping!out! of! the! wall! […]! incomplete! representation! of! a! thought,! or! of! a! whole!philosophy,!is!sometimes!more!effective!than!its!exhaustive!realization.!More!is!left!to! the! effort! of! the! viewer…’201!202!As! a! philosophical! strategy! then,! Nietzsche’s!aphorisms!might!be! seen!as!an!effort! to! transvalue! the! status!of! the!openFended!and!indeterminate.!While!taken!individually!many!of!his!aphorisms!are!literalistic!and! direct,! their! collective! nomadicism! implies! the! value! of! keeping! ‘doors!open’. 203 !Like! childhood,! this! might! be! seen! as! an! intrinsically! valuable!philosophical! condition,! rather! than! a! mere! prelude! or! passage! to! a! ‘higher’!consummation,!culmination!or!closure.204!!

!Interpretive!challenges!

Today!an!aphoristic!style!is!perhaps!most!readily!associated!with!Twitter!feeds!or!New! Age! sound! bites! and! slogans,! such! as,! ‘discover! your! true! self’,! ‘live! in! the!moment’! or! ‘happiness! is! a! choice’! –! all! so! many! cherryFpicked! consolations.!Nothing!could!be!more!anathema!to!Nietzsche’s!purpose.!As!mentioned!above,!his!aphorisms! are! not! geared! as! platitudes! to! be! consumed! on! the! run,! but! as!medicinal!challenges!that!‘unsettle!embodied!assumptions!about!what!it!means!to!“read”! and! to! “digest”! philosophy.’ 205 !By! jarring! habitual! cognitiveFsensory!pairings,!deFnaturalizing!the!process!of!reading,!and!attuning!one!to!the!materiality!of! language,! they! impose!an! intentional! interpretive!difficulty.206!If! there! is!a!risk!that! they!be! ‘treated! too#casually’,!Nietzsche!notes,!an! ‘aphorism!properly!coined!and!cast!into!its!final!mould!is!far!from!being!“deciphered”!as!soon!as!it!has!been!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!201!HAH,!§178.!!!202!At!the!same!time,!Nietzsche!recognizes!that!this!can!be!the!source!of!confusion!for!the!uninitiated.!While!a!‘brief!saying!can!be!the!fruit!and!harvest!of!much!long!thought’,!he!notes,!‘the!reader!who!is!a!novice!in!this!field!and!has!not!yet!reflected!upon!it!sees!in!all!brief!sayings!something!embryonic,!not!without!a!disparaging!sign!to!the!author!for!having!placed!upon!his!table!something!so!immature!and!unripe.’!F!MOM,!§127.!!!203!D,!‘Preface’,!§5.!!!204!C.f.!Zarathustra’s!use!of!the!figure!of!the!child!in!Z,!‘On!the!Three!Metamorphoses’.!!!205!Marsden,!‘Nietzsche!and!the!Art!of!the!Aphorism’,!p.!30.!!206!Marsden,!‘Nietzsche!and!the!Art!of!the!Aphorism’,!28.!!

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read;! on! the! contrary,! it! is! then! that! it! first! requires! to! be! expounded.’207!The!‘expounding’! that! Nietzsche! has! in! mind! cannot! involve! the! unfolding! of! some!latent! and! stable!meaning! –!which!Nietzsche!himself! rejects! –! but! perhaps!what!Alan! D.! Schrift! calls! an# existential! (re)enactment! or! a! ‘performative!hermeneutics.’208!Nietzsche,! it! seems,! is!not! interested! in!prescribing!a!particular!position! to! his! readers! so! much! as! encouraging! an! experimental! and! nonFteleological!attitude.!In!this!light,!the!efficacy!of!Nietzsche’s!writing!might!not!only!lie!in!what!it!describes!or!asserts,!but!also!in!what!it!does.!!!Thought!in!motion!!

One!of! the! things!his!aphorisms!do! is!convey!a!dynamic! image!of! thought! ‘in! the!process! of! transformation! and! renewal’ 209 ,! swinging! between! guerillaFlike!incursions! and! incorporative! pauses.! Significantly,! the! themes! of! speed! and!slowness! permeate! Nietzsche’s! work,! as! do! the! affinities! he! draws! between! his!philosophy! and! the! arts! of! movement.! As! Richard! Schacht! observes,! writing! in!aphorisms!kept!Nietzsche!mobile! ‘rather!than!a!plodder,!adept!at!moving!quickly!from!one!stance!to!another,!and!so!avoiding!becoming!frozen!in!any!one!of!them!and!thus!unable!to!bring!a!host!of!them!into!play.’210!Memorably,!Nietzsche!claims:!!

I!approach!deep!problems!like!cold!baths:!quickly!into!them!and!quickly!out!again.!That! one! does! not! get! to! the! depths! that! way,! not! deep! enough! down,! is! the!superstition! of! those! afraid! of! the!water,! the! enemies! of! cold!water;! they! speak!without! experience.! The! freezing! cold! makes! one! swift! […]! does! a! matter!necessarily! remain! ununderstood! and! unfathomed! merely! because! it! has! been!touched!only!in!flight,!glanced!at,!in!a!flash?!211!

!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!207!GM,!‘Preface’,!§8.!!!208!Schrift,!‘Nietzsche’s!French!Legacy’,!p.!126.!!209!Marsden,!‘Nietzsche!and!the!Art!of!the!Aphorism’,!p.!33.!!210!Richard!Schacht,!‘Nietzsche’s!kind!of!philosophy’,!in!Bernd!Magnus!and!Kathleen!M.!Higgens!(eds.),!The#Cambridge#Companion#to#Nietzsche!(Cambridge:!Cambridge!University!Press,!1996),!p.!334.!!211!GS,!§381.!!!

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Aphoristic!writing!could!be!seen!as!a!stylistic!corollary!of!Nietzsche’s!opposition!to!the!dogmatic!philosopher’s! ‘importunity!with!women’!–!the!crude!attempt!to! ‘get!truth!naked’.!Against!the!philosopher’s!‘floodlights’!–!the!imperative!that!one!must!be! ‘clear’! and! ‘bright! at! any! cost’,! where! ‘every! yielding! to! the! instincts,! to! the!unconscious,! leads! downwards…’212 !–! aphoristic! writing! is! suggestive! of! the!‘darkness’! that! bounds! thought,! of! what! cannot! be! completely! ‘laid! out’! as! ‘in! a!lighted! display! case.’213!One! might! have! to! make! many! detours! without! ever!reaching!a!complete!and!stable!understanding.!!!Freedom!and!constraint!!

If!Nietzsche’s!aphorisms!convey!a!new!liberty!of!thought,!he!also!insists!that!there!is!no!freedom!outside!a!context!of!discipline,!mastery,!and!even!convention.214!Like!the! sonnet! or! haiku,! the! aphorism! presents! the!writer!with! constraints! that! are!their! condition! rather! than! an! obstacle. 215 !Where! the! ‘mistrustful! speak!emphatically’216,! such! constraints! can! cultivate! an! economy! of! thought,! keeping!one’s! ‘enthusiasm# in! bounds’217,!where! a! ! ‘minimum! in! the! range! and!number! of!signs’!may!achieve!‘a!maximum!of!energy!of!these!signs…’218!‘[T]hinking!has!to!be!learned! in! the! way! dancing! has! to! be! learned,! as# a! form! of! dancing’,! Nietzsche!claims;!‘being!able!to!dance!with!the!feet,!with!concepts,!with!words:!do!I!still!have!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!212!TI,!‘The!Problem!of!Socrates’,!§10.!!!!213!TL,!p.!80.!!!214!In!WS!Nietzsche!associates!a!lack!of!constraint!with!decadent!tastes:!‘Innovating!or!antiquating!in!a!language,!preferring!what!is!rare!and!unfamiliar,!striving!for!a!wealth!of!vocabulary!instead!of!its!limitation,!are!always!signs!of!an!immature!or!corrupted!taste.!A!noble!poverty,!but!a!masterful!freedom!within!the!bounds!of!its!inconsiderable!possessions,!is!what!distinguishes!the!speech!of!Greek!artists…’!–!WS,!§127.!In!GS!Nietzsche’s!lauds!the!‘grand!style’!as!a!supreme!instance!of!regulated!superabundance:!‘To!“give!style”!to!one’s!character!–!a!great!and!rare!art!!It!is!practiced!by!those!who!survey!all!the!strengths!and!weaknesses!of!their!nature!and!then!fit!them!into!an!artistic!plan!until!every!one!of!them!appears!as!art!and!reason!and!even!weaknesses!delight!the!eye![…]!Conversely,!it!is!the!weak!characters!without!power!over!themselves!that!hate!the!constraint!of!style.’!–!GS,!§290.!!!215!GS,!§374.!!!216!GS,!§226.!!217!A,!‘Foreword.!!!218!TI,!‘What!I!Owe!the!Ancients’,!§1.!!

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to! say! that! one! has! to! be! able! to! dance! with! the! pen! –! that!writing! has! to! be!learned…’219!On! the! reader’s!end,!Nietzsche!confesses! that!he! seeks! to! ‘reduce! to!despair!every!sort!of!man!who!is!“in!a!hurry”’.!One!must!learn!‘to!read!slowly’,!he!adds,! ‘looking!cautiously!before!and!aft,!with! reservations! […]!with!delicate!eyes!and!fingers…’220!!Selecting!the!‘right’!readers!

Notably,!the!prefaces!of!Nietzsche’s!books!are!replete!with!dicta!on!how!he!wished!to! be! read.! He! reviles! both! opportunistic! readers! ‘who! behave! like! plundering!soldiers’! only! taking! away! a! ‘few! things! they! can! use…’221,! and! overly! reverent!readers:!‘I!don’t!want!any!“disciples”![…]!I!never!address!crowds!…!I!have!a!terrible!fear!of!being!declared!holy! one!day…’222!In!his! later!years!he!describes!philology!not! as! the! practice! of! ‘reading! right’! but! rather! ‘reading! well…’223!If! Nietzsche’s!perspectival!account!of!knowledge!seems!to!threaten!that!any!interpretation!is!as!valid! as! any! other,! the! art! of! ‘reading! well’! is! a! safeguard! against! both! a!hermeneutic! dogmatism! (the! notion! of! a! text! ‘in! itself’)! or! deconstructive!relativism!(that!there!is!‘nothing!outside!the!text’).224!For!Nietzsche,!to!‘read!well’!is! to! be! guarded! against! teleological! interpretations! ‘rigidly! predetermined! and!controlled! by! the! desire! to! understand! something! for! a! specific! purpose! as,! for!example,!the!priests!have!hitherto!interpreted!the!world!in!ways!that!insure!their!own!claims!to!power…’225!!The!aphoristic!form!is!one!way!that!Nietzsche!attempts!to!‘sound!out’!readers!who!are!capable!of!such!an!exercise.!In!Zarathustra’s!words:!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!219!TI,!‘What!the!Germans!Lack’,!§7.!!!220!D,!‘Preface’,!§5.!!!221!MOM,#§137.!!222!EH,!‘Why!I!am!a!Destiny’,!§1.!!!!223!A,!§52.!!!224!Schrift,!Nietzsche#and#the#Question#of#Interpretation’,#p.!8.!!225!Schrift,!Nietzsche#and#the#Question#of#Interpretation’,#p.!164.!!!

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!Whoever!writes!in!blood!and!aphorisms!does!not!want!to!be!read!but!to!be!learned!by!heart.!In!the!mountains!the!shortest!way!is!from!peak!to!peak:!but!for!that!one!must!have! long! legs.!Aphorisms!should!be!peaks!–!and! those!who!are!addressed!tall!and!lofty.226!!

Such! a! passage! seems! to! confirm! Susan! Sontag’s! suspicion! that! aphorisms! are!examples!of!‘aristocratic!thinking:!this!is!all!the!aristocrat!is!willing!to!tell!you;!he!thinks!you!should!get!it!fast,!without!spelling!out!all!the!details![…]!An!aphorism!is!not! an! argument;! it! is! too! well! bred! for! that.’227!Nietzsche! certainly! associated!himself! with! what! he! saw! as! ‘aristocratic’! and! ‘noble’! values.! But,! if! by! its! very!brevity,!an!aphorism!properly!‘coined!and!cast’228!eludes!the!casual!reader,!it!is!not!to! be! dismissed! as! elitist! nonsense! or! an! autobiographical! triviality. 229 !The!philosophical! status! of! such! a! ‘peak’,! for!Nietzsche,! represents! ‘the! high! point! of!meditation!rather!than!seed!crystals!for!future!doctrines.’230!!!Babich! characterizes!Nietzsche’s! styles! as! one! of! ‘concinnity’231,!which! is! neither!uniform!nor!universal! in! its! address!–!as! in! the!manner!of,! say,! the!Gospels!or!a!selfFhelp!manual.! It! rather! ‘depends! on! the! reader’s! own! affinity! for! hearing! the!affects! of! such! a! style! […]! within! the! limits! of! a! select! range…’232!So! beyond!confrontational!and!corrective!functions,!Nietzsche’s!aphorisms!can!also!be!seen!as!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!226!Z,!‘On!Reading!and!Writing’.!!!227!Susan!Sontag,!A#Consciousness#Is#Harnessed#to#Flesh:#Journals#&#Notebooks#1964[1980,!(ed.)!David!Rieff!(New!York:!Farrar!Straus!Giroux,!2012),!p.!512.!!

228!GM,!‘Preface’,!§8.!!!229!Against!such!a!biographical!reductionism,!Nietzsche!claims!that,!‘[t]he!worst!readers!of!aphorisms!are!the!friends!of!their!author,!at!least!when!they!are!intent!upon!guessing!from!the!generalizations!back!to!the!specifics!to!which!the!aphorism!owes!its!origin:!for!by!watching!the!pot!in!this!way!they!annul!all!of!the!author’s!efforts,!so!that!instead!of!acquiring!a!philosophical!disposition!and!instruction,!in!the!best!or!the!worst!case!they!get!what!they!deserve,!nothing!but!the!satisfaction!of!common!curiosity.’!–!MOM,!§129.!!!230!Marsden,!‘Nietzsche!and!the!Art!of!the!Aphorism’,!p.!30.!!231!Hence!the!subtitle!of!Z:!‘a!book!for!none!and!all’.!#!232!Babette!E.!Babich,!Nietzsche’s#Philosophy#of#Science:#Reflecting#Science#on#the#Ground#of#Art#and#Life!(Albany:!State!University!of!New!York!Press,!1994),!p.!17.!!!

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an! attempt! to! stimulate! the! affective! dimensions! of! language,! its! tempo! and!‘musicality’.233!#!Aphorism!and!music!

Indeed,! it! is! tempting! to! conceive! Nietzsche’s! work! in! musical! terms.! Nietzsche!himself! encourages! such! an! approach,! stating! that! ‘one! becomes! more! of! a!philosopher!the!more!one!becomes!a!musician’234,!and!chastises!past!philosophers!for!having!‘wax!in!their!ears’;!that!they!‘no!longer!listened!to!life!insofar!as!life!is!music;! [they]! denied! the! music! of! life…’235!In! his! early! writings,! such! as! BOT,!Nietzsche!followed!Schopenhauer!in!associating!music!with!the!underlying!reality!of! the! will! in! virtue! of! its! nonFrepresentational! expressive! character.! Like! the!escalating!harmonic!tensions!in!Wagner’s!Tristan,#Nietzsche#also!seems!to!exploit!the! generative! potential! of! dissonance! in! his!writing,!where! logical! resolution! is!constantly!deferred.236!For!example,!Nietzsche’s!metaphoric!characterization!of!life!in! terms! of! the! competing! tendencies! of! the! Apollonian! and! Dionysian! in! BOT,!function!as!a!way!to!connote!many!F!and!often!conflicting!F!things!at!once.237!!!While! Nietzsche’s! later! work! is! divested! of! the! metaphysical! tenor! of! BOT,! he!continues!to!see!music!as!a!preFeminent!model! for! life.!Rather!than!suggestive!of!some! ‘deeper’! reality,! in! this! context,! Nietzsche! associates!music!with! life! to! the!extent!that!he!sees!both!as!‘only!incidentally!related!to!the!production!of!any!sort!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!233!Christa!Davis!Acampora!and!Keith!Ansell!Pearson,!Nietzsche’s#Beyond#Good#and#Evil!(New!York:!Continuum,!2011),!p.!103.!!!234!CW,!§1.!!!!235!GS,!§372.!!!236!Burnham!and!Jesinghausen,!Nietzsche’s#The#Birth#of#Tragedy,!p.!111.!!!237!Nietzsche’s!use!of!aphorism!and!metaphor,!where!conflicting!and!contradictory!images!and!connotations!are!juxtaposed,!might!usefully!be!read!in!light!of!the!processes!of!semantic!distillation!that!Sigmund!Freud!identified!in!relation!to!dream!images!and!their!interpretation.!Freud!writes:!‘[a]s!a!result!of!condensation,!one!element!in!the!manifest!dream!may!correspond!to!numerous!elements!in!the!latent!dreamFthoughts;!but!conversely!too,!one!element!in!the!dreamFthoughts!may!be!represented!by!several!images!in!the!dream.’F!Sigmund!Freud,!2#New#Introductory#Lectures#on#Psychoanalysis,#trans.!James!Strachey!(Middlesex:!Penguin!Books,!1973),!p.!49.!The!interpretation!of!aphorisms!and!metaphors!might!similarly!prompt!a!multiplication!of!meaning,!sense!and!affect,!that!for!Nietzsche!would!be!in!tune!with!the!manifold!textures!of!experience,!the!workings!of!the!body,!and!the!compulsions!of!the!instincts.!#!

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of! relatively! fixed! and! enduring! object.’238!As! a! flowing! whole,! music! cannot! be!apprehended!as!a!series!of!atomistic!notes.!While!undeniably!real,!it!is!more!than!the!sum!of!its!crude!constituents,!which,!like!life,!cannot!be!counted!or!calculated!without!being!denatured.!!!But! perhaps! most! importantly,! music! implicates! the! listener.! What! is# music! in!music!derives!from!one!being!‘in!on!it’,!as!it!were.!And!what!initially!might!sound!strange!has!the!ability,!over!time,!to!insinuate!itself!and!enchant.239!In!music!then,!Nietzsche!finds!both!a!benchmark!for!his!own!philosophical!expressions240,!and!a!standpoint! from!which! to! critique! stagnant! and!objectifying!perspectives! on! life.!The! implication! is! that! a!musically! furnished! sensibility!might!motivate! insights!into!new!problems!and!possibilities!that!a!purely!analytic!and!discursive!approach!misses.! And,! moreover,! to! effectively! exploit! such! dimensions! in! one’s! writing!would! result! in! a! form! that! is! best! understood! in! other! than! purely! literalistic!terms.241!242!!In!D,!Nietzsche!claims!that! ‘We!have!to! learn#to#think#differently!–!in!order!at!last,!perhaps!very!late!on,!to!attain!even!more,!to#feel#differently.243%%Amidst!the!chatter!and!slogans!of! the!masses,!Nietzsche’s! ‘subtle! laws!of!style’!are! intended!to!erect!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!238!Richard!Schacht,!‘Nietzsche!on!Music’,!in!Steven!V.!Hicks!and!Alan!Rosenberg!(eds.),!Reading#Nietzsche#at#the#Margins!(Indiana:!Purdue!University!Press,!2008),!p.!118.!!!239!Schacht,!‘Nietzsche!on!Music’,!p.!128.!!240!As!Nietzsche!puts!it!bluntly!in!WP:!‘[c]ompared!with!music!all!communication!by!words!is!shameless;!words!dilute!and!brutalize;!words!make!the!uncommon!common.’!–!WP,!§810.!!241!As!Nietzsche!writes!in!BGE:!‘there!is!art!in!every!good!sentence!–!art!that!must!be!grasped!if!the!sentence!is!to!be!understood!!A!misunderstanding!of!the!tempo,!for!example:!and!the!sentence!itself!is!misunderstood!’!–!BGE,!§246.!!!242!In!HAH#Nietzsche!states!that,!‘[s]uch!consideration!for!the!contemporary!reader’s!lack!of!rhythmical!ability!has!already!elicited!some!sighs,!for!much!has!already!been!sacrificed!to!it.!Do!good!musicians!experience!the!same!thing?’!–!HAH,!§198.!It!should!be!mentioned,!however,!that!there!is!ambivalence!in!Nietzsche’s!work!regarding!the!value!of!‘rhythm’.!For!example,!in!GS,!Nietzsche!cautions!against!the!misleading!seductions!of!poetical!rhythm:!‘the!wisest!among!us!are!still!occasionally!fooled!by!rhythm!–!if!only!insofar!as!we!sometimes!consider!an!idea!truer!simply!because!it!has!metrical!form!and!presents!itself!with!a!divine!skip!and!jump.’!–!GS,!§84.!#!243!D,!§103.!!!

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barriers!and! ‘create!distance’244,!perhaps!appearing!as! ‘follies’!or!even! ‘poison’245!in! such! settings.! Returning! to! the! passage! from! Z! above:! if! an! aphorism! is! an!exalted!high! ‘peak’!of! freeFspirited! thought,! it! is!also!a!dangerous!altitude,!where!the! air! is! thin! and! pure,! demanding! a! mastery! of! one’s! faculties.246!Rather! than!appealing! to! established! tastes,! his! Nietzsche’s! aphorisms! are! intended! to!engender!new!conditions!of!taste!via!a!‘a!retraining![of]!the!senses…’247!248!!!Speaking!of/to!the!body!!

Crucially! for! Nietzsche,! writing! and! speaking! are! embodied! activities.! So! if! his!aphorisms! represent! lofty! ‘peaks’,! they! also! endeavor! to! speak! of,! and! to,! new!corporeal!proximities!–!pointing!to!the!origins!of!language!in!the!body,!and!using!language!to!manifest!what!‘language,!being!as!such!metaphysical!tends!to!hide!or!deny…’249!Nietzsche!often!describes!the!processing!of! ideas! in!terms!of!digestion,!nutrition,! rejection,! and! elimination.250!He! also! discusses! how! abstract! signs! and!‘idols’! may! be! prompted! to! betray! a! hidden! material! origin:! ‘For! once! to! pose!questions! here! with! a! hammer! and! perhaps! to! receive! for! answer! that! famous!sound!which!speaks!of!inflated!bowels.’251!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!244!GS,!§381.!!!245!BGE,!§30.!!!246!Marsden,!‘Nietzsche!and!the!Art!of!the!Aphorism’,!p.!27.!!247!Acampora!and!AnsellFPearson,!Nietzsche’s#Beyond#Good#and#Evil,!p.!103.!!248!However,!given!the!often!polemical!nature!of!Nietzsche’s!often!approach,!it!is!unclear!to!what!extent!he!achieves!the!task!of!addressing!the!individual!as#individual.!For!example,!Kathleen!Higgins!queries!whether!Nietzsche!can!‘avoid!the!consequence!that!his!deliberate!employment!of!moodFinfluencing!devices!imposes!as!external!a!form!of!selfFunderstanding!as!does!the!domination!of!sociallyFimposed!categories.’!F!Kathleen!Higgins,!‘Nietzsche’s!View!of!Philosophical!Style’,!in!International#Studies#in#Philosophy,!Vol.!8,!No.!2,!1986,!p.!75.!!!!!249!Eric!Blondel,!‘Nietzsche’s!Style!of!Affirmation:!The!Metaphors!of!Genealogy’,!in!Christa!Davis!Acampora!(ed.),!Nietzsche’s#On#the#Genealogy#of#Morals:#Critical#Essays!(Maryland:!Rowman!&!Littlefield!Publishers,!Inc.,!2006),!p.!68.!!!250!Blondel,!‘Nietzsche’s!Style!of!Affirmation:!The!Metaphors!of!Genealogy’,!p.!72.!!!251!TI,!‘Foreword’.!!!

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Nietzsche’s!writing! appears! to! aim! for! a! therapeutic! loosening! of! the! purported!division!between!language!and!the!instincts.!Indeed!such!a!loosening!is!necessary!if! the! goal! of!philosophy! is! to!be! reconceived! in! terms!of!health,! rather! than! the!pursuit!of!absolute!Truth.252!If!language!use!is!a!sign!and!symptom!of!physiological!conditions,! Nietzsche! also! emphasizes! how! ideas! and! signs! are! themselves!“evaluated”!by!the!instincts!and!senses.!253!To!learn!an!aphorism!‘by!heart’!then!–!in!Zarathustra’s!words!–!cannot!involve!a!discursive!recital,!but!rather!a!digestive!reinvigoration!where!these!signs!are!incorporated!by!the!body.254!!!This!emphasis!on! the!body! is! certainly! intended! in!opposition! to!what!Nietzsche!saw! as! the! devaluation! of! the! body! in! the! JudeoFChristian! tradition.! In! a! speech!entitled!‘On!the!Despisers!of!the!Body’,!Zarathustra!insists!that,!‘body!I!am!entirely,!and!nothing!else...’255!But!the!body!that!Nietzsche!invokes!should!not!be!conceived!as! a! ‘thingFinFitself’,! or! in! dualistic! terms! as! mechanicalFphysical! matter!differentiated! from! the! ‘soul’,! but! perhaps! as! what! Eric! Blondel! calls! a!‘psychosomatic’! whole.’256!The! ‘real’! body! is! not! something! to! be! dogmatically!affirmed! (a# la! realism),! or! negated! (a# la! idealism),! but! fathomed! as! ‘a! world! of!signs!that!is!continually!“in!the!making.”’257!!Style!and!content!

Staging! an! ingression! of!materiality! and! instinct! into! the! typically! ‘disembodied’!tenor! of! conceptual! philosophy,! Nietzsche! also! problematizes! the! purported!separability!of!style!and!content! in!philosophical!writing.!This! is!where,!as!many!commentators! have! noted,! Nietzsche! appears! to! fudge! the! distinction! between!philosophy!and!poetry.!Traditionally,!philosophy!is!concerned!with!the!conceptual!content!of!language,!to!ideas!that!are!uncontaminated!by!their!particular!vehicle!of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!252!Constâncio!and!Branco,!‘Editors!Introduction’,!in!Nietzsche#on#Instinct#and#Language,!p.!xxii.!!!253!Marsden,!‘Nietzsche!and!the!Art!of!the!Aphorism’,!p.!27.!!!254!Marsden,!‘Nietzsche!and!the!Art!of!the!Aphorism’,!p.!27.!!!255!Z,!‘On!the!Despisers!of!the!Body’.!!!256!Blondel,!‘Nietzsche’s!Style!of!Affirmation:!The!Metaphors!of!Genealogy’,!p.!71.!!!257!Blondel,!‘Nietzsche’s!Style!of!Affirmation:!The!Metaphors!of!Genealogy’,!p.!75.!!!

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expression.! In! a! quasiFpoetic! fashion,! however,! Nietzsche! also! seems! to! make! a!virtue!of!exploiting!the!contingent! features!of! the!specific! terms!he!employs.!The!challenges!this!raises!for!the!translator!is!well!articulated!by!Walter!Kaufmann:!!‘If!you!give!up!on!Nietzsche’s!meters!and!rhymes!in!order!to!produce!a!literal!version,!the!whole! spirit! and! tone! of! this! book! is! betrayed;! if! you! give! up! on!Nietzsche’s!meaning![…]!the!reader!is!led!astray.’258!!The! normative! question! here! is,! as! James! Chase! and! Jack! Reynolds! suggest,!‘whether!philosophy!should!embrace!style! […]!or!seek!to!minimize! it!as!much!as!possible!because!there!are!cognitive!norms!that!serve!to!legislate!in!some!manner!what!counts!as!a!good!philosophical!style.’259!If!we!suppose!that!philosophy!is!the!pursuit! of! objective! truth,! then! the! multivalency! of! a! ‘literary’! or! metaphoric!approach!would!appear!as!a!dangerous!distraction!from!this!ideal.!We!might!think!that!philosophical! truth!can,!or!should,!aspire! to! the!condition!of!a!mathematical!equation,!where! the! truth! of! its! conceptual! content!would! be! impervious! to! any!linguistic,! social,! or! historical! contingencies.! ! While! the! literary! merits! of! a!philosopher! might! be! granted,! in! this! case,! they! would! be! seen! to! make! no#philosophical! difference.! Following! Berel! Lang,! we! might! call! this! a! ‘neutralist’!model,!where! the!conceptual!content! is! seen!as! independent! from!any!particular!form!of!expression.!Such!a!view!certainly!has!appeal.!With!it!comes!the!possibility!of!translation!into!a!common!idiom!and!the!hope!of!philosophical!progress.260!!!Conversely,! a! strong! ‘interactionist’! model,! where! the! content! is! deemed!constituted!by! the!style!and!specificities!of! its!production,! seems! to!preclude! the!possibility! of! comparative! criticism.! Lang! observes:! ‘if! the! form! of! each! text! is!unique! and! determinant,! then! the! hope! of! subsuming! any! one! of! them! under! a!general! category,! of! evaluating! it! or! even! of! interpreting! it! by! transFindividual!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!258!Walter!Kaufman,!‘Translator’s!Introduction’,!in!GS,!p.!3.!!!259!James!Chase!and!Jack!Reynolds,!Analytic#versus#Continental:#Arguments#on#the#Methods#and#Value#of#Philosophy!(Durham:!Acumen!Publishing!Limited,!2011),!p.!152.!!!260!Lang,!The#Anatomy#of#Philosophical#Style,!p.!13.!!!

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criteria![…]!is!doomed!beforehand.’261!This!sometimes!appears!to!be!a!danger!with!Nietzsche,! when! he! neglects! the! possibility! that! validity! might! derive! from!something! other! than! selfFcreation! and! the! discharging! of! one’s! strength! and!power.!As!Alain!Badiou!posits,!the!Nietzschean!‘event’!risks!being!swallowed!by!its!own!declaration.262!!!But! perhaps! we! can! suggest! a! middle! ground! that! eschews! either! a! ‘neutralist’!conceptual! rarefication! or! an! ‘interactionist’! stylistic! excess.! On! one! hand,!Nietzsche!is!concerned!with!!‘truths’!that!do!not!deny!or!abolish!the!material!parts!involved!in!their!presentation!–!be!it!the!body,!the!senses,!or!words!themselves.263!And! insofar! as! Nietzsche’s! philosophy! aimed! for! a! historically! substantial!transformation,!he!can!hardly!have!intended!to!reduce!philosophy!to!textual!play,!or! a! general! rhetoric! –! as! some! postmodernists! might! want.! Furthermore,! if!philosophical!‘style’!is!simultaneously!a!style!of!living,!then!it!is,!strictly!speaking,!neither! ‘style’! nor! ‘content’! in! the! traditional! sense.! Unlike! poetry! or! fiction,!Nietzsche! does! appear! to! be! trying! to! tell! things! as! they! are.! We! might! recall!Zarathustra’s!distrust!of!the!poets!here:!‘they!all!muddy!the!waters!to!make!them!appear! deep’264,! and! his! wariness! regarding! his! own! expressions:! ! ‘to! speak! in!parables!and!to!limp!and!stammer!like!poets![…]!verily,!I!am!ashamed!that!I!must!still!be!a!poet.’265!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!261!Lang,!The#Anatomy#of#Philosophical#Style,!p.!18.!!262!Alain!Badiou,!‘Who!is!Nietzsche?’,!in!Pli,!Vol.!11,!2001,!p.!6.!!263!Branco,!‘The!Spinning!of!Masks’,!p.!250.!!!264!Z,#‘On!Poets’.!!265!Z,!‘On!Old!and!New!Tablets’,!§2.!!!

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Conclusion%%In!the!closing!passage!of!BGE,!Nietzsche!fears!that!his!own!thoughts,!through!their!very!inscription,!are!already!losing!their!novelty!and!‘are!on!the!point!of!becoming!truths.’!We! immortalize! only! that! ‘which! let! themselves! be!written’,! he! laments;!‘that!which!cannot!live!and!fly!much!longer…’266!Insofar!as!philosophy!presents!a!rupture! with! habitual! understandings! and! social! conventions,! attempting! to!articulate! the! hitherto! unarticulated,! perhaps! in! its! inaugural! movements! it! has!always!involved!a!skirmish!with!the!limits!of!language.!And!these!limits!might!be!all! the! more! deeply! sensed! when! a! philosopher! struggles! for! a! radical! selfFovercoming!and!new!affirmation!life,!as!was!Nietzsche’s!ambition.!The!problem!is!whether!it!is!still!possible!to!advance!an!affirmative!philosophical!project!once!the!authority! of! thought! has! been! called! into! question! through! reference! to! the!‘illusions’!and!‘errors’!of!language.!!!As!we!have!seen,!Nietzsche!displaces!the!goal!of!absolute!Truth!for!the!therapeutic!one! of! health.! But! a! project! can! only! be! considered! therapeutic! if! there! is! some!determination!of!the!situation!or!condition!that!it!is!providing!therapy!for.!Implicit!then!is!a!view!of!how!things!are,!however!partial!or!provisional.!This! is!certainly!the! case! with! Nietzsche.! As! indicated,! his! affirmation! of! life! is! set! against! the!backdrop!of! the!projected!dissolution! of! absolute! foundations.! If! this! dissolution!heralds!the!possibility!of!new!ways!of!being,!it!is!simultaneously!accompanied!by!‘the! great! fright,! the! great! lookingFaround! […]! the! great! nausea,! the! great!seasickness.’!267!While! in! this! mise# en# scene! one! might! be! inclined! to! adopt! a!position!of!radical!skepticism!from!which!to!relativize!everything,!this!is!not!what!Nietzsche!endorses.!He!terms!this! ‘passive!nihilism’,!which!simply!resurrects!God!for! the!modern! age! by! placing! every! human! ‘yes’! and! ‘no’! under! paralysis.! This!impotence!is!well!captured!in!Nietzsche’s!description!of!the!‘objective!man’!in!BGE!who!spreads!himself!out!to!register!the!footprint!of!the!world,!but!does!not!imprint!himself! upon! the! world.! ‘His! mirroring! soul,! for! ever! polishing! itself,! no! longer!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!266!BGE,!§296.!!!267!Z,!‘On!Old!and!New!Tablets’,!§28.!!!

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knows! how! to! affirm! or! how! to! deny…’268!However! Nietzsche! does! not! endorse!indiscriminate! affirmation,! or!what! Zarathustra! calls! ‘omniFsatisfaction.’! ‘I! honor!the! recalcitrant! choosy! tongues! and! stomachs’,! Zarathustra! states;! ‘to! chew! and!digest!everything!–!that!is!truly!the!swine’s!manner.’269!!#!As!we!have!seen,!Nietzsche’s!treatment!of! language!takes!shape!within!this! ‘yes’F‘no’! saying! nexus.! As! a! nest! of! dogmatic! and! metaphysical! assumptions,!experiential! simplifications! and! ‘herd’! interests,! language! presents! itself! as! a!problem!for!Nietzsche,!and!elicits!a!suspicious!‘no’!saying;!but!as!a!mutable!force!of!new! expressive! possibilities,! embodiments! of! value,! and! the! very! vehicle! of! his!transformative! project,! it! elicits! an! affirmative! ‘yes’! saying.! If! Nietzsche’s!conception! and! critique! regarding! the! limits! of! language! suggests! that! ‘we#barely#reach#the#doubt#that#sees#this#limitation#as#a#limitation’270,!in!his!use!of!language!he!is!perhaps!not! so! far! from!Hegel! in! realizing! that! ‘[s]omething! is!only!known,!or!even! felt,! to!be!a! restriction! […]! if!one! is! at! the! same! time!beyond! it.’271!So!while!Nietzsche!expresses!a!wariness!regarding!words,!communication!clearly!remained!important! for! him.! The! limits! of! language! he! thematizes! are! not! intended! as! an!injunction!to!silence.!They!are!to!be!confronted,!not!avoided.!Zarathustra!descends!from!the!mountains!to!speak!with!men,!despite!concerns!that!he!is!‘not!the!mouth!for! these! ears.’272!Similarly,! Nietzsche’s! distrust! of! language! is! tempered! by! ‘a!continued! exercise! with! words! with! the! aim! of! presenting! a! wellFarticulated,!forceful!philosophy!to!the!world.’273!His!espousal!of!the!‘gay!science’,!for!example,!not!only!involves!the!diagnosis!that!metaphysics!is!dead,!but!also,!therapeutically,!by! the! very! spirit! of! its! articulation,! seeks! to! ‘make! that! claim! good.’274 !By!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!268!BGE,!§207.!!269!Z,!‘On!the!Spirit!of!Gravity’,!§2.!!!270!WP,!§522.!!271!Hegel,!The#Encyclopaedia#Logic,!pp.!105F106.!!!272!Z,!‘Zarathustra’s!Prologue’,!§5.!!!273!Marion!Faber,!‘Introduction’,#in!HAH,!p.!xxvii.!!!!274!Lang,!The#Anatomy#of#Philosophical#Style,!p.!257.!!!

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reinvigorating! language’s! connections! with! musicality! and! the! body,! Nietzsche!surely!did!not!consider!his!language!to!be!a!mere!net!of!‘errors’!and!‘illusions’,!but,!paradoxically,!a!tool!in!‘the!heroic!overcoming!of!that!very!premise.’275!Against!the!‘metaphysical!need’,!Nietzsche!underscores! that! the!world!we!will! in! language! is!always! a! creation! of! this! world,! however! disfigured! this! presentation! might!currently!be.276!His! critique!of! language! is! thus! inextricable! from!his! ambition! to!use!language!in!a!superior!and!lifeFaffirming!way.!!%If! Nietzsche’s! treatment! of! language! is! the! site! of! perennial! tensions! between!suspicions!and!affirmations,!diagnostics!and!therapeutics,!‘no’!and!‘yes’!saying,!we!might! close! by! recalling! the! tensions! that! mark! his! project! more! broadly.!Throughout!his!work!we!find!a!series!of!oscillating!standpoints:!between!freedom!and!constraint,!seriousness!and!play,!the!relishing!of!surfaces!and!the!plumbing!of!depths,! the!renunciation!of!absolute!Truth!and!a!certain!ethical!heroism!of!truth,!‘downFtoFearth’! sobriety! and! the! lofty! ecstasy! of! mountaintops,! Apollonian!moderation! and! Dionysian! exuberance,! perspectival! multiplication! and!philological! attention.! His! unwavering! concern! with! ‘health’! notwithstanding,!Nietzsche! rarely! leaves! the! reader!with! the!demands! of! an! either/or!position! or!decision.277!To! ‘be! healthy’! in! an! extraFmoral! world,! for! Nietzsche,! is! not! to!prostrate! oneself! before! universal! injunctions! or! to! revel! in! some! boundless!freedom,! but! precisely! the! independent! navigation! and! maintenance! of! such!tensions! –! perhaps! like! walking! a! tightrope.278!While! we! might! not! agree! with!Nietzsche! on! exactly! where! (or! even! if)! humanity! has! gone! wrong,! or! on! the!courses! we! might! take,! this! task! remains! a! provocative! one.! We! could! adopt!Nietzsche’s! own! turn! of! phrase! and! say! that,! when! it! came! to! language,! the!provocation! he! felt!was! ‘[t]he! attraction! of! everything! problematic’279!–!which! is!perhaps!a!nice!encapsulation!of!philosophy!itself.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!275!Marion!Faber,!‘Introduction’,#in!HAH,!p.!xxvii.!!!!276!Crawford,!The#Beginnings#of#Nietzsche’s#Theory#of#Language,!p.!xiv.!!277!Klein,!Nietzsche#and#the#Promise#of#Philosophy,!p.!77.!!278!Z,!‘Zarathustra’s!Prologue’,!§6.!!!279#GS,!‘Preface’,!§3.!My!emphasis!added.!!!

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%

%

%

Abbreviations%of%Nietzsche’s%works%used%in%this%paper%%

%

%

A#–!The#Antichrist#BGE!–!Beyond#Good#and#Evil#BOT#–#The#Birth#of#Tragedy#

CW!–%The#Case#of#Wagner#

D#–#Daybreak#

EH!–!Ecce#Homo#HAH#–#Human#All#Too#Human#

GM#–#The#Genealogy#of#Morals#

GS#–#The#Gay#Science#

MOM!–!‘Mixed!Opinions!and!Maxims’,!in!Human#All#Too#Human#II#OL# –! ‘The! Origins! of! Language’,! in! Friedrich# Nietzsche# on# Rhetoric# and#Language#

RRL!–!‘The!Relation!of!the!Rhetorical!to!Language’,!in!Friedrich#Nietzsche#on#Rhetoric#and#Language!TI#–#Twilight#of#the#Idols!TL# –# ‘On! Truth! and! Lies! in! a! Nonmoral! Sense’,! in! Philosophy# and# Truth:#Selections#from#Nietzsche’s#Notebooks#of#the#Early#1870s#

WP#–#The#Will#to#Power#

WS#–#‘The!Wanderer!and!his!Shadow’,!in!Human#All#Too#Human#II#Z#–#Thus#Spoke#Zarathustra#

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