Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Review of "A Companion to Nietzsche," ed. Keith Ansell Pearson

This is a worthwhile collection that portrays many of the most preeminent Nietzschean scholars in Europe and in the United States. This volume adds to an excellent series in philosophy by Blackwell Publishing. There is a moving array of Nietzsche scholars who represent a plethora of approaches to Nietzsche. Following the two practical introductions to Nietzsche's life, philosophy, and style, the varied essays address the most familiar Nietzschean themes, as well as important but more neglected ones, such as Nietzsche’s notion of science. There are major sections on Art, Nature, and Individuation; Nietzsche’s Philosophy of the Future; Philosophy of Mind; Philosophy and Genealogy; Ethics; Politics; Aesthetics; and Evolution and Life. Moreover, there are innovative treatments of Nietzsche’s core and enigmatic ideas such as eternal recurrence, the will to power, and the overhuman. Interestingly woven together are Nietzsche’s published and unpublished Nachlass. Among the contributors are a stimulating selection of scholars and new writers on Nietzschean themes. The reliable Keith Ansell Pearson edited the volume with contributions by Jill Marsden, Babette E. Babich, Volker Gerhardt, Kathleen Marie Higgins, Laurence Lampert, Richard Schacht, Andreas Urs Sommer and Paul J. M. van Tongeren.