The Nietzsche Podcast
By Untimely Reflections
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A few collected essays and thoughts: untimely-reflections.blogspot.com/
The Nietzsche PodcastOct 31, 2023
93: The Idle Hours of a Psychologist
92: The Four Great Errors
Q&A #9
Untimely Reflections #31: Quinn Williams - On Deleuze, and Methods of Interpretation
91: Carl Jung - Nietzsche on the Couch
90: Carl Jung - Archetypes & The Collective Unconscious
Untimely Reflections #30: Weltgeist - Aesthetics of Schopenhauer & Nietzsche
Weltgeist x The Nietzsche Podcast.
A long-awaited conversation. We discuss: the aesthetics of Schopenhauer v/s Nietzsche, the Schopenhauerian influence on Wagner's music, The Pale Blue Dot, the Eros as discussed in Plato's Symposium, philosophy and art as luxuries of civilization, and what Nietzsche describes as the asceticism of the scientific worldview.
Untimely Reflections #29: Daniel Tutt - Boxing with Nietzsche
Untimely Reflections #28: Stephen Hicks - Is Nietzsche a Postmodernist?
89: Sigmund Freud - Sublimations, Dreams & Repressions
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) said of Nietzsche that he had "more penetrating knowledge of himself than any man who ever lived or was likely to live." In spite of this, Freud always denied that Nietzsche was an influence on his thought, in spite of his multiple references to Nietzsche in his early work. While Freud certainly drew from Nietzsche's ideas, he was an original thinker in his own right, who followed on the same path of inquiry as Nietzsche, but with the tools of empirical research and the within the scientific spirit of psycho-analysis. Freud comes to believe that the driving force of human life is libido, a sexual impulse, and that the stages of psychosexual development determine the health or pathology of one's adult life. Central to his analysis of human psychology is the Oedipus Complex, and his notion that the superego emerges to suppress it. In this episode, we also discuss the Id (Unconsciousness), the faculty of repression, the concept of cathexis, and the meaning of dreams. In spite of the ways in which Freud has been marginalized in recent years, in his work we find an extraordinary thinker who built upon Nietzsche's ideas, and truly managed to change the entire paradigm of psychological thinking.
88: René Girard - The Case for the Crucified
Among Nietzsche's critics, René Girard is perhaps unique. Girard's understanding of human civilization and the origins of human culture is that it is based on ritual, collective violence against a scapegoated individual - and he argues that Nietzsche is one of the only thinkers hitherto who understood this. Nietzsche's famous formula - Dionysus versus the Crucified - is the title of Girard's critical essay on Nietzsche. He does not quibble with Nietzsche's framing of the situation, but rather with Nietzsche's conclusions. While Nietzsche takes up for the side of Dionysus, Girard stands on the side of the Crucified, arguing that Nietzsche was fundamentally wrong to lament the ascendance of Christianity and to yearn for a return to the Dionysian. In the course of Nietzsche's defense of Dionysus, he put forward moral theories that were "untenable", and become increasingly "inhuman". Among the many commenters of Nietzsche, both disciples and critics, it is rare to find a figure like Girard, who recognizes Nietzsche's brilliance, but totally condemns his legacy. Join me today to learn about the life of Rene Girard, his theories of mimetic desire and scapegoating, and the impassioned case he puts forward for The Crucified.
87: Science and Wisdom in Battle
Today we examine an 1875 Fragment, entitled "Science and Wisdom in Battle". Not only does this fragment contain one of my favorite quotations of Nietzsche's, it represents his continual grappling with the meaning of Ancient Greek culture. In particular, we discuss the importance of "relations of tension" in Nietzsche's earlier work: art versus science, culture versus the state, history versus forgetting, and of course, science and wisdom. Both are drives to knowledge, and the tension between them created philosophy in the tragic age of the Hellenes. Science is characterized by logical, objective, specialized knowledge, whereas Wisdom is defined by Nietzsche as a tendency for illogical generalization, leaping to one's ultimate goal, and an artistic desire to reflect the world in one's own mirror.
Episode art: Sofia & Athena
86: Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks pt 2 - Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Democritus
85: Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks, pt. 1 - Thales, Anaximander, Heraclitus
ideas appear in the background, inchoate, unnamed… not yet fully formed. In Nietzsche’s interpretation of the Pre-Platonic philosophers of Ancient Greece, we find the starting place for his later philosophical career. The inspiration for many of those great ideas, can arguably be found in his exegesis of these extraordinary figures from the Hellenic world, from the 6th to the 4th century BC.
In today's episode, I'll introduce the text, then we'll cover the first three figures who I've classed as "the first cosmologists": Thales, Anaximander, and Heraclitus. While I'm mostly sticking to the text of the essay, I fill in some details using Nietzsche's lectures on the Pre-Platonics, on which this essay was based.
Episode art: photo of the Temple of Poseidon
Q&A #8
84: Eckermann’s Conversations with Goethe
83: Baruch Spinoza’s Geometric Faith
Nietzsche says of Spinoza, "I have a precursor! And what a precursor!" While he was critical of Spinoza, Nietzsche acknowledged the ideas of Spinoza as profoundly influential on his thought. And yet, Spinoza's work remains famously difficult. Where he fits in to the Western philosophical canon is not readily apparent. Rarely is he portrayed as a great opponent of any one philosopher or school, and it seems that he lacks true antipodes. He is grouped among the three great rationalists, along with Descartes and Leibniz - even though these three come to radically different metaphysical conclusions, and bear little resemblance to one another aside from this one classification of their epistemological stance. And since Spinoza's philosophy is so voluminous, its ideas interrelated and comprehensive, approaching Spinoza and having some idea of where he stands within the discourse is difficult for the average reader. In this episode, we'll consider Spinoza's life and work, and then consider the ways in which his life parallels Nietzsche, and the ways in which his life influenced Nietzsche.
Episode Art: Samuel Hirszenberg - Excommunicated Spinoza
ANNOUNCEMENT.
82: Blaise Pascal’s Faithful Calculations
Today, we will examine Pascal's life, and the basics of his philosophy. Then, we will compare these two malcontents of the Enlightenment. Both question the supremacy of human reason, and offer an alternative to the materialistic concerns of a secular society. Both were men afflicted with ill health, and who struggled with mental illness. But they come to completely contrasting views in their assessment of life. In spite of this, there are ways in which Pascal's influence may have lasting importance for understanding Nietzsche. In Daybreak, Pascal is a stand-in for Christian hatred of mankind, who may have shaped Nietzsche's psychological analysis of Christianity. And in the eternal recurrence, we arguably find a variation on Pascal's Wager. While Pascal urges us to bet on God, Nietzsche's invitation is to bet on the world.
“The Only Logical Christian”: Nietzsche’s Critique of Pascal by Brendan Donnellan, available on JSTOR: www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469656557_oflaherty.12?seq=10
81: Michel de Montaigne - “What Do I Know?”
Untimely Reflections #27: Devin Goure & the Nietzschean Left
80: Gilles Deleuze, pt. 2: Becoming-Active
The Dionysmas Special
79: Gilles Deleuze, pt. 1: Against the Dialectic
Untimely Reflections #26: Andrei Georgescu (Artiexus) - Seedless Flowers & Materialist Theories of Creativity
I'd originally planned to launch into Deleuze this week, but I'm busy playing shows all weekend and decided to release this instead. I think this was a great episode, perhaps one of the best Untimely Reflections yet.
Andrei Georgescu is an old friend of the show. He's a writer, a graphic designer, and a podcaster. A few months ago, he published an essay called, "Seedless Flowers: Artificial Intelligence and Creativity Fetishism", in which he analyzes the public reaction to art created by artificial intelligence, and the popular prejudices about creativity. Artists tend to believe that creativity is something which has to come from a being with a soul, treating it as a magical happening that is somehow beyond the material reality. A.I. art challenges that viewpoint, demonstrating the possibility of creativity coming from a collection of metal and wires. We discuss the "ugly duckling" theory of art, in which we value the effort that went into the piece over the final product or the quality of the piece. Such ideas compel us to dismiss beautiful works that were produced or aided by artificial intelligence, while holding up sub-par works as 'true art'. Our conversation about art takes us into my theories about art as communication, the origins of linguistic communication, the possibility of mapping the logical structures of languages. Towards the end of the episode, we take a look at the passage of Nietzsche's from The Gay Science, entitled, "The Genius of the Species", and argue over the importance of consciousness.
We originally recorded a discussion about the article a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, fate was unkind and our first conversation about it was lost. I really kicked myself over that one, since it was my fault. Nevertheless, the timing was right to attempt it again, and I think we had a fascinating conversation.
You can find some excellent video essays on his Youtube Channel, @Artiexus: https://www.youtube.com/@artiexus
Andrei's article, the jumping-off point for this conversation: https://andreigeorgescu.ca/seedless-flowers-artificial-intelligence-and-creativity-fetishism/
Episode art: Prayer by Andrei Georgescu
78: Hegel’s Master-Slave Dialectic
77: Robert Pirsig’s Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Untimely Reflections #25 - William Kaiser: AI Optimism
76: Nietzsche’s Apology
75: Socrates’ Apology
74: Three Metamorphoses of the Spirit (As Seen in the Life of Nietzsche)
All Hallow’s Special: Sadegh Hedayat’s The Blind Owl
73: The Power to Forget
Welcome to all free spirits, wanderers, madmen and godless anti-metaphysicians! It is high time to drink from the waters of Lethe, and forget all that came before in this podcast. Today, we embark on a new phase of our voyage of inquiry, concerning Nietzsche's views on the origins of self-consciousness. We'll consider his remarks on memory and forgetfulness, found in his early essay Use and Abuse of History for Life, in the second essay of Genealogy of Morality, as well as some passages in Human, All Too Human & Wanderer and His Shadow. The expansion of self-consciousness is linked with punishment, revenge, debt, and the demands of civilization upon mankind.
Episode art: Gustave Dore - The River of Lethe
Wandering Above A Sea of Fog #2
Beyond Good and Evil #15: Conclusion - Struggle Against Platonism (IX.268 - IX.296)
Beyond Good and Evil #14: The Essence of Life (IX.257 - IX.267)
The first half of the final chapter, “What is Noble”. We cover the concepts of the order of rank, pathos of distance, the origins of civilization and morality. The master/slave morality is formally introduced, and Nietzsche gives several remarks supporting his aristocratic radicalism. But, shortly thereafter, he pivots and begins describing nobility and plebeianism as states of the soul rather than a matter of inheritance. Nietzsche challenges us to overcome the simplicity of Rousseau’s view of nature, or the Lockean/Kantian optimism about civilization. In Nietzsche's words, truth is hard - and whatever our idealism, we should be honest with ourselves, at least up to the point of admitting what the essence of life truly is: in his estimation, will to power. Episode art - Karl Bryullov - Sacking of Rome (Wikimedia Commons)
Beyond Good and Evil #13: Fatherlandishness (VIII.240 - VIII.256)
Beyond Good and Evil #12 (Featuring Vivienne Magdalen): Women (VII.231 - VII.239)
Nietzsche at the Movies: Barbenheimer
Beyond Good and Evil #11: Immoralist Virtue Ethics (VII.214 - VII.230)
Beyond Good and Evil #10: We Scholars (VI.204 - VI.213)
Beyond Good and Evil #9: Morality as Timidity (V.197 - V.203)
Q&A #7
Beyond Good and Evil #8: Morality is a Tyrannical Impulse (V.186 - V.196)
Beyond Good and Evil #7: Interlude (IV.63-IV.185)
Beyond Good and Evil #6: Self-Denial as Power (III.47-III.62)
Beyond Good and Evil #5: The Great Hunt (II.38 - III.46)
Untimely Reflections #24: Karl Nord on James Burnham - His Life, His Thought & The Machiavellians
WARNING: It seems my microphone was not fully plugged in during this exchange, and the computer defaulted to the internal microphone... which is, well, garbage. So, my audio quality sounds pretty dreadful here, but it's at least listenable, and there's no way we were re-doing this entire conversation. As mentioned towards the end, however, I may do a regular series episode concerning Burnham's Machiavellians at a later
time, if there is further interest in the topic.
My friend Karl Nord and I discuss James Burnham, one of the intellectual forebears of modern conservative thought in the United States. Remarkably, upon a closer look into his life, we find that Burnham is an iconoclast who could have been called a socialist, a nationalist, a conservative, a Trotskyist, a neoliberal, a centrist or a social democrat at various times in his life - and yet, he repudiates and attacks all of these ideologies at various times as well. This is a thinker who once thought a communist revolution was inevitable for America, who wrote briefs for the CIA, who supported McCarthy, and who shaped the worldview of generations of conservatives. In the end, the only label that suits him is "Machiavellian", which is fittingly the title of one of his books, which we take a cursory look at during this episode.
Beyond Good and Evil #4: The Esoteric (II.26 - II.37)
Beyond Good and Evil #3: One Ruling Thought (I.17 - II.25)
In this next episode on Beyond Good & Evil, we discuss the simplification of the world out of a psychological need, and the ways in which we have sought for “Being” in the soul, the ego, the will, and in the materialistic atom. All were expressions of the ”one ruling thought” of the drive doing the philosophizing. Nietzsche reconceptualizes thinking and willing as inseparable, and declares psychology to be the route to the deepest questions. We conclude with a look at the first two passages of part two, The Free Spirit, in which Nietzsche advocates a departure from solemn seriousness and martyrdom for the sake of truth, in exchange for love of uncertainty and a sense of humor.
Episode art: Jean Delville - The God-Man