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Nietzsche’s Critique of the Subject
Nietzsche’s Critique of the Subject

Author(s): Saulius Geniušas
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Vytauto Didžiojo Universitetas
Keywords: body; ego; Nietzsche; multiplicity; self; subject.

Summary/Abstract: The following analysis has a threefold task. First, it aims to identify the central aspects of Nietzsche’s critique of the subject. Secondly, it aims to identify the main function that this critique serves. And thirdly, it aims to interpret the subject Nietzsche defends and endorses in terms of a bodily multiplicity of drives, instincts and needs. The paper argues against the standard interpretation of the problematic of the subject in Nietzsche, according to which Nietzsche abandons the subjectivistic approach in favor of an entirely different explanatory framework. The paper shows that far from supporting an atomistic or an anarchic view of the subject, Nietzsche’s narrative endorses a notion of subjectivity that entails a double affirmation: the affirmation of the ruling drive of the body and of the style of the subject’s becoming. In virtue of such a double affirmation, the self discloses itself as both the text and its interpretation.

  • Issue Year: 10/2008
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 15-21
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: English
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