Nietzsche's Philosophical Psychology

In Nietzsche's Philosophical Psychology, Mattia Riccardi offers a systematic account of Nietzsche's thought on the human mind. A central theme is the nature of and relation between the unconscious and conscious mind. Whereas Nietzsche takes consciousness to be a mere "surface"--as he writes in Ecce Homo--that evolved in the course of human socialisation, he sees the bedrock of human psychology as constituted by unconscious drives and affects. But how does he conceive of such basic psychological items and what does he mean exactly when he talks about consciousness and says it is a "surface"? And how does such a conception of human psychology inform his views about self, self-knowledge and will? Riccardi addresses these and related questions by combining historical accuracy with conceptual analysis: Nietzsche's claims are carefully reconstructed by taking into account the intellectual context in which they emerged; in order to work out their philosophical significance, Riccardi discusses them in the light of contemporary debates such as those about higher-order theories of consciousness and mind-reading.

Mattia Riccardi, University of Porto

Mattia Riccardi is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Porto. He holds a PhD from Humboldt University, and was postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Philosophy in Porto and researcher at the International Center for Philosophy NRW in Bonn. His main areas of research are
post-Kantian philosophy, in particular Nietzsche, and philosophy of mind, in particular perception and action.

1. Introduction
Part I - Beneath the Surface
2. Drives
3. Affects
4. The Soul's Order
Part II - Mapping the Surface
5. The Surface Revealed
6. More (Kinds of) Consciousness
7. Nietzsche's Epiphenomenalism about RConsciousness
Part III - The Upshot
8. The Self
9. Self-Knowledge
10. The Will
11. The Ideal Type
12. Conclusions