Nietzsche's Unfashionable Observations

Nietzsche's Unfashionable Observations - often translated as the Untimely Meditations or Thoughts Out of Season - is made up of four independent essays written between 1873 and 1876. The book remains a puzzle: what structure, principles and arguments underlie the essays?

Presupposing no prior knowledge of Nietzsche or the text, Jeffrey Church sets the essays in historical and philosophical context, guides you through the text section-by-section and develops a structural overview of each essay. He reveals how the common themes of freedom, culture and genius unify the book.

Jeffrey Church is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston. He is the author of Nietzsche's Culture of Humanity: Beyond Aristocracy and Democracy in the Early Period (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and Infinite Autonomy: The Divided Individual in the Political Thought of G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche (Penn State University Press, 2012), which was awarded Best First Book by the Foundations of Political Theory section of APSA.

Chronology
Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Philosophical Background
Nietzsche, neo-Kantian
Schopenhauer and the fundamental problem
Kant, exemplarity and the value of freedom
Schiller and the artistic life
Culture in Kant and Schiller

2. David Strauss the Confessor and the Writer
Structural overview
1. The political corruption of German culture
2. The democratic corruption of German culture
3. David Strauss as the 'anti-genius'
4-5. The 'heaven' of the new faith
6-7. The 'courage' of the new faith
7-8. The 'world' of the new faith
8-12. Strauss as a bad writer

3. On the Utility and Liability of History for Life
Structural overview
Foreword: the philosopher in the historical age
1. Life
2. Monumental history
3. Antiquarian and critical history
4. The transition from ancient to modern history
5. The decline of the active life in modernity
6. Justice and the new history
7. Arrested growth and development in modernity
8. Modernity's philosophy of history
9. The redemption of humanity
10. Fixing modern culture

4. Schopenhauer as Educator
Structural overview
1. Freedom
2. The exemplar's education of affect
3. The exemplar's education of character
4. The exemplar's education of culture
5. Elevating the individual to culture
6. Culture and the value of existence
7. Modern conditions for fostering genius
8. The independence of culture from politics

5. Richard Wagner in Bayreuth
Structural overview
1. The tasks of the unfashionable audience
2. Wagner's two drives
3. Wagner's struggle with modern culture
4. Art and the tragic justification of existence
5-6. Wagner's redemption of modern culture
7. The freedom of the audience
8. Wagner's life
9. Wagner the artist
10. Wagner's influence
11. The call to the audience

6. The Observations' Influence on Nietzsche's Mature Thought
Unity in 'David Strauss'
The value of history in 'Utility and Liability'
Exemplarity in 'Schopenhauer as Educator'
Self-tyranny in 'Richard Wagner'

Glossary of Key Terms
Guide to Further Reading on the Observations
Bibliography
Index