Nietzsche's Machiavellian Politics, And Political Writings of Friedrich Nietzsche

8/12/2019 Nietzsche's Machiavellian Politics, And Political Writings of Friedrich Nietzsche

1/4

Nietzsche's Machiavellian Politics, and: Political Writings of FriedrichNietzsche (review)

Paul F. Glenn

The Journal of Nietzsche Studies, Issue 41, Spring 2011, pp. 129-131(Article)

Published by Penn State University PressDOI: 10.1353/nie.2011.0008

For additional information about this article

Access provided by The University Of Texas at Austin, General Libraries (26 Mar 2014 01:51 GMT)

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/nie/summary/v041/41.glenn.html
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/nie/summary/v041/41.glenn.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/nie/summary/v041/41.glenn.html


2/4


3/4

130 B OOK R EVIEWS

part of his interpretation): he offers extensive textual support for his argument and cogently fitsthe parts of Nietzsches philosophy together.

In the next chapter, Dombowsky takes on what he calls the radical liberal reading of Nietzsche.This view, put forward by scholars such as Mark Warren, William Connolly, and Lawrence Hatab,argues that Nietzsches philosophical teachings are incompatible with his antidemocratic politicalviews. Instead, the argument goes, Nietzsches moral and epistemological teachings lend themselvesto a postmodern theory of democracy: if no view is privileged, then all are equal, and none canlegitimately suppress others. Dombowsky argues that this view is flat-out wrong, and it is here thathe makes perhaps the best argument of the book. Nietzsches elitist views are inextricably linked tohis epistemology and ontology. Not all perspectives are equal. Nietzsches agonism implies a lackof equality because will to power involves the strong dominating the weak. Again, I am predisposedto accept this interpretation of Nietzsches thought, but I find that Dombowsky makes a compellingcase that the radical liberal view simply misses the point.

Instead of a radical liberal view, Dombowsky argues that Nietzsche should be understood as

growing out of thinkers like de Tocqueville and Taine (what Dombowsky calls the aristocratic liberalschool of thought). These thinkers were very skeptical of democracys leveling tendencies but didnot favor replacing liberal regimes with aristocratic ones. Nietzsche shares this school of thoughts

profound skepticism of the common person and the fear that democracy is ruining culture. Nietzsche,however, radicalizes this school of thought, pushing him much closer to neo-Machiavellian elitetheorists (such as Vilfredo Pareto and Gaetano Mosca). Dombowskys final chapter argues that,like these thinkers, Nietzsche adopts Machiavellis tactics and outlook, including the use of vio-lence and deception and the importance of virtu , plus the willingness to use current regimes andreligions as tools to promote the creation of a new nobility. According to Dombowsky, Nietzscheadopts Machiavellis techniques of control, attempting to use democracy for nondemocratic ends.Compared to the earlier chapters, the argument here is not as strong. Dombowsky makes some

interesting connections, but his case is not fully persuasive.One of the significant problems of the book is that Dombowsky does not provide a clear account

of Machiavellis teachings; he writes as if it were clear what Machiavelli believed. The huge range ofinterpretations of Machiavelli shows that there is no consensus on the subject: for some, Machiavelliis a teacher of evil, while for others he is a principled advocate of republican government. YetDombowsky does not engage this debate. So when Dombowsky states that Nietzsche was a discipleof Machiavelli ( Nietzsches Machiavellian Politics , 5), what exactly does this mean? Unfortunately,there is no clear answer to this question, which is a rather serious problem.

Dombowsky frequently invokes Nietzsches standard of lifeall that supports life is good,while all that undermines it is badin his account of Nietzsches politics. However, this is prob-lematic because Nietzsche himself points out that life cannot be a standard: no living thing can truly

evaluate life, and even things that seem to negate life actually serve a form of life (albeit a weakone). While in itself this may not be a critical problem, it suggests that Dombowsky is not reading

Nietzsche closely or with subtlety. And this to me raises doubts about Dombowskys reading of Nietzsche in general.

An example of this comes in Dombowskys assertion of Nietzsches use of the noble lie. Heasserts that the core component of Nietzsches noble lie is will to power or order of rank ( Nietzsches

Machiavellian Politics , 149). If the order of rank is a noble lie, then is Nietzsche really an elitist?Or is he an elitist whose elitism is merely preference, with no objective reality? Should we simplydisregard Nietzsches statements that the order of rank is innate? Dombowsky states that (unlikePlatos) Nietzsches noble lie has no salutary effect; to what end, then, is the noble lie told? GivenDombowskys repeated emphasis on Nietzsches antidemocratic views, this is a serious issue, andto my mind Dombowsky offers no satisfactory answer to these questions.

Political Writings of Friedrich Nietzsche fits with Nietzsches Machiavellian Politics becauseit, too, seeks to anchor Nietzsche in his time (probably even more than the former book). The book


4/4

BOOK R EVIEWS 131

consists of virtually all of Nietzsches political passages, from his earliest juvenilia to his final published works. Cameron and Dombowsky intersperse the selections with valuable historicalinformation on German politics of the late nineteenth century. These comments are very useful forunderstanding some of Nietzsches terminology as well the targets of his praise and criticism.

The bulk of Political Writings of Friedrich Nietzsche consists of excerpts from Nietzsches writ-ings, placed in chronological order. The books great strength is that it is comprehensive: it covers

Nietzsches entire life. The book includes a number of writings from Nietzsches student days,including his essay on Napoleon IIIs seizure of power. Of perhaps greatest interest to Nietzschescholars is the inclusion of several lectures Nietzsche gave in his early days at Basel, several ofthem on overtly political topics. These lectures have, at times, been difficult to find in translation,so Cameron and Dombowsky provide something valuable by presenting these essays. Much of the

books is composed of excerpts from Nietzsches published writings that deal with politics: everythingfrom The Birth of Tragedy to The Antichrist is covered.

Perhaps the greatest weakness of the book is that it does not provide context for the excerpts.

More than many other thinkers, Nietzsches writings are heavily context-dependent; it is easy tomisinterpret a passage if you do not know the context. Some of the worst examples of misinter- pretation of Nietzsches work have been based on stripping a quote from its context; for example,the infamous passage in On the Genealogy of Morals about the blond beast sounds like Nazi

propagandauntil you read further and see that Nietzsche includes Arabs and Japanese among theblond beasts. An edited volume like this one necessarily strips passages out of context, at least tosome extent, which could interfere with understanding Nietzsches political thought.

It was not at all clear to me what the target audience for Political Writings of Friedrich Nietzsche is.Serious scholars of Nietzsches politics probably wouldnt have a huge interest in this book becausethey have access to virtually all of the texts already. A few unpublished writings (especially from

Nietzsches youth) are of interest, but that is not enough to be a major resource. The volume is also

not likely to be useful as an introduction to Nietzsches political writings because of the issue ofcontext mentioned in the previous paragraph. Political Writings of Friedrich Nietzsche is probably

best used as a resource for those who have some understanding of Nietzsches politics but who arelooking for a bit more depth. I dont know how big of an audience that is.

I have offered some harsh words about these books. They do, however, make contributions tothe debates about Nietzsches politics, especially by tying Nietzsche concretely to political events ofhis time. As I pointed out at the start, Bergmann is the only other scholar to pursue this topic at suchlength. However, these books are problematic. Both are worth reading, but with a critical eye.

Independent Scholar [email protected]

Jacob Golomb, Weaver Santaniello, and Ronald Lehrer, eds. Nietzsche and Depth Psychology .Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999. xv + 364 pp. ISBN 0-7914-4139-3. Paper,$30.95.

W ILLOW V ERKERK

This collection of seventeen essays analyzes the theme of psychology in Nietzsches works from thestandpoint that Nietzsche himself wished to be considered a psychologist and viewed psychology asa means of exploring the most fundamental problems of the human condition. Nietzsches philoso-

phy, in both style and content, is approached as containing a psychological methodology that aims

JOURNAL OF NIETZSCHE STUDIES, Issue 41, 2011.Copyright 2011 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.

Nietzsche's Machiavellian Politics, And Political Writings of Friedrich Nietzsche

Documents

Transcript of Nietzsche's Machiavellian Politics, And Political Writings of Friedrich Nietzsche