Nietzsche's Philosophy of Life Affirmation Experimenting with Art and Science to Transfigure Humankind

This anthology broadly examines the interrelated roles of art, science, and experimentation in Nietzsche's philosophical project. It is divided into two parts, the first organized around the theme of experimentally reconceiving our world, the second investigating the aforementioned subjects in Nietzsche’s “free spirit” or “middle period” works. Together, the essays comprising the book underscore Nietzsche’s concern that experimentation with values ultimately provide humankind with a new “wherefore” or purpose. Wide-ranging in its scope, this volume brings together a diverse group of scholars working in both the analytic and continental traditions to provide original insights into Nietzsche’s thought. A unique contribution to the scholarship, it deepens understanding of the relationship between Nietzsche’s critiques of art and science, the role this relationship plays in his futural thought, and the experimental, life-affirming practices that his free spirit project may enable toward the transfiguration of humankind.

Introduction.- Part One: Experimentally Reconceiving Our World.- Chapter 1. Fictions less Utile: Nietzsche on Living Artistically, Jill Marsden.- Chapter 2. Naturalizing and Inhabiting Nature, Robert Guay.- Chapter 3. Nietzsche’s Experimental Skepticism and the Question of Values, Kathia Hanza.- Chapter 4. The Age of Experimentation: Modernity, Democracy, and the Philosophy of the Future, Pieter De Corte.- Chapter 5. Welcome to the Machina: Science as a Form of Life in Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy, Glen Baier.- Chapter 6. Nietzsche’s Untimely Antidote to the Science of History, Jessica Elkayam.- Part Two: Experimentation, Art, and Science in the Free-Spirit Works.- Chapter 7. Science, Human Flourishing, and the 'Metaphysical Need' in Nietzsche’s Free Spirit Works, Dylan Bailey.- Chapter 8. Diagnosis and Prescription – Nietzsche’s Revaluing of Modernity in Human, All Too Human, Pedro Nagem de Souza.- Chapter 9. Experimentation in Nietzsche’s Dawn, Katrina Mitcheson.- Chapter 10. The Art of Parable for Life: Considerations on The Gay Science 125, Stephen Cheung.- Chapter 11. Nietzsche’s “Fate” in Book IV of The Gay Science, Fraser Logan.- Chapter 12. Experimentalism as a Way of Life in Book IV of The Gay Science, Jozef Majerník.

Michael J. McNeal is an independent, interdisciplinary scholar who teaches philosophy and international relations at universities in Denver Colorado, and serves as Secretary to the Friedrich Nietzsche Society. Dr. McNeal has created and edited or co-edited five scholarly anthologies and his work has appeared in multiple volumes and journals.