Nietzsche on the passions and self-cultivation
Contra the Stoics and Spinoza
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21150232 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Keith Ansell-Pearson (0000-0002-6171-8003, University of Warwick, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 245-265 |
| Publication date | 2022-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Man and World (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0025-1534 • E-ISSN: 1573-1103 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11007-021-09563-8 |
| OpenAlex | W4200386685 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 14 |
Although the literature on Nietzsche is now voluminous one area where there has surprisingly been very little research concerns Nietzsche on the passions. This essay aims to correct this neglect. My focus is on illuminating Nietzsche on the passions in relation to his primary teaching on self-cultivation. To illuminate his position, I focus attention on examining his relation to Stoic teaching on the passions. If for Nietzsche the Christian mind-set involves a disturbing pathological excess of feeling, the Stoic way of living results for him in a petrified of life devoid of movement and growth. After a consideration of his relation to Stoic teaching I then examine his relation to Spinoza on the emotions or affects. Whilst I acknowledge the affinities between the two thinkers and their criticisms of Stoic teaching, I maintain that it is an error to seek to construe Nietzsche and Spinoza as having an identical teaching on the passions. In the final section of the essay, I provide an appreciation of Nietzsche’s recommendation that instead of demonising the passions in the manner of the Christian psyche and its legacy, or extirpating our passions as recommended by the Stoics, we need to learn how to transform them into joys or delights
Epicureanism · Epistemology · Feeling · Passions · Psyche · Psychoanalysis · Stoicism · Education, Literature, Philosophy Research · Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Hegel · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |