Nietzsche, Biology and Metaphor

By Gregory Moore

Book Overview

Nietzsche, Biology and Metaphor explores the German philosopher's response to the intellectual debates sparked by the publication of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species. By examining the abundance of biological metaphors in Nietzsche's writings, Gregory Moore questions his recent reputation as an eminently subversive and (post-) modern thinker, and shows how deeply Nietzsche was immersed in late nineteenth-century debates on evolution, degeneration and race. The first part of the book provides a detailed study and interpretation of Nietzsche's much disputed relationship to Darwinism. Uniquely, Moore also considers the importance of Nietzsche's evolutionary perspective for the development of his moral and aesthetic philosophy. The second part analyzes key themes of Nietzsche's cultural criticism - his attack on the Judaeo-Christian tradition, his diagnosis of the nihilistic crisis afflicting modernity and his anti-Wagnerian polemics - against the background of fin-de-si?cle fears about the imminent biological collapse of Western civilization.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521024277
• ISBN13: 9780521024273
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"