Nietzsche: The Ethics of an Immoralist (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The dazzling beauty of Nietzsche's writings may blind the reader to the explosive character of his opinions..." (more)
Key Phrases: healthy political order, slavish man, tual conscience, The Antichrist, Nietzsche's Jesus, The Convalescent (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Berkowitz (philosophy, Harvard) gives an erudite analysis of Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra and five other major works, using "God is dead" as the essential viewpoint for comprehending the philosopher's new ethics of individual creativity and dynamic cosmology of eternal recurrence. Berkowitz focuses on the creative will of the future overman, a superior type of life form (artistic philosopher or godlike being) free from society and politics. He stresses the pervasive ambivalence and extreme opinions in this Nietzschean quest for the best life grounded in truth and excellence despite mediocrity and necessity. This philosophy of overcoming affirms the joy of life and self-deification of the highest type. Ultimately, the will to power challenges the solitary but noble overman to create new values and thereby master this universe. However, Berkowitz's interpretation concludes that Nietzsche himself found this end-goal to be neither obtainable nor desirable. Not all readers will be convinced. Recommended for academic philosophy collections.?H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, N.Y.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Superb...The Nietzsche that emerges from Berkowitz's book is driven by a deep passion for the truth, his thought burning with a 'conflict or contest of extremes'...The reward of [this] important book is to reveal to us how Nietzsche's endeavor explores the limitations and terrible dangers of an all-too-human universe, a 'city of man' which flees from any constraints of a divine or natural origin. -- Brian C. Anderson "Crisis"

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Product Details

• Paperback: 330 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (September 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674624432
• ISBN-13: 978-0674624436
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,596,784 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definite guide to Nietzsche's thought, March 17, 2001

By	Oliver (Amsterdam, Holland) - See all my reviews

I've been reading Nietzsche for over four years now (which is about one fifth of my lifetime) and I still find this by far the best book on the subject (in second place is a book called "What Nietzsche means" by one George Morgan - first published in 1939!). Peter Berkowitz analyses, criticizes and, in this way, almost f i n a l i z e s Nietzsche's thought as he shows in which way Nietzsche's failures, too, contribute to his overall achievement, which is to show a n d j u s t i f y the limits of man's power over his own destiny. By all means read it: it is a milestone in modern thinking and will still be read in a hundred year's time.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intruiging interpretation of an outstanding philosopher, July 10, 1998

By	Cheryl ([e-mail]) (WA) - See all my reviews

I read this book immediately after finishing Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Berkowitz presents Nietzsche's philosophy in a way not often undertaken. He emphasizes the ethics that Nietzsche holds, despite his lack of belief in God. I enjoyed this because I felt, while reading Nietzsche, that he did not imply the death of morality with the death of God. Berkowitz does a fine job of proving this point.

12 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Morality Beyond Ethics, September 7, 1998

By	Rev. William C. Green (Shaker Heights, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Berkowitz does a good job undermining (a) the "new Nietzsche" of recent French theory and the postmodern politics of identity and difference; and (b) the "old Nietzsche" cavalierly dismissed as a nihilist and relativist. Where Berkowitz falls way short is in failing to understand how and why Nietzsche "relies" on traditional notions he allegedly "repudiates" (e.g., nature, reason, morality). Nietzsche is not interested in repudiation but transfiguration. You can't transfigure what isn't first "figured" (life and values as they have been). What Berkowitz calls the "contest of [irreconcilable] extremes" at the heart of Nietzsche's thought is actually the context in which Nietzsche argues for a life-affirming morality beyond the life-denying ethics of what we would call "traditional values." One may like the venerable truths Berkowitz favors. But how ironic to turn Nietzsche, of all thinkers, into a virtual pretext for arguing traditional values!