Nietzsche and the Modern Crisis of the Humanities [Paperback]

Peter Levine (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 079142328X | ISBN-13: 978-0791423288 | Publication Date: January 25, 1995

This is a critique of Nietzsche's theory of culture that proposes an alternative paradigm allowing a defense of the humanities against such Nietzschians as Leo Strauss and Derrida. Levine argues that Strauss and Derrida have much in common, including an idealist, reified concept of culture that both inherited from Nietzsche. Levine interprets all of Nietzsche's basic doctrines in terms of this concept. Nietzsche's definition of culture produced epistemological and moral dilemmas for him and his followers, and encouraged them to devise alternatives to mainstream humanities. Levine, however, offers an alternative paradigm of culture that better fits the data and allows us to understand and defend the humanities as a source of value.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peter Levine is a Research Scholar in the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Product Details

• Paperback: 302 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (January 25, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 079142328X
• ISBN-13: 978-0791423288
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,815,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter Levine (www.peterlevine.ws) is Director of CIRCLE, The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement and Research director of Tufts University's Jonathan Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. Levine graduated from Yale in 1989 with a degree in philosophy. He studied philosophy at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, receiving his doctorate in 1992. From 1991 until 1993, he was a research associate at Common Cause. In the late 1990s, he was Deputy Director of the National Commission on Civic Renewal. Levine is the author of Reforming the Humanities (in press), The Future of Democracy: Developing the Next Generation of American Citizens (2007), three other scholarly books on philosophy and politics, and a novel. He also co-edited The Deliberative Democracy Handbook (2006) with John Gastil and Engaging Young People in Civic Life (2009) with Jim Youniss and co-organized the writing of The Civic Mission of Schools, a report released by Carnegie Corporation of New York and CIRCLE in 2003 (www.civicmissionofschools.org). He has served on the boards or steering committees of AmericaSpeaks, Streetlaw, the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, the Kettering Foundation, the American Bar Association Committee's for Public Education, the Paul J. Aicher Foundation, and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nietzsche as intelligent devil, November 11, 2003

By 

John C. Landon "nemonemini" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nietzsche and the Modern Crisis of the Humanities (Paperback)

Nietzsche is a clever sort of 'poor devil', efficient. Graduate from retail demonic to the wholesale of cultural sabotage with an exoteric doctrine of 'eternal return' and the 'will to power', as a good baited hook for frustrated esthetes, last men, and those suddenly rendered guilty they show a moral sense. Recruit them for the bad guys. Nietzsche is worth a thousand Al Quaeda.
This useful work produces from a hum drum starting point an illuminating x-ray of Nietzsche, his milieu,and his successors, from Heidegger to Strauss and Derrida. Along the way is an illuminating portrait of Nietzsche's early years and education, the episode with Wilamowtiz-Mollendorff, and his critique of The Birth of Tragedy. Quite alarming is the depiction of Strauss as an 'esoteric' Nietzschean behind his polished gems of cultural reaction. Since he is now the closet guru of the current Washington set I would be geunuinely worried if we had a 'exoteric' Nietzschean gang in, or in the shadows near, the White House. They made need a debriefing on the 'will to power'.