Nietzsche and Philosophy (Columbia Classics in Philosophy) [Paperback]

Gilles Deleuze (Author), Janis Tomlinson (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1983 | ISBN-10: 0231056699 | ISBN-13: 978-0231056694 0

Nietzsche and Philosophy has long been recognized as one of the most important accounts of Nietzsche's philosophy, acclaimed for its rare combination of scholarly rigour and imaginative interpretation. Yet this is more than a major work on Nietzsche: the book opened a whole new avenue in post-war thought. Here Deleuze shows how Nietzsche began a new way of thinking which breaks with the dialectic as a method and escapes the confines of philosophy itself.

(Vol 12, No 5)

Editorial Reviews

Review

The fecundity of this reading and the breadth of its implications can hardly be overestimated.

(Viola Brisolin The European Legacy )

Review

Deleuze's book offers an extremely rich and systematic reading of Nietzsche.... To read Nietzsche and Philosophy is to experience the earnestness of Nietzsche's challenge to Western philosophy.

(Times Higher Education Supplement ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 221 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (April 15, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231056699
• ISBN-13: 978-0231056694
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #817,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the greatest books i have ever read, July 8, 2006

By 

zante "zante" (new york) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nietzsche And Philosophy (European Perspectives) (Paperback)

i first picked up nietzsche and philosophy in 1989 and couldnt make it past the first chapter which discusses theories of forces,semiotics, and other unintelligable things..i regarded the book as 'hyper abstract'..
I returned again to it in 1996 after reading deleuze's interviews, and, with a more general understanding of his ideas,the book became a revelation for me.
Deleuze presents a systematic and coherent philosophy for nietzsche, one which grounds his rather paradoxical and sometimes enigmatic writings. deleuze clearly expresses nietzsche's core concerns, showing the sanity and genius of this sometimes denigrated 'mad' philosopher.
Its a pity this book will never find itself in the self help section because thats where it belongs..Feeling depressed and worthless? A bit burnt out or indifferent? read this book! While most philosophy falls to the side with abstractions, nietzsche and philosophy goes after life itself , attacking every nihilistic habit in our psychic, social, and cosmological repetoire. Deleuze traces nietzsche's assertions on how we are reactive and despicable creatures and goes on to show why and how we can overcome, well, all those things that make humanity "the skin disease of earth'.....
so...since we all suffer from nihilism and its ailments, Nietzsche and philosophy provides antidotes and cure for our human condition...

below are some less than praiseworthy comments on this book..deleuze appropriates nietzsche, for example...or deleuze says simple things in a complicated manner...this is nonsense..
readers, this is not an easy book to grasp..its takes a few readings to fully understand whats being said..people who dont like this book just simply fail to understand it...or havent read it through at least once..
that may be the books fault..but if simple ideas are what one seeks, then try simplistic books. ..this isnt one of them

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the double affirmation, August 23, 2000

By 

spiral - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nietzsche and Philosophy (Columbia Classics in Philosophy) (Paperback)

contrary to some beliefs, gilles deleuze was NOT a psychoanalyst. in fact, neither was (strictly speaking) felix guattari. if anything, the "anti-oedipus" was set to univocally destroy without remission any notion of the psychoanalyst and his couch. nevertheless, it wouldn't be inaccurate to read nietzsche as a psychologist since he himself prided himself in that dimension among philosophers.

the amazing thing about "nietzsche and philosophy" is how deleuze does a nietzschean reading of nietzsche: basically in gathering the force of nietzsche's writings, appropriating them, and extending them without corrupting the radical implications of nietzsche's philosophy. here, deleuze remarkably reinterprets many of nietzsche's key concepts (the will to power, the eternal return, active and reactive forces) and creatively channels them into what was the initial stages of his own philosophical project. what would be striking to readers familiar with deleuze's later works (especially those with guattari) is the lucidity and rigour of his meticulous presentation here.

"nietzsche and philosophy" is illuminating precisely because it allows us to situate poststructuralist theories/thinkers and their relationship to nietzsche's writings. in particular, this book had a huge influence on michel foucault of which his debt to deleuze is outstanding, especially seen in his genealogical work from then till the end of his life.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book about Nietzsche, March 7, 2003

By 

Leftist on the right coast "falsedeity" (Columbia, SC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nietzsche and Philosophy (Columbia Classics in Philosophy) (Paperback)

Nietzsche was not a systematic thinker and so it is very difficult to construct a book on his difficult thought. Deleuze has, however, successfully accomplished that. A combined reading of this work and Pierre Klossowski's "Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle" would provide an understanding of Nietzsche that is well beyond what is presented in most books on the author. It is sad, but we english speakers have collectively written most of the bad literature on Nietzsche. It was the french after WWII that picked-up the mantle set forth by Nietzsche after the embarrassing abuse of his thought by the Nazis.