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Metaphysics to Metafictions: Hegel, Nietzsche, and the End of Philosophy (Hegelian Studies
Examines the key role played by Nietzsche in the undoing of the Hegelian system of totality.
Through close reading and interpretive reflections, Paul Miklowitz examines key dialectics in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit in order to come to terms with the undoing of the Hegelian system of totality inaugurated by Nietzsche. In his interpretation of the Phenomenology , Miklowitz shows how Hegel skillfully manipulates narrative structures, even while disavowing them. Tracing the self-undermining implications latent in Hegel's strategy of retrospective phenomenological reconstruction through to their "coming to self-consciousness" in Nietzsche's central character of Zarathustra, Miklowitz argues that Hegel leaves a problematic legacy to philosophers, claiming to have achieved comprehensive wisdom in "absolute knowing," and that Nietzsche responds by undermining the authority of the philosopher. Thus metaphysical questions are reformulated and resolved in narratives self-consciously mediated by they become "metafictions," philosophic imperatives that expressly acknowledge their own createdness and call into question their universality.
In examining Nietzsche's post-apocalyptic and anti-Hegelian perspectivism, Miklowitz focuses on Thus Spoke Zarathustra , offering a new interpretation of "eternal return" in light of the problematic character of repetition intrinsic to the narrative structure of metaphysical Nietzsche's project, unlike Hegel's metaphysics, proposes to serve philosophy not as a uniquely true source of doctrine, but rather as an exemplary experiment in metafiction. Finally, Miklowitz also briefly examines some of the "postmodern" effects of this intellectual history and its consequences for the theoretical discourse of philosophy--whose end (in the sense of a telos ) was reached in Hegel, only to have its end (in the sense of death or destruction) proclaimed by Nietzsche.
"This is a very good book. It has an important thesis--the fictionalization of discourse as the quintessentially modern reaction to the presumptive realization of metaphysics in Hegel's philosophy of the absolute. The work outlines in exemplary, if schematic, fashion the key role played by Nietzsche in the undoing of the Hegelian system of totality and marks the points in Hegel that Nietzsche can capitalize on." -- Cyril O'Regan, author of The Heterodox Hegel
Through close reading and interpretive reflections, Paul Miklowitz examines key dialectics in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit in order to come to terms with the undoing of the Hegelian system of totality inaugurated by Nietzsche. In his interpretation of the Phenomenology , Miklowitz shows how Hegel skillfully manipulates narrative structures, even while disavowing them. Tracing the self-undermining implications latent in Hegel's strategy of retrospective phenomenological reconstruction through to their "coming to self-consciousness" in Nietzsche's central character of Zarathustra, Miklowitz argues that Hegel leaves a problematic legacy to philosophers, claiming to have achieved comprehensive wisdom in "absolute knowing," and that Nietzsche responds by undermining the authority of the philosopher. Thus metaphysical questions are reformulated and resolved in narratives self-consciously mediated by they become "metafictions," philosophic imperatives that expressly acknowledge their own createdness and call into question their universality.
In examining Nietzsche's post-apocalyptic and anti-Hegelian perspectivism, Miklowitz focuses on Thus Spoke Zarathustra , offering a new interpretation of "eternal return" in light of the problematic character of repetition intrinsic to the narrative structure of metaphysical Nietzsche's project, unlike Hegel's metaphysics, proposes to serve philosophy not as a uniquely true source of doctrine, but rather as an exemplary experiment in metafiction. Finally, Miklowitz also briefly examines some of the "postmodern" effects of this intellectual history and its consequences for the theoretical discourse of philosophy--whose end (in the sense of a telos ) was reached in Hegel, only to have its end (in the sense of death or destruction) proclaimed by Nietzsche.
"This is a very good book. It has an important thesis--the fictionalization of discourse as the quintessentially modern reaction to the presumptive realization of metaphysics in Hegel's philosophy of the absolute. The work outlines in exemplary, if schematic, fashion the key role played by Nietzsche in the undoing of the Hegelian system of totality and marks the points in Hegel that Nietzsche can capitalize on." -- Cyril O'Regan, author of The Heterodox Hegel
- GenresPhilosophy
221 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1998
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September 17, 2021
This is a fun book to read today. I discovered it completely by accident, something to do with entering a wrong title in Amazon and this book got recommended. It’s from 1998 and I didn’t realize that at first and kept feeling there were anachronisms from what a 2020 book would have such as making Oswald Spengler saying anything of substance (read Volume I of Decline of the West to see how fascistic it is and how it would be a handbook for today’s MAGA hat haters or proto-Fascist as it was for Hitler’s followers in 1924), or quoting Alasdair Macintyre non-ironically (just read his After Virtue to see how worthless he is), or conflating Marx with Hegel too closely, or acting as if Sartre was still relevant, or having Frances Fukuyama be anything but a butt of a joke (e.g., read his recent book, Identity on his incoherent thoughts about identity), or caring what William Gass had to say about anything. All those things would be totally reasonable in 1998 but today they each would have needed further explication to get into a book without first marring the book.
Hegel and his Phenomenology gets dissected fairly discerningly within this book. Metaphysics ends with Hegel according to Heidegger at one time until he restates the same about Nietzsche during his infatuation period with Nietzsche. Hegel is a good place to start because all of philosophy that came before him got sublated systematically by him and that what comes after him gets restated at least until Nietzsche affirms that which Hegel negated. I did appreciate that this author frequently would say how Heidegger was misinterpreting what Nietzsche meant, because I thought the same thing after I read Heidegger’s work on Nietzsche.
Hegel starts with a concept to give a concept about a concept that leads to an absolute notion while Nietzsche just affirms the affirmative when it suits him or when his intuition sways him. For Hegel there is one substance i.e., one reality and he says we can get at that through a dialectic of a negation through a synthesis/anti-synthesis approach. Our sense certainty can align with the truth even when we are within the infinite by appealing to our finite existence according to Hegel. Hegel assumes an infinite and then derives backwards to an I through our We, or with a master through its slave, and he would say without the other to reflect there is no self.
For Nietzsche contra Hegel preserving ourself is not enough and our will to power through our affirmation of ourselves while acknowledging our perspectivism that sublates the most truths is the right course. The text we provide for that which is outside of us is the narrative that tells the story that we should be telling ourselves.
All stories we tell ourselves are just stories (metafictions, a story about the story that we are living in or writing about that acknowledges the fiction as fiction) and that’s why I stated it as an advantage the anachronistic nature of this book today because our perspective changes as we change with the times and this book only benefits from that kind of thought as if we are always within our own story about the story that unfolds around us, a metafiction, at least Nietzsche would tend to believe that according to this book.
When a story acknowledges its own story as a work of fiction, metafiction lurks behind that story. Proust does that with his masterpiece, Don Quixote does it too, William Gass does it with the The Tunnel as he justifies his racism and appeal to fascism, and Nietzsche does it with Thus Spoke Zarathustra . This book will dissect all of the nuances inherent with that story and how it is antithetical to what Hegel is getting at.
Will to power, eternal recurrence of the same, living with no God, nihilism as sanity in an insane world, man as superman, and affirming the affirmative while not negating the negative in the search for being's meaning, and how ultimately Zarathustra is not necessary to enable change but change must come from within ourselves, because one should never outsource their truths. The cringe-worthy nihilist are the ones who stop thinking for themselves and sublate their meaning to the will of others. Meaning is for the individual to find not for it to be foisted upon them by others who are dwarfs (the dwarf plays a role in Zarathustra).
Overall, a very enjoyable book and connects a lot of dots between diverse thinkers and is well worth reading today. The book was very thought provoking and allowed me to make some connections beyond what the book itself was saying for myself, always a sign of a good book, in my opinion.
Hegel and his Phenomenology gets dissected fairly discerningly within this book. Metaphysics ends with Hegel according to Heidegger at one time until he restates the same about Nietzsche during his infatuation period with Nietzsche. Hegel is a good place to start because all of philosophy that came before him got sublated systematically by him and that what comes after him gets restated at least until Nietzsche affirms that which Hegel negated. I did appreciate that this author frequently would say how Heidegger was misinterpreting what Nietzsche meant, because I thought the same thing after I read Heidegger’s work on Nietzsche.
Hegel starts with a concept to give a concept about a concept that leads to an absolute notion while Nietzsche just affirms the affirmative when it suits him or when his intuition sways him. For Hegel there is one substance i.e., one reality and he says we can get at that through a dialectic of a negation through a synthesis/anti-synthesis approach. Our sense certainty can align with the truth even when we are within the infinite by appealing to our finite existence according to Hegel. Hegel assumes an infinite and then derives backwards to an I through our We, or with a master through its slave, and he would say without the other to reflect there is no self.
For Nietzsche contra Hegel preserving ourself is not enough and our will to power through our affirmation of ourselves while acknowledging our perspectivism that sublates the most truths is the right course. The text we provide for that which is outside of us is the narrative that tells the story that we should be telling ourselves.
All stories we tell ourselves are just stories (metafictions, a story about the story that we are living in or writing about that acknowledges the fiction as fiction) and that’s why I stated it as an advantage the anachronistic nature of this book today because our perspective changes as we change with the times and this book only benefits from that kind of thought as if we are always within our own story about the story that unfolds around us, a metafiction, at least Nietzsche would tend to believe that according to this book.
When a story acknowledges its own story as a work of fiction, metafiction lurks behind that story. Proust does that with his masterpiece, Don Quixote does it too, William Gass does it with the The Tunnel as he justifies his racism and appeal to fascism, and Nietzsche does it with Thus Spoke Zarathustra . This book will dissect all of the nuances inherent with that story and how it is antithetical to what Hegel is getting at.
Will to power, eternal recurrence of the same, living with no God, nihilism as sanity in an insane world, man as superman, and affirming the affirmative while not negating the negative in the search for being's meaning, and how ultimately Zarathustra is not necessary to enable change but change must come from within ourselves, because one should never outsource their truths. The cringe-worthy nihilist are the ones who stop thinking for themselves and sublate their meaning to the will of others. Meaning is for the individual to find not for it to be foisted upon them by others who are dwarfs (the dwarf plays a role in Zarathustra).
Overall, a very enjoyable book and connects a lot of dots between diverse thinkers and is well worth reading today. The book was very thought provoking and allowed me to make some connections beyond what the book itself was saying for myself, always a sign of a good book, in my opinion.
Displaying 1 of 1 review