Prefaces to Unwritten Works

by Friedrich Nietzsche, Michael W. Grenke (Editor ), Matthew K. Davis (Contributor)

Prefaces to Unwritten Works is a collection of five essays, prefaces to books that Nietzsche never went on to write. Nietzsche himself put these prefaces together in the form of a small leather-bound, handwritten book, and gave that book to Cosima Wagner as a Christmas present in 1872. The dedicatory letter indicates that Nietzsche sent this little book to Cosima "in heartfelt reverence and as an answer to verbal and epistolary questions." As such, this work is a window into Nietzsche’s relations with the Wagners at the height of their association, but it is also a continuation of Nietzsche’s radical confrontation with Greek antiquity that had begun with the then-recently published Birth of Tragedy. The Wagners read Nietzsche’s book of prefaces on the evening of New Year’s Day 1873, and Cosima records in her diary five days later that at night, "again" she reflected about the essence of art as a consequence of Nietzsche’s work. A month later, Cosima sent Nietzsche a letter encouraging him to write at least two of the books promised by his prefaces. Nietzsche did not go to write the books heralded by these prefaces, but the prefaces themselves provide substantial challenges of their own and intriguing clues as to the form and content of the books Nietzsche may have intended. Some of these prefaces are better known to students of Nietzsche than others and have attracted significant attention from scholars. The first essay is entitled On the Pathos of Truth, and it considers the relative value of truth and art for human life. The second essay, Thoughts on the Future of Our Educational Institutions, is the only preface in this collection regarding which Nietzsche did actually go on to write a book, albeit a book he did not publish (entitled On the Future of Our Educational Institutions, now available from St. Augustine’s Press). This essay is a revised version of the preface Nietzsche wrote for that book, and the changes Nietzsche made are indicative of the plans he had for an improved version. The topic of the essay is almost entirely the art of careful reading. The third essay is entitled The Greek State, and it treats of the relation of slavery to culture and of the genius to the state. This essay is also an interpretation of Plato’s Republic, in which Nietzsche claims to reveal everything he has "divined of this secret writing." The fourth essay, The Relation of Schopenhauerian Philosophy to a German Culture, neither assumes that there is in fact, at present, a German Culture, nor hardly mentions Schopenhauer at all, except to suggest that he is one about whom a culture could be built. The final essay is entitled Homer’s Contest and is an exploration of the place of jealousy, strife, and agonistic competition in Greek culture. Together these five essays show Nietzsche’s continuing exploration into the differences between modern human beings and the Greeks of classical antiquity. He boldly asks, "Why did the whole Greek world exult at the images of battle of the Iliad?" The answers he offers reveal the dark and harrowing insights of the ancient world and also the sometimes cruel and violent, but also perhaps psychically healthy, character of the ancient Greek. Nietzsche’s attention to and concern with classical antiquity raises in each of these essays broad and universal questions about the relation of society and culture to genius. Culture, he says, "rests upon a terrifying ground." And underneath it all, and present with varying explicitness in all of the essays, lies the problem of humanity’s relation to time. We see "every disappearing and perishing . . . with dissatisfaction" and yet, "Every moment devours the one that went before, every birth is the death of countless beings." This volume benefits from presenting all five prefaces together, translated literally and consistently. The appendices present preliminary drafts of various portions of the respective prefaces and a prolonged fragment Nietzsche wrote extending his thoughts from the Birth of Tragedy and containing text intimately related to some of the five prefaces.

Genres: Philosophy

200 pages, hardback

First published January 1, 1872

About the author

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture, who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24, but resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes.
Nietzsche's work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth in favour of perspectivism; a genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and a related theory of master–slave morality; the aesthetic affirmation of life in response to both the "death of God" and the profound crisis of nihilism; the notion of Apollonian and Dionysian forces; and a characterisation of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power. He also developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and his doctrine of eternal return. In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, music, religion, tragedy, culture, and science, and drew inspiration from Greek tragedy as well as figures such as Zoroaster, Arthur Schopenhauer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Wagner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
After his death, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became the curator and editor of his manuscripts. She edited his unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism. 20th-century scholars such as Walter Kaufmann, R.J. Hollingdale, and Georges Bataille defended Nietzsche against this interpretation, and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy—especially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism, and post-structuralism—as well as art, literature, music, poetry, politics, and popular culture.

Reviews

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title to this text is a bit deceptive. It actually consists of five very short essays that made up a book Nietzsche gave to Cosima Wagner early in the 1870s, although each essay treats a theme Nietzsche had hoped to treat in a book-length work. But the essays read much more like very compact, carefully worded compositions than prefaces. In addition, these writings give a nice view into the early genesis of many of the ideas Nietzsche would formulate more precisely in the 1880s such as eternal return, strife, and will to power. I highly recommend this text for those interested in Nietzsche and who want to get a picture of his early thought and the origin of his more mature philosophy. Three of these essays also present powerful and stunningly beautiful accounts of ancient Greek culture which should not be missed for anyone who studies ancient Greek literature or philosophy.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two essays are excellent, one is interesting, and two I didn't care for.

The essay on the Greek State and the one on envy and competition among ancient Greeks are phenomenal. No point in trying to summarize them, but well worth reading. The one on the future of education is very short (~2 pages) and more of true preface than any of the others. There isn't much substance to it since it is mainly complementing people who view the world as he does.

I didn't get anything out of the essay on the pathos of truth or the essay on German culture. Not sure if they are dealing with issues that used to be much more salient or if they just flew over my head.