Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of Transfiguration

by Tracy B. Strong

Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of Transfiguration provides a comprehensive analysis of the politics that are implicit and explicit in Nietzsche's work. Tracy B. Strong's discussion shows that Nietzsche's writings are of a piece and have as their common goal a politics of a politics that seeks radical change in how human beings live and act in the modern Western world. This edition includes a new introduction that demonstrates how the styles of Nietzsche's writings expand our notions of democratic politics and democratic understanding.
 

Genres: Philosophy

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Tracy B. Strong is distinguished professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. He is a former editor of Political Theory and the author or editor of many books, including Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of Transfiguration, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Politics of the Ordinary, and The Many and the One: Religious and Secular Perspectives on Ethical Pluralism in the Modern World.

Reviews

[Carmen Hartono · Rating 5 out of 5]

After decades of trying to understand Nietzsche, I finally read a book that brings his 150 old philosophy to 1975 political thinking. Fast forward another 50 years, I think it would be interesting to study Nietzsche in the new era of Trumpism, Putin, and the rise of authoritarian politics.

But for now, I will try to summarize Tracy B. Strong's book. The first couple of chapters are dedicated to understanding that Nietzsche was basically seeking truth and recognized the problem of 'Newspeak' later developed by George Orwell's book titled '1984.' Strong then points out Nietzsche's problem with nihilism, a "dead God," and the will to power. Nietzsche's famously concludes, "man would rather will the void than be void of will."

To bring Nietzsche's philosophy to present day language, I would translate 'the will to power' as man's creative nature. We can't stop ourselves from making something and creating something new. But Nietzsche notes that over the last 2500 years, man has developed a goal of creative individuality to the point of separation, mental sickness and nihilism.

Nietzsche's idea of the genealogy of master and slave moralities can be summarized to looking at two very separate ethos. The master morality can be seen as a happy provincial kingdom where everyone is happy with their state in life. The king and heroes are happy with their superiority, and the peasants are content with their simple lives.

Nietzsche blames religion for creating 'ressentiment' or promoting strong emotions within the inferior masses to the point where they rebel and organize to create a morality where the suffering soul becomes 'good,' and the military hero becomes 'evil.' This has led to the never-ending wars experienced for millennia.

Flash forward to the 20th Century and we see the great ideological wars Nietzsche predicted. Nietzsche's proposed solutions are both simplistic and complicated. Tracy Strong translates Nietzsche's overman as the incarnation of the 'eternal return.' Transfiguration is not an event that magically happens overnight. Strong's example of the 'eternal return' is becoming, for example, a skier. One must develop the form of the skier over time to reach the point when skiing is not 'second nature' but the essence of who the person is: thus the 'eternal return' of skiing.

Play, laughter and dance are the actions Nietzsche suggests will lead toward a new healthy philosophy. And as I see it, we must begin with infants within their mother's wombs. Because if the infant is raised within the slave morality dominant in present times, he or she will have to spend a lifetime trying to unlearn the sickness of nihilism.