Nietzsche's Legacy

"Ecce Homo" and "The Antichrist," Two Books on Nature and Politics

Heinrich Meier author Justin Gottschalk translator

Format:Hardback

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Published:23rd Apr '24

Should be back in stock very soon

Nietzsche's Legacy cover

A reappraisal of Ecce Homo and The Antichrist within Nietzsche’s oeuvre.

Nietzsche's Legacy takes on the most challenging and misunderstood works in Nietzsche’s oeuvre to illuminate his view of what a philosopher is and what constitutes a philosophic life. Interpreting Ecce Homo and The Antichrist as twin books meant to replace the abandoned Will to Power project, Heinrich Meier recovers them from the stigma of Nietzsche’s late mental collapse, showing that these works are, above all, a lucid self-assessment. The carefully written pair contains both the highest affirmation—the Yes of the “revaluation of all values”—and the most resolute negation—the No to Christianity. How the Yes and the No go together, how the relation between nature and politics is to be determined, how Nietzsche’s intention is governing the political-philosophical double-face: this is the subject of Nietzsche’s Legacy, which opens up a new understanding of Nietzsche’s philosophy as a whole.

“Step by step Meier follows Nietzsche’s last paths of thought, in which the philosopher proves to be the master of his decisions at all times, despite all the apparent shrillness of tone. Meier has an unerring eye for the architecture of Nietzsche's revaluative philosophizing and the structure of his works, and meticulously works out the strategies Nietzsche used to beguile his readers. . . . An exceedingly precise analysis.” -- Andreas Urs Sommer * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung *
“With Nietzsche’s Legacy, Meier presents an exceptionally dense, painstaking, and prudent interpretation of Nietzsche’s late work." -- Eike Brock * Nietzscheforschung *
“Nietzsche’s two last books are routinely dismissed as evidence of his growing mental instability, his megalomania, and they have not traditionally been considered important parts of his corpus. Meier’s book makes that claim impossible to maintain. He has in fact, for the first time, unlocked these books and demonstrated in luxurious detail just how carefully written and central they are to understanding Nietzsche’s view—not only of his accomplishments, but of himself, what it means to be a philosopher, and how he understands his legacy. Meier has rescued these books and brought to light a subtlety and depth of thought never before suspected, much less explored.” -- Robert Pippin | author of "The Culmination: Heidegger, German Idealism, and the Fate of Philosophy"

ISBN: 9780226751979

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 28mm

Weight: 567g

288 pages