Composing the Soul: Reaches of Nietzsche's Psychology PDF

Preview

Summary

Review: [untitled] Author(s): Peter S. Groff Source: The Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Jun., 1996), pp. 939-941 Published by: Philosophy Education Society Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20129967 Accessed: 21/07/2010 12:02 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance...

Description

Review: [untitled] Author(s): Peter S. Groff Source: The Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Jun., 1996), pp. 939-941 Published by: Philosophy Education Society Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20129967 Accessed: 21/07/2010 12:02 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=pes. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Philosophy Education Society Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Review of Metaphysics.

http://www.jstor.org

AND COMMENTS SUMMARIES

939

In chapter 5, Papineau in epistemology. I find his defends reliabilism here less than in elsewhere the book. persuasive arguments Papineau errs in its insistence claims that traditional that knowl epistemology the edge requires certainty, and that, once this error is acknowledged, account of knowledge. door is opened for a naturalistic/reliabilist This claim simply will not do, given the fact that contemporary tra so-called of naturalism ditionalist opponents oppo (who, unlike his philosophical nents in the rest of the book, are not clearly addressed) by and large do not hold that knowledge charac requires certainty. Indeed, Papineau's terization of traditional epistemology, and its concern with normativity, will I think be rejected by many of those who answer to the label. His is a further problem for conflation of certainty and subjective warrants his discussion, despite his brief attempt to justify it (p. 145). Papineau argues that his view is superior to rival views which evaluate epistemo in terms of how well they handle our intuitions about logical theories his view rests not on intuitions but rather on sys whereas knowledge, concerns tematic theoretical he fails to realize that (p. 146-7). However, his view in the end also rests upon intuitions, as philosophical views in must intuitions the of force evitably particular (for example, concerning For both naturalists and traditionalists, the place, arguments). legiti of intuitions in epistemological macy, and criticizability argumentation is an important discussion open question; unfortunately, Papineau's does not help to resolve that question. His argument that reliabilism can is reliable, and thus can handle the problem of establish that induction induction, does not solve that problem so much as redefine it out of ex in effect admits, p. 160). istence (as Papineau In general, Papineau's to naturalism commitment here is not well-defened; those not already inclined to naturalism/externalism/reliabilism in epistemology will be unmoved by his discussion. there ismuch of value in this book. Pa these brief criticisms, Despite and his teleological pineau's defense of physicalism theory of represen tation will be of interest to all philosophers, of whatever persuasions, in these areas. His discussion of "the pessimistic meta-induc working tion" is telling (pp. 169-70); his discussion of the metaphysics and epis (chap. 6) is well worth extended temology of mathematics study. The book is full of original critical discussions of other insights, excellent work in these areas, and forcefully put arguments; its ar philosophers' ticulation of a broad naturalistic is a welcome contribu perspective tion.?Harvey ofMiami. Siegel, University

the Soul: Reaches Parkes, Graham. Composing of Nietzsche's Psychology. The of xiv + 481 pp. $37.95? 1994. Chicago: University Chicago Press, In this book, Parkes presents the first full-length study of Nietzsche's He argues that Nietzsche does not entirely reject that "most psychology. ancient and venerable" of hypotheses?the soul?but rather retains a less metaphysical version of it. The book comprises a rig considerably orous philological of Nietzsche's investigation images and psychological

940

GIUSEPPEBUTERAAND STAFF in an examination of his most revolu discourses, ultimately culminating idea: his tionary psychological hypothesis regarding the irreducible mul tiplicity of the soul. con in approach, The first three chapters are primarily biographical on Nietzsche's life and earliest writings up to the end of the centrating The central theme of this preliminary is that of 1870s. examination to come to grips with his own overwhelm various attempts Nietzsche's on Nietzsche's focuses Parkes ing plurality of talents and impulses. intellectual early influences?Goethe, Byron, H?lderlin, Emerson, traces what will become Nietzsche's and Wagner?and Schopenhauer, main psychological themes from his juvenilia, through his early philo to the and last of the speeches, up Untimely Meditations. logical writings an exhaustive The second section of the book comprises cataloguing and examination of the various domains of Nietzsche's interpenetrating Chapter 4 considers imagery. images of the soul drawn psychological air. The next chapter from the natural elements: and earth, water, fire, on the role and function of vegetal concentrates imagery in Nietzsche's texts and investigates of psychological work as a kind of the metaphor or agriculture. drawn from horticulture Chapter 6 examines metaphors the ubiquitous of animal husbandry, the discipline emphasizing images of breeding and procreation. These three chapters are complemented a brief but sug the first of which constitutes by two short interludes, of asceticism the second inter and self-cultivation; gestive examination of woman" in Nietzsche's lude deals with "the problem psychological thought. The final section of the book takes up the most complex source of im of the body politic. Here Parkes agery in Nietzsche's psychology?that most radical psychological idea?that the soul is examines Nietzsche's a are of which of of descended from many drives, composed multiplicity our collective each with its own unique "reason" and archaic heritage, The drives, on Nietzsche's account, manifest interpretive perspective. as a crowd of personalities within the psyche. The funda themselves to deter is of a Nietzschean mental problematic psychology accordingly best order this inner polis and be mine what sort of "regime" would health and creativity. This discussion most conducive to psychological an erudite but concise his is itself prefaced by a chapter that provides the ideas of psychic polycentricity tory of depth psychology, particularly of Lichtenberg, and the drives as found in the writings Herder, Kant, The book concludes with a biographical Schiller, and Fichte. epilogue, in light of his pre into madness which considers Nietzsche's collapse health. scription for psychological a and absorbing work is the Soul voluminous, pioneering, Composing a in the secondary which what has lacuna been rectifies significant largely of Nietzsche's Parkes's extended examinations literature on Nietzsche. to a richer and more sharply de not only contribute depth psychology but also il of traditional Nietzschean fined understanding problematics, as Plato, luminate the subtle effect of such psychological predecessors The book breaks fertile and Emerson upon his thought. Montaigne, as well, unearthing several new and rela ground for further scholarship his heavily biographical tively neglected themes, particularly through The re and asceticism. of cultivation, discussions culture, education,

AND COMMENTS SUMMARIES

941

is an

even-handed and well-written exceptionally study, which to two those Ni balance but gracefully manages distinctively conflicting and music.?Peter etzschean S. Groff, The Pennsyl impulses: philology vania State University. suit

Andrei. Limba Bucharest: 1994. 269 pp. pasarilor. Humanitas, Plesu started his career as an art historian, he soon n.p.?Although a major came under the influence of Constantin Romanian Noica, thinker who had tried to combine Platonism with a rather idiosyncratic form of existentialism. Plesu was briefly a minister for culture in the as an first post-revolutionary Romanian and thereafter worked cabinet, editor and as an educator; he is currently the president of a small private in Bucharest. international He is the author of a num college graduate in which he draws intriguingly ber of books in art, reli from material and sometimes current The gion, philosophy, politics. volume, his most recent, is a case in point. "The language of birds," as the title can be translated, groups a num ber of separate essays, the common is speech "above or theme of which below language" (or, in fact, the role and place of the spiritual in our im manent world). Thus several of the shorter texts collected deal with "master figures" (C. G. Jung, N. Berdyayev, M. Eliade, E. M. Cioran and A longer essay (pp. 104-40) is others) and their relevance nowadays. to the eighteenth-century devoted Venetian Francesco Guardi painter of water, boat, and lagoon are read by the author as whose symbolism on death, decline, and passage. meditations in the volume are, however, The most the first and important pieces the last. Plesu analyzes closely Plato's Cratylus (pp. 9-55). Unlike most modern (and, indeed, modern philosophical linguists commentators) who side with Hermogenes in the dialogue, that is, with the theory of the back onto a more fun arbitrary sign, Plesu tries to push the discussion damental level: that of the natural or originary of both expression thought and language and of their harmony with the rhythms and the In that sense, the Socrates seems of the dialogue things of the world. more fully justified than is habitually believed. In the essay on angels (pp. 247-69) Plesu brings together the different strands of this book and weaves them into a boldly imaginative theory on modern which revalidates We need grounds the role of angelology. such a discipline, Plesu argues, because we need a theory and practice to the "zenith" (or distancing) metaphysics of "proximity," as opposed under the sway of which we continue to function: Cartesianism is given as a typical example of the latter. By contrast Christianity, but to an are all deeply equal extent the sources of Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism, concerned with positing channels of communication between the mun dane and the transcendent. Human life itself is an imitatio angeli be some theoretical fore being imitatio Christi. space to ange Admitting in mere dichotomy the blockage from which lology might also alleviate our thinking continues to suffer, the author believes. The possible

Plesu,...