[csaa-forum] MSCP: The Challenge of Aristocratic Radicalism, or Nietzsche and the Negro - UniMelb Wed 16 Feb

[MSCP - James Garrett]

Firstly, the MSCP Summer School begins today with 'Hitchcock and
Theory: The French Connection' in room 0104, Law Building, University of
Melbourne.
http://mscp.org.au/courses/summer-school-2013 [1]

Secondly,
the MSCP is proud to host the visiting scholar Nathaniel Adam Tobias
Coleman, from the University of Michigan. Nathaniel will present a paper
on Wednesday evening, 6pm. Discussion will follow. Everyone is most
welcome to attend and no RSVP is necessary.

THE CHALLENGE OF
ARISTOCRATIC RADICALISM, OR NIETZSCHE AND THE NEGRO

Wednesday 16th
January 2013, at 6pm,

Room 0104, Law Building on Pelham st
University
of Melbourne.

Preview the Paper at this
link:
https://www.box.com/shared/92zuzsn5f0n83qxgdfi1
[2]

Abstract

'The expression Aristocratic Radicalism, which you
employ, is very good. It is, permit me to say, the cleverest thing I
have yet read about myself' (Nietzsche to Brandes, Nice, 2nd December
1887, Brandes 1889/1914: 64-65).

What is the thesis of 'aristocratic
radicalism'; what was Nietzsche's argument for it; what challenge does
it pose to political theory today?

1. The thesis
Despite his title
Nietzsche and the politics of aristocratic radicalism, Detwiler (1990:
190) nowhere, in his monograph, unambiguously states what Nietzsche
understood 'aristocratic radicalism' to mean. Through a close textual
analysis of Brandes' essay, Friedrich Nietzsche: An essay on
aristocratic radicalism, I clarify the conclusions of Cameron and
Dombowsky (2008: 20-21) that 'Nietzsche was . . . 'aristocratic' in
claiming that society's goal should be the promotion of exemplary
individuals' and ''radical' because he was an opponent of the existing
political order'.

2. The argument
Through a close textual analysis of
'What is noble?', the ninth chapter of Nietzsche's Beyond good and evil,
I show that this thesis is compelling. Nietzsche there claims that
'[e]very elevation of the type 'man' has hitherto been the work of an
aristocratic society--and so it will always be'. The argument is that
the feeling of aristocratic radicalism is a necessary condition for
human flourishing. Nietzsche seems spot on: it is intuitive that we
humans cannot adopt a split personality in which, intra-personally, one
half of oneself contemns the other, unless we have experienced an
inter-personal model of contempt in wider society. To say this is not
simply to claim as an intuition the implausible notion that, only if
aristocrats look down on commoners, could an aristocrat learn to expect
more from herself prudentially. No, to say this is also to claim as an
intuition the compelling notion that, only if the morally virtuous look
down on the morally vicious, could a morally virtuous person learn to
expect more from herself morally.

3. The challenge
'[T]he very
existence . . . of countless Chinamen or negroes must be sacrificed that
a higher life may be possible for a much smaller number of white men'
(Rashdall 1907: 238-239). Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Rashdall (1858-1924)
were contemporaries, and Rashdall's 'philosophical racism' (Waldron
2008) has long been the principal political manifestation of Nietzsche's
'aristocratic radicalism'.

Here's the rub: Political theorists adopting
an Anglo-American approach invariably begin their theorising from
Dworkin's 'egalitarian plateau'. According to disciples of Dworkin,
'each [political] theory is attempting', albeit in its own, unique, way,
'to define the social, economic, and political conditions under which
[all] the members of the community are treated as equals' (Kymlicka
1990: 4-5; cf. Dworkin 1983: 24).

Yet Nietzsche and Rashdall are
attempting nothing of the sort, and so members of stigmatised racial
categories have been let down by political theorists, who fail to take
on philosophical racists. Political theorists can and must rise to the
challenge of philosophical racism, by rising to the challenge of
aristocratic radicalism.

The Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy
was founded in 2002 and since that time has run tertiary-level
philosophy courses during the low use periods at the University of
Melbourne. Our classes have no entry requirements or assessment. Fees
begin at $80.
http://mscp.org.au 
  

Links:
------
[1]
http://mscp.org.au/courses/summer-school-2013
[2]
https://www.box.com/shared/92zuzsn5f0n83qxgdfi1
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.cdu.edu.au/pipermail/csaa-forum/attachments/20130114/606952ce/attachment.html