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<p>Firstly, the MSCP Summer School begins today with 'Hitchcock and Theory: The French Connection' in room 0104, Law Building, University of Melbourne.<br /><a href="http://mscp.org.au/courses/summer-school-2013">http://mscp.org.au/courses/summer-school-2013</a><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong>The Challenge of Aristocratic Radicalism, or Nietzsche and the Negro</strong><br /><br />Wednesday 16th January 2013, at 6pm,<br /><br />Room 0104, Law Building on Pelham st<br />University of Melbourne.<br /><br />Preview the Paper at this link:<br /><a href="https://www.box.com/shared/92zuzsn5f0n83qxgdfi1">https://www.box.com/shared/92zuzsn5f0n83qxgdfi1</a><br /><br /> <br /><br />Abstract<br /><br />'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).<br /><br />What is the thesis of 'aristocratic radicalism'; what was Nietzsche's argument for it; what challenge does it pose to political theory today?<br /><br />1. The thesis<br />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'.<br /><br />2. The argument<br />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.<br /><br />3. The challenge<br />'[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'.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />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.<br /><br /> <br /><br />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.<br />http://mscp.org.au</p>
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