In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche claimed that the strength of will required to establish unity within multiplicity is extremely rare in modernity, which encourages specialization and also fragmentation, both of which are fatal to philosophy if allowed to dominate. Nietzsche is notable for the range of his concerns; while some philosophers focus their efforts on one area of philosophy, as Machiavelli did for politics, for example, or Leibniz did for metaphysics, even as some of their remarks indicate a more comprehensive concern beneath the surface, Nietzsche touches explicitly on almost every area of philosophy – aesthetics, politics, ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and so on. In this respect, he is comparable to his ancient bete noire, Plato, but also to Aristotle, about whom he is mostly silent, even as Aristotle’s comprehensiveness is dry, measured, technical and quasi-systematic, while Nietzsche speaks “from the depths” and with a literary sensibility that was hugely influential on modernism. Nietzsche’s own technique, however, remains sui generis. This conference includes papers on many different topics of concern to Nietzsche, from religion and morality to the critique of values and the function of shame, which illustrate the broad range of his interests, while also keeping an eye on the underlying unity of his thought and his understanding of the task of the philosopher.

Conference language: English

Contact information:

Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University, Thákurova 3, 160 00 Praha 6-Dejvice, Czech Republic