virtual philosopher

Rothko and Philosophy

I'll be talking at the Tate Modern Rothko Symposium on the influence of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard on Rothko (he read both avidly) and how understanding this influence can give a way of viewing the paintings. This coincides with the Rothko exhibition...

Brian Leiter on Nietzsche on the Phenomenology of Willing

Brian Leiter has a fascinating article about Nietzsche on the will (available form that link as a pdf). Leiter is sympathetic to Nietzsche's idea that our experience of willing action is misleading about the actual causal genesis of action, and ties this to recent empirical research in the area which seems to support this view. We think that we will ourselves to do something; and it feels that way. But, perhaps this is all epiphenomenal, i.e. doesn't actually make anything happen. If Nietzsche and Leiter are right, then it raises serious questions about moral responsibility for actions, and whether that notion even makes sense. (Brian invites you to comment on his paper here)

This relates to Freud's idea of the third great blow to humanity's narcissicism which I discussed in an earlier post. Freud was reluctant to read too much of Nietzsche's work because he feared he'd find all his own ideas anticipated...

Twilight of the You Tube Idol...

There is a nice faked movie sequence of Nietzsche here ...the head movements are a bit of a giveaway...

update on Nietzsche's typewriter...

I had some interesting responses to my earlier posts here and here about Nietzsche's typewriter. Apparently the actual typewriter (a Malling-Hansen ball - the first commercially sold typewriter in the world) still exists in the Goethe and Schiller archive in Weimar. For a German book about Nietzsche's typewriter and his typescripts, see Dieter Eberwein's webpages - it even includes a section on Nietzsche's keystroke strength. I'm willing to bet his typing style was more dionysian than apollonian...

HyperNietzsche has images of a range of Nietzsche's notebooks. Amazing. I couldn't find the typescripts in amongst them, but I guess they'll be up there sooner or later.