Overview

The question of antagonism, struggle and dissensus, and their place, limits and value for democracy, has divided deliberative from agonistic theories in recent years and remains the main source of the impasse between them. This open access book seeks to break this impasse by going back to their sources in Kant (for deliberative theories) and Nietzsche (for agonisms) and reframing them as philosophers of conflict. For both philosophers, conflict is part of the ‘deep structure’ of reality at all levels, and their reflections on its constitutive, constructive and destructive potentials raise fundamental questions that democratic theories can ill afford to ignore. Through a series of text-based comparative studies of Kant’s and Nietzsche’s philosophies of conflict, Herman Siemens addresses the central question of the book: What does it take to think of conflict, real opposition or contradiction as an intrinsic dimension of reality? Drawing on Kant’s pre-critical writings and his historical-philosophical texts and Nietzsche’s philosophical physiology and the will to power, chapters examine topics such as logical opposition (contradiction) versus real opposition (Realrepugnanz); idealism as philosophical warfare; the relation between war and peace; destructive versus constructive forms of conflict; resistance as a stimulant; Kant’s ‘unsociable sociability’ and Nietzsche’s ‘fine, well-planned, thoughtful egoism’; hatred, revenge and the ‘slave revolt in morality’. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Dutch Research Council.

Full Product Details

Author:   Herman Siemens (Leiden University, Netherlands)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN:  

9781350347151

ISBN 10:   1350347159
Pages:   296
Publication Date:   22 August 2024
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Abbreviations Manner of citation Translations Introduction 1. The Problem of Contradiction and Real Opposition in Kant and Nietzsche I. Introduction i. A Short History Of ‘Opposition’ (Gegensatz) and ‘Contradiction’ (Widerspruch) II. Kant’s Concept of Negative Magnitudes: Real vs. Logical Opposition i. Kant’s Ontology of Conflict ii. Further Applications of Real Opposition iii. The Source or Ground of Change iv. Kant’s Ontology of Mental Life v. Real Opposition Between Different Bodies vi. Critique of Logical Causation vii. With or Without Substance? III. The Problem of Opposition and Contradiction in Nietzsche’s Thought i. Introduction ii. Nietzsche’s Ontology of Conflict iii. Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Logic iv. Logical Contradiction v. The Ontology of Mental Life vi. From Mechanism To Physiology and Wills to Power vii. Nietzsche’s Critique of Mechanism viii. The Epistemology of Conflict IV. Real Opposition in Nietzsche’s Thought 2. Waging War Against War: Nietzsche Contra Kant on Conflict and the Question of a Living Peace I. Introduction II. Eternal Peace and the Peace of the Graveyard III. Conflict Unlimited and Limited: Nietzsche’s Vernichtungskampf and the Wettkampf IV. Kant’s Philosophical War of Extermination Against War V. Rethinking Conflict as Productive: Nietzsche’s Affirmative Ideal VI. Nietzsche Contra Kant, Kant Contra Nietzsche VII. Approaching a living peace: A Rapprochement? 3. Health, Sex and Sovereignty: Nietzsche Contra Kant on Productive Resistance I. Introduction II. Resistance in Nietzsche III. Nietzsche Vs. Kant on Productive Resistance IV. Freedom, respect for the law and the physiology of agency 4. Towards a New Agonism? Nietzsche’s ‘fine, well-planned, thoughtful egoism’ contra Kant’s ‘unsociable sociability’ I. Introduction II. Kant: ungesellige Geselligkeit III. Nietzsche on Fine, Well-Planned, Thoughtful Egoism IV. Hostile Calm, Calm Hostility: Towards a New Agonism? 5. Nietzsche’s Philosophy of Hatred: Against and With Kant I. Introduction II. Nietzsche’s Philosophy of Hatred III. Kant on Hatred IV. The Hatred of Impotence and the Spirit of Revenge V. Nietzsche’s Responses to the Problem of Hatred VI. The Slave Revolt of Morality and the Problem of Emancipation Epilogue Notes Bibliography Name Index Subject Index

Reviews

Siemens’ new book on Kant and Nietzsche on conflict is compelling for its scholarly excellence and its relevant actuality. It is also an essential reflection on conflict as inherent to human lives. He provides both careful close-reading analysis and crystalline synthesis in a seamless and elegant language. * Isabelle Wienand, University of Basel, Switzerland * A new and important step in the development of Nietzsche’s philosophy of the will to power as a conflict of wills to power. What Wolfgang Müller-Lauter discovered in his critique of Heidegger’s interpretation has come to fruition in this book. With its admirably perspicuous interpretation of the Nachlass texts it shows convincingly the importance – and coherence – of these notes and strengthens the relation between Kant and Nietzsche in an unexpected way. * Paul van Tongeren, Professor Emeritus for Ethics, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands *

Siemens’ new book on Kant and Nietzsche on conflict is compelling for its scholarly excellency and its relevant actuality. It is also an essential reflection on conflict as inherent to human lives. He provides both careful close-reading analysis and crystalline synthesis in a seamless and elegant language. * Dr. Isabelle Wienand, University of Basel, Switzerland *

Siemens’ new book on Kant and Nietzsche on conflict is compelling for its scholarly excellency and its relevant actuality. It is also an essential reflection on conflict as inherent to human lives. He provides both careful close-reading analysis and crystalline synthesis in a seamless and elegant language. * Isabelle Wienand, University of Basel, Switzerland *

Author Information

Herman Siemens is Senior University Lecturer in the History of Modern Philosophy at Leiden University, the Netherlands.

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