Overview

In The Ascetic Ideal, Stephen Mulhall shows how areas of cultural life that seem to be either essentially unconnected to evaluative commitments (science and philosophy) or to involve non-moral values (aesthetics) are in fact deeply informed by ethico-religious commitments, for better and for worse.The book develops a reading of Nietzsche's concept of 'the ascetic ideal', which he used to track the evolution, mutation, and expansion of the system of slave moral values, associated primarily with Judaeo-Christian religious belief through diverse fields of Western European culture--not just religion and morality, but aesthetics, science, and philosophy. Mulhall also offers an interpretation of Nietzsche's genealogical method that aims to rebut standard criticisms of its nature, and to emphasize its potential for enhancing philosophical understanding more generally. The focus throughout is on developments in those fields which occurred after the end of Nietzsche's intellectual career, and in particular on influential modes of thought and practice that have a contemporary significance. The goal is not simply to argue that Nietzsche's diagnosis and critique retains considerable merit, but also to show that Nietzsche is himself significantly indebted to the ideals he criticizes, and that this opens up a possibility of synthesizing elements of his approach with those drawn from its target. Hence, the book also tracks various ways in which the object of Nietzsche's criticism has undergone further mutations (just as his genealogical method would suggest), and in doing so has generated ways of pursuing the values central to asceticism that avoid Nietzsche's criticisms, and might even further his own goals.

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9780192896889

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Reviews

It is an intelligent, albeit idiosyncratic, extension of Nietzsche's analyses * A. D. Schrift, Grinnell College, Choice Connect *

It is an intelligent, albeit idiosyncratic, extension of Nietzsche's analyses * A. D. Schrift, Grinnell College, Choice Connect * The Ascetic Ideal is a generous work of hospitable translation between different disciplinary languages, one that paradoxically marries skepticism with optimism. * Joel Mayward, The Journal of Religion *

Author Information

Stephen Mulhall is a Professor of Philosophy, and Fellow of New College, University of Oxford. He was previously a Reader in Philosophy at the University of Essex, and a Prize Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He received an MA in Philosophy from the University of Toronto, and a DPhil in Philosophy from the University of Oxford.

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