Nietzsche and the Political (Paperback, New)

Nietzsche'e contributions to politics, and to political philosophy, are notoriously difficult to define clearly. Throughtout the 20th century critics have warned that nothing Nietzsche says in fact rules out the illiberal political regimes to which his name has been linked. He casts modernity in a negative light, often describing it in terms of approaching European nihilism and the spread of decadence. However, this text reminds shows how his analysis of modernity also produces in Nietzsche a liberating effect. Content to leave the details of government and regulation of politics to others, Nietzsche instead raises the profound political question: "what ought humankind become"? Nietzsche's political thinking is shown to bear a closer resemblance to the conservative republicanism of his predecessors than to the progressive liberalism of his contemporaries. The Key contemporary figures such as Habermas, Foucault, McIntyre, Rorty and Rawls are also examined in the light of Nietzsche's political legacy.