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    Nietzsche on the health of the soul

    Huddleston, Andrew (2016) Nietzsche on the health of the soul. Inquiry 60 (1-2), pp. 135-164. ISSN 0020-174X.

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    Abstract

    Health (particularly of the soul [Seele]) is a central concept in Nietzsche’s work. Yet in the most philosophically-sophisticated secondary literature on Nietzsche, there has been fairly little sustained treatment of just what Nietzschean health consists in. In this paper, I aim to provide an account of some of the central marks of this health: resilience, discipline, vitality, a certain positive condition of the will to power, a certain tendency toward integration, and so on. This exposition and discussion will be the main task of the paper. Then in the concluding section of the paper, I consider a line taken in some related secondary literature, which would suggest that health might ultimately be understood in formal or dynamic terms, relating to one’s will to power and/or the unity of one’s drives. I will present the beginnings of an argument against such an account of health. In focusing on the formal and dynamic side exclusively, it cannot get the full story. In particular, it seems to me to miss the substantive dimension that is essential if we are to understand health properly. As I shall suggest, the core concept of Nietzschean health is not fully explicable except by reference to normative terms.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis, available online at the link above.
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Nietzsche, health, will to power, flourishing, sickness
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies
    Depositing User: Andrew Huddleston
    Date Deposited: 16 Jan 2017 13:50
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:26
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/16038

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