Post-Nietzschean Possibilities and Responsibilities

Abstract

Evangelou underlines Nietzsche’s influence on madness studies in philosophy and analyses their post-structuralist bearings. Assuming a broadly Derridean perspective, Evangelou argues for the symbolic value of the philosophical gesture that autobiographical philosophy allows, a gesture which remains deeply embedded in a response to the ‘Nietzsche event’. When seen from this perspective, he argues, responding to Nietzsche implies a response to madness and describes this response in terms of lending an ear. Evangelou stresses the ethical and symbolic implications of this gesture (lending an ear to the ‘mad’) whose significance needs to be acknowledged despite the possibility that what one lends an ear to may be incomprehensible or completely silent. Evangelou also evaluates Nietzsche’s own understanding of the economy of hearing and understanding him.