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Nietzsche’s Rhetorical Philosophy as Critique of Impure Reason

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Nietzsche, Theories of Knowledge, and Critical Theory

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science ((BSPS,volume 203))

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Abstract

On September, 28th 1872 Nietzsche — a professor in Classical Philology since 1869 at the university of Basel — borrowed a newly published book from the university library: Die Sprache als Kunst by Gustav Gerber. Today both the book and its author would probably only be familiar to specialists in historical linguistics. The book must have made a strong impression on the young Nietzsche, although this is scarcely obvious from the few remarks on it made during that winter term.1 However, comparing Gerber’s 1871 book with Nietzsche’s lectures on rhetoric from 1872/73,2 it is clear that Nietzsche is not only indebted to Gerber but that he exploited him (and others) to such an extent that his lecture notes can be read as a kind of “collage.”3

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Notes

  1. F. Nietzsche, “Darstellung der antiken Rhetorik,” Kritische Gesamtausgabe II, 4 (Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1995), pp. 413 ff. [Subsequent references to the German original are to the KSA edition. — Ed.]

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  2. Ph. Lacoue-Labarthe, “Der Umweg (Le détour),” W. Hamacher, ed., Nietzsche und Frankreich (Berlin: Ullstein, 1986). 1986; A, Meijers, “Gustav Gerber und Friedrich Nietzsche,” Nietzsche-Studien 17 (1988): 369ff; A. Meijers,and M. Stingelin,“Konkordanz zu den wörtlichen Abschriften und Übernahmen von Beispielen und Zitaten aus Gerbers `Die Sprache als Kunst,”’ Nietzsche-Studien 17 (1988): pp. 350 ff.; G. Most and Th. Fries, “Die Quellen von Nietzsches Rhetorik-Vorlesung,” in J. Kopperschmidt and H. Schanze eds., Nietzsche oder: “Die Sprache ist Rhetorik” München: Fink, 1994), pp. 17ff.

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  3. Most and Fries, p. 20; pp. 26 ff.

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  4. H. Blumenberg, “Anthropologische Annäherung an die Rhetorik” Wirklichkeiten, in denen wir leben (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1981[19711), p. 104, p. 105.

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  5. R. Volkmann, Die Rhetorik der Griechen und Römer (Hildesheim: Olms, 1970 [1887]).

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  6. Nietzsche, Darstellung der antiken Rhetorik,translated as “Antique Rhetoric” in Friedrich Nietzsche on Rhetoric and Language,S. Gilman, et al., ed. and trans. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 23. Henceforth: AR in text.

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  7. K. Jaspers, Von der Wahrheit (München: Pieper, 1947), pp. 398 ff.

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  8. Eigentliche Worte gibt es in der Sprache nicht.“ Ibid.

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  9. Alle (!) von Anfang an Tropen.“ Ibid.

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  10. N. Bolz, Eine kleine Geschichte des Scheins (München: Fink, 1991), p. 52 ff.

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  11. Quintilian, Institutio oratoria. 2 Vol. (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1975), IX, 3.1.

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  12. G. Gerber, Die Sprache als Kunst,Vol. 1 (Hildesheim: Olms, 1971[1871]), p. 262.

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  13. das Erkennen in Begriffen vor sich geht.“ KSA 7, p. 481.

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  14. See KSA I, 886 ff. English translations from “On Truth and Lying” in Gilman, et al, ed., Friedrich Nietzsche on Rhetoric and Language. Henceforth noted as TL in the text.

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  15. AR, 3;7. See U. Ellrich, “Rhetorik und Metaphysik,” Nietzsche-Studien,23 (1994): 241 ff.

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  16. See AR,7.

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  17. See R. Campe, “Die zwei Perioden des Stils,” Comparation, 2/3 (1991): 73 ff.

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  18. Blumenberg, p. 104.

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  19. Plato, The Republic VII, p. 514 ff.

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  20. See J. Kopperschmidt, J., “Höhlenrhetorik,” in Th. Müller, J. G. Pankau, and G. Ueding, eds., “Nicht allein mit den Worten” (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1994), 214 ff.

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  21. It is well known that the parable of liberation from the cave has a few difficulties; see Kopperschmidt, Politik und Rhetorik ( Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1995 ).

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  22. den Menschen aus dem Schein herauszuziehen.“ KSA 9, 620.

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  23. Bolz, p. 67.

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  24. Das Leben im Schein als Ziel… umgedrehter Platonismus…“ KSA 7, 199.

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  25. Blumenberg: “mit seinem Mangel an Wahrheit fertig werden,” p. 105.

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  26. Nietzsche goes into more detail in the important third section of his lecture: “a power, which Aristotle calls rhetoric is, at the same time, the essence of language.” AR, 21.

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  27. P. de Man, Allegorien des Lesens ( Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1988 ), p. 148.

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  28. See KSA 12, 140.

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  29. KSA 7, 468. See G. Rupp, “`Der ungeheure Consensus der Menschen über die Dinge’ oder: Die gesellschaftlich wirksame Rhetorik,” Literaturmagazin 12,(Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1980), pp. 179 ff.

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  30. KSA 7, 632 ff.

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  31. Twlight of the Idols,trans. R.J. Hollingdale, (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1990), p. 51.

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  32. KSA I, 881.

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  33. Ibid.

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  34. Beyond Good and Evil,22, trans. R.J. Hollingdale, Harvester, 1983, p. 34.

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  35. J. Habermas “Zu Nietzsches Erkenntnistheorie,” Kultur und Kritik (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1973), pp. 239 ff, p. 250.

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  36. Ibid.,p. 237.

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  37. Habermas, Der philosophische Diskurs der Moderne (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1985), 8 246.

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  38. See Bolz, 52.

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  39. Lacoue-Labarthe, pp. 75 ff. p. 87.

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  40. H. Cancik, Nietzsches Antike ( Stuttgart/Weimar: Metzler, 1995 ), p. 34.

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  41. See Lacoue-Labarthe.

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  42. S. Ijsseling, Rhetorik und Philosophie,(Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1988) 57; P. Gasser, Rhetorische Philosophie,(Bern: Peter Lang, 1992), esp. p. 203 ff.

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  43. See K. Schlechta and A. Anders, Nietzsche. Von den verborgenen Anfängen seines Philosophierens. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Fromman-Holzboog, 1962 ).

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  44. H. Gomperz, Sophistik und Rhetorik (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1965), 258; K. Dockhorn “Rhetoricce movet,” H. Schanze, ed., Rhetorik (Frankfurt: Athenäum, 1974), 17; K.O. Apel, Die Idee der Sprache ( Bonn: Bouvier, 1975 ), 74.

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  45. See, among others, R. Fietz, Medienphilosophie. Musik, Sprache und Schrift bei F. Nietzsche (Würzburg: Königshausenand Neumann, 1992); S. Ijsseling, “Nietzsche en de retorica,” Tijdschrift voor filosofie 30 (1973): pp. 435 ff.; S. Kofman, Nietzsche et la métaphore (Paris: Payot, 1972); A. Kremer-Marietti, Nietzsche et la rhétorique. (Paris: PUF, 1992); Ph. Lacoue-Labarthe and J.-L. Nancy, eds., F. Nietzsche: Rhétorique et la langage. Poétique 2 (1971); A. Tebartz-van-Elst, Ästhetik der Metapher (Freiburg/München: Fink, 1992), Kopperschmidt, “Nietzsches Entdeckung der Rhetorik,” in Kopperschmidtand Schanze, p. 39 ff; D. Müller, Wider die “Vernunft in der Sprache” (Tübingen: 1995); M. Stingelin, “Die Rhetorik des Menschen,” Nietzsche-Studien 24 (1995): 336 ff; Stingelin, “Nietzsche, die Rhetorik, die décadence,” Sprache und Literatur in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 75/76 (1995): 27 ff; Stingelin, “Unsere ganze Philosophie ist Berichtigung des Sprachgebrauchs.” F. Nietzsches Lichtenberg-Rezeption. ( München: Fink 1995 ).

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  1. Fachhochschule Niederrhein, Germany

    Josef Kopperschmidt

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  1. Fordham University, USA

    Babette E. Babich

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Kopperschmidt, J. (1999). Nietzsche’s Rhetorical Philosophy as Critique of Impure Reason. In: Babich, B.E. (eds) Nietzsche, Theories of Knowledge, and Critical Theory. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 203. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2430-2_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2430-2_14

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