Nietzsche's Noontide Friend: The Self as Metaphoric Double

by Sheridan Hough

Overview

Ever since Heidegger lectured on Nietzsche, philosophers have stressed the active side of the Übermensch, the self who aggressively consumes and exploits value. Sheridan Hough, however, argues that there is a distinctly receptive and passive side to the Nietzschean self, and thus a pervasive doubleness in Nietzsche's thought that hasn't been explored before. This doubleness is the focus of Hough's attention here.

Hough argues that Nietzsche's favorite way to describe the self is to use opposed pairs of metaphors. The sea and the land, the pursuit of archaeology and the "granite stratum" of the self, the child and pregnancy are tropes he uses to show the self as both an active critic of culture and a creation of that culture. Noon and shadow exemplify this dual thinking. The free spirit, according to Nietzsche, is dogged by a shadow, a shadow cast by the free spirit's efforts to overcome himself. Perfect noon—emblematic of the Übermensch—is the moment of ecstatic release for the free spirit. Thus the Übermensch is not a separate "superhuman" being but rather an ecstatic moment in the experience of free spirits.

Hough succeeds in showing that the doubleness motif strikes deeper into the heart of Nietzsche's thinking than has been realized. Favorite Nietzschean images, such as that of pregnancy, suddenly take on new meaning when considered in this light. Careful to avoid a reductionist view, Hough adds significantly to our understanding of Nietzsche's contribution to modern thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780271026442
Publisher:	Penn State University Press
Publication date:	09/15/1997
Series:	Literature and Philosophy
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	188
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Sheridan Hough is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the College of Charleston.

Editorial Reviews

A thoroughly original contribution to contemporary thinking on Nietzsche. This is clearly the ripened fruit of a great deal of meditation.”

—Geoffrey Galt Harpham, Tulane University

From the Publisher

Hough (philosophy, College of Charleston) holds the view that the doubleness motif strikes deeper into the heart of Nietzsche's thinking than has been realized. She argues that although philosophers have stressed the active, aggressive side of Nietzsche's concept of the self, there is a distinctly receptive and passive side that has remained unexplored. Four chapters discuss Nietzsche's opposed pairs of metaphors: the sea and the land, the pursuit of archaeology and the "granite stratum" of the self, the child and pregnancy, and noon and shadow. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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