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Voltaire called fanaticism the "monster that pretends to be the
child of religion". Philosophers, politicians, and cultural critics
have decried fanaticism and attempted to define the distinctive
qualities of the fanatic, whom Winston Churchill described as
"someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the
subject". Yet despite fanaticism’s role in the long history of
social discord, human conflict, and political violence, it remains
a relatively neglected topic in the history of philosophy. In this
outstanding inquiry into the philosophical history of fanaticism a
team of international contributors examine the topic from antiquity
to the present day. Organised into four sections, topics covered
include: Fanaticism in ancient Greek, Indian and Chinese
philosophy; Fanaticism and superstition from Hobbes to Hume,
including chapters on Locke and Montesquieu, Shaftesbury, and
Hutcheson; Kant, Germaine de Stael, Hegel, Nietzsche, William
James, and Jorge Portilla on fanaticism; Fanaticism and terrorism;
and extremism and gender, including the philosophy and morality of
the ‘manosphere’; Closed-mindedness and political and
epistemological fanaticism. Spanning themes from superstition,
enthusiasm and misanthropy to the emotions, purity and the need for
certainty, Fanaticism and the History of Philosophy is a landmark
volume for anyone researching and teaching the history of
philosophy, particularly ethics and moral philosophy. It is also a
valuable resource for those studying fanaticism in related fields
such as religion, the history of political thought, sociology, and
the history of ideas.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) is widely acknowledged as one of
the greatest thinkers of the nineteenth century. His work continues
to have a significant influence on philosophy, cultural criticism
and modern intellectual history. The Nietzschean Mind seeks to
provide a comprehensive survey of his work, not only placing it in
its historical context but also exploring its contemporary
significance. Comprising twenty-eight chapters by a team of
international contributors, the volume is divided into seven parts:
* Major works * Philosophical psychology and agency * The self *
Value * Culture, society and politics * Metaphysics and
epistemology * The affirmation of life This handbook includes
coverage of all major aspects of Nietzsche's thought, including his
discussions of value, culture, society, the self, agency, action,
philosophical psychology, epistemology and metaphysics;
explorations of the philosophical and scientific influences upon
Nietzsche's thought; and discussion of Nietzsche's major works.
Essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy,
Nietzsche's work is central to ethics, moral psychology and
political philosophy.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) is widely acknowledged as one of
the greatest thinkers of the nineteenth century. His work continues
to have a significant influence on philosophy, cultural criticism
and modern intellectual history. The Nietzschean Mind seeks to
provide a comprehensive survey of his work, not only placing it in
its historical context but also exploring its contemporary
significance. Comprising twenty-eight chapters by a team of
international contributors, the volume is divided into seven parts:
* Major works * Philosophical psychology and agency * The self *
Value * Culture, society and politics * Metaphysics and
epistemology * The affirmation of life This handbook includes
coverage of all major aspects of Nietzsche's thought, including his
discussions of value, culture, society, the self, agency, action,
philosophical psychology, epistemology and metaphysics;
explorations of the philosophical and scientific influences upon
Nietzsche's thought; and discussion of Nietzsche's major works.
Essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy,
Nietzsche's work is central to ethics, moral psychology and
political philosophy.
Nietzsche's works are replete with discussions of moral psychology,
but to date there has been no systematic analysis of his account.
How does Nietzsche understand human motivation, deliberation,
agency, and selfhood? How does his account of the unconscious
inform these topics? What is Nietzsche's conception of freedom, and
how do we become free? Should freedom be a goal for all of us? How
does-and how should-the individual relate to his social context?
The Nietzschean Self offers a clear, comprehensive analysis of
these central topics in Nietzsche's moral psychology. It analyzes
his distinction between conscious and unconscious mental events,
explains the nature of a type of motivational state that Nietzsche
calls the 'drive', and examines the connection between drives,
desires, affects, and values. It explores Nietzsche's account of
willing unity of the self, freedom, and the relation of the self to
its social and historical context. The Nietzschean Self argues that
Nietzsche's account enjoys a number of advantages over the
currently dominant models of moral psychology-especially those
indebted to the work of Aristotle, Hume, and Kant-and considers the
ways in which Nietzsche's arguments can reconfigure and improve
upon debates in the contemporary literature on moral psychology and
philosophy of action.
Nietzsche's works are replete with discussions of moral psychology,
but to date there has been no systematic analysis of his account.
How does Nietzsche understand human motivation, deliberation,
agency, and selfhood? How does his account of the unconscious
inform these topics? What is Nietzsche's conception of freedom, and
how do we become free? Should freedom be a goal for all of us? How
does-and how should-the individual relate to his social context?
The Nietzschean Self offers a clear, comprehensive analysis of
these central topics in Nietzsche's moral psychology. It analyzes
his distinction between conscious and unconscious mental events,
explains the nature of a type of motivational state that Nietzsche
calls the 'drive', and examines the connection between drives,
desires, affects, and values. It explores Nietzsche's account of
willing unity of the self, freedom, and the relation of the self to
its social and historical context. The Nietzschean Self argues that
Nietzsche's account enjoys a number of advantages over the
currently dominant models of moral psychology-especially those
indebted to the work of Aristotle, Hume, and Kant-and considers the
ways in which Nietzsche's arguments can reconfigure and improve
upon debates in the contemporary literature on moral psychology and
philosophy of action.
Why do people persist in commitments that threaten their happiness,
security, and comfort? Why do some of our most central,
identity-defining commitments seem to resist the effects of
reasoning and critical reflection? Drawing on real-life examples,
empirical psychology, and philosophical reflection, Paul Katsafanas
argues that these commitments involve an ethical stance called
devotion, which plays a pervasive-but often hidden-role in human
life. Devotion typically involves sacralizing certain values,
goals, or relationships. To sacralize a value is to treat it as
inviolable (trade-offs with ordinary values are forbidden),
incontestable (even contemplating such trade-offs is prohibited),
and dialectically invulnerable (no rational considerations can
disrupt the agent's commitment to the value). Philosophy of
Devotion offers a detailed philosophical account and defense of
these features. Devotion and the sacralization of values can be
reasonable; indeed, a life involving meaningful, sustained
commitment depends on these stances. Without devotion, we risk an
existential condition that Katsafanas describes as normative
dissipation, in which all of our commitments become etiolated. Yet
devotion can easily go wrong, deforming into the individual and
group fanaticism that have become pervasive features of modern
social life. Katsafanas provides an alternative to fanaticism,
investigating the way in which we can express non-pathological
forms of devotion. We can be devoted through affirmation and
through what Katsafanas calls the deepening move, which treats the
agent's central commitments as systematically inchoate. Each of
these stances enables a wholehearted form of devotion that
nevertheless preserves flexibility and openness, avoiding the
dangers of fanaticism on the one hand and normative dissipation on
the other. But this is inevitably a fragile and precarious
achievement: affirmation can slide into a focus on rejecting what
isn't affirmed, and the deepening move can ossify into rigidity.
Only the perpetual quest to maintain a form of existential
flexibility, which may require oscillation between affirmation and
deepening, can stave off these dangers
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