This volume brings together essays that explore the intersections between Nietzsche and Wittgenstein from various perspectives. While some chapters focus on the philological and biographical connections of Wittgenstein’s reading of Nietzsche, others reflect on the ideas that are implicitly shared by the two thinkers.
For Nietzsche and Wittgenstein, philosophy is inextricably connected to ethics and the arts and therefore takes a peculiar method that differs from the sciences. Nevertheless, their thinking strives for knowledge and truth by means of discursive text forms, however unconventional they may be. The first group of chapters contextualize explicit references to Nietzsche in Wittgenstein’s writings and clarify their philosophical function. In Part II, the contributors take a philosophical problem as their starting point and show how it can be illuminated by comparing or contrasting Wittgensteinian and Nietzschean arguments and methods. Together the chapters trace Nietzsche’s influence on Wittgenstein’s thought concerning the critique of language, ethics, aesthetics, religion, and philosophical method.
Wittgenstein and Nietzsche will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in the history of philosophy and intellectual history.
Introduction: Wittgenstein and Nietzsche Shunichi Takagi and Pascal F. Zambito
Part 1: Influence: Wittgenstein reads Nietzsche
1. Wittgenstein Reads Nietzsche: The Roots of Tractarian Solipsism Nuno Venturinha
2. Schlick, Wittgenstein, and Waismann: Three Responses to Nietzsche Andreas Vrahimis
3. Philosophy as Work on Oneself: Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, and Paul Ernst Stefan Majetschak
4. Transvaluation and Rectification. Wittgenstein reads Nietzsche and Lichtenberg on Values, Poetry, and Language Marco Brusotti
5. ‘jenseits der Grenze’ – Wittgenstein and Nietzsche on Value and Nonsense Pascal F. Zambito
6. Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, and Future Philosophers: The Notion of Truth in Philosophy Oskari Kuusela
Part 2: Dialogues: Philosophical Intersections between Wittgenstein and Nietzsche
7. Philosophical Style: Between Philosophy, Poetry, and Aphoristic Writing Philip Mills
8. Wittgenstein and Nietzsche on Language and Knowledge Pietro Gori
9. A Nietzschean Critique of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Quietism Paul S. Loeb
10. Overcoming Chagrin in Cavell and Nietzsche Gordon C. F. Bearn
11. A Remark on “the Particular Peace” in Philosophy in Wittgenstein and Nietzsche Peter K. Westergaard
Biography
Shunichi Takagi is Researcher at Kyoto University and Chief Research Officer of AaaS Bridge. His PhD thesis, Wittgenstein and the ‘Kantian Solution of the Problem of Philosophy’ (10 February 1931), recounts Wittgenstein’s philosophical development from the Tractatus up until around 10 February 1931, focusing on his engagement with Russell, Kant, and Ramsey.
Pascal F. Zambito is Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Munich. He was Feodor Lynen Fellow at University of Vienna. His recent publications are “Essayism as a Form of Writing and a Form of Life” (2021) and “Searching in Space vs Groping in the Dark: Wittgenstein on Novelty and Imagination in 1929–30” (2023).
