2 comments about The Enemy: An Intellectual Portrait of Carl Schmitt.

1. _The Enemy_ provides an excellent and thorough introducion to the life and thinking of the German political philosopher and jurist Carl Schmitt. The book traces the developments in his thoughts from his earliest days as a Catholic schoolchild in the Rhineland to his eventual professorship in constitutional law and his involvement with the Third Reich regime and the subsequent developments in his thought after the Third Reich had fallen. Schmitt is normally considered to belong with the "conservative revolutionaries" such as Ernst Junger, Oswald Spengler, Martin Heidegger, and several other important figures in the Weimar republic prior to the advent of the Third Reich. These thinkers were important for their political and philosophical thought which was firmly opposed to liberalism, bolshevism, and modernism. An important aspect behind Schmitt's thought was his Catholicism (however tenuous that link may have become for him at various moments in his life). Certain interpreters of Schmitt have made the claim that Schmitt's writings can be understood on the basis of a "fundamentalist" Catholicism , in which the crisis in the modern world is perceived in apocalyptic terms involving an encounter between Christ and Antichrist. Schmitt became a jurist and a professor of constitutional law and a great deal of his writing is concerned with the application of his political principles to the legal status of the constitution. Schmitt's thinking is heavily influenced by the German Romantics such as Schlegel and Hegelianism, but also has a Latin character influenced by such Catholic counter-revolutionaries as Joseph de Maistre and Donoso Cortes, as well as the writings of Thomas Hobbes in his _Leviathan_, and the writings of Machiavelli. Perhaps Schmitt is most famous for his understanding of the political in terms of the "friend-enemy" distinction. He outlined this distinction in his famous work _The Concept of the Political_. Schmitt came to occupy a central place in the Third Reich regime and was often regarded as the "Crown Jurist" of that regime. The particular problematic of Schmitt's involvement with the Third Reich and his adherence to certain anti-Semitic beliefs is firmly covered in this book. After the defeat of the Third Reich, Schmitt would come to partially renounce some of his earlier alignment with it; however, he would also come to regard the process of denazification which involved him spending several years in captivity as equally abominable. Much of Schmitt's work focused on a particular interpretation of Thomas Hobbes in hiw book _Leviathan_. Schmitt may have believed in an apocalyptic myth involving an obscure quasi-Messianic figure, the Katechon (see the discussion in the book; but also see Paul's epistle to the Thessalonians where it is explained that the Katechon refers to a "restrainer" who is to come). The book also discusses Schmitt's relationship with the new international order subsequent to the Nazi regime. The importance of Schmitt's thought here in regards to our modern era which is closely coming to approximate a New World Order and a system of international law based in the United Nations (i.e. the League of Nations in Schmitt's time) cannot be overestimated. Schmitt's later works include a book entitled _Land and Sea_ which outlines the differences between land and sea powers and a work entitled _The Law of the Earth_. The relationship between a landlocked continental German power and a seafaring English power rooted in the Calvinistic religion plays an important role in Schmitt's writings. Schmitt's later days were spent in relative obscurity as a figure who was considered anathema by the new intellectuals; however, he continued to write and work and gather a group of students around him. Carl Schmitt is a fascinating figure who encountered the dark side and whose thinking still poses interesting questions for the modern world. His distinction between friend and enemy continues to occupy an important place in the role of political theory and although some on the Left have attempted to usurp his ideas, his ideas remain firmly grounded in the tradition of right wing intellectuals of the conservative revolution. This book provides an excellent introduction and outline of his life and thought and is to be highly recommended to all those interested in this figure.



2. This is the best all-around survey of and introduction to Carl Schmitt's thought. Balakrishnan does a good job of identifying each of the many, many "turns" in Schmitt's thought and situating each of them within the contemporaneous political developments in German-speaking Europe. There is some basic discussion of Schmitt's personal and religious life, as well as his political allegiances and the vicissitudes of his unstable status within the German establishment. This book is scholarly, clear and readable. If there's a problem with The Enemy, it is that Schmitt's thought does not lend itself to summary. He seems not only to have 'evolved' intellectually over time, but also to have taken simultaneously contradictory positions in contemporaneous works.
   
   Schmitt's brand of legal nihilism is fashionably dangerous. But, in my view, he is an artifact of a bygone moment in German history and has little to teach contemporary Anglo-American lawyers. Schmitt is frequently cited as an intellectual ancestor of Bush's lawyers John Yoo and David Addington but I suspect any similarity is accidental. In any event, the comparison is less than enlightening. However dubious their legal advice, Yoo and Addington both speak the language of precedent, jurisprudence and constitutional authority. Schmitt's arguments were grounded in a muscular continental mysticism - the gestalt of force and submission. Yoo and Addington are perhaps overly concerned with the defense of the republic, but they take its legitimacy for granted. Schmitt was suspicious of the very possibility of parliamentary rule. He sensed that deliberation was an arbitrary process with no logical endpoint. He feared that parliamentary politics was foundationless - that it was, to steal a phrase from Steven Hawking, 'just turtles all the way down.' Schmitt sought sovereign power as the font of political legitimacy - the solid ground beneath the State's feet. He seems to have concluded that sovereign power comes into being through an act of will or faith. This notion is alien to Anglo-American legal thought, where legal authority is derived from text, tradition, history, or natural law. Schmitt is compelling because he shows us an alternative law and politics of reactionary postmodernism - critical legal theory in service to naked power.
   
   In the end, Schmitt is historically important for his two aphorisms: "He is sovereign who decides the exception." and "Tell me who your enemy is and I will tell you who you are." Meditate upon these long enough and you won't need this or any other book on Carl Schmitt.

1 comments about Plato's Republic: A Biography (Books That Changed the World).

1. This book is NOT a copy of Plato's Republic, but a commentary on the Greek text. The title of this book leads us to believe it contains Plato's Republic as well as biographical information. This is NOT the case. Blackburn's work is, as always, insightful and worth reading, but it is NOT a copy of the Republic.

No comments about On Heidegger (Wadsworth Philosophers Series).

5 comments about The Journals of Ayn Rand.

1. Interested in Ayn Rand's personal life as well as her philosophy? "Journals" offers an interesting look at the famous author.



2. I agree with Stephen Cox, who writes on The Daily Objectivist website: "One of its best features is the large amount of plain good writing that one discovers here, much more than one might expect to find in an author's working notes. Rand does very well in the medium of brief and (as she thought) temporary comments. The volume contains many shrewd observations, vital expressions of personality, and spirited confrontations with intellectual problems." A great insight into a great mind!



3. I was initially disappointed. The early pages are difficult to read and mostly seem to restate stuff that shows up in more polished form later. However, you can see the transition from quasi-Nietzschean ideals to a more mature Objectivism, and in particular the transition of the primary virtue being independence (The Fountainhead) to rationality (Atlas Shrugged). Interesting elements: Rand's notes for a movie about the invention of the atomic bomb, including what she was trying to convey and what she learned from her interviews. Her notes on books about architecture, her response to what she considers silliness, and her adaptation of what is said to characters in the book.

   Most of the notes from Atlas Shrugged deal with analyzing the psychology of the "parasite." This goes on for pages and seems rather tedious since it comes across as largely speculation-no evidence is cited. More interesting are the notes from the interviews she conducted about how to depict a steel mill and other settings that occur in the book.

   Also noted that she wants to believe in the existence of a soul (i.e., the element of a human being that thinks and is not part of conventional matter). That was rather striking!

   I am inordinately proud of myself for finishing it in one day, though I wonder at the same time how much I missed. Can't see myself rereading it anytime soon, though. If I reread anything, it will probably be Atlas Shrugged or possibly The Fountainhead.




4. The JOURNALS OF AYN RAND is an important addition to the large body of work by and about Ayn Rand. This work is put out by Rand's Estate, which worked with scholars associated with the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI). JOURNALS contains an introduction and notes by editor David Harriman which are, for the most part, helpful. There is a forward by Leonard Peikoff which is pretty much what you would expect.

   Rand wrote out her notes in complete sentences, so there is a good deal of lengthy philosophical and other matters contained in this book. One of the best parts her notes for a work Rand started after THE FOUNTAINHEAD, called THE MORAL BASIS OF INDIVIDUALISM. It's over 60 pages long. Particularly revealing are the notes for an early story called "The Little Street" which is highly Nietzschian in tone, as even the editor had to admit. (Peikoff's forward attempts to downplay the influence of Nietzsche on Rand's thought.)

   One thing I found interesting is that most of the journal entries are before 1955. However, Rand didn't start writing philosophical essays until after that. JOURNALS includes some notes for the articles that make up INTRODUCTION TO OBJECTIVIST EPISTEMOLOGY, but that's about it. Editor Harriman tells us that Rand made only brief outlines for her philosophical essays, and felt that publishing them wouldn't add much. I would like to take Harriman's word for it. But was there no benefit to publishing these outlines? This might be a minor point, but for the fact that there are reasons to question the accuracy of the JOURNALS. Prior to this book, some small portions of Rand's journals were published by ARI-associated scholars. In an entry dated January 20, 1947, the previously published version contains a reference to Albert J. Nock, which is left out in the version published in JOURNALS. There are other changes as well, such as the removal of "duty" in a passage on ethics. [Sciabarra,"Bowlderizing Ayn Rand", Liberty, Sept. 1998.] This isn't a big deal to fans and casual students, but to scholars attempting to sort out the influence of other thinkers on Rand's thought, it is a big problem.




5. If you happen to be an intellectual struggling through the travails of achieving very long-range goals, then this book has a mother load of precious gems for you to mine. You have to work at it, though. You have to want it. You have to already know what it's like to sit day after day in front of a white piece of paper and force yourself to work—especially to solve difficult mental problems on your own. Serious intellectual work is tough going, and this book will show you just how tough it was even for one of the brightest minds the world has ever known, yet it will also help you to see how that same mind overcame those challenges.
   
   For me, reading this book was a little like having Ayn Rand come back as a ghost to hover over me, urging me on in my struggles to be a fiction writer, promising me that I will succeed if I work hard enough, employ good study methods, always engage my own values, and above all use reason as my guide.
   
   This book is not for everyone. Though David Harriman did a remarkable job of selecting the right content and sorting it for clarity and readability, it remains just what the title states: Ayn Rand's personal journals. It is not a diary. There's nothing here about personal hobbies, romance, or life's milestones. Only her writing notes were included so that the reader can see a straightforward record of the orderly mental processes that she applied to her work.
   
   Personally, I found this book to be challenging, informative, and highly inspirational — a fascinating look into a fascinating mind.

5 comments about An Unknown Woman.

1. Thirtysomething Alice Koller looked in the mirror and didn't recognize the face she saw. Feeling the urgent need to reassess her life, she saved up enough money to spend several months in a secluded house in Nantucket. Her only companion was her puppy, Logos. Faced with solitude, she began the challenging task of dissecting who she was and deciding who she wanted to become. She found that her adult self was not that much different from the child who so desperately sought her mother's attention and affection. She finds her difficulty with jobs and men have their roots in her early conflict with her mother. She emerges clear-sighted and independent: "I don't need anyone to tell me what I'm like, what I do well, what I ought to try. I know who I am a little bit more each day." Through writing and vigorous soul searching she comes to realize this. And the reader will share in her ultimate triumph.



2. I am currently finishing An Unknown Woman for the second time. This time was even more useful than the first - which was many years ago. I dug deep into the box hidden at the back of the closet for what I knew would help me in my current internal journey. Yes, there is much about her dog Logos. But like a good movie, the characters must be developed before they can mean anything in the epiphany. I love the process of how she deconstructs her patterns and thoughts to get to some source of each one of them, following a thread until it leads her to a place of realization. And only the realization can stop the process. Along the way I did some deconstructing of myself and developed once again a pattern of looking at my choices that is actually helpful in revealing my own truths hidden under the daily machinations which cover it all up. It is hard to be true to yourself. I am glad to have books like this that continue to aid me in my journey to be free.



3. 
   I'm another male reader which is a minority for this book. Actually there are quite a few books by women on living in solitude and not as many by men. I enjoy the genre and so I got this one. I also like to read about books about Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. This falls into that category. While reading the book I was a little annoyed that she seemed immune from accepting responsibility for her problems and blamed everyone else. There's a little of that. There a bit of a holier than thou attitude. If you love pets then you will understand her devotion to her dog but other may find it a bit much.
   
   However, after reading it over 4 years ago I'm still wondering what became of Alice. I still think of the book admire it's spirit. If you can overlook the minor annoyances I mentioned and the idea of going off alone to reflect on your life appeals to you, I can recommend it.



4. I bought the book because of the Nantucket angle, rather than for the story of how Koller "finds" herself. Actual observations about the island are thinner than I'd expected (she was there only 90 days, in a remote area, living basically as a hermit). The story takes place in the winter of '62 - '63, long before the 1982 publishing date would imply. One (admittedly minor) point that jumped out at me was that her inability to receive any radio stations re-enforced her isolation. Actually, although FM and TV signals are generally poor there, without cable, I can recall listening to very clear AM radio from as far away as New York City on the sunniest and foggiest days, when such reception should be the poorest. The problem with "fading out" was likely her radio. That having been said, it was worth the read to get to the point where she decides to move ahead, putting the past firmly behind her. Basically, the first part of the book consists of (factual) background of events leading up to her arrival on the island, the middle reads lie a Do-It-Yourself therapy session. I didn't find it a "womans' book" myself, but the story of someone who finally learns to stand up for herself, instead of fearing failure, and grasping for others' approval. Amazon doesn't have 1/2 stars, or I'd have given 3 1/2.
   One final point: the author is known to some friends as "Timmie" - this is introduced rather abuptly, leaving me to wonder "Who's that, and when did (s)he enter the conversation?"



5. I'm a reading freak, I literally own hundreds of books, most all of them literature and serious non-fiction. This book, and Alice Koller's second memoir, The Stations of Solitude, are two of my favorite books of all time. It's just that they're not exactly like any other books I've read. Both memoirs are of a single woman's excruciatingly sane, solitary life, beautifully described in minute, banal detail. She wrote An Unknown Woman years ago, but both books can still actually teach people to have the courage to live a real, sincere life and make their own choices, simply by the example she puts forth. However, the thing I love the most about them is that they don't pretend to be interesting, witty or dramatic. In the Stations she describes how she manages, or survives, all kinds of mundane stresses and ordinary grief--- how she deals with having no money, finding jobs, looking for places to live. How she lives in her car in a state forest for a while. How she mourns the death of her dog. How she loves of the beauty of some piece of furniture! I just can't say enough good things about these books. They are written by someone who wrote about her life as she experienced it firsthand, who used her own experiences, even of things that are considered ordinary, as the basis for her work and philosophy. Her books have a complete lack of pop psychology, or 'the experts say...' mentality that seems so prevalent today. I know it sounds cliche, but they are totally refreshing.

No comments about Geographical Voices: Fourteen Autobiographical Essays (Space, Place, and Society).

5 comments about Confessions of a Philosopher: A Personal Journey Through Western Philosophy from Plato to Popper (Modern Library Paperbacks).

1. I simply could not get over the horribly plentiful, useless detail about the author's life. The actual "blood and guts" philosophy is little and scarce. I expected an honest discussion of one's philosophical journey, but be prepared to loose interest fast rummaging through trite repetition of events of the author's life who considers himself hopelessly self important. Don't waste your time or money



2. This is a fantastic book that I literally cannot put down. Bryan Magee is an Oxford and Yale educated philosopher/politician/British television personality who recounts his philosophical development throughout the whole of his life. The book deals with his formal education in college as well as his never ending search for meaning once his academic training is over. The book does not present philosophy from a historical or chronological perspective but from the first person process of actually encountering them. Magee makes it clear from the very first chapter that he actually HAD philosophical problems as a child...fundamental questions he thought about that served as the impetus for his education in philosophy. He spends several chapters criticizing the atmosphere he encountered during his many years as a student at Oxford. Oxford at the time, was the bastion of linguistic philosophy. Magee never could accept the view the the way we utilize language was the primary subject matter of philosophy, and he spends a good deal of time in the book demolishing this tradition. It is clear that Magee's chief philosophical influences are Kant, Schopenhauer and Popper. He gives considerable time to discussing the ideas of each and includes chapters on his personal relationships with Popper and Bertrand Russell. He ventures into more personal aspects of his life and his mid life crisis. In doing so, he not only recounts personal thoughts and experiences but gives overviews of numerous philosophers in doing so. The book is very clearly written and is very enjoyable to read. It is a book written by a man who has spent a life time in the study of philosophy and it clearly shows how ver, VERY well read Mr. Magee is. When he writes, you know that the knows what he is talking about. I think anyone who enjoys this book will be motivated to begin reading the classics of philosophy immediately.



3. Having read Magee's outstanding book on Popper, I got interested in this "biography"...which I knew was some kind of introduction...I have found his confessions to be very interesting and if you want to say so..they apply in some aspects, mainly in what he says about his midlife crisis, not just to himself, but to a lot of us. Regarding the "introductory" part of the book..the chapters on Kant, Popper, Russell and Schopenhauer are very good indeed, and some of the explanations that he brings forward are very much to the point and very clarifying. This is due to the fact that Mr. Magee is a very good writer and I would add, very honest. The way he puts his ideas in writing are very easy to follow and to digest. Get this book if you are really interested in Philosophy...



4. A very readable and easy way for an introduction to a many sided and complex subject, absolutely fascinating and enjoyable.



5. Confessions of a Philosopher is more of an introduction to philosophy than an autobiography. I thought that the book was very clearly written and presented what often comes across as dry subject matter in a way that made it interesting and enjoyable to read. Magee covers most of the great Western philosophers (as the cover says, "from Plato to Popper") but pays particular attention to Kant, Schopenhauer, Popper and those philosophers who inspired the twentieth-century focus on analytic philosophy (notably Wittgenstein and Russell). Magee appears to feel strongly that the logical positivists and later analytic philosophers took philosophy down a fruitless, damaging detour and he devotes three chapters to refuting logical positivism and linguistic analysis.
   
   I do not recall how I heard about Confessions of a Philosopher since I was not familiar with Magee before reading this book. I generally do not read autobiographies, especially not those that are nearly 500 pages long and involve a person whom I have never heard of, but I am happy that I took the time to read this one. The front of the book includes a note stating that "[this book] is about ideas: the autobiographical element is medium, not message." I certainly got that feeling while reading the book, although I thought that the autobiographical aspects generally added to the presentation and tended to make the ideas more interesting (such as when Magee's personal conversations with Popper and Russell were included in the sections discussing their philosophical ideas).
   
   I have always been interested in understanding philosophical ideas but I have generally found reading philosophy to be rather dense and boring. This is one of the only books that I have found (along with some Nietzsche, Camus and Dostoevsky) which discusses philosophical ideas while actually being enjoyable to read. Magee is an excellent writer who clearly presents ideas and I definitely plan to check out some of his other works (especially his books on Popper and Schopenhauer). I would highly recommend this book to those interested in a broad introduction to philosophy.

1 comments about John Rawls: His Life and Theory of Justice.

1. This book has been a great introduction to Rawls and his Theory of Justice. As a non-professional this book provided for me a great overview of the major important parts of the theory. It also provides a set of critiques brought on by others and by the author himself. Most objections to portions of the theory are addressed but Pogge has offered others that are still open to discussion. The book covers not just the Theory of Justice but the restatement and current topics relating to the theory. All-in-all a very good read.

5 comments about Simone Weil (Penguin Lives).

1. I had read a few of Simone Weil's essays and admired them greatly, but didn't know much about the woman herself. This book is a good source of basic biographical facts, but the author leaves a lot to be desired in discussing Weil's philosophy. Yes, this is a biography, not a philosophy text. This being a biography of a philosopher, however, one might expect *some* sort of argument to be presented when the subject's philosophy is being dismissed.
   The anti-semitic opinions Weil held are obviously distasteful to most intelligent people and no explanations are needed as to why these views of hers were wrongheaded. But when the author is dealing with Weil's specific criticisms of the Old Testament, she calls her readings of it "skewed" and "distorted by the bizarre conception of God" she had developed through studying various world religions, yet she gives no reasons why Weil's readings were skewed or why her conception of God is so bizarre. From what I've gathered in this book, Weil's conceptions of God were quite reasonable.
   I'm glad this book presents the faults along with the virtues of this great thinker, but such swift and unreasoned dismissals of certain parts of her philosophies are off-putting, and this book is rife with them.
   A little nit-picking: the author goes back and forth between calling her "Weil" and "Simone" with no ostensible rationale for doing so. Also, at one point in the book, for no apparent reason, she describes events in Weil's life in the present tense for a few pages.
   All that being said, the book has mostly satisfied my curiosity about Weil's life. I wouldn't say it's not worth reading.



2. It is hard for me to understand why someone would choose to write a book about a person they obviously dislike and then do a bad job of researching their lives. There are some wonderful biographies of Simone Weil out there, including one by her friend Simone Petrement. This books has gotten most of the facts wrong and turned a young woman searching in her own way for truth into a weird, comical figure which she certainly wasn't. Most of the stories quoted by the author are anecdotal at best. Reading this book is a waste of time. If you want to know Simone Weil, read her books.



3. Francine Du Plessix Gray has done a phenomenal job in distilling the life and and thoughts of Simone Weil. Most importantly, while illuminating the experiences, insights, and influences of the noted French philosopher, Du Plessix Gray has not shied away from Weil's darker sides, including her virulent Jewish self-hatred. It is sad that such a deep thinker could be so blind to the suffering of her fellow Jews when they faced the greatest catastrophe in their history. This is a book to be read not only for those who wish to understand modern French thought, but also for those who need to understand the limits of the intellect as well.



4. The most memorable and the most compelling thread in Gray's narrative for me is the new focus on Weil's relationship with her parents: they made great sacrifices to ensure that Simone was safe, living well, or at living decently, throughout her many willfull and ruinous physcial and spiritual experiences. Weil's mother followed her from town to town as she took on different teaching posts or factory jobs, making sure her living quarters were at least semi-satisfactory and slipping money to local food merchants so they would give her more than she would normally buy for herself. These accounts are gut wrenching in their way. Gray suggests the intensity of the relationship between parents and child through these kinds of accounts, their strenuous attempts to simply keep their child alive, but the deeper psychological attachments and tussels remain a mystery. Gray says that it was Simone who safely saw her parents to New York in the early 1940s, in escape of the war, but perhaps it was the other way around. I wonder if, when Simone then swiftly decided to return to Europe to plunge herself head first into the annilation of war her parents realized she was essentially committing suicide? How could they have let her go? And yet, how could they have made her stay? Gray doesn't say. All biographers bring something of themselves to their subjects and it was only after Gray's biography of her own parents, entitled Them, recently came out that I understood why her focus on Weil's parents was so loaded with poignancy and meaning.



5. Simone Weil and her brother Andre were prodigies. Andre had learned advanced math, Sanskrit, Greek, and how to play the violin by age 12. In the first decades of the twentieth cenury there was developed a myth of the happy Weil family. Selma Weil, a forceful woman, made the decisions about the children's education. Simone had severe eating problems as an adolescent. (Selma was nearly phobic about contagion.)
   
   World War I disrupted the Weils' cocooned existence. Simone was fascinated by world events. She was younger and slightly less precocious than her brother Andre. Jews in France received full citizenship in 1789. The Weils were assimilated. Simone had an almost dangerous ability to be receptive to the suffering of others. She felt like an 'old soul'.
   
   Alain, the pen name of Emile Chartier, a philosopher, based his method on skepticism. His favorite philosopher was Descartes. He taught Simone in her cagne class, preparation for admission to the Ecole Normale. She was one of two female students. He encouraged his students to write prolifically. Learning to write well was learning to think well.
   
   At the Ecole Normale Simone's thesis advisor was France's leading authority on Pascal. At her first teaching post in LePay her students found her inspiring. She gave away most of her salary to a fund for the unemployed. She preferred Revolutionary Syndicalism. Support of the unemployed made her controversial. The following year she was assigned to a school at Auxerre, an ordinary place. With Boris Souvarine as her guide, she turned against the regime in Russia. She became an anathema to mainstream leftists. At school she told her students that the bachot was a mere convention. She taught a restricted curriculum, Plato, Descartes and Kant. Inspectors found her mind brilliant, her lectures confusing, diffuse.
   
   Following another year of teaching in another city, Simone sought work in a factory under much the same sort of impulse that drove George Orwell and Dorothy Day to participate in the lives of the dispossessed. She encountered the degrading aspect of piecemeal work, and discovered the psychological impact of factory work exceeded the physical pain of such work. Simone was appalled at the humiliation. In 1940 she moved with her parents to the South of France. Two essays on the Albigensians were published in CAHIERS DU SUD.
   
   During the war Simone Weil identified her body with mutilated France, an intense patriotism. In female mystics eating disorders are the rule, not the exception. An onlooker felt that Simone had a self-centered vocation for self-effacement. In London with the Free French she was refused a post as a nurse and as an undercover agent. She died of tuberculosis, or perhaps she died of a pathological need to share the sufferings of others.

3 comments about Nietzsche.

1. To scholars and admirers of Nietzsche, Lou Andreas-Salome has always been seen as his Irene Adler, the intellectual equal who got way or was driven away, depending on one's point of view. Although their affair lasted for only a few months, it left an indelible mark on both, for it came at a turning point in Nietzsche's life where he would leave the realtively safe nests of academia and the Wagners for a peripatetic life in the Eupopean Alps.

   Over the years we have heard from almost everyone who was anyone in Nietzsche's life, except Lou Salome. This makes the published reprint of her 1894 even more important for those involved in Nietzsche studies. To say that Salome brings a unique perspective to her work is a bit of an understatement, but those who simply expect this to be memoir of the man she knew will be, I think, somewhat joyfully disappointed. Instead she has written what well may be the first attempt to view the persona behind the works. After giving us an excellent analysis of Nietzsche's philosophy, she comes to the conclusion that perhaps Nietzsche's madness was the inevitable result of his philosophy. Was this, as Nietzsche's sister said, merely a fantasy of female revenge? Then simply compare the last page of her book with the events of Nietzche's last days in Turin, events which she cannot have known. Hers is a provactive and illuminating look at Nietzsche, made more powerful by the fact that she was first to the gate and that the strength of her book is the analysis, not the memories.

   As with any book on Nietzsche that comes to us in a foreign language, translation is most important if we are to have not only a working understanding, but also a deeper understanding than we would ordinarily expect. That the translator should be the late Siegfried Mandel is only to the reader's advantage. His translation is crisp and clear. His excellent introduction makes it all the more clear to me that this man is, or should be at least considered, one of the formost Nietzschean scholars of his time. (For further reference, see his excellent "Nietzsche and the Jews.")

   This is a book every serious student of Nietzsche should have in his or her library and a book that may contribute to a new vision of the tortured harbinger of the overman.




2. The German version of this book, published in 1894, about 108 years ago, was among the first books written about the books of Nietzsche. The photograph on the cover was taken in May, 1882 and a portion of it (as shown on p. 132) appeared in her book with the caption, "Friedrich Nietzsche, formerly professor and now a wandering fugitive" (p. ix), as Nietzsche had described himself in a letter to the third person in the picture in 1879, "referring to the severance from his ten-year position at the University of Basel." (p. ix). These people are all dead now. When she was 20, Lou wrote a poem "To Sorrow" (pp. xlviii-xlix) which praises it as "the pedestal for our soul's greatness." (p. xlix).

   Lou reported a conversation about the changes in his life in which Nietzsche raised the question, "When everything has taken its course--where does one run to then?" and told her, "In any case, the circle could be more plausible than a standing still." (p. 32). She described his books as the product of "his last period of creativity, Nietzsche arrived at his mystical teaching of the eternal recurrence: the picture of a circle--eternal change in an eternal recurrence--stands like a wondrous symbol and mysterious cypher over the entrance to his work." (p. 33).

   This book does not have an index, and the notes on pages 160-8 merely clarify a few things, such as the date of the letter from Nietzsche to Lou at the beginning of Part III Nietzsche's "System" on page 91 which Lou used without the final comment, "be what you must be." The possibilities might not be considered so great. "In that regard, if the sickliness of man is, so to speak, his normal condition or his specific human nature itself, and if the concepts of falling ill and of development are seen as almost identical, then we will naturally encounter again the already mentioned decadence at the culmination of a long cultural development." (p. 102). The ascetic ideal "is also a third kind of decadence which threatens to make the described illness incurable and threatens the possibility of recovery. And that form of decadence is embodied in a false interpretation of the world, an incorrect perception of life encouraged by that suffering and illness. . . . every kind of intellectualism extols thinking at the expense of life and supports the ideal of `truth' at the expense of a heightened sensation of living." (p. 103). "In respect to Nietzsche's own psychic problem, it is of less interest to determine correctly the historicity of master morality and slave morality than it is to ascertain the fact that in man's evolution he has carried these contrasts, these antitheses, within himself and that he is the consequent sufferer of this conflict of instincts, embodying double valuations." (p. 113). Ultimately, "Nietzsche's thought of the Dionysian orgy as the means for release of the emotions" (p. 127) are considered "the necessary conditions for the creative act out of which one shapes the luminous and godly." (p. 127). Nietzsche and Schopenhauer are tied to "the deeply pessimistic nature of the Greeks because their innermost life, as revealed through the orgiastic, was one of darkness, pain, and chaos." (p. 127). Art is the answer, here. "The highest or the most religious art is the tragic because within it the artist delivers beauty from the terrifying." (p. 128). Modern society can hardly be comprehended without accepting that much of what is popular is produced in the attempt to satisfy that desire for art.




3. you would not read this book to understand nietzche's philosophy. it is not even clear to me why anyone needs to understand neitzche's philosophy. but lou salome is this crazy incredible lady. while married she become lovers with rilke and remained his intimate correspondent for all his life. she became intimate with nietsche. and later conquered freud, so to speak. so to me this book is an interesting artifact of this incredible woman's mind -- you don't read this book except as a way of knowing salome's mindfullness after rilke and nietzsche. that is, you read this book to learn something that you have to extrapolate from and fit into your life. it is not a passive reading. it is not school learning or becoming educated. it is trying to understand what sort of mind a woman would have that has done such gloriously free and courageous acts such as standing and lying toe2toe with three of the most visionary humanitarian thinkers -- it's an artifact. you read this to be your own archeologist into the human psyche. the content itself literally is of little interest if you want to become an expert in philosophical thinking in order to be a professional. this book isn't that at all. nobody would publish something like this today -- that is, without the hindsight of knowing who nietzsche and salome are now -- at the time this was published, that wasn't apparent, and without that apparentness, this book is no longer a kind of book our educated culture tolerates -- it is too subjective and does not follow any accepted rules of discourse that are recognized by our cultural canon. that is, you don't read this book for any of the reasons it was written or published. you read it because of who nietsche and salome turned out to be in terms of our intellectual flowering. of course, he was destroyed by his sister, who allowed the fascists to make shameful use of him the same way they made ill-use of evolution to justify genocide. you take nietzsche and darwin and if you are powerful enough you get 70-100 million dead without anyone believing they were not morally justified in their actions. nowadays, people seem to once again need religion to justify such pain and suffering for personal advantage. so i think everyone should buy this book and try to make sense of its author -- this is after rilke and N, but i think before freud. a snapshot of a brillian mindful woman articulating her extraordinary experiences ...