Topic: Nietzsche and Nietzscheanisms

Nietzsche (1844-1900) has been one of the most influential philosophers of the
recent period.  His influence has been discerned not only in various twentieth-
century philosophies, but also in some of its political movements and in many of
the most important works of art, in various media, produced in this century.  I
plan to spend approximately the first half or this course reading and discussing
with the students various works by Nietzsche himself, so that we can, as a group,
become pretty clear about what Nietzsche did or did not stand for.

In the second half of the course I shall examine in fairly close detail some
examples of the (ostensible) Nietzscheanism in others' works.  Partly in an
attempt to demonstrate the extent of real or apparent Nietzscheanisms in late
nineteenth- or twentieth-century culture and partly in an attempt to give the
students a suitable diversity of models for their own subsequent analyses, I
propose to examine (1) selected non-literary works of art (for example, Richard
Strauss's tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra), (2) Shaw's Man and Superman,
and (3) extracts from the propagandistic and quasi-philosophical writings of
certain Nazis.

The large questions to be broached in these latter investigations include, among
others: (a) What are the conditions which must be met for it to be true that
someone has influenced someone else in the latter's creative work?  (b) In
particular, must someone's (apparently sincere) claim that s/he has been
influenced by someone else always be taken at fact value?  (c) How can non-
verbal works of art be said to express philosophical ideas?  Naturally, the more
particular questions to be investigated will concern the reality (vs. the mere
appearance) of genuinely Nietzschean elements in the works discussed, and the
importance or the extent of the Nietzscheanisms in them.

All students will work with me on examples of real or ostensible Nietzscheanisms
listed above.  Additionally, I shall assign each student the task of reading (or, in
the case of the non-literary works involved, listening to or otherwise observing)
one more example.  The student's final project will be to write an approximately
fifteen-page paper, discussion the real or the merely apparent Nietzscheanism(s)
in the work or works which they have selected.  In addition to that project, there
will be a required mid-semester exam and a final exam, both of the essay type.