Nietzsche’s Earthbound Wisdom
The Philosopher, the Poet, and the Sage
9780226839257
9780226839264
Nietzsche’s Earthbound Wisdom
The Philosopher, the Poet, and the Sage
An incisive exploration of Nietzsche as a bold, visionary poet-philosopher.
Today, Nietzsche is justly celebrated for his rich, philosophical naturalism, but Keith Ansell-Pearson warns that we must not overlook the visionary dimension of his thinking and his focus on the need to cultivate a new care of the self and care of life. In Nietzsche’s Earthbound Wisdom, Ansell-Pearson recovers Nietzsche’s love for a philosophy that guides us through our passions, one that opens us more fully to the possibilities of life and the joy of knowledge.
Ansell-Pearson offers close readings of Nietzsche’s texts in conversation with philosophical and literary figures including Augustine, Baudelaire, Carlyle, Dostoevsky, Emerson, Flaubert, Stendhal, and more. Throughout, Ansell-Pearson examines Nietzsche’s sophisticated critique of literary naturalism and his alternative conception of the poet as a seer who has a deep longing for a new earth.
Today, Nietzsche is justly celebrated for his rich, philosophical naturalism, but Keith Ansell-Pearson warns that we must not overlook the visionary dimension of his thinking and his focus on the need to cultivate a new care of the self and care of life. In Nietzsche’s Earthbound Wisdom, Ansell-Pearson recovers Nietzsche’s love for a philosophy that guides us through our passions, one that opens us more fully to the possibilities of life and the joy of knowledge.
Ansell-Pearson offers close readings of Nietzsche’s texts in conversation with philosophical and literary figures including Augustine, Baudelaire, Carlyle, Dostoevsky, Emerson, Flaubert, Stendhal, and more. Throughout, Ansell-Pearson examines Nietzsche’s sophisticated critique of literary naturalism and his alternative conception of the poet as a seer who has a deep longing for a new earth.
288 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2025
History: History of Ideas
Philosophy: Ethics, General Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Society
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations of Nietzsche’s Works
Introduction
Philosophically Heterodox
System and Aphorism
Naturalisms
Wisdom as a Hiding Place
Itinerary
Chapter One. Books and Cheerfulness
Honest Books
Cold Books and Cheerfulness
Nietzsche and Montaigne
Melancholy Authors and Cheerful Wisdom
“Cricket-Cheerfulness”
Cheerfulness and Hope
Chapter Two. Honesty and the Passion of Knowledge
Know Thyself?
The Youngest Virtue
The Passion of Knowledge
Chapter Three. The Philosopher as a Wanderer
Nietzsche and Philosophy
The Wisdom of the Sages
The Wanderer: Justice and Love
The Wanderer’s Shadow
In Praise of Solitude
A Third Eye and Perceiving Cosmically
Chapter Four. The Passions
Nietzsche and the Passions
On the Greeks and Christianity
On Stoicism
The Passions and Self-Cultivation
Virtue and the Passions
Chapter Five. The Poets
The Poet as Seer
Suspicions about the Poets
On Shakespeare and Corneille
Beautiful Human Beings: Nietzsche and Adalbert Stifter
New Dawns
Chapter Six. Only a Fool, Only a Poet: The Passion of Zarathustra
The Passion of Zarathustra
Zarathustra in Relation to Nietzsche’s Middle Writings
A Book for All and None
Nietzsche and Heraclitus
Power: An Open Secret
Zarathustra the Poet
Zarathustra the Fool
The Mask
Nietzsche and the Superhuman
Nietzsche and Dostoevsky
“Between Gilded Ice and Pure Blue Sky”
Chapter Seven. The Philosopher’s Vision
Introduction
The Problem with “Objectivity”: Sainte-Beuve and the Scholar
The Novel and “Objectivity”: Flaubert
Hashish and Satanism: Baudelaire and Wagnerism
The Observations of the Psychologist
The Philosopher as Legislator
Spiritual Caesarism
Coda: Umana commedia
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
Philosophically Heterodox
System and Aphorism
Naturalisms
Wisdom as a Hiding Place
Itinerary
Chapter One. Books and Cheerfulness
Honest Books
Cold Books and Cheerfulness
Nietzsche and Montaigne
Melancholy Authors and Cheerful Wisdom
“Cricket-Cheerfulness”
Cheerfulness and Hope
Chapter Two. Honesty and the Passion of Knowledge
Know Thyself?
The Youngest Virtue
The Passion of Knowledge
Chapter Three. The Philosopher as a Wanderer
Nietzsche and Philosophy
The Wisdom of the Sages
The Wanderer: Justice and Love
The Wanderer’s Shadow
In Praise of Solitude
A Third Eye and Perceiving Cosmically
Chapter Four. The Passions
Nietzsche and the Passions
On the Greeks and Christianity
On Stoicism
The Passions and Self-Cultivation
Virtue and the Passions
Chapter Five. The Poets
The Poet as Seer
Suspicions about the Poets
On Shakespeare and Corneille
Beautiful Human Beings: Nietzsche and Adalbert Stifter
New Dawns
Chapter Six. Only a Fool, Only a Poet: The Passion of Zarathustra
The Passion of Zarathustra
Zarathustra in Relation to Nietzsche’s Middle Writings
A Book for All and None
Nietzsche and Heraclitus
Power: An Open Secret
Zarathustra the Poet
Zarathustra the Fool
The Mask
Nietzsche and the Superhuman
Nietzsche and Dostoevsky
“Between Gilded Ice and Pure Blue Sky”
Chapter Seven. The Philosopher’s Vision
Introduction
The Problem with “Objectivity”: Sainte-Beuve and the Scholar
The Novel and “Objectivity”: Flaubert
Hashish and Satanism: Baudelaire and Wagnerism
The Observations of the Psychologist
The Philosopher as Legislator
Spiritual Caesarism
Coda: Umana commedia
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index