ABSTRACT

This paper examines Nietzsche’s concerns over the study of history in his essay On The Utility and Liability of History for Life. In this essay, Nietzsche attempts to show that an excessive scientific historicising poses a danger to the vitality of the present and argues that history must be used in a way that supports and enhances life. Nietzsche’s concerns regarding the study of history operate over several interconnected levels that range from the cultural and existential to the epistemological. In this paper, the author argues that Nietzsche’s concerns are well founded, grounded in a novel conceptualisation of the temporal structure and the historical nature of human existence. These insights allow Nietzsche to reconstruct the problem of history as an issue of the proper way of relating to one’s own historical condition, and to recognise the dangers of self-alienation due to an excessive scientific historicising. holding the position in question has been held liable in a number of cases, applying the rules of the Company Act and the Civil Code.

KEYWORDS

* Nietzsche * early writings * cultural and historical analysis * critique of scientific historicism * temporality * historicity   *

IRODALOM

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