Nietzsche's Moral Psychology

Description

Nietzsche, a trained philologist, frequently urges his readers to interpret him carefully. In this book, Mark Alfano combines detailed close reading with digital methods (corpus analysis and semantic network visualization) to reframe our understanding of this major figure. He argues that virtue is a neglected concept in Nietzsche's writings, and sets out a fresh interpretation of Nietzschean virtues as well-calibrated drives. As different people embody different constellations of drives, so virtues differ from person to person. For Nietzsche himself, Alfano argues, five virtues are essential: curiosity, courage, a sense of humor, and pathos of distance (that is, contemptuousness) toward one's self and toward one's society. This innovative and original book will be invaluable for historians of philosophy, contemporary researchers in moral psychology and virtue theory, and philosophers interested in the fast-growing methodologies of the digital humanities.

Mark Alfano is Associate Professor of Ethics and Philosophy of Technology at Delft University of Technology. He is the author of Character as Moral Fiction (Cambridge, 2013) and Moral Psychology: An Introduction (2016).

'An audacious work in digital humanities scholarship, Nietzsche's Moral Psychology is interesting not simply because it offers well-argued rereadings of Nietzsche's classic works in moral psychology, but also because of its semantic network methodology ... Alfano's fresh approach to the Nietzschean virtues - expanded here to include courage, curiosity, the pathos of distance, and the ability to laugh - are especially insightful.' J. G. Moore, Choice 'Alfano's virtue-theoretic reading is a stimulating and original contribution to the lively debate about Nietzsche's moral psychology. Everyone interested in that debate should read his book.' Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews