An Interpretation of Nietzsche's On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life

With his An Interpretation of NietzscheΓÇÖs "On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life", Anthony K. Jensen shows how ''timely'' NietzscheΓÇÖs second "Untimely Meditation" really is. This comprehensive and insightful study contextualizes and analyzes a wide range of NietzscheΓÇÖs earlier thoughts about history: teleology, typology, psychology, memory, classical philology, Hegelianism, and the role historiography plays in modern culture. On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life is shown to be a ΓÇÿtimelyΓÇÖ work, too, insofar as it weaves together a number of Nietzsche''s most important influences and thematic directions at that time: ancient culture, science, epistemology, and the thought of Schopenhauer and Burckhardt. Rather than dismiss it as a mere ΓÇÿearlyΓÇÖ work, Jensen shows how the text resonates in NietzscheΓÇÖs later perspectivism, his theory of subjectivity, and Eternal Recurrence. And by using careful philological analysis of the textΓÇÖs composition history, Jensen is in position to fully elucidate and evaluate NietzscheΓÇÖs arguments in their proper contexts. As such JensenΓÇÖs Interpretation should restore NietzscheΓÇÖs second "Untimely Meditation" to a prominent place among 19th Century philosophies of history.