Nietzsche's Human, All Too Human - (Edinburgh Critical Guides to Nietzsche) by Ruth Abbey (Hardcover)

About the Book

Ruth Abbey assumes no knowledge of the text or of Nietzsche. She maps her chapters onto those of Nietzsche's text, allowing you to read the guide alongside the book. Altogether, she opens up Human, All Too Human for new readers, while more experienced Nietzsche scholars will appreciate the new perspective.

Book Synopsis

Human, All Too Human marks the beginning of what is often called Nietzsche's middle or positivist period (which ends with the conclusion of Book IV of The Gay Science). It initiates some important features that become permanent in his work, such as his experiments in multiple writing styles within one work, his self-representation as a psychologist, his genealogical excavations of morality and his appeal to fellow Europeans to overcome the parochialism and antagonism of nationalism. Ruth Abbey shows Nietzsche to be more receptive to the Enlightenment tradition than he is typically taken to be. She assumes no knowledge of the text or of Nietzsche. She maps her chapters onto those of Nietzsche's text, allowing you to read the guide alongside the book. Altogether, she opens up Human, All Too Human for new readers, while more experienced Nietzsche scholars will appreciate the new perspective.

From the Back Cover

A guide to one of Nietzsche's earlier and lesser known texts This is the first comprehensive study of Human, All Too Human. This important book, which is Nietzsche's longest, has received little scholarly attention. It initiates some important features that become permanent in his work, such as his experiments in a diversity of writing styles within a single work, his self-representation as a psychologist, his genealogical excavations of morality and his appeal to fellow Europeans to overcome the parochialism and antagonism of nationalism. Requiring no prior knowledge of Nietzsche or his text, Ruth Abbey maps her chapters onto those of Nietzsche's text and includes a separate chapter to cover the essays Assorted Opinions and Maxims and The Wanderer and Its Shadow, which were originally published as separate works. Ruth Abbey is Professor in the Department of Social Sciences, Swinburne University, Australia.

Review Quotes

Abbey rises admirably to the challenge of the massive second edition of Human, All-too-Human, identifying themes and continuities within and between the original works, interpreting charitably but also pinpointing inconsistencies and unreasonable views. This fine work will aid both new and experienced readers of Nietzsche's (unjustly neglected) middle works.-- "Jonathan Cohen, University of Maine at Farmington"

About the Author

Ruth Abbey is a Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Swinburne University of Technology. She is the author of Nietzsche's Middle Period (OUP, 2000), Charles Taylor (Princeton University Press, 2000) and The Return of Feminist Liberalism (McGill-Queens University Press, 2011). She is the editor of Contemporary Philosophy in Focus: Charles Taylor (Cambridge University Press, 2004) and Feminist Interpretations of Rawls (Penn State University Press, 2013).