Meyer M. Nietzsche’s Free Spirit Works: A Dialectical Reading

Cambridge University Press, 2019. — xii+277 p. — ISBN: 978-1-108-47417-7.
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Between 1878 and 1882, Nietzsche published what he called 'the free spirit works': Human, All Too Human; Assorted Opinions and Maxims; The Wanderer and His Shadow; Daybreak; and The Gay Science. Often approached as a mere assemblage of loosely connected aphorisms, these works are here re-interpreted as a coherent narrative of the steps Nietzsche takes in educating himself toward freedom that executes a dialectic between scientific truth-seeking and artistic life-affirmation. Matthew Meyer's new reading of these works not only provides a more convincing explanation of their content but also makes better sense of the relationship between them and Nietzsche's larger oeuvre. His argument shows how these texts can and should be read as a unified project even while they present multiple, in some cases conflicting, images of the free spirit. The book will appeal to anyone who is interested in Nietzsche's philosophy and especially to those puzzled about how to understand the peculiarities of the free spirit works.Abbreviations and Translations of Nietzsche’s Published WorksInterpreting Nietzsche’s Free Spirit Works
A Defense of the Dialectical ReadingThe Ascetic Camel
For the Love of Truth: Human, All Too Human
An Epicurean in Exile: Assorted Opinions and Maxims and
The Wanderer and His ShadowThe Dragon-Slaying Lion
Undermining the Prejudices of Morality: Daybreak
The Selbstaufhebung of the Will to Truth: The Gay Science I–IIIThe Dionysian Child
Incipit Tragoedia: From The Gay Science IV to Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Incipit Parodia: From the Free Spirit to the Philosophy of the Future?Bibliography
Index