The Nietzschean Self

Moral Psychology, Agency, and the Unconscious

Paul Katsafanas

The first book on Nietzsche's moral psychology
An original interpretation of a great thinker
Illustrates the relevance of Nietzsche's thought to contemporary debates

The Nietzschean Self

Moral Psychology, Agency, and the Unconscious

Paul Katsafanas

Description

Nietzsche's works are replete with discussions of moral psychology, but to date there has been no systematic analysis of his account. How does Nietzsche understand human motivation, deliberation, agency, and selfhood? How does his account of the unconscious inform these topics? What is Nietzsche's conception of freedom, and how do we become free? Should freedom be a goal for all of us? How does—and how should—the individual relate to his social context? The Nietzschean Self offers a clear, comprehensive analysis of these central topics in Nietzsche's moral psychology. It analyzes his distinction between conscious and unconscious mental events, explains the nature of a type of motivational state that Nietzsche calls the 'drive', and examines the connection between drives, desires, affects, and values. It explores Nietzsche's account of willing unity of the self, freedom, and the relation of the self to its social and historical context. The Nietzschean Self argues that Nietzsche's account enjoys a number of advantages over the currently dominant models of moral psychology—especially those indebted to the work of Aristotle, Hume, and Kant—and considers the ways in which Nietzsche's arguments can reconfigure and improve upon debates in the contemporary literature on moral psychology and philosophy of action.

The Nietzschean Self

Moral Psychology, Agency, and the Unconscious

Paul Katsafanas

The Nietzschean Self

Moral Psychology, Agency, and the Unconscious

Paul Katsafanas

Author Information

Paul Katsafanas, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Boston University

Paul Katsafanas is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Boston University. He works on topics at the interface of ethics and philosophy of mind, including the nature of agency and motivation; the structure of self-consciousness; and the way in which normative claims might be justified. He addresses these topics in part by mining the work of nineteenth-century philosophers including Nietzsche. His recent publications include Agency and the Foundations of Ethics: Nietzschean Constitutivism (OUP, 2013), 'Fugitive Pleasure and the Meaningful Life: Nietzsche on Nihilism and Higher Values' (Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 2015), and 'Fanaticism and Sacred Values' (Philosophers' Imprint, 2018).

The Nietzschean Self

Moral Psychology, Agency, and the Unconscious

Paul Katsafanas

Reviews and Awards

"... elegantly-written, with complex exegetical work, philosophical discussion, and historical scholarship woven neatly into an admirably clear and readable whole." - Sabrina Little, Journal of Moral Philosophy

"'For anyone teaching a seminar on Nietzsche or the history of moral psychology, I can recommend without reservation putting The Nietzschean Self on your syllabus. It may be possible to write a better book on Nietzsche's moral psychology, but no one has done so yet.'" - British Journal for the History of Philosophy

"The book is clear and engaging. Katsafanas makes judicious use of concepts and theories from more recent philosophical psychology to illuminate Nietzsche's views, and he offers detailed, insightful discussions of relevant secondary literature." - Mind

"'this volume deserves to be read seriously by all those with an interest in Nietzsche and moral psychology.'" - Ethics

"'The picture Katsafanas offers is compelling, well articulated, and well defended. The book adds to our understanding of several timely debates, and thus should be read by anyone interested in Nietzsche's moral psychology.'" - Dialogue

"'well organized and clearly written, and some of the interpretive theses Katsafanas advocates present an intriguing countercurrent to some of the most popular views in contemporary Nietzsche scholarship.'" - Journal of the History of Philosophy