Mar

15

A Guest Lecture on Nietzche by Anthony Norton

March 15, 2011 | by Ravi Thakral |  Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Hey Philosophers!

We are having a guest speaker TOMORROW MARCH 10th

6:30PM in SAC 3.116 (Balcony Room C)

This meeting replaces our normal meeting time on Friday. Anthony Norton, a recent graduate of our philosophy department is coming to give a talk on some of his work. Norton also completed an honors thesis under the supervision of Kathleen Higgins. Here is a not-brief abstract of what he will talk about tomorrow:

Nietzsche is a philosopher that has become notorious to us for a number of his ideas: The Will to power, the Übermensch, nihilism, eternal recurrence, the master/slave dichotomy, the “Antichrist”, and the ventures of his fictional hero Zarathustra all come to mind. When reflecting on this list of differing ideas, many commentators have taken different positions on the overall nature of his moral philosophy. This paper intends to shed more light on Nietzsche’s moral project by addressing some of his less popular, but equally poignant, ideas in the fields of Aesthetics and moral psychology.

I offer an account that establishes a link between Nietzsche’s views on morality and psychology by turning to his thoughts on aesthetics. I argue that Nietzsche’s thought does contain a coherent positive moral project, and that the project is best made sense of by grasping the idea of adopting an artist’s frame of mind towards one’s own moral development. I discuss the concepts of “giving style to one’s character” and “acting as the artist of oneself” and how each relates to Nietzsche’s thoughts on morality.

The second part of the paper deals with how a person can adopt an artistic frame of mind, and hence, focuses on the psychological mechanisms behind incorporating aesthetic ideals into one’s own psyche. I offer some strategies for better implementing these ideals by maintaining an analogy between the artistic process that an actual artist employs to create a piece of fine art (such a painting, sculpture, or music) and how a person can “create” oneself as a work of art. My goal in this venture is to breakdown some elements of the artistic process in hopes that it will provide us with some guidance on how to see our personality, choices, and actions with an eye towards their aesthetic value.

Come with all of your questions and constructive criticism. Remember, we’re meeting tomorrow, 6:30pm in SAC 3.116 (Balcony Room C). See you there and we hope you enjoy a much needed spring break.

Ravi Thakral and Will Neer
Co-Presidents of the Undergraduate Philosophy Association


Comments



1 Comment so far

  1.    tyler on March 16, 2011 7:22 AM

    It’s a shame i couldn’t make it.

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