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Nietzsche on Nature
Author(s) -
Handwerk Gary
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
literature compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.158
H-Index - 4
ISSN - 1741-4113
DOI - 10.1111/lic3.12350
Subject(s) - darwinism , social darwinism , ideology , destiny (iss module) , darwin (adl) , relation (database) , philosophy , epistemology , eugenics , survival of the fittest , atmosphere (unit) , sociology , environmental ethics , politics , law , biology , political science , physics , systems engineering , evolutionary biology , thermodynamics , astronomy , database , computer science , engineering
Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy has traditionally been seen as oriented toward human (all too human) affairs, nature present in it as backdrop or atmosphere, but not on its own terms a central focus of his work. Yet Nietzsche was well informed about the natural science of his era and particularly attuned to the importance of figures such as Charles Darwin. Building upon John Richardson's Nietzsche's New Darwinism , this essay explores the relation between Nietzsche's ethics, psychology, and philosophy of history and Darwinian evolutionary theory – not just Darwin as understood by the 19th‐century reception of his ideas (heavily shaped by social Darwinist ideologies), but as foundational for a contemporary understanding of ecological and environmental concerns. Anticipating some of the implications of Darwinian thought in the 20th century, Nietzsche's writings help sharpen our awareness of the tensions between social and natural selection, biological and social diversity, and (genetic) fate and (willed) destiny – all crucial for environmental debates of the 21st century.