The affective mind: essays on Nietzsche's philosophical psychology

Thesis

This thesis comprises three stand-alone papers, each concerning the philosophical psychology that can be drawn from the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. The thread running throughout the thesis is a focus on affective states.

The first paper (“The Heart of Flesh”) concerns the question of what exactly Nietzsche thinks emotions and moods are. I argue, contra received opinion, that Nietzsche had some rather sophisticated and substantive views about affects, comprising a somatic account of the role of the body and an interpretive account of the process through which we identify our own states. I also demonstrate some of the ways in which these views surface in works such as On the Genealogy of Morality and Twilight of the Idols.

The second paper (“Conscious and Unconscious Thought”) provides the first reconstruction of Nietzsche’s enigmatic claims about thinking. Starting from §354 of The Gay Science, I draw on the view of affects laid out in the preceding paper to explicate Nietzsche’s (broad-brushstroke, but philosophically interesting) account of non-linguistic, unconscious cognition. I then turn to his remarks on conscious thinking, addressing two influential readings of the claim that conscious thought alone “takes place in words” (GS §354). Neither, I argue, is entirely successful. I propose instead an alternative that draws on work on inner speech.

The third paper (“The Social Structure of Drives”) concerns Nietzsche’s suggestion in Beyond Good and Evil that the soul should be understood as a “social structure of drives and affects” (BGE §12). I first examine the only extant treatment of this metaphor in the literature, arguing that it is philosophically and textually problematic. In its place, I suggest a new reading, which draws on Nietzsche’s doctoral notes and his subsequent engagement with physiology. By the time of his remarks on the formation of the state in the Genealogy, I contend, Nietzsche’s view has developed considerably into a precise and interesting view.

Authors: Fowles, CC

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Philosophy of mind; Philosophy of emotion; 19th century German philosophy; Nietzsche
• Subjects: Philosophy