The aim of this module is to introduce students to Nietzsche’s philosophy, tracing the development of his thought from early works, such as The Birth of Tragedy, to the mature works of the late 1880s, e.g. Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist. It studies key aspects of his thought (such as his diagnosis of cultural nihilism, his work on morality, the development of a power theory and the relationship between psychology and philosophy).  In addition, the module explores Nietzsche’s importance for understanding selected contemporary issues in philosophy (e.g. politics, subjectivity, consciousness and selfhood).  The module will be taught by a combination of lectures and seminars.

• demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of Nietzsche’s philosophy
• demonstrate understanding of the development of Nietzsche’s thought
• demonstrate an ability to read and interpret critically and with insight key texts situated in the domain of Nietzsche studies
• demonstrate an ability to analyse concepts, evaluate arguments and justify interpretations of Nietzsche’s work
• demonstrate an understanding of Nietzsche’s relevance to developments in contemporary philosophy

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Teaching will be through weekly lectures, additional seminars and individual discussion of written work.  Students will be expected to have read relevant material prior to seminar classes and to be able to discuss it.

This module will be taught using printed books. Timetabled sessions will be supplemented with written material in the form of a detailed summary of the session content, questions and/or instructions for discussion and a list of further reading. This supplementary material will be provided in the form of a printed handout and on Learning Central. Any supplementary material in a permanent form (e.g. a paper handout or downloadable document) will be made available at the beginning of the session.

Images, diagrams, sound, video and other multimedia resources will not be used in this module.

Intellectual Skills

• The ability to interpret and understand texts in the context of a tradition of argumentation
• The ability to outline and assess arguments
• The ability to reach conclusions about the strengths and/or weaknesses of arguments and to justify these conclusions by way of sound reasoning and a detailed engagement with and interpretation of source material
• The ability to arrive at and defend a consistent position with regard to questions raised in the module

Discipline Specific Skills

• The ability to analyse and construct philosophical arguments
• The ability to interpret and evaluate philosophical texts and to assess their historical and contemporary relevance
• The ability to deploy appropriate philosophical vocabulary
• The ability to use (and derive value from) Nietzsche’s texts

Transferable Skills

• The ability to analyse arguments
• The ability to read texts in a creative and disciplined manner
• The ability to communicate clearly and accurately in written work
• The ability to present work that has a coherent and logical structure
• The ability to form and defend their own views.

Students will develop employability skills which include the ability to synthesise information, operating in group-based discussion involving negotiating ideas and producing clear, informed arguments in a professional manner.

The formative assessment for this module will take the form of:

1. One mock examination essay on a specified topic to be selected from a list of mock examination questions.  This essay should be written within a strict time limit of one and a half hours and then be re-drafted in electronic form as a word format document or equivalent.  The essay must then be submitted electronically to the module tutor by the dates specified on the question list. Essays submitted after these dates, without good cause, may not be marked in time for the revision period. Essays will be returned via email.
2. The assembling of a bibliography and notes in preparation for seminars and as a revision resource for mock examination and final summative assessment.  Students will be expected to attend seminars with material prepared in advance for contribution to seminar discussion.  This material will be derived from texts selected for each seminar and from secondary material.  Students are encouraged to supplement stipulated reading through their own independent research for this formative component.  Students should be prepared and willing to discuss their readings and researches in seminars.   A form will be provided to assist with this task copies of which will be submitted to the module tutor.

The summative assessment for this module will take the form of a 3 hour examination.

In the written examination the student will answer two questions from a list of between twelve to twenty questions.  Material used in one answer must not be repeated in the other answer. 

The examination will be an open book examination.  Students are allowed to bring copies of the following into the examination:

The Nietzsche Reader, ed. Keith Ansell Pearson & Duncan Large

Basic Writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, ed. Walter Kaufmann

The Portable Nietzsche, ed. Walter Kaufmann

F. Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy

F. Nietzsche, Untimely Meditations

F. Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human

F. Nietzsche, Daybreak

F. Nietzsche, The Gay Science

F. Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

F. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

F. Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality

F. Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

F. Nietzsche, The Antichrist

F. Nietzsche, Ecce Homo

F. Nietzsche, The Will to Power

This module is assessed according to the Marking Criteria set out in the Philosophy Undergraduate Student Handbook. There are otherwise no academic or competence standards which limit the availability of adjustments or alternative assessments for students with disabilities.

• Nietzsche and tragedy
• Nietzsche and ethics
• Nietzsche’s power theory
• psychology, physiology and the body
• issues in epistemology
• issues in metaphysics and theology
• ‘postmodern’ and ‘postructuralist’ interpretations of Nietzsche’s thought
• nihilism
• close analyses of key primary texts, especially Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morality, Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist
• the relevance of aspects of Nietzsche’s thought to developments in contemporary philosophy.

The Nieztsche Reader, ed. Keith Ansell Pearson & Duncan Large (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005).

Basic Writings of Nietzsche, Ed. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Modern Library, 1968).

The Viking Portable Nietzsche, ed. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Viking, 1976).

K. Ansell-Pearson, Nietzsche contra Rousseau (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).

G. Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy (London: Athlone Press, 1983).

J. Derrida, The Ear of the Other (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988).

L. Ferry & A. Renaut, eds., Why We are Not Nietzscheans, trans. R. de Loaiza (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997).

M. Foucault, 'Nietzsche, Genealogy, History', in Language, Counter-Memory, Practice (Oxford: Blackwell, 1977).

E. Heller, The Disinherited Mind (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1961).

R.J. Hollingdale, Nietzsche (London: Ark, 1985).

W. Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974).

- From Shakespeare to Existentialism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980).

S. Kofman, Nietzsche and Metaphor (London: Athlone, 1993).

D.F. Krell & D. Wood, eds., Exceedingly Nietzsche (London: Routledge, 1988).

B. Magnus & K. Higgins, The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Wolfgang Müller-Lauter, Nietzsche: His Philosophy of Contradictions and the Contradictions of His Philosophy, trans. D.J. Parent (University of Illinois Press, 1999).

R. Schacht, Nietzsche (London: Routledge, 1983).

Alan D. Schrift, Nietzsche and the Question of Interpretation (London: Routledge, 1991).

P. Sedgwick, Nietzsche’s Economy (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2007).

P. Sedgwick, Nietzsche’s Justice (Quebec: McGill Queen’s University Press, 2013).

P. Sedgwick, Descartes to Derrida (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001).

L. Thiele, Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of the Soul (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).