UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies Main Series UG Examination 2016-17 NIETZSCHE AND NIHILISM PPLP5081B Answer TWO questions. ONE from Section A and ONE from Section B. Each question is worth 50%. Do not turn over until you are told to do so by the Invigilator. Module Number: PPLP5081B Module Contact: Dr T Greaves Copyright of the University of East Anglia Version 1
Page 2 Section A 1. And thus our moods deepen themselves continually: no one of them is quite the same as the next, but each is unfathomably young and the birth of the moment. (On Moods) Critically assess Nietzsche s understanding of the role(s) played by moods and emotions in philosophy. 2. Is Nietzsche better understood as a Kantian or a Schopenhauerian philosopher? 3. Is art the only possible redemption of human existence? 4. High culture will resemble a daring dance, thus requiring, as we said, much strength and flexibility. (Human, All too Human 278) Discuss PPLP5081B Version 1
Page 3 Section B 5. How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained the earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing yet of the divine decomposition? (The Gay Science 125) Discuss 6. I want heirs, thus speaks everything that suffers I want children I do not want myself. Joy, however, does not want heirs or children, joy wants itself, wants eternity, wants recurrence, wants everything eternally the same. (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Pt IV, 8) Critically assess Nietzsche s understanding of the redemptive power of eternal recurrence. 7. Critically assess Nietzsche s understanding of the piety inherent in science s will-to-truth. 8. Is pity the problem? END OF PAPER PPLP5081B Version 1
The spread of marks was as follows: 1 st 4 2:1 23 2:2 6 3 rd 2 Nietzsche and Nihilism PPLP5081B Examiner s Feedback 2017 Candidates attempted the whole range of questions, although fewer chose to answer questions 2. and 7. The best answers showed evidence of a thorough grasp of Nietzsche s texts, the general concerns of his philosophical career and the specific concerns of individual texts. They made connections between themes without losing sight of the specific characteristics of the various philosophical projects Nietzsche undertakes. Less good answers tended to lack one or more of the elements, either covering over differences between texts and periods or failing to gain an overview of Nietzsche s philosophical concerns. Interestingly a fairly significant number of candidates made extensive reference to the concept of will-to-power in their answers. This concept did not feature a great deal in this module as our analysis and interpretation was mainly confined to its very specific use in the published works. None of the questions required exploration of this concept in depth. Some of the answers that made such reference did so in a way that did significantly enhance the analysis, carefully placing it in context and showing how it might help to answer the question at hand. Others showed signs of cursory and last minute general reading of unreliable sources that did not make good use of the material provided in the module. Q.1. The best answers used a careful analysis of the title quotation as a basis for a wider exploration of the N s understanding of the relationship between philosophy and moods/emotions. Some connected this to the later work, including the project of gay science whilst others stuck with the early work. Less good answers made little or no mention of the title quotation or the text from which it is taken, or they failed to make significant connections with N s wider philosophical concerns. Q.2 Some candidates chose to focus on a specific topic, such as metaphysics or ethics, to make this comparison, whilst others looked at a range of views. Either of these strategies could work well. Some candidates questioned the assumption that N. should be seen as either Schopenhauerian or Kantian, which was a good strategy. Better answers showed a clear understand of the philosophical ideas that N. took
from both Kant and Schopenhauer and the various ways in which he transformed them. Q.3 Some candidates focused on the N s attempt to show that art can redeem existence, esp. in Birth of Tragedy. Others focused more on trying to show that other modes of being, such as science or philosophy, could redeem existence and that Nietzsche helps us to understand how. Good answers were given that adopted either strategy. Some of the best answers showed the ways in which N. seeks to question straightforward or strict ahistorical distinctions between possible modes of redemption, whilst poorer answers often showed no awareness of such possibilities. Q.4 Most candidates discussed this quotation in the context of N s idea of a bicameral culture. Some of the best answers analysed the metaphor of a dance and made suggestions as to what strength and flexibility might mean in this context. Some candidates suggested that the dance should be a dance between the two chambers of the bicameral model of culture and some of the best answers explored why this might be thought to be difficult. No candidates raised the possibility that this metaphor signals a change of conception from the earlier engine model of the bicameral culture. Q.5 The best answers spent a significant amount of space analysing the title quotation, putting it into context, looking at its general interrogative form and interpreting the symbolism in the questions themselves. This in-depth analysis could then be used as a basis for some broader points about the death of god. Less good answers spent little or no time analysing the title quotation and moved straight to broad points about the death of god, which even when interesting, had little or no textual evidence to back them up. A significant number of candidates chose to makes comments on the Overman in their answers. This sometimes worked well when it was connected to the quotation in hand, but in other answers it served only to fill in for a lack of analytical engagement with the passage. Q.6 Again the best answers undertook a detailed analysis of the title quotation, specifically interpreting the scope of notions such as heirs, joy and eternity in this context. Most candidates then when on to discuss the idea of the Overman, which makes sense, but only worked in these answers if that discussion was specifically connected the idea of eternal recurrence that the question focuses on. Q.7 Only a few candidates attempted this question. The better answers focussed on fairly contained arguments from specific periods of Nietzsche s development and
then sometimes made connections to his wider concerns. Less good answers tended to make vague generalisations about Nietzsche s attitude towards objective truth and to conflate will-to-truth with dogmatism. Q.8 Clearly this question offers scope for defining the problem that pity might be said to represent in various ways, and the better answers tended to address this at the beginning and clearly state how they understood that problem. The better answers also tended to explain carefully what pity involves and its connection to N s genealogical investigations of morality. Some good answers suggested a nuanced response to the question, in which pity was understood as a symptom of a lager underlying problem, or as one problem amongst a number of others, or as a problem only if incorporated into our general attitudes in specific ways.