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64Nietzsche on Free Will, Autonomy and the Sovereign IndividualAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 80 (1): 339-357. 2006.[Ken Gemes] In some texts Nietzsche vehemently denies the possibility of free will; in others he seems to positively countenance its existence. This paper distinguishes two different notions of free will. Agency free will is intrinsically tied to the question of agency, what constitutes an action as opposed to a mere doing. Deserts free will is intrinsically tied to the question of desert, of who does and does not merit punishment and reward. It is shown that we can render Nietzsche's prima faci…Read more
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7Review of Julian Young, Willing and Unwilling: A Study in the Philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer (review)International Studies in Philosophy 24 (1): 151-152. 1992.
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9Reading Philosophy: Selected Texts with a Method for BeginnersWiley-Blackwell. 2002.This flexible introductory textbook explores several key themes in philosophy, and helps the reader learn to engage with the key arguments by introducing and analysing a selection of classic readings. Fully integrated introductory text with readings for beginning students of philosophy. Each chapter focusses on a core philosophical topic, and contains an introduction to the topic, 2 classic readings and interactive commentaries on the readings. An introductory book which doesn't merely _tell_ th…Read more
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86Kant's aesthetics and the `empty cognitive stock'Philosophical Quarterly 47 (189): 459-476. 1997.It is sometimes assumed that Kant’s claim that a judgement of taste is grounded in a pleasure ‘without concepts’ leaves little room for any credible account of critical judgements of art. I argue that even Kant’s conception of free (as opposed to dependent) beauty can provide the framework for an analysis of aesthetic judgements about art works. It is a matter of understanding what roles for concepts Kant prohibits in his analysis of pure judgements of taste: conceptual cognition must be neither…Read more
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15The Subject and the Objective OrderProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 84. 1984.The paper examines the alleged problem of locating the 'I' of self-consciousness in the world conceived objectively. It discusses the views of Nagel, Evans, Schopenhauer, and Wittgenstein among others.
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443Guilt, bad conscience, and self-punishment in Nietzsche's GenealogyIn Brian Leiter & Neil Sinhababu (eds.), Nietzsche and morality, Oxford University Press. pp. 138--54. 2007.The article provides a commentary on the Second Treatise of Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morality, entitled '"Guilt, "Bad Conscience," and Related Matters'. The Treatise's central train of thought is that having a bad conscience or feeling guilty is a way in which we satisfy a fundamental need to inflict cruelty. This is achieved by turning the exercise of cruelty inwards, upon the self rather than others, and by interpreting such a cruelty as a legitimate form of punishment of oneself.
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Schopenhauer: Subject, Object, and WillDissertation, Oxford University. 1983.DPhil thesis submitted 1983.
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49Beauty in nature, beauty in artBritish Journal of Aesthetics 33 (4): 321-332. 1993.The article argues against various proposals to treat the term 'beauty' as standing for a single, generic concept of aesthetic value, which has application both to natural objects and to art. It argues that in Kant's aesthetic theory 'beauty' must be treated as ambiguous because in the case of art, but not in that of nature, part of beauty is the expession of aesthetic ideas. This gives rise to the dilemma: either beauty is always the ultimate aesthetic value of any thing, in which case there is…Read more
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23Schopenhauer and Nietzsche: is the will merely a word?In Thomas Pink & Martin Stone (eds.), The Will and Human Action from Antiquity to the Present Day, Routledge. pp. 172-96. 2003.The article discusses Schopehauer's conception of the will and Nietzsche's critical reception of it.
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34Affect and cognition in Schopenhauer and NietzscheIn Alix Cohen & Robert Stern (eds.), Thinking about the Emotions: A Philosophical History, Oxford University Press. pp. 206-222. 2017.Schopenhauer defends the view that emotions impair cognition, while Nietzsche apparently replies that they are ineliminable from cognition, and that they enhance it. Schopenhauer argues that human individuals are naturally disposed to comprehend their environment in affective terms. At the same time, his evaluative position concerning this relation is negative: cognition is spoiled, warped, or tainted by its inability to shake off the emotions, desires, or drives that belong to human nature. Hum…Read more
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159Necessity, Responsibility and Character: Schopenhauer on Freedom of the WillKantian Review 17 (3): 431-457. 2012.This paper gives an account of the argument of Schopenhauer's essay On the Freedom of the Human Will, drawing also on his other works. Schopenhauer argues that all human actions are causally necessitated, as are all other events in empirical nature, hence there is no freedom in the sense of liberum arbitrium indifferentiae. However, our sense of responsibility or agency (being the ) is nonetheless unshakeable. To account for this Schopenhauer invokes the Kantian distinction between empirical and…Read more
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16Schopenhauer: Parerga and Paralipomena: Volume 1: Short Philosophical Essays (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2014.With the publication of the Parerga and Paralipomena in 1851, there finally came some measure of the fame that Schopenhauer thought was his due. Described by Schopenhauer himself as 'incomparably more popular than everything up till now', the Parerga is a miscellany of essays addressing themes that complement his work The World as Will and Representation, along with more divergent, speculative pieces. It includes his 'Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life', reflections on fate and clairvoyance, trench…Read more
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2Review of: MARGOLIS, J. "Art and Philosophy:Conceptual Issues in Aesthetics" (review)Mind 93 (n/a): 294. 1984.Book Review.
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7Will and natureIn The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer, Cambridge University Press. pp. 138--170. 1999.The chapter examines aspects of Schopenhauer's central concept of will: the role of will in relation to action and to sexual drive, the argument that the individual has no freedom of will, the notion of the will or 'will to life' as the 'inner nature' of the individual, and the notion that the will is the thing in itself.
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138Naturalism and value in Nietzsche (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 71 (3). 2005.
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29Nietzsche on free will, autonomy and the sovereign individualAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 80 (1): 339-357. 2006.This paper aims to distinguish a conception of ‘free will’ that Nietzsche opposes (that of the pure agent unaffected by contingencies of character and circumstance) and one that he supports. In Human, All Too Human Nietzsche propounds the ‘total unfreedom’ of the will. But by the time of Beyond Good and Evil and the Genealogy he is more concerned (a) to trace the affective psychological states underlying beliefs in both free will and ‘unfree will’, (b) to suggest that the will might become free …Read more
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11Two Kinds Of Artistic DuplicationBritish Journal of Aesthetics 37 (1): 1-14. 1997.In this paper I juxtapose two well-known thought-experiments concerning duplicate art works, and point out that they appear to have directly conflicting results. I then make a proposal as to how to reconcile the two cases. The two cases are Borges' story of Pierre Menard, in which a text coinciding exactly with Cervantes' Don Quixote is nonetheless a distinct work from it, and Nelson Goodman's claim that a musical work cannot be forged, because anything complying with a work's notation is that w…Read more
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239Beyond Selflessness: Reading Nietzsche’s GenealogyOxford University Press. 2007.Nietzsche's aims and targets -- Reading Nietzsche's preface -- Naturalism and genealogy -- Selflessness : the struggle with Schopenhauer -- Nietzsche and Paul Rée on the origins of moral feelings -- Good and evil : affect, artistry, and revaluation -- Free will, autonomy, and the sovereign individual -- Guilt, bad conscience, and self-punishment -- Will to power in the Genealogy -- Nietzsche's illustration of the art of exegesis -- Disinterestedness and objectivity -- Perspectival knowing and th…Read more
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28Schopenhauer on Cognition (Erkenntnis) (W I, §§ 8-16)In Matthias Koßler & Oliver Hallich (eds.), Arthur Schopenhauer: Die Welt Als Wille Und Vorstellung, Akademie Verlag. pp. 35-50. 2014.This chapter is a commentary on sections 8-16 of Schopenhauer's World as will and Representation. It summarises Schopenhauer's account of cognition, his division between intuition and reason, and his accounts of conceptualisation, science, and the role of reason in Stoicism.
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147Attitudes to suffering: Parfit and NietzscheInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 60 (1-2): 66-95. 2017.In On What Matters, Derek Parfit argues that Nietzsche does not disagree with central normative beliefs that ‘we’ hold. Such disagreement would threaten Parfit’s claim that normative beliefs are known by intuition. However, Nietzsche defends a conception of well-being that challenges Parfit’s normative claim that suffering is bad in itself for the sufferer. Nietzsche recognizes the phenomenon of ‘growth through suffering’ as essential to well-being. Hence, removal of all suffering would lead to …Read more
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83Reading Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art: Selected Texts with Interactive Commentary (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2005.Designed for readers with no or little prior knowledge of the subject, this concise anthology brings together key texts in aesthetics and the philosophy of art. Designed for readers with no or little prior knowledge of the subject. Presents two contrasting pieces on each of six topics. Texts range from Plato’s famous critique of art in the ‘Republic’ through Nietzsche’s ‘The Birth of Tragedy’ to Barthes’ ‘The Death of the Author’ 'and pieces in recent philosophical aesthetics from a number of tr…Read more
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75Nietzsche on Morality by Brian Leiter (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 71 (3): 729-740. 2005.
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24Who – or what – says yes to life?In Daniel Came (ed.), Nietzsche on Morality and the Affirmation of Life, Oxford University Press. 2022.Nietzsche is concerned with what he calls ‘affirmation of life’, or ‘saying Yes to life’. This article examines attitudes or processes that Nietzsche describes as ‘affirmation’ or ‘Yes-saying’ (Bejahung, Jasagen). Nietzsche often speaks of something other than an individual as the locus of affirmation. Surveying Nietzsche’s uses from the period of Daybreak onwards, we find Bejahung, Jasagen and cognates with a variety of grammatical subjects, referring to human individuals, cultural products a…Read more
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30Autonomy, affect, and the self in Nietzsche's project of genealogyIn Ken Gemes & Simon May (eds.), Nietzsche on freedom and autonomy, Oxford University Press. pp. 51-68. 2009.Nietzsche is well known for stating that there is 'only a perspectival "knowing"'. What has been less remarked is the extent to which he thereby stands in radical opposition to a common philosophical position concerning the relationship between knowledge and the affects. This article argues that in Genealogy III: 12 Nietzsche makes the following two claims: (1) That it is impossible for there to be any knowing that is free of all affects, and (2) That multiplying different affects always improve…Read more
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67Knowing about surprises: A supposed antinomy revisitedMind 98 (391): 391-409. 1989.A given event may be a surprise to you, even if you know that it is going to occur. It may be a surprise to you, even if you know that it is going to occur and be a surprise to you. But what is not possible is that you should know a finite list of possible times at which it may possibly occur, and know that it will be a surprise to you. The article argues that this is sufficient to dispense with the well-known paradox or antinomy, the 'Surprise Test'.
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7The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2009.Arthur Schopenhauer's The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics consists of two groundbreaking essays: 'On the Freedom of the Will' and 'On the Basis of Morals'. The essays make original contributions to ethics and display Schopenhauer's erudition, prose-style and flair for philosophical controversy, as well as philosophical views that contrast sharply with the positions of both Kant and Nietzsche. Written accessibly, they do not presuppose the intricate metaphysics which Schopenhauer constructs el…Read more
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1PlatoIn Berys Nigel Gaut & Dominic Lopes (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics, Routledge. 2000.Plato's writings about the arts play a foundational role in the history of aesthetics, not simply because they are the earliest substantial contribution to the subject. The arts are a central, rather than a marginal topic for Plato, and for him the whole of culture must reflect and inculcate the values that concern him. His philosophy of art (as we would call it) is closely integrated with his metaphysics, ethics and politics. We shall examine in outline the major issues that a reading of Plato …Read more
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189Tragedy: a case of pleasure in painIn Arto Haapala & Oiva Kuisma (eds.), Aesthetic Experience and the Moral Dimension: Essays on Moral Problems in Aesthetics (Helsinki: Acta Philosophica Fennica 72,, Acta Philosophica Fennica. pp. 19-32. 2003.
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15Schopenhauer as Nietzsche's EducatorIn Willing and Nothingness: Schopenhauer as Nietzsche's Educator, Clarendon Press. 1998.The essay draws attention to some of the different uses made of Schopenhauer throughout Nietzsche's writings. Different roles for Schopenhauer coexist at all stages of Nietzsche's writing. He functions as an exemplar for European culture, but at the same time Nietzsche can find serious fault with his philosophical doctrines, as he does in early unpublished notes. In later writings Schopenhauer is assigned the role of Nietzsche's antipode, but even then Schopenhauer is paid the compliment of bein…Read more
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Areas of Interest
Aesthetics |
Normative Ethics |
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
19th Century Philosophy |