Nietzsche’s Anti-Darwinism. By Dirk R.
Johnson (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2010)
In this substantial and incisive monograph,
Dirk R. Johnson traces in minute detail
Nietzsche’s stance towards Darwin at the
various stages of his intellectually productive
life. Johnson’s book is in two principal parts:
Part 1 is on Nietzsche’s early Darwinism,
which turned into anti-Darwinism, and Part
2 is a close reading of all three essays of
Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals in their
historical conte…
Read moreNietzsche’s Anti-Darwinism. By Dirk R.
Johnson (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2010)
In this substantial and incisive monograph,
Dirk R. Johnson traces in minute detail
Nietzsche’s stance towards Darwin at the
various stages of his intellectually productive
life. Johnson’s book is in two principal parts:
Part 1 is on Nietzsche’s early Darwinism,
which turned into anti-Darwinism, and Part
2 is a close reading of all three essays of
Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals in their
historical context since together they constitute
“his most systematic, thorough, and
far-reaching analysis of the theories of
Darwin and their followers” (81, 111). The
author concedes that Nietzsche’s exchange
with Darwin (1809–82), who was a contemporary
of Nietzsche (1944–1900), is often
implicit only and that he leads his explicit
discussions of Darwin mostly in his unpublished
notebooks. I agree with Johnson’s
view that Nietzsche knew Darwin’s thought
and its implications both “early and well’ (3).
Johnson provides compelling evidence of the
“increased personalization” of Nietzsche’s
opposition to Darwinism during his last
productive years after Zarathustra. For
instance, Nietzsche entitled section 9,14 of
Twilight of the Idols “Anti-Darwin,” and
explained that “his position at this stage
resulted both from his critical reappraisal of
Darwin’s genealogical perspectives in the
middle period and his attempt in Zarathustra
to define the parameters of an affirmative,
anti-metaphysical vision beyond Darwinism”
(79). He argues that Zarathustra trans-values
Darwinian categories such as “reason.” For
him, “the work’s literary self-expression is
the message,” since the superior well-being
of the future higher type “can only be conjured
through poetic affirmation” (48, 50).