Rowe's rich and comprehensive discussions of Nietzschean metaethics will be valuable for anyone interested in Nietzsche's normative thought. Rowe argues that we should read Nietzsche as an error theorist about moral values who nonetheless offers a positive normative standard, namely power; and this positive standard is supported by a constitutivist argument. Along the way, Rowe offers intriguing critiques of some of the most prominent recent discussions of Nietzsche's metaethics; contends that we can develop Nietzschean arguments against motivational judgment internalism by considering the opacity of human action; and shows how Nietzsche's error theory is compatible with the creation of new evaluative perspectives.

- Paul Katsafanas, Boston University,

Nietzsche says one should philosophise with a hammer. In this book, David Rowe does just that, dismantling some central platforms of contemporary meta-ethics, especially its rationalism, but also constructing his own Nietzschean-inspired view that avoids those errors.

- Jack Reynolds, Professor of Philosophy at Deakin University, Melbourne,

This book develops a novel interpretation of the late-nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche as holding a distinct and original metaethical position (a theory about our practice of ethics). David Emannuel Rowe characterizes it as a human-centered metaethics. A central achievement of A Nietzschean Metaethics is to bring Nietzsche into a conversation with the analytic metaethical tradition. To do so, Rowe interprets Nietzsche’s use of such concepts as the notorious “will to power”; his ideal agent, the superman or Übermensch; nihilism; the eternal recurrence; Perspectivism; and Being and Becoming. The result is a view of Nietzsche as a radical moral error theorist, which is to say he defends the view that all statements that appeal to some value for their truth are false. This theory is radical because Nietzsche argues that insofar as language requires certain concepts for its truth it is in error, in virtue of an appeal to some value. Rowe also offers a view where the increase in one’s power is a standard by which one can make sense of Nietzsche’s so-called re-evaluation of all values. By means of this resolution, Nietzsche criticizes some contemporary themes in metaethics, such as particular views about moral motivation, reasons, moral error theory, and agency.
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This book provides an interpretation of the late nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche as holding a distinct and original metaethical position, which is to say a theory about our practice of ethics. Rowe uses this interpretation to provide some interesting and thought-provoking criticisms of themes in contemporary metaethics.
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Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Chapter 1: Nietzsche as an Opponent to Meta-ethics

Chapter 2: A Nietzschean Error Theory

Chapter 3: Nietzsche’s ‘Positive’ Alternative

Chapter 4: The Prescriptivity of Moral Values

Chapter 5: Towards Nietzsche’s ‘Positive’ Alternative

Chapter 6: Nietzsche’s Three Norms of Power

Chapter 7: Nietzsche as an N-Realist

Chapter 8: Nietzsche’s Re-evaluation of all Values

Chapter 9: Nietzsche as a Viable Opponent to Contemporary Themes in Meta-ethics

References

About the Author

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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781498579933
Publisert
2019-10-17
Utgiver
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc; Lexington Books
Vekt
513 gr
Høyde
228 mm
Bredde
161 mm
Dybde
23 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
216

Om bidragsyterne

David Emmanuel Rowe is sessional lecturer and tutor at Deakin and Monash universities.