Journal of the History of Philosophy

This is an important volume on a topic that has gained increasing traction in recent Nietzsche scholarship. In it, fourteen authors—trained philosophers and Germanists—discuss the related themes of contest, conflict, war, and the Greek agon in Nietzsche's works. Although the quality of the contributions varies, there are enough substantive essays in the volume to ensure that it will be essential reading for subsequent studies on the subject.

In the introduction, the editors claim that although Nietzsche's reflections on fundamental ontology are distinct from his interest in cultural institutions such as the Greek agon, they nevertheless provide important "background assumptions" for thinking about cultural manifestations of conflict and contest (9). Thus, the volume begins with two essays by Siemens and Pearson on Nietzsche's ontology. Siemens examines Nietzsche's concept of resistance, arguing that it can be a productive stimulant rather than a mere restriction on agency. Pearson focuses on a concept of "conflictual unity" that he finds in (Nietzsche's) Heraclitus, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. He contends that Nietzsche eventually leaves behind a "metaphysically guaranteed" notion of conflictual unity that he, in his early works, found in Heraclitus and Schopenhauer. Although I am not entirely convinced by all the details of each essay—Pearson's notion of a metaphysical guarantee remains obscure—both authors exhibit a clear familiarity with the contours of Nietzsche's ontology, and their essays show that notions of conflict and contest operate, for Nietzsche, at the most fundamental level of reality.

In the introduction, Siemens and Pearson also distinguish between two types of conflict: a measured form that only seeks the relative disempowerment of a competitor, and an excessive or unmeasured type that seeks the opponent's annihilation (2–3). According to the editors, the latter type of contest can be linked to the absolutism of Christianity, whereas the former is best expressed in the Greek agon. In the second part of the book, we are treated to four essays that implicitly develop the notion of measured contest by focusing on the Greek agon. Whereas Richie Robertson and Enrico Müller explore Nietzsche's relationship to Jakob Burckhardt on the topic of ancient Greek competition, Lawrence Hatab and Christa Davis Acampora look at the role that both love and war play in Nietzsche's understanding of ancient Greece. These are all established scholars, and the chapters of this section constitute the strongest part of the book. [End Page 625]

Not all of the chapters, however, canvass the measured form of agon Nietzsche associates with the Greeks. In one of the more provocative chapters in the volume, Guillaume Métayer argues that scholars have generally tended to downplay the harshness of Nietzsche's attacks on Christianity. In contrast, Métayer attributes to Nietzsche "the idea of philosophy as terrorism" (189), noting, among other things, that Nietzsche often refers to himself as "dynamite." Although some will recoil at Métayer's attempt to cast Nietzsche's philosophy as a form of terrorism, his essay suggests that Nietzsche himself is engaged in the sort of unmeasured conflict against Christianity that the editors want to attribute to Christian absolutism.

Jonathan Agins, Florian Häubi, and Frank Chouraqui offer other interesting contributions in the final two sections of the volume. Whereas Agins explains how Nietzsche uses war imagery to portray a heroic quest for knowledge (this theme is also central to Isabelle Wienand's contribution), Häubi highlights the role that shame plays in Nietzsche's conception of the warrior-philosopher. By drawing out these overlooked themes, both essays add to our understanding of Nietzsche's thought. Similarly, Chouraqui provides a unique reading of the Genealogy by focusing on the role that hyperbole plays in the slave revolt in morality. Specifically, he claims that hyperbolic discourse was a "reserve of power left untapped by the masters and mobilized by the slaves" and, as such, provided a weapon for the slaves in their revolt (237).

Not all chapters...