For more than forty years, Gianni Vattimo, one of Europe's most
important and influential philosophers, has been a leading participant
in the postwar turn that has brought Nietzsche back to the center of
philosophical enquiry. In this collection of his essays on the subject,
which is a dialogue both with Nietzsche and with the Nietzschean
tradition, Vattimo explores the German philosopher's most important
works and discusses his views on the Übermensch, time, history, truth,
hermeneutics, ethics, and aesthetics. He also presents a different, more
"Italian" Nietzsche, one that diverges from German and French
characterizations. Many contemporary French and poststructuralist
philosophers offer literary or aesthetic readings of Nietzsche's work
that downplay its political import. Shaped by the revolutionary
tradition of 1968, Vattimo's interpretations take Nietzsche seriously as
a political philosopher and argue for and defend his relevance to
projects for social and political change.