This book explores the significance of human animality in the philosophy
of Friedrich Nietzsche and provides the first systematic treatment of
the animal theme in Nietzsche's corpus as a whole Lemm argues that the
animal is neither a random theme nor a metaphorical device in
Nietzsche's thought. Instead, it stands at the center of his renewal of
the practice and meaning of philosophy itself. Lemm provides an original
contribution to on-going debates on the essence of humanism and its
future. At the center of this new interpretation stands Nietzsche's
thesis that animal life and its potential for truth, history, and
morality depends on a continuous antagonism between forgetfulness
(animality) and memory (humanity). This relationship accounts for the
emergence of humanity out of animality as a function of the antagonism
between civilization and culture. By taking the antagonism of culture
and civilization to be fundamental for Nietzsche's conception of
humanity and its becoming,
Lemm gives a new entry point into the political significance of
Nietzsche's thought. The opposition between civilization and culture
allows for the possibility that politics is more than a set of
civilizational techniques that seek to manipulate, dominate, and exclude
the animality of the human animal. By seeing the deep-seated connections
of politics with culture, Nietzsche orients politics beyond the
domination over life and, instead, offers the animality of the human
being a positive, creative role in the organization of life. Lemm's book
presents Nietzsche as the thinker of an emancipatory and affirmative
biopolitics.This book will appeal not only to readers interested in
Nietzsche, but also to anyone interested in the theme of the animal in
philosophy, literature, cultural studies and the arts, as well as those
interested in the relation between biological life and politics.
