Irving Zeitlin is the author of many books including
Jesus and the Judaism of His Time (Polity, 1990) and
Ancient Judaism (Polity, 1986).
No thinker in the history of modern philosophy has made such a radical attack upon Western values as Friedrich Nietzsche. His importance as a philosopher lies precisely in the challenge he threw down to the religion–moral and intellectual foundations of Western society. Zeitlin′s aim in this re–examination of Nietzsche′s work is to consider how we should assess Nietzsche′s philosophical claims today. He shows that although Nietzsche has given us a highly fruitful theory of the origin of moral values, his philosophy is beset by unresolved problems, ambiguities and defects.
Zeitlin′s critical exposition contains several distinctive elements. He gives considerable attention to Nietzsche′s theory of Ressentiment and the ′inversion of values′ by elaborating the theory and applying it to the two classical cases with which Nietzsche was most concerned: the Jews and the Greeks. He analyses Socrates′ encounter with the "proto–Nietzscheans" of his time; Karl Marx′s rejoinder to Max Stirner, the boldest of Nietzsche′s precursors in the modern era; Nietzsche′s one–sided and erroneous interpretation of Darwin′s theory; and the dangerous implications of Nietzsche′s ′beyond good and evil′ aestheticism. Finally, Zeitlin confronts Nietzsche′s protagonist, Zarathustra – that enthusiastic spokesman for the ′master morality′.
