Interpretation of Nietzsche's On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life

<p>With his <i>An Interpretation of Nietzsche’s On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life</i> Anthony K. Jensen shows how 'timely' Nietzsche’s second Untimely Meditation really is. This comprehensive and insightful study contextualizes and analyzes a wide range of Nietzsche’s earlier thoughts about history: teleology typology psychology memory classical philology Hegelianism and the role historiography plays in modern culture. <i>On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life</i> is shown to be a ‘timely’ work too insofar as it weaves together a number of Nietzsche's most important influences and thematic directions at that time: ancient culture science epistemology and the thought of Schopenhauer and Burckhardt. Rather than dismiss it as a mere ‘early’ work Jensen shows how the text resonates in Nietzsche’s later perspectivism his theory of subjectivity and Eternal Recurrence. And by using careful philological analysis of the text’s composition history Jensen is in position to fully elucidate and evaluate Nietzsche’s arguments in their proper contexts. As such Jensen’s <i>Interpretation</i> should restore Nietzsche’s second Untimely Meditation to a prominent place among 19th Century philosophies of history. </p>