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

With his An Interpretation of Nietzsches "On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life", Anthony K. Jensen shows how 'timely' Nietzsches second "Untimely Meditation" really is. This comprehensive and insightful study contextualizes and analyzes a wide range of Nietzsches earlier thoughts about history: teleology, typology, psychology, memory, classical philology, Hegelianism, and the role historiography plays in modern culture. On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life 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 Nietzsches later perspectivism, his theory of subjectivity, and Eternal Recurrence. And by using careful philological analysis of the texts composition history, Jensen is in position to fully elucidate and evaluate Nietzsches arguments in their proper contexts. As such Jensens Interpretation should restore Nietzsches second "Untimely Meditation" to a prominent place among 19th Century philosophies of history.