READINGS IN FRIEDERICH NIETZSCHE

PHIL -- FALL (I) 2001

Bob Corbett, instructor

Meets: 1-3 PM Tues. and Thurs.

BELOW YOU WILL FIND INFORMATION ON:

Various essays and pointers on Friederich Nietzsche

• Course Objectives
• Readings
• Syllabus
• Course Requirements and Grading

• Course Objectives (short version).

  The writings and legacy of Friederich Nietzsche continue to attract readers, students and scholars. This brief investigation of Nietzsche's writings and life will try to provide students with a basic introduction to his work, some sense of his place in philosophical history, as well as a decent sampling of his writings themselves with some focus on key issues such as Nietzsche and nihilism, the notion of the eternal recurrence, his concept of the overman and the thesis of the will to power.

  Since Nietzsche often wrote in aphorisms it is too easy to read him in terms of catchy sentences or some of his powerful language. We will try to focus less on what Nietzsche "says" than what he "means," and in order to further focus we will make the various issues named in the paragraph above as the central issues of focus.

• Readings

  We will read:

  • TOWARD A GENEALOGY OF MORALS by Friederich Nietzsche. Any FULL version in any language.
  • THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA by Friederich Nietzsche. Any FULL version in any language.
  • NIETZSCHE: THE MAN AND HIS PHILOSOPHY by R. J. Hollingdale.

• The Syllabus

• Course Requirements and Grading

  Grading: While I will grade each individual assignment, the grade of the course will not be merely the sum of the individual grades. Rather, I will take into account an overall sense of quality in the general tone of one's work. However, the sum of one's individual grades will certainly be a strong indication of where one stands. In a rough sense the assigments will be valued in this fashion:

  Grading

  • Attendance: This will be only a negative possibility. You begin will full credit.
    • If you miss more than 2 class your grade will be lowered one full letter grade.
    • If you miss more than 3 classes your grade will be lowered two full letter grades.
    • If you miss more than 4 classes your grade will be lowered three full letter grades.
    • If you miss 6 classes you will receive a grade of F.
    • Special note on being late:  Our class begins at 1 PM, sharp. That doesn't not mean 1:01 or after. I will count everyone present who is in the room at 1:00 PM when we begin. Others will be counted as late. Were a person to be more than 10 minutes late then they are regarded as having missed the entire first hour. Three grades of late (that is, late at all, but less than 10 minutes late) will count as having missed an entire 1/2 class.
    • Special note on breaks.I will give a TEN MINUTE break near mid-class. I have had serious problems in classes in Vienna in starting up again after 10 minutes. At EXACTELY 10 minutes after the break begins I will once again take attendance and the same policy will be used as at the beginning of class. More than three times being at ALL late in return, counts as having missed an entire 1/2 class, and being more than 10 minutes late from break also counts as having missed the entire hour.
    • It is likely that this course will meet off-campus most of the time. Students will need to be sure they can arrive at a coffee house in the central city by 1 PM, and stay until 3 PM. The setting seems important to try to break the mold of "just a class in the classroom" and try to get us into a mode of serious investigation and entering into the spirit of Nietzsche's inquiry.

  • General work required and graded
    • Sum of the 3 summary/reflection papers on Genealogy: 30%
    • Summary/reflection paper on Zarathustra: 10%
    • Contribution of links for Nietzsche study: 5%
    • Preliminary meeting on the paper/oral report: 5%:
    • The major research paper: 20%
    • The oral presentation of the research work: 5%
    • General contribution to class discussion: 10%
    • The final exam: 15%
    • total:
    • ......................100%

    Three important additional notes:
• I will only give a grade of incomplete in a very unusual circumstance, one in which the student was doing all work in a timely and acceptable fashion and then some major catastrophe strikes, one for which the student can give evidence of and which is seriously debilitating. Even then, an incomplete would be negotiated toward the shortest reasonable time to fulfill the work with no extensions. In only the rarest occasions would a grade for a fulfilled incomplete ever be higher than a C.
• Alternative grading procedure is possible:  Were any student unhappy with the above grading procedure, the student is welcome to begin discussion with Corbett toward forming an alternative grading procedure. This would take an initial discussion with the Corbett which would be initiated by the student. Were an agreement reached then the student has the responsibility to write up the new grading contract and have it signed by both Corbett and the student. Such a contract would have to be signed and finished, and a copy given to Corbett, before the third week of classes had ended.
• A statement on plagiarism. Plag1arism is turning in any written work as one's own which was written by someone else. This is a completely unacceptable behavior in the academic world and is counted as a clear case of cheating. Any student caught plagiarizing in this class will be given an F for the entire course. No second chances will be given. The policy is firm and absolute.

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