the period… closed by Shaw:

Shaw (1856-1950) continued to work writing essays & plays until his death; he was the poster boy for ethical Socialism which found its greatest expression in the UK welfare system post WW II (the NHS, the dole) & Scandinavian countries.  Socialism as a world sentiment reaches its greatest extent. This Winter period corresponds to the Hellenistic age of the great Schools, dominated by Stoicism, founded by Zeno of Citium (333-263) but also including Aristotle (384-322 BC) & the Peripatetic school, the Epicureans from its founder Epicurus (341–270 BC) & Pyrrhonism, a school originated with Pyrrho (365-275 BC).

 

Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung:

German, The World as Will and Perception

 

Urkraft:

German, elemental force

 

zur Verneinung empfohlen:

German, recommended in the negative

 

Ueber den Willen in der Natur:

German, About the Will in Nature,

see above page 369

 

Prodhoun:

(1809- 1865) French socialist, politician, founder of mutualist philosophy & economist; the "father of anarchism", popularized the term & was first to declare himself an anarchist; an influential theorist; member of the French Parliament after the Revolution of 1848 after which time he called himself a federalist, he the liberty he pursued as "the synthesis of communism and property". 

 

Qu' est-ce que la Propriete:

French, What is Property (the full title What Is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and Government); his most famous work, property for Proudhon was rooted in Roman law & meant the right of the owner to do with his property as he pleases, to use and abuse so long as in the end he submits to state-sanctioned title; he contrasted this with rights (which he considered valid) of liberty, equality & security.  His opposition to property did not extend to exclusive possession of labour-made wealth.

 

Cours de philosophie positive:

French, The course of Positive philosophy; a series of texts written between 1830 & 1842, which reveal the epistemological perspective of positivism; the first 3 volumes dealt with the physical sciences (mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology); the final 2 emphasised the inevitable coming of social science (Sociology).  For Comte the physical sciences had to arrive first, before humanity could adequately channel its efforts into the most challenging and complex "queen science" of human society itself

see page 24 Chapter I

 

Hebbel ("Judith")

see above page 372, Hebbel (his Holofernes tragedy & Schopenhauer)

 

New Woman (Judith):

Judith as the new woman, predates Ibsen’s Nora by 38 years.  Hebbel noted in his diary: "Woman must strive for dominion over man because she feels that nature has determined her to be subservient to him."  Judith breaks all social conventions (sex outside marriage), tribal conventions (relations with an Assyrian) & gender conventions (her strong sex drive as well as her brutal murder of Holofernes).  She does so to save her nation.  In his diary Hebbel notes: “it becomes clear to her that she has gone beyond the limits, that she has at least done what is right for unjust reasons.“

 

Superman (Holofernes, in Judith):

Holofernes, Assyrian commander of the army about to destroy the Hebrews, is Spengler’s Superman, predating Nietzsche’s Zarathustra by 42 years.  He is fearless of man or God; he is cruel & ambitious.  Although subordinate to Nebuchadnezzar, he harbours ambitions to replace the king.  He is physically ruthless & casually kills 2 of his own soldiers in act 1; later he beats an officer for talking to Judith.  In the first act Libya and Mesopotamia surrender to him & when warned of the invincible Hebrew God, he takes this as a provocation, ordering his army to attack!  The Jews tremble before him, aware of his atrocities.

 

Das Wesen des Christenthums:

German, The Essence of Christianity; his most important work, theme derived from Hegel's speculative theology in which the Creation remains a part of the Creator, yet remains greater than the Creation (Hegel was unimpressed).  In part I he describes God as aspects- s a being of the understanding, as a moral being of law, or love.  Feuerbach concludes, "If man is to find contentment in God, he must find himself in God."  In part 2, he discusses false theological religions (God as having a separate existence over against humankind).  From these come varies errors, such as the belief in revelation or in sacraments (religious materialism); the consequences of these errors are superstition and immorality.

 

Umriss einer Kritik des National Okonomie:

German, Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy; written in 1843, published the following year in the Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher (the German-French Annual, Marx editor), a specific, detailed critical attack on the Classical Political economists of the French & British schools (Smith, Richardo, Malthus); political economy was not an area of expertise for Young Hegelians like Marx, it was a revelation & had huge impact on the latter.

 

Maria Magdalena:

see above page 372, Hebbel (his Herodes una Mariamne & Schopenhauer)

 

Misere de la Philosophie:

French, The Poverty of Philosophy, published in Paris & Brussels, Marx’s answer toProudhon’s The Philosophy of Poverty (1846) & therefore in French; an analysis of the capitalist system of production & distribution as well as law of value, a theoretical foundation to be fully elaborated in Capital; Marx applied the dialectics to political economy & cites the Science of Logic of Hegel.  He rejected Proudhon’s idea on consumption tax and denial of strike action.  In conclusion he cites the words of George Sand: "Combat or Death: bloody struggle or extinction.”

 

Death of Siegfried:

see above page 372, Wagner's Nibelung poetry of 1850 (and social-revolutionary ideas) and Wagner's Siegfried (symbol of the Fourth Estate)

 

Kunst und Klima:

German, Art & Climate, a somewhat obscure essay, following on from Art & Revolution (1849), identifies modern Civilization as the enemy to future Culture.  Wagner's prose essays contain a teleology, in Art & Revolution there are nuances of Hegel, the history of the world flowing along in a mighty order of pre-ordained events, there is an inner necessity, almost idealism of a future utopia where men will proclaim their entire energy is nothing but art; a similar sort of feeling is evoked in this essay, desire, inevitability, necessary fulfilment.

 

Wagner's, Hebbel's and Ibsen's Nibelung poetry.

see page 372 above

 

"Origin of Species"

see above page 372

 

"Tristan":

see Chapter I page 45, Chapter VII, page 220 and above page 370, 372

 

Zur Kritik der politischen Okonomie:

German, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy; analysis of capitalism & quantity theory of money, critiques leading theoretical exponents of capitalism, the classical economists, notably Smith & Ricardo; later incorporated into Capital (Volume I); its Preface contains the first connected account of the materialist conception of history & its"base and superstructure" model of society, economic factors (how people produce the necessities of life) conditions politics & ideology.

 

Utilitarianism:

essay, the classic exposition & defence of utilitarianism in ethics, first appeared as a series of 3 articles, Fraser's Magazine (1861) published 2 years later; Mill's aim is to explain what utilitarianism is, why it is the best theory of ethics & defend it against a wide range of criticisms & misunderstandings; heavily criticized in Mill's lifetime & later influential & popularized the idea.

 

Wert des Lebens: * see Endnote<A>

German, The Worth of Life, by Duhring (1833-1921), German philosopher, positivist, economist & socialist, critic of Marxism; this his first & most popular book of philosophy, devoted to the same questions on life as posed by Schopenhauer, provides an in depth portrayal of Schopenhauer.  Dühring's philosophy claims to be the philosophy of reality, he denounces anything which tries to veil reality (mysticism), reflecting a deep anger against religion; his substitute for religion is a doctrine pointing towards Comte & Feuerbach.

 

Brand:

see above page 363

 

Das Kapital:

see above page 372

 

Parsifal:

see Chapter III pages 110, 111 Chapter VIII page 291 and above page 370

 

Nora:

see Chapter I page 24 (a reference to A Doll’s House)

 

Morgenrothe:

German, The Dawn of Day , historical orthography; Nietzsche de-emphasizes hedonism as a motivator & accentuates the role of a "feeling of power."  His relativism, moral & cultural, and his critique of Christianity reaches greater maturity.  He devoted lengthy passage to his criticism of Christian biblical exegesis. However Nietzsche appears unconcerned with persuading his readers to accept any specific viewpoint.  Nonetheless it is possible to see the germs of ideas which will develop later.  Notably its materialism (here reducible to a naive scientific objectivism which reduces all phenomena to their natural, mechanical causes) will emerge in a stronger light in The Gay Science.

 

Also sprach Zarathustra:

see Chapter I page 24, and above page 342, 363, 370, 371

 

Rosmersholm:

see Chapter VIII page 290 and above page 363

 

Jenseits von Gut und Bose:

German, Beyond Good and Evil, expands the ideas of his previous work Thus Spoke Zarathustra  using a critical & polemical approach; he accuses past philosophers of lacking critical sense, blindly accepting dogmatic premises in ethics, specifically, of founding grand metaphysical systems upon the faith that the good man is the opposite of the evil man, rather than just a different expression of the same basic impulses that find more direct expression in the evil man.  Nietzsche abandons traditional morality & subjects it to a destructive critique in favour of what he regards as an affirmative approach that fearlessly confronts the perspectival nature of knowledge and the perilous condition of the modern individual.