Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle

Nietzsche made a pathological use of his best ideas, anchoring them in his own fluctuating bodily and mental conditions. Thus Nietzsche's belief that questions to truth and morality are at base questions of power and fitness resonates dynamically and intellectually with his alternating lucidity and delirium. The keen student of Nietzsche will welcome the appearance of this profound but extremely taxing study in a good English translation. Klossowski has been one of the few commentators to recognise the centrality of the idea of the drives (Triebe) for Nietzsche and the crucial role they play in the thought of eternal recurrence. The discussion of the significance of Nietzsche's debilitating migraine attacks is exemplary of the way Klossowski deftly interweaves philosophical with biographical considerations.