The "Subject" of Nietzsche's Perspectivism

Cox, Christoph, 1965-

Journal of the History of Philosophy, Volume 35, Number 2, April

1997, pp. 269-291 (Review)

Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press

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 The "Subject" of Nietzsche's
Perspectivism
CHRISTOPH COX

FORMERLY TAKEN TO ENDORSE a p r o f o u n d skepticism a n d relativism, Nietz-

sche's " d o c t r i n e o f p e r s p e c t i v i s m " r e c e n t l y has b e e n s e e n to fit w i t h i n t r a d i -
tional conceptions of epistemology and ontology? In the most recent a n d
i n f l u e n t i a l s t u d y o f t h e m a t t e r , M a u d e m a r i e C l a r k m a i n t a i n s that, p r o p e r l y
u n d e r s t o o d , p e r s p e c t i v i s m is " a n o b v i o u s a n d n o n p r o b l e m a t i c d o c t r i n e . ''~ I n a
s i m i l a r v e i n , B r i a n L e i t e r has r e c e n t l y a r g u e d t h a t " p e r s p e c t i v i s m t u r n s o u t to
b e m u c h less r a d i c a l t h a n is u s u a l l y s u p p o s e d , " that, with this d o c t r i n e , "Nietz-
s c h e . . , is m e r e l y r e h a s h i n g f a m i l i a r K a n t i a n t h e m e s , m i n u s t h e r i g o r o f
K a n t ' s exposition."~ A c c o r d i n g to b o t h C l a r k a n d Leiter, p e r s p e c t i v i s m s i m p l y

' With occasional alterations, Nietzsche's texts will be quoted from the Kaufmann/Hollingdale
translations and cited in the text according to standard abbreviations of their English titles fol-
lowed by the section and/or paragraph number(s). The exception is "On Truth and Lies in a
Nonmoral Sense," which is cited by page number from Philosophy and Truth: Selections from Nietz-
sche's Notebooks of the Early x87os, ed. and trans. Daniel Breazeale (New Jersey: Humanities Press
International, 1979), 79-9 x. Abbreviations are as follows: A: The Antichrist; BGE: Beyond Good and
Evil; BT/SC: Birth of Tragedy, "Attempt at a Self-Criticism"; D: Daybreak; GM: On the Genealogy of
Morals; GS: The Gay Science; TI: Twilight of the Idols; TL: "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral
Sense"; UM: Untimely Meditations; WP: The Will to Power; Z: Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Where these
translations have been modified, I have consulted the Werke: Kritische Studienansgabe, ed. Giorgio
Colli and Mazzino Montinari (New York/Berlin: de Gruyter, 1967-t988), cited as KSA, followed
by the volume, page, and fragment numbers.
2Maudemarie Clark, Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 199o), 135.
3Brian Leiter, "Perspectivism in Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals," in Nietzsche, Genealogy, Moral-
ity: Essays on Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, ed. Richard Schacht (Berkeley: University of California
Press, ~994), 351. Leiter borrows this second phrase from Ken Gemes, "Nietzsche's Critique of
Truth," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 52 (1992): 49, who, in fact, disagrees with the
claim. Yet Leiter finds the characterization appropriate, adding that "this is not a problem,
particularly since Nietzsche's primary concerns lie elsewhere," namely, "with philosophical theo-
ries of agency and value" (351-52).

[269]
270 JOURNAL OF T H E H I S T O R Y OF P H I L O S O P H Y 3 5 : 2 APRIL 1 9 9 7
presents an analogy between certain obvious features o f h u m a n vision and less
immediately obvious features o f h u m a n knowledge.4
I will a r g u e that Nietzsche's perspectivism is less obvious, m o r e problem-
atic, a n d m o r e interesting than these recent accounts take it to be. Moreover,
the perspectivism I attribute to Nietzsche u n d e r m i n e s a central presupposi-
tion o f these accounts: namely, that there exists a simple, stable subject who
has perspectives. Before t u r n i n g to the notion o f subjectivity affirmed by
Nietzsche's perspectivism, a word must be said about the "doctrine o f
perspectivism" itself.

1. PERSPECTIVE AND AFFECTIVE INTERPRETATION

AS the n a m e o f a doctrine, "perspectivism" is a critical construct. T h e term is
f o u n d only once in Nietzsche's published work5 a n d only twice in The Will to
Power, the well-known collection o f his unpublished notes. 6 Moreover, the
term is misleading, since it suggests that a visual m e t a p h o r provides the key to
Nietzsche's t h e o r y o f knowledge. But this is not the case. I n d e e d , in the pas-
sage on perspectivity that both Clark a n d Leiter take to be decisive,7 Nietzsche
intimately associates the notion o f "perspective" with a very different, non-
visual notion: that o f "affective interpretation." Nietzsche writes:

"[O]bjectivity" [ought to be] understood not as "contemplation without interest" (which

is a nonsensical absurdity), but as the ability to have one's For and Against under control
and to engage and disengage them, so that one knows how to employ a variety of
perspectives and affective interpretations [Perspectiven und Affect-lnterpretationen] in the
service of knowledge. Henceforth, my dear philosophers, let us be on guard against
the dangerous old conceptual fiction that posited a "pure, will-less, painless, timeless
knowing subject"; let us guard against the snares of such contradictory concepts as
"pure reason," "absolute spirituality," "knowledge in itself": these always demand that
we should think of an eye that is completely unthinkable, an eye turned in no particu-
lar direction, in which the active and interpreting forces [die aktiven und interpretirenden
Kriifte], through which alone seeing becomes a seeing-something, are supposed to be
lacking; these always demand of the eye an absurdity and a nonsense. There is only a
perspective seeing [ein perspektivisches Sehen], only a perspective "knowing" [ein
perspektivisches "Erkennen"]; and the more affects we allow to speak about something, the

4See Clark, Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy, 128-35, and Leiter, "Perspectivism in Nietz-
sche," 344-47.
5GS 354-
6WP 48x and 636. In the t9o6 edition, the German editors saw fit to employ the term in a
section heading (Third Book, I, d: "Biologie des Erkenntnistriebes. Perspektivismus" [Biologyof the
Drive to Knowledge: Perspectivism]). This initiated a scholarlytradition that has taken this term to
describe Nietzsche'stheory of knowledgein general. The term was employed by Hans Vaihinger in
a9a 1 (see The Philosophy of"As If," trans. C. K. Ogden [London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1935],
352) and by almost every German, French, and Anglo-Americancommentator thereafter.
7See Clark, Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy, ~28, and Leiter, "Perspectivism in Nietzsche,"
343.
 THE " S U B J E C T " OF NIETZSCHE'S PERSPECTIVISM 271

more eyes, different eyes, we can lend to the thing, the more complete will o u r "con-
cept" o f this thing, o u r "objectivity," be. But to eliminate the will altogether, to suspend
each a n d every affect, supposing we were capable o f t h i s - - w h a t would that mean but
to castrate the intellect? (III 12) 8

Here, Nietzsche entwines the notion of "perspective" with that of "affective

i n t e r p r e t a t i o n . " H e c l a i m s t h a t a p e r s p e c t i v e is c o n s t i t u t e d a n d d i r e c t e d b y a
m a t r i x o f "active a n d i n t e r p r e t i n g f o r c e s , " w h i c h allow s o m e t h i n g to a p p e a r as
a p a r t i c u l a r s o m e t h i n g . A " p e r s p e c t i v e , " t h e n , w o u l d s e e m to b e a n o n t o l o g i c a l
and evaluative horizon opened up by the operation of a particular "affective
interpretation."9
S i f t i n g t h r o u g h t h e v a r i o u s texts o n p e r s p e c t i v i t y , o n e f i n d s a n u m b e r o f
p a s s a g e s in w h i c h t h e l a n g u a g e o f p e r s p e c t i v e is closely a s s o c i a t e d w i t h t h e
l a n g u a g e o f i n t e r p r e t a t i o n . '~ F u r t h e r i n v e s t i g a t i o n r e v e a l s t h a t t h e l a n g u a g e
o f i n t e r p r e t a t i o n is m o r e c o m m o n in N i e t z s c h e t h a n t h e l a n g u a g e o f p e r s p e c -
tive. H V i r t u a l l y e v e r y s p h e r e o f h u m a n a c t i v i t y - - f r o m " m o r a l i t y " to " p h y s i c s "
a n d " n a t u r a l s c i e n c e , " to " r a t i o n a l t h o u g h t " in g e n e r a l - - i s c a l l e d , in o n e p a s -
s a g e o r a n o t h e r , a n " i n t e r p r e t a t i o n . '''~ I n d e e d , f o r N i e t z s c h e , " i n t e r p r e t a t i o n "
s e e m s to b e p r e s e n t w h e r e v e r t h e r e is " m e a n i n g " a n d " v a l u e " at all.'3
G i v e n this, I w a n t to s u g g e s t t h a t c o m m e n t a t o r s h a v e b e e n w r o n g to r e a d
N i e t z s c h e ' s " p e r s p e c t i v e " l a n g u a g e t o o n a r r o w l y , as d e v e l o p i n g a s i m p l e a n a l -
o g y b e t w e e n s e e i n g a n d k n o w i n g . ' 4 I n s t e a d , I will a r g u e t h a t we s h o u l d r e a d

s Nietzsche employs a variety of terms for 'interpretationT'to interpret'. The most frequently
used are Interpretation/interpretieren and Auslegung/auslegen, though Ausdeutung/ausdeuten and
Deutung/deuten are relatively common, and Umdeutung/umdeuten ('reinterpretation'/'to reinterpret')
is occasionally found as well. Yet Nietzsche does not appear to draw any significant denotative or
connotative distinctions among these various terms. Different terms are used in strikingly similar
contexts, often in the same passage. The choice of terminology appears to be stylistic rather than
semantic.
9See WP 616: "that every elevation of man brings with it the overcoming of narrower interpreta-
tions; that every strengthening and increase of power opens up new perspectives and means
believing in new horizons--this idea permeates my writings."
'~ See, e.g., GS 357, 374, WP 5, 556, 565, 59 o, 616, 617, 678, 8o4.
"Leiter also notes this prevalence of "interpretation" terms over "perspective" terms, yet
then disregards it in his construal of perspectivism. Moreover, he also disregards the fact that, in
the passage so central to his analysis, Nietzsche explicitly links "perspectives" with "affective
interpretations." See Leiter, "Perspectivism in Nietzsche," 343.
l*On morality as interpretation, see GS 357, TI VII l, WP l, 5, 114, 228, 254, 258, 77o. On
physics and natural science as interpretation, see BGE 14, 22, WP 687, 689. On rational thought
as interpretation, see WP 52a.
'3See GM II 12, WP 59o, 6o4-6o6,616.
,4 Heidegger and Mare Fowler also argue against the over-narrow construal of perspectivism
as developing an ocular metaphor. See Heidegger, Nietzsche, Vol. 111: The Will to Power m Knowledge
and as Metaphysics, trans. Joan Stambaugh et al. (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1987), 197ff. and
Fowler, "Having a Perspective as Having a 'Will': Comment on Professor Conway's 'The Eyes
Have It'," International Studies in Philosophy a3, no. 2 (1990: 115--18.
a72 J O U R N A L OF THE HISTORY OF P H I L O S O P H Y 3 5 : e APRIL I 9 9 7

Nietzsche's "perspective" language within the broader bounds of a general

theory of interpretation. Unlike the notion of "perspecdve"--which, literally
c o n s t r u e d , g e n e r a t e s s e r i o u s e p i s t e m o l o g i c a l d i f f i c u l t i e s l s - - t h e n o t i o n o f "in-
terpretation" operates within a rich and increasingly important literary and
philosophical tradition. Taking what has been called "the interpretive turn,"
" C o n t i n e n t a l " a n d " a n a l y t i c " p h i l o s o p h e r s h a v e c o m e to a r g u e t h a t o u r k n o w l -
e d g e is n o t a n e d i f i c e b u i l t u p o n a f o u n d a t i o n o f i n d u b i t a b l e beliefs, b u t r a t h e r
a n i n t e r p r e t i v e w e b o f m u t u a l l y s u p p o r t i n g beliefs a n d d e s i r e s t h a t is c o n -
s t a n t l y b e i n g r e w o v e n ? 6 T h e s e p h i l o s o p h e r s m a i n t a i n t h a t we a r e always al-
r e a d y i m m e r s e d in a w o r l d full o f s i g n i f i c a n c e s t h a t w e p r e t h e o r e t i c a l l y u n d e r -
s t a n d , a n d t h a t t h e r o l e o f e p i s t e m o l o g y is to d i s c o v e r h o w p a r t i c u l a r s e n s o r y
e x p e r i e n c e s , b e l i e f s , a n d d e s i r e s r e l a t e to o u r u n d e r s t a n d i n g as a w h o l e a n d
vice versa.
N i e t z s c h e a g r e e s w i t h this t u r n f r o m f o u n d a t i o n a l i s m to h o l i s m a n d w i t h t h e
c o n c o m i t a n t t u r n f r o m first p h i l o s o p h y to n a t u r a l i s m . 17 As we h a v e s e e n , N i e t z -

,5 David Hoy argues that Nietzsche's language of "perspective" runs into a host of problems
and paradoxes, and that it should be rejected in favor of the language of "interpretation." See
Hoy, "Philosophy as Rigorous Philology? Nietzsche and Poststructuralism," New York Literary
Forum 8 - 9 (1981): x71-85. I agree that, narrowly and literallyconstrued, the language of"perspec-
tive" is problematic. Yet, I disagree with Hoy that Nietzsche's notion of "perspective" is to be taken
in this literal sense and thus that the language of "perspective" is incompatible with the language
of "interpretation." I argue here that Nietzsche construes the notion of "perspective" so broadly
that it merges with the notion of "interpretation."
,6 On "the interpretive turn," see Paul Rabinow and William M. Sullivan, "The Interpretive
Turn: Emergence of an Approach," in Interpretive Social Science, ed. Rabinow and Sullivan (Berke-
ley: University of California Press, a979), 1-21, The Interpretive Turn: Philosophy, Science, Culture,
ed. David R. Hiley et al. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 199 l), and David Hoy, "Heidegger and
the Hermeneutic Turn," in The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger, ed. Charles Guignon (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), ~7o-94 9Prominent figures associated with this "turn"
include Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Thomas Kuhn, W. V. Quioe, Donald David-
son, Richard Rorty, Charles Taylor, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Paul Ricoeur.
,7 Nietzsche's naturalism accords with more recent versions (e.g., that of Quine) in maintain-
ing that there exist no supernatural entities or explanatory principles. On this view, human beings
and their endowments are, like all other natural things, entirely conditional and contingent. Thus,
human reason is neither more nor less than "a device for detaining [the human being] a minute
within existence" (TL, 79; see also GS lO9). Yet Nietzsche does not accept the scientism advocated
by these more recent philosophical naturalisms. While he embraces a broadly scientific worldview,
he rejects the positivism and reductionism of the modern scientific project (see, e.g., GS 373 and
GM III 24-97). It is this that leads him to propose that, in its affirmation of appearance, interpreta-
tion, and multiplicity, "art" not "science" is the naturalistic discourse par excellence (see, e.g., GM III
25). These lines of thought are developed more fully in my "Nietzsche, Naturalism, and Interpreta-
tion," International Studies in Philosophy 27, no. 3 (1995): 3-18, "Being and Its Others: Nietzsche's
Revaluation of Truth," Man and Worm 29, no. 1 (1996): 43-61, and Naturalism and Interpretation:
Nietzsche's Epistemology and Ontology (manuscript in preparation), chapter 1. For a comparable
defense of a holistic, aestheticist naturalism, see Rorty, "Inquiry as Recontextualization: An Anti-
Dualist Conception of Interpretation" and "Non-Reductive Physicalism," in Objectivity, Relativism,
and Truth: Philosophical Papers, Vol. I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 93--125.
 THE " S U B J E C T " OF N I E T Z S C H E ' S P E R S P E C T I V I S M 273
sche conceives o f the u n d e r s t a n d i n g as always d i r e c t e d by o n e o r a n o t h e r "inter-
p r e t a t i o n , " e a c h o f w h i c h o p e n s u p a p a r t i c u l a r h o r i z o n o f m e a n i n g a n d value.
Nietzsche goes o n to a r g u e that the w o r l d in which we find ourselves is a w o r l d
o f struggle, a n d t h a t this s t r u g g l e is a m o n g i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s , each o f w h i c h seeks
to o v e r w h e l m (iiberwiiltigen, iiberwinden) the o t h e r s by i n c o r p o r a t i n g their t e r m s
into its o w n a n d a r t i c u l a t i n g these t e r m s a c c o r d i n g to its o w n system. T h i s is h o w
" i n t e r p r e t a t i o n " is c h a r a c t e r i z e d in an i m p o r t a n t passage f r o m the Genealogy of
Morals. Discussing t h e idea o f p u n i s h m e n t , Nietzsche pauses to " e m p h a s i z e [a]
m a j o r p o i n t o f historical m e t h o d " - - t o distinguish the origin o f s o m e t h i n g f r o m
its current purpose. H e writes:

IT]he cause of the origin of a thing and its eventual utility, its actual employment in a
system o f purposes, lie worlds apart: whatever exists, having somehow come into
being, is again and again reinterpreted to new ends [aufneue Ansichten ausgelegt], taken
over, transformed, and redirected by some power superior to it; all events in the
organic world are a subduing, becoming master [ein Uberwiiltigen, Herrwerden], and all
subduing and becoming master involves a fresh interpretation [ein Neu-lnterpretieren],
an adjustment through which any previous "meaning" and "purpose" are necessarily
obscured or even obliterated. However well one has understood the utility of a physio-
logical organ (or of a legal institution, a social custom, a political usage, a form in art or
in a religious cult), this means nothing regarding its origin . . . . [P]urposes and utilities
are only signs that a will to power has become master of something less powerful and
imposed upon it the character of a function; and the entire history of a "thing," an
organ, a custom can in this way be a continuous sign-chain of ever new interpretations
[Interpretationen] and adaptations whose causes do not even have to be related to one
another but, on the contrary, in some cases succeed and alternate with one another in
purely chance fashion. The "evolution" of a thing, a custom, an organ is thus by no
means its progressus toward a goal, even less a logical progressus by the shortest route and
with the smallest expenditure of force--but the succession of more or less profound,
more or less mutually independent processes of subduing [Uberwiiltigungsprozessen],
plus the resistances they encounter, the attempts at transformation for the purpose of
defense and reaction, and the results of successful counteractions. The form is fluid,
but the "meaning" is even more so. (GM II 12) ~s

W h a t is p a r t i c u l a r l y striking, in this passage, is that w h a t Nietzsche calls "inter-

p r e t a t i o n " e x t e n d s far b e y o n d w h a t the t e r m o r d i n a r i l y signifies. H e claims
t h a t "all events in the o r g a n i c w o r l d " and, i n d e e d , " w h a t e v e r exists" essentially
involve i n t e r p r e t a t i o n , a n d t h a t this i n v o l v e m e n t c o n c e r n s n o t only their appre-
hension by subjects b u t their very constitution as objects or events. A t the e n d o f the
section f r o m w h i c h the a b o v e passage is cited, Nietzsche goes so far as to
i d e n t i f y " i n t e r p r e t a t i o n " with "the essence o f life, its will to power,.., the
essential p r i o r i t y o f t h e s p o n t a n e o u s , aggressive, expansive, f o r m - g i v i n g

'sCf. GS 58, WP 556, 604, 643, 616.

274 JOURNAL OF T H E HISTORY OF P H I L O S O P H Y 35:2 APRIL 1997
forces that give new interpretations and directions."'9 Nietzsche is arguing
that "thinghood," " e v e n t h o o d , " "history," "development," and "evolution"
are, at bottom, only manifestations o f "will to power," the incessant drive for
interpretation and reinterpretation, f o r m i n g and re-forming; and that the
very origin, history, and growth o f "a 'thing' " (whether it be an object, a
practice, or an institution) should be seen as the consequence o f its role in a
struggle a m o n g interpretations, each o f which is "aggressive" and "expan-
sive," seeking to increase power and control over its environment.
This same generalization and extension o f meaning can also be f o u n d in
Nietzsche's language o f "perspective." Rather than functioning simply as an
optical analog, Nietzsche calls u p o n the term "perspective" to characterize
something about life in g e n e r a l - - " t h e perspective optics of life," he puts it in
Beyond Good and Evil (11, my emphasis). Elsewhere in that text, he speaks o f
"perspective" as "the basic condition o f all life" (Preface), claiming that " t h e r e
would be no life at all if not on the basis o f perspective estimates and appear-
ances" (34) and that "the narrowing of our perspective... [is] a condition o f life
and growth" (188).
We see, then, that Nietzsche's "perspective" language is quite peculiar and
o u g h t not to be taken at face value. Not only is the language o f "perspective"
subsumed u n d e r the b r o a d e r language o f "interpretation," but both "perspec-
tive" and "interpretation" are generalized far b e y o n d their o r d i n a r y senses.
"Perspective," for Nietzsche, comes to characterize the directedness o f a part-
icular f o r m o f life ~~toward the conditions that preserve and e n h a n c e it, condi-
tions that are codified in the "interpretation" that directs the perspective.
This can serve as a r o u g h characterization o f the notions o f "perspective"
and "interpretation" as Nietzsche uses them. Yet many questions still remain.
T h e o n e I want to focus on h e r e is the question o f who or what it is that has'
perspectives and interpretations. We will see that the answer to this question is
not, in any sense, simple. B e f o r e turning to Nietzsche's texts, I want first to
consider some previous and, I believe, inadequate answers to this question.

2. THE "SUBJECT" OF P E R S P E C T I V I S M : TWO RECENT ACCOUNTS

O n e account has it that the p r o p e r subjects o f perspectives are biological

species. ~' This view maintains that, t h r o u g h the process o f evolutionary natu-

t9Cf. BGE 259, WP 643.

~oThis term is felicitous precisely because of its flexibility.It is loose enough to capture the
entire range of systems of valuation that Nietzsche considers important (e.g., active and reactive,
ascending and descending, weak and strong, master and slave, Dionysian and Christian, etc.),
while refusing to identify perspectives with either the private points-of-viewof individuals or the
fixed physico-psychologicalschemas of biological species.
"~The most prominent advocate of this view is George J. Stack, who, in a series of articles,
argues that Nietzsche's epistemological position is substantially akin to that of the neo-Kantian
 THE " S U B J E C T " OF N I E T Z S C H E ' S P E R S P E C T I V I S M ~75
ral selection, each species develops a particular "physico-psychological organi-
zation" that mediates its view of the world and ensures that each member of
the species apprehends and comprehends just enough of the world, and only
in such a way, as to safeguard its survival and flourishing. While every mem-
ber of the species can adopt different "perspectives" in a limited sense (e.g., by
changing position or entering into different circumstances), these neverthe-
less remain within the general "perspective" of the species as a whole, which is
not in any member's power to change.
It is certainly the case that Nietzsche's "perspective" language most fre-
quently appears in contexts that discuss the conditions necessary for particular
species (especially humans) to preserve themselves and to enhance their
power. ~2 Yet, the interpretation of perspectivism generated by this account
commits Nietzsche to a position that, I believe, he does not accept: the position
that every species is in principle unable to apprehend both the world as it is in
itself and the world as it is apprehended by other species.'3 Nietzsche does not
seem to believe, for example, that there is anything like a specifically human
"perspective," a unified and coherent totality rigorously differentiable from
the "perspectives" of other species. First of all, Nietzsche's naturalism commits
him to regard all living beings as, in fundamental respects, similar.24 He
claims, for instance, that the human process of cognition is only a more com-
plex and specialized form of the process of ingestion ("incorporation" or
"assimilation") found in the protoplasm.~5 Indeed, a central theme of Nietz-
sche's later work is the notion that knowledge is only a form of will to power,
the drive to incorporate and subdue found in all organisms and species. ~6
Secondly, Nietzsche argues that the human species itself does not have a
unified worldview, but rather is divided into a host of antagonistic "perspec-
tives" or "interpretations": e.g., master and slave, Dionysian and Christian,
Homeric and Platonic, Roman and Judaic, and various hybrids of these.'7

philosopher, F. A. Lange, whose work Nietzsche read and praised early in his career. See Stack,
"Kant, Lange, and Nietzsche: Critique of Knowledge," in Nietzsche andModern German Thought, ed.
Keith Ansell-Pearson (London: Routledge, 1991), 3o--58, and "Nietzsche's Evolutionary Episte-
mology," Dialogos 59 0992): 75 - l ~
" S e e , e.g., BGE Preface, i i 34, 188, and WP 259, 293,616, 678, 789, 9o4 .
"3The more general Kantian metaphysical realism implicit in this account is rejected by
Nietzsche's harsh critique of dualism and the notion of the thing in itself. See, e.g., GS 54, 354, TI
II 2, TI III 6, TI IV 6, WP 552, 567 .
241 argue for this position in Naturalism and Interpretation: Nietzsche's Epistemology and Ontology,
chapter 2.
'sSee WP 5oo, 5Ol, 51o, 51 l, 654, 666.
~6See BGE 13, 36, GM II 12, and WP 466-617.
27On master vs. slave, see BGE 26o and GM I. On Dionysian vs. Christian, see EH IV 9 and
WP 1051 and 1o52. On Homeric vs. Platonic, see GM III 25. On Roman vs. Judaic, see GM I 16.
On the various hybrids of these, see GM I 16, BGE 26o, and 2oo. In the oft-cited GM III 12,
276 JOURNAL OF T H E H I S T O R Y OF P H I L O S O P H Y 3 5 : 2 A P R I L 199 7
Such differences o f perspective, for Nietzsche, are not merely m i n o r differ-
ences o f opinion; on the contrary, they designate significantly different modes
o f perception, desire, cognition, evaluation, and action that compose d i f f e r e n t
forms o f life.
T h u s , r a t h e r than demarcating insurmountable divisions between species,
perspectives m a r k both extra- and intra-species differences and similarities.
According to Nietzsche, the biological field is crossed by a c o n t i n u u m o f
perspectives, n o n e o f which is in principle disjoint f r o m another, but each o f
which can be shown to differ f r o m others in i m p o r t a n t respects and to signifi-
cant degrees. 's T h e subject o f perspectivism, then, must be something o t h e r
than biological species.
Clark and Leiter present an account o f perspectivism that explicitly rejects
the skepticism e n d o r s e d by the "species view." Instead, they construe perspec-
tivism as a doctrine limited to the description o f h u m a n knowledge. Claiming
that the doctrine simply draws an analogy between a commonsense concep-
tion o f h u m a n vision and a c o m m o n s e n s e conception o f h u m a n knowing,
Clark and Leiter maintain that the subject o f perspectivism is simply the
ordinary, individual, h u m a n viewer/knower.
Leiter~9 begins f r o m the obvious premises that "necessarily, we see an
object f r o m a particular perspective: e.g., f r o m a certain angle, f r o m a certain
distance, u n d e r certain conditions," and "the m o r e perspectives we e n j o y - -
the m o r e angles we see the object f r o m - - t h e better o u r conception o f what the
object is actually like will be."3o H e goes on to argue, by analogy, that "necessar-
ily, we know an object f r o m a particular perspective: i.e., f r o m the standpoint
o f particular interests and needs," and "the m o r e perspectives we e n j o y - - t h e
m o r e interests we employ in knowing the o b j e c t m t h e better o u r conception o f
what the object is like will be."~' His a r g u m e n t concludes that, contrary to an
overzealous skepticism, "we do indeed have knowledge o f the world, t h o u g h it
is n e v e r disinterested, n e v e r complete, and can always benefit f r o m additional
non-distorting [cognitive] perspectives."3~

Nietzsche argues that we should learn to inhabit "a variety of perspectivesand affective interpreta-
tions in the service of knowledge"--evidence against the view that we inhabit only some one,
unified, "human" perspective.
28For a similar argument, see Alexander Nehamas, "Immanent and Transcendent Perspec-
tivism in Nietzsche," Nietzsche-Studien 19 (1983): 476-77 .
29While Leiter is more explicit on this issue, I take Clark's view to be substantially the same.
30Leiter, "Perspectivism in Nietzsche," 344. Cf. Clark, Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy, x 9 9 -
3~9
3~Leiter, "Perspectivism in Nietzsche," 345. Cf. Clark: "our beliefs are about an indepen-
dently existing world [and] they can be true only if they c o r r e s p o n d to it, that is, get it 'the way it
is' " (Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy, 39, also see 135-37).
32 Leiter, "Perspectivism in Nietzsche," 346. C f. Clark, Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy, 134-35.
 THE " S U B J E C T " OF N I E T Z S C H E ' S P E R S P E C T I V I S M 277
T h i s account thus maintains that, j u s t as there is no visual perspective that
in principle is unavailable to us, so too t h e r e is no knowledge that in principle
escapes o u r grasp. Unlike the skeptical account, this realist account has the
benefit o f a c k n o w l e d g i n g Nietzsche's claim that we have access to o t h e r per-
spectives. It suggests that, j u s t as we can gain a new visual perspective on the
object o f vision by c h a n g i n g o u r position relative to it, so too can we gain
d i f f e r e n t cognitive perspectives on the object o f knowledge by bringing differ-
ent sets o f cognitive interests to b e a r u p o n it. Moreover, insofar as it grants the
interest-ladenness o f all inquiry, it suggests that we m i g h t c o m e to a p p r e c i a t e
a n d a c k n o w l e d g e the legitimacy o f perspectival interests o t h e r t h a n o u r own,
even if we ourselves d o not share them.33
Yet this construal o f the subject o f perspectivism also runs into difficulties.
F o r e m o s t a m o n g these, I think, is its a s s u m p t i o n o f a pre-given subject w h o has
perspectives or interpretations. According to the c o m m o n s e n s e account o f
vision called u p o n by the realist interpretation, w h e n I m o v e a r o u n d an object,
t h e r e is a c h a n g e o f perspective but no c h a n g e o f subject; that is, it is the same I
that takes u p different perspectives. Perspectives are cumulative a n d thus, too, is
knowledge. While o n e c a n n o t simultaneously inhabit d i f f e r e n t perspectives,
o n e can nonetheless consecutively take u p a n u m b e r o f d i f f e r e n t perspectives
on the s a m e object a n d thus gain a richer visual sense o f it. T h e situation is
analogous in the cognitive case, according to the realist account. It a r g u e s that,
a l t h o u g h o u r k n o w l e d g e is always "interested," we can bring a variety o f
"cognitive interests" to b e a r u p o n an object a n d thus c o m e to know it better.
O n c e again, across these d i f f e r e n t sets o f "cognitive interests," t h e r e is a cen-
tral, stable subject w h o consecutively occupies these d i f f e r e n t sets o f interests
a n d thus a c c u m u l a t e s a m o r e c o m p l e t e knowledge o f the object on which
these interests are b r o u g h t to bear. Leiter writes: " T h e m o r e perspectives we
e n j o y - - f o r e x a m p l e , the m o r e interests we e m p l o y in knowing the o b j e c t - - t h e
b e t t e r o u r c o n c e p t i o n o f what the object is like will be."34
T h i s view does, o f course, receive s o m e s u p p o r t f r o m the passage privi-
leged by b o t h Clark a n d Leiter. A f t e r all, in that passage, Nietzsche claims
that: " T h e r e is only a perspective seeing, only a perspective 'knowing'; a n d the
more affects we allow to speak a b o u t a thing, the more eyes, d i f f e r e n t eyes, we
can use to observe the thing, the m o r e c o m p l e t e will o u r 'concept' o f this thing,
o u r 'objectivity', be" (GM I I I x 2). This certainly lends s o m e c r e d e n c e to the

ss Leiter claims that "there are an infinity of interpretive interests that could be brought to
bear" on the object of knowledge ("Perspectivism in Nietzsche," 345-46). Similarly, Clark writes:
"We are, after all, finite creatures with a limited amount of time to discover truths, whereas there
are surely an infinite number of truths to discover. We should therefore expect people with
different interests to discover different truths" (Nietzscheon Truth and Philosophy, x35).
s4Leiter, "Perspectivism in Nietzsche," 345-
278 J O U R N A L OF T H E H I S T O R Y OF P H I L O S O P H Y 35:2 A P R I L ~997
notion o f perspective accumulation proposed by the realist interpretation. Yet
one of the major problems with this interpretation is that it focuses too nar-
rowly on this passage and, more specifically, on the optical m e t a p h o r pre-
sented in the passage, to the neglect of other features of the passage and
Nietzsche's other central concerns. As I have indicated, it neglects to discuss
the explicit connection between perspective and interpretation developed in
this passage, a connection which we have seen to be fundamental to an under-
standing of perspectivism. F u r t h e r m o r e - - a n d more important for the pres-
ent discussion--it fails to take into account another central feature of Nietz-
sche's later work: his critique of the notion of a pre-given subject--what he
calls "ego-substance" (TI III 5).

3. N I E T Z S C H E ' S C R I T I Q U E OF " E G O - S U B S T A N C E "

A critique of the notion of mental- or subject-substance is found t h r o u g h o u t

Nictzschc's later work.35 This critique is a result of his naturalism, which is
both antimetaphysical (against the posit of any otherworldly entity or explana-
tory principle) and holistic (against every absolute foundation or origin).
Thus, Nictzschc considers theological the belief that there must be some "be-
ing" or subject-substratum "behind doing, effecting, becoming" (GM I 13). To
assume such a being is to posit an otherworldly entity that initiates the happen-
ings, effects, and appearances that constitute the natural world while remain-
ing outside that world, u n c h a n g e d by its contingencies and exigencies.36 T h e
notion o f ego-substance is also a form of the "myth of the given," what Nietz-
schc calls the m y t h of "immediate certainties," those simplc, atomic, unities
that are supposed to serve as the absolute foundation of all being and know-
ing.37 Nietzsche's naturalism rejects the idea that there is any entity that is not
essentially d e p e n d e n t u p o n other entities for its genesis and continued exis-
tence, and the idea that there is any fundamental, obvious fact that need not
justify itself by relation to other "facts." For, according to Nictzschc, there arc
"facts" only against the background of a particular interpretation, and the
only entities that exist arc natural, i.e., essentially relational and contingent,
entities.3S Thus, in rejecting the foundational presuppositions of "materialistic
atomism," Nietzsche also rejects what he calls "soul a t o m i s m . . . . the belief
which regards the soul as something indestructible, eternal, indivisible, as a
monad, as an a t o m o n " (BGE 12). Such an idea, he claims, is not only supernatu-

35See, e.g., BGE 12, 16, 17, ~9, 34, 54, GM I 13, TI III 5, TI VI 3, WP 229, 37o, 477, 48 x-92,
53 t, 545-53, 631-32-
36See TI III 5, TI VI 3, WP 487.
37See BGE 16, 17, 19, 34. Other "immediate certainties" repudiated by Nietzsche are God,
the thing in itself, substance, and cause.
3SSee WP 481, BGE 34, and GM I 13.
 THE " S U B J E C T " OF N I E T Z S C H E ' S P ERSPECTI V I S M 279
ral, b u t also fails to account satisfactorily for i m p o r t a n t features o f h u m a n
psychology,~9 which reveals the subject to be an a m a l g a m a t i o n o f c o m p e t i n g
impulses a n d drives r a t h e r t h a n an atomic unity.
As Nietzsche h i m s e l f acknowledges, this critique o f mental substance stems
f r o m the critique o f that notion by H u m e a n d Kant.4o Following H u m e , Kant
argues that, since the subject or self is not discoverable a m o n g the contents o f
e x p e r i e n c e , s o m e o t h e r justification m u s t be sought for its postulation. Nietz-
sche takes u p this line o f t h o u g h t in Beyond Good and Evil w For Nietzsche, as
f o r K a n t a n d H u m e , we only ever e x p e r i e n c e impressions, actions, a n d ef-
fects, but n e v e r the "subject" that is s u p p o s e d to have those impressions or
initiate those actions a n d effects.4' Yet, whereas K a n t c a m e to r e g a r d the
notion o f the self as a f o r m a l r e q u i r e m e n t o f reason a n d to posit the antinatu-
ralistic notions o f n o u m e n a l self a n d n o u m e n a l causality, Nietzsche c o m e s to
r e g a r d the self as m e r e l y a g r a m m a t i c a l habit that s u p p o r t s a m o r a l fiction.
For the radical empiricist N i e t z s c h e - - w h o m a i n t a i n e d neither Kant's distinc-
tions between intuition, u n d e r s t a n d i n g , a n d reason, n o r Kant's conviction that
practical reason m u s t be t a k e n for g r a n t e d a n d its postulates d e d u c e d - - w e
have justification only f o r belief in actions, effects, doings, becomings, a n d
a p p e a r a n c e s ; a n d it is m e r e l y a "seduction o f l a n g u a g e " that leads us to posit a
" 'being' b e h i n d doing, effecting, becoming; 'the d o e r ' is m e r e l y a fiction
a d d e d to the d e e d - - t h e d e e d is everything" (GM I 13).42 F u r t h e r m o r e , this
linguistic habit serves the Christian, m o r a l p u r p o s e o f m a k i n g s o m e isolable
thing, i.e., a specific subject, responsible a n d accountable for these actions a n d
deeds. T h e s e p a r a t i o n o f d o e r f r o m deed, the subsequent r e m o v a l o f this d o e r
f r o m the c o n d i t i o n e d a n d contingent world o f effects a n d h a p p e n i n g s , and,
finally, the ascription o f a "free will" to this subject, Nietzsche argues, serve to
isolate s o m e b e i n g as responsible for every eventuality a n d to claim that this
being was free to d o otherwise.43
O f course Nietzsche also criticizes d e t e r m i n i s m , the notion o f " u n f r e e will"

soTrue to his naturalism, Nietzsche regards psychology as "the queen of the sciences," "the
path to the fundamental problems" (BGE 23), against the Kantian view that claimed this role for
epistemology and metaphysics.
40On Kant, see BGE 54. Hume is certainly the precursor to Nietzsche's critique of metaphysi-
cal conceptions of causality and the self, a fact that Nietzsche seems to briefly acknowledge in WP
55o. For more comparison between Hume's and Nietzsche's critiques of the self, see Nicholas
Davey, "Nietzsche and Hume on Self and Identity," Journal of the British Societyfor Phenomenology
18, no. I (1987): 14-29. For a comparison between Nietzsche's and Kant's critiques of the self, see
Richard Schacht, Nietzsche(London: Routledge, 1983), 138-4o.
4~For Kant on the phenomenality of "inner sense," see the Critiqueof Pure Reason, B67-69,
152-59. For Nietzsche on the "phenomenality of the inner world," see WP 477, 479-
4, For more on our metaphysical seduction by the subject-predicate form, see BGE 16, 17, 19,
34, 54, T I III 5, WP 48~, 484 .
4sSee B G E 21, 219, GM I 13, T I III 5, T I V 6, T I VI 3, 7 - 8 .
280 J O U R N A L OF T H E H I S T O R Y OF P H I L O S O P H Y 3 5 : 2 APRIL 199 7

( B G E 21). B u t this is n o t t h e place to delve into w h a t w o u l d be a l e n g t h y

discussion o f Nietzsche's p h i l o s o p h y o f m i n d o r m o r a l t h e o r y . I simply w a n t to
indicate t h a t a critique o f the n o t i o n o f a p r e - g i v e n s u b j e c t - s u b s t r a t u m is basic
to Nietzsche's n a t u r a l i s m . T h e p o i n t is that, f o r Nietzsche, the a s s u m p t i o n o f
s u c h a " f r e e will" b e h i n d e v e r y action seeks the s o u r c e o f t h e c o n t i n g e n t a n d
the c o n d i t i o n a l in s o m e t h i n g given a n d u n c o n d i t i o n e d , in short, s o m e t h i n g
u n w o r l d l y . A c c o r d i n g to Nietzsche, this scenario " d e p r i v e s b e c o m i n g o f its
i n n o c e n c e " - - a n d it is the p r i m a r y goal o f Nietzsche's p r o j e c t to r e s t o r e the
"innocence of becoming.'44

4" NIETZSCHE'S CONCEPTION OF SUBJECTIVITY: "THE SUBJECT AS

MULTIPLICITY"45
T h i s d o e s n o t m e a n , h o w e v e r , t h a t we s h o u l d alter the s u b j e c t - p r e d i c a t e struc-
t u r e o f o u r g r a m m a r o r t h a t we s h o u l d c o m p l e t e l y d o away with the n o t i o n o f
'subject' (or 'soul' o r ' e g o ' o r 'wi11').46 " B e t w e e n ourselves," Nietzsche writes,

it is not at all necessary to get rid o f " t h e s o u l " . . , and thus to renounce one of the most
ancient and venerable hypotheses . . . . But the way is open for new versions and
refinements of the soul-hypothesis; and such conceptions as "mortal soul," "soul as
subjective multiplicity," and "soul as social structure of the drives and affects," want
henceforth to have citizens' rights in science (BGE 1~).

T h u s , Nietzsche's rejection o f t h e n o t i o n o f subject as causa sui, causa prima, o r

soul a t o m leads h i m to c o n s t r u c t an alternative c o n c e p t i o n o f subjectivity.
F o l l o w i n g a r e c u r r e n t strategy, he begins by r e v e r s i n g o u r c o m m o n linguistic
a n d p h i l o s o p h i c a l habits, a r g u i n g that w h a t is p r i m a r y are actions, deeds,
accidents, a n d b e c o m i n g s , r a t h e r t h a n subjects, doers, substances, o r beings. A
naturalistic t h e o r y , Nietzsche c o n t e n d s , m u s t start f r o m these f o r m e r a n d
c o n s t r u c t t h e latter o u t o f t h e m , r a t h e r t h a n vice versa. H e n c e , j u s t as Nietz-
sche c o m e s to c o n c e i v e o f " a t h i n g " as "the s u m o f its effects" (WP 551), so, too,
d o e s h e c o m e to c o n c e i v e o f the subject as the s u m o f its actions a n d passions.
Nietzsche's initial p r e m i s e is that the n a t u r a l w o r l d in which we are situated

44See TI VI 7-8.
4sThis discussion has benefited from several fine analyses of Nietzsche's theory of the self:
Tracy Strong, "Texts and Pretexts: Reflections on Perspectivism in Nietzsche," Political Theory 13,
no. 2 (1985): 164-89, Nehamas, Nietzsche: Life as Literature (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
a985), chap. 6, and Davey, "Nietzsche and Hume," and "Nietzsche, the Self, and Hermeneutic
Theory,"Journal of the British Societyfor Phenomenology 18, no. 3 0987) : 272-84.
46These terms are used more or less interchangeably by Nietzsche. He alternately speaks of
the soul-atom (BGE 12), the subject-atom (GM I 13, WP 488, 636), and the ego-atom (BGE 17,
WP 635), "the soul as subjective multiplicity" (BGE 12) and "the subject as multiplicity" (WP 49o,
cf. 492). In various passages, he identifies "soul" and "subject" (WP 485), the 'T' and "the will"
(BGE 19), "doer," "will," and "ego" (TI III 5), "subject," "ego," and "doer" (WP 488), It should be
noted that what is often translated as "the ego" is, in German, simply das Ich, "the I."
 THE "SUBJECT" OF NIETZSCHE'S PERSPECTIVISM 281

a n d t h a t w c o b s e r v e is, first a n d f o r e m o s t , a w o r l d o f b e c o m i n g , i.e., a w o r l d o f

m y r i a d actions, h a p p e n i n g s , effects, a n d a p p e a r a n c e s . Yet we can a n d d o
i n d i v i d u a t e this b e c o m i n g into p a r t i c u l a r sets o r assemblages. T h e subject,
Nietzsche a r g u e s , is j u s t such an assemblage. Subjectivity in g e n e r a l is c h a r a c -
terized by a specific set o f activities a n d a p p e a r a n c e s ; a n d e a c h p a r t i c u l a r
subject is i n d i v i d u a t c d by a p e c u l i a r subset o f those activities, by a disposition
to act in a p a r t i c u l a r m a n n e r a n d direction.47
Yet, f o r Nietzschc, this u n i t y is o n l y a relative unity. T h e u n i t y o f the subject
is t h e u n i t y o f a disposition, m e r e l y a probability that g r o u p s t o g e t h e r a r a n g e o f
m o r e o r less similar a n d m o r e o r less c o n n e c t e d activities f o r the p u r p o s e o f
simplification a n d calculation.a8 Subjects, Nietzsche tells us, a r c i r r e d u c i b l e
multiplicities.a9 T h e disposition t h a t c o m p o s e s t h e m is itself m a d e u p o f
m i c r o d i s p o s i t i o n s - - w h a t Nictzsche variously calls "drives" (Triebe), "desires"
(Begierden), "instincts" (Instinkte), " p o w e r s " (Mtichte), "forces" (Kri~fte), "im-
pulses" (Reize, Impulse), "passions" (Leidenschaflen), "feelings" (Gef~hlen), "af-
fects" (Affekte), p a t h o s (Pathos), etc. S t a r t i n g f r o m the p r e m i s e that t h e r e are,
first a n d f o r e m o s t , actions, b c c o m i n g s , a n d a p p e a r a n c e s , Nietzschc posits "af-
fects"5o as the i n t e r i o r states that h e l p to explain a n d p r e d i c t these actions,
b e c o m i n g s , a n d appearances.51
T h e s e affects a r e as close as o n e c o m e s to a " b o t t o m floor" in Nictzsche's
multileveled t h e o r y o f subjectivity. W i t h this hypothesis, Nietzsche w o u l d
s e e m to bc a r g u i n g t h a t the subject is n o t an a t o m i c u n i t y simply b e c a u s e it can
itself bc f u r t h e r b r o k e n d o w n into c o m p o n e n t parts. T h a t is, h c w o u l d s e e m to
be r e p l a c i n g o n e sort o f "subject a t o m i s m " with a n o t h e r , t a k i n g c o n s i d e r a b l e

47Nietzsche writes: " 'the subject' is... a created entity ... a capacity.., fundamentally,
action collectively considered with respect to all anticipated actions (action and the probability of
similar actions)" (WP 556). Cf. WP 485 .
4sSee WP 561: "All unity is unity only as organization and co-operation: no differently than a
human community is a unity--as opposed to an atomistic anarchy; it is a pattern of domination that
signifies a unity but/s not a unity."
49See BGE 12, 19, WP 488-02, 636, 660. This Nietzschean conception of subjectivity has
more recently been advocated by Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault. See Foucault and Deleuze,
"Intellectuals and Power," in Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews by
Michel Foucault, ed. Donald F. Bouchard, trans. Donald F. Bouchard and Sherry Simon (Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1977), ~o6, and Foucault, "The Confession of the Flesh," in Power/
Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, ed. Colin Gordon (New York: Pantheon, 198o),
~o8.
501 will use 'affect' as a general term to encompass the host of other associated terms, since the
term seems to combine the active senses of 'drive' and 'desire' with the more passive senses of
'passion' and 'feeling'. Moreover, the term in its various forms (affectus/affectio, der Affekt, l'affect/
l'affection) has a long and rich history in philosophy (from the Scholastics to Spinoza, Kant to
Deleuze), rhetoric, and musical aesthetics.
5, See BGE 36, WP 619, 635. Note that, in WP 619, the translation should read "an inner
world [not: will] must be ascribed to it."
282 JOURNAL OF T H E H I S T O R Y OF P H I L O S O P H Y 3 5 : 2 APRIL 1 9 9 7
f o r c e a w a y f r o m his critique of"ego-substance."5~ I n d e e d , in The Will to Power,
Nietzsche seems to say that the "subjects" o f i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s a n d perspectives
are affects:

[M]oral evaluation is an interpretation, a way of interpreting. The interpretation itself is

a symptom of certain physiological conditions, likewise of a certain spiritual level of
ruling judgments: Who interprets?--Our affects (WP ~54).53
It is our needs that interpret the worM: our drives and their For and Against. Every drive
is a kind of lust to rule; each 6ne has its perspective that it would like to compel all the
other drives to accept as a norm (WP 481).54

H e r e , Nietzsche s e e m s to a r g u e that e v e r y affect is o r has a p a r t i c u l a r " F o r a n d

Against"55 t h a t m a k e s it a kind o f instinctive i n t e r p r e t a t i o n , a p a r t i c u l a r m a n -
n e r o f c o n s t r u i n g a n d r e s p o n d i n g to its e n v i r o n i n g conditions. O n the basis o f
these texts, o n e m i g h t r e a s o n a b l y a r g u e t h a t t h e r e is a simple a n s w e r to t h e
q u e s t i o n " W h o o r w h a t is t h e subject o f i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s a n d perspectives?" a n d
t h a t this a n s w e r is simply: " o u r affects."56
Yet, while affects a r e in s o m e sense primitive, f o r Nietzsche, h e r e f u s e s to
c o n c e i v e t h e m as entities, m u c h less the atomic, singular, a n d u n i f i e d entities
t h a t c o u l d be the p r o p e r b e a r e r s o f perspectives a n d interpretations.57 First o f
all, o n a microlevel, Nietzsche thinks o f affects as an o r g a n i c f o r m o f the basic
" f o r c e - p o i n t s " posited by R o g e r Boscovich to replace t h e materialist atom.58
Boscovich m a i n t a i n s t h a t these basic items are " n o t . . . particles o f m a t t e r in
which p o w e r s s o m e h o w inhere"59 but d y n a m i c , differential "centers" within a
force-field. 6~ T h e y are, as it were, t e m p o r a r y d a m s o r a c c u m u l a t i o n s o f force,
r a t h e r t h a n subsisting entities. S e c o n d , o n a m o r e macrolevel, affects are
t e n d e n c i e s a n d processes ("becomings") r a t h e r t h a n definite entities ("be-

5~This charge is made by Davey, "Nietzsche and Hume," 23, 26.

5sCf. D 119, BGE 187.
54Cf. WP 567 .
5.~Cf. BGE 284.
56Sarah Kofman takes Nietzsche to be claiming this. See Nietzscheand Metaphor, trans. Duncan
Large (Stanford: Stanford University Press, t993), 93ff. and 135ff.
5~WP 67o warns against the reification and hypostatization of affects.
58See BGE 12, 36. On Boscovich and Nietzsche's relationship to Boscovich, see Kaufmann's
note to BGE 12, George J. Stack, "Nietzsche and Boscovich's Natural Philosophy," Pacific Philo-
sophical Quarterly 62 ( ~981): 69-87, Claudia Crawford, The Beginnings of Nietzsche's Theory of Lan-
guage (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1988), 87-89, 298-99 , and Alistair Moles, Nietzsche's Philosophy of
Nature and Cosmology (Berlin: Peter Lang, 199o), chap. 5.
59Charles C. Gillispie, The Edge of Objectivity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 196o),
455, quoted in Kaufmann's note to BGE 1~.
60Cf. Gilles Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy, trans. Hugh Tomlinson (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1983), 6: "Every force is thus essentially related to another force. The being of
force is plural, it would.be absolutely absurd to think of force in the singular." This notion of
being as an irreducible plurality is at the heart of Deleuze's reading of Nietzsche.
 THE "SUBJECT" OF NIETZSCHE'S PERSPECTIVISM 283
ings"). 61 "Fear," "love," " e x u b e r a n c e , " ressentiment, a n d "envy," for e x a m p l e ,
arc not a d e q u a t e l y described as "things"; rather, they are what Nietzschc calls
" d y n a m i c q u a n t a o f force or drive" that have their specific expression a n d
direction. T h i r d , affects arc, by definition, relational: they relate o n e state o f
affairs to a n o t h e r . As the notions o f "drive" a n d "impulse" suggest, affects arc
a pulling or p u s h i n g o f the o r g a n i s m in one direction or another. 6~ Finally,
Nictzschc a r g u e s that it m a k e s no sense to speak o f an affcct in isolation f r o m
o t h e r affects. W e h a v e sccn that hc considers affects to be, in a r u d i m e n t a r y
sense, interpretive. Like the interpretations described in Genealogy I I I 12, each
affect is or has a " F o r a n d Against" (FiZz und Wider) "that it would like to
c o m p e l all the o t h e r drives to accept as a n o r m " (WP 4 81). Yet, j u s t as i n t e r p r e -
tations arc always essentially e n g a g e d in a struggle with o t h e r interpretations,
just as each i n t e r p r e t a t i o n always begins f r o m a n d tends toward o t h e r i n t e r p r e -
tations that it r e i n t e r p r e t s or by which it is r e i n t e r p r e t e d , so too cach affect is
always e n g a g e d in a struggle with o t h e r affects, each o f which "would like to
c o m p e l the other[s] to accept [it] as a n o r m . " Affects, Nietzsche tells us, arc
" d y n a m i c q u a n t a in a relation o f tension to all o t h e r d y n a m i c quanta: their
essence lies in their relation to all other quanta, in their 'effect' u p o n the s a m e " (WP
635, m y italics).63 I n d e e d , the world is a "becoming," for Nietzsche, precisely
because it is essentially c o m p o s e d o f these volatile relations. "My idea," Nictz-
sche writes (speaking h e r e o f "bodies," t h o u g h the same holds for affects a n d
interpretations), "is that every specific b o d y strives to b e c o m c m a s t e r o v e r all
space a n d to e x t e n d its force ( - - i t s will to power:) a n d to thrust back all that
resists its extension. But it continually e n c o u n t e r s similar efforts o n the p a r t o f
o t h e r bodies a n d e n d s by c o m i n g to an a r r a n g e m e n t ('union') with those o f
t h e m that are sufficiently related to it: thus they conspire together for power. A n d
the process goes o n - - " (WP 636).64
I n s t e a d o f individual affects each with its own i n t e r p r e t a t i o n or perspec-
tive, then, what we e n c o u n t e r arc always "unions" o f affects. T h i s description
comes closer to c a p t u r i n g Nictzschc's idea o f "perspective" or " i n t e r p r e t a -
tion." While each affect is or has an i n t e r p r e t a t i o n in a r u d i m e n t a r y sense,

6, See WP 556: "One may not ask: 'whothen interprets?' for the interpretation itself, as a form
of will to power, has existence (but not as a 'being,' but rather as a process,a becoming)as an affect."
6, See BGE 19: "in willing there is, first, a plurality of sensations, namely, the sensation of the
state 'awayfrom which', the sensation of the state 'towardswhich', the sensation of this ~rom' and
'towards' themselves, and then also an accompanying muscular sensation, which even without our
putting into motion 'arms and legs', begins its action by force of habit as soon as we 'will' anything."
6sAgain, the language of"dynamic quanta" is the language of"affect" extended to encompass
"all efficient force" (BGE 36). What holds for the more general language of "dynamic quanta,"
therefore, also holds for the subcategory of "affect."
64Cf. GS 333, where Nietzsche describes knowledge and understanding as a contract that
temporarily settles accounts between struggling drives and relates them to one another in a
nonantagonistic way. Cf. also WP 567 .
28 4 JOURNAL OF T H E H I S T O R Y OF P H I L O S O P H Y 3 5 : 2 APRIL 199 7
Nietzsche tends to think o f interpretations a n d perspectives as hierarchical
a g g r e g a t e s o f affects in which s o m e d o m i n a t e a n d others are subordinate. 65
I n s t e a d o f b e i n g the p r o p e r subjects o f interpretations a n d perspectives, then,
affects t u r n o u t to be "subjects" only in a political sense: namely, m e m b e r s o f
the hierarchical s t r u c t u r e o f an interpretation.
T h i s description recalls o u r earlier characterization o f interpretations as
systems o f evaluation directed by particular needs. But what is it that unifies a
particular system a n d what m a k e s a particular set o f needs d o m i n a n t ? Nietz-
sche tells us that every i n t e r p r e t a t i o n and perspective is oriented toward the
p r e s e r v a t i o n a n d e n h a n c e m e n t o f a specific level o f organization in life, f r o m
the individual to the g r o u p , the species, or life as a whole. 66 Are the "subjects"
o f perspectivism, then, p e r h a p s j u s t these particular levels o f life? I n a sense,
the answer is yes; for a particular perspective does r e p r e s e n t the "point o f
view" o f a particular type, g r o u p , culture, people, etc. Yet, once again, these
perspectives are n e v e r e n c o u n t e r e d in isolation. T h a t is, we n e v e r c o m e across
these perspectives i n d e p e n d e n t o f the individual h u m a n beings to w h o m they
are attributed. A n d each individual cuts across all the various levels o f life:
h u m a n beings are individuals as well as m e m b e r s o f communities, cultures,
subcultures, races, classes, genders, nationalities, religions, political parties,
etc. T h u s , on the o n e h a n d , we always e n c o u n t e r perspectives within individ-
ual subjects, while, on the o t h e r h a n d , individual subjects are a g g r e g a t e s o f
these perspectives a n d their f o r m s o f life.
F o r Nietzsche, the individual subject is an a g g r e g a t e on two l e v e l s - - w h a t
are usually called "the physical" a n d "the spiritual," "body" a n d "soul." Accord-
ing to Nietzsche, however, these do not f o r m the two sides o f an opposition
between d i f f e r e n t kinds o f entity, but only a difference o f d e g r e e along a
c o n t i n u u m f r o m the m o r e or less u n c h a n g e a b l e to the m o r e or less change-
able. First, a subject has a quantitative identity insofar as it is b o r n with a basic
physical unity: an integral body. Yet even this basic unity a n d identity are only
relative, since, a c c o r d i n g to Nietzsche, the b o d y itself is "a political structure,"
"an aristocracy" (WP 660) 67 or "oligarchy" (GM I I 1 ) - - a hierarchy o f organs,

65This view of interpretation has recently been suggested by Alan Schrift and Mark Fowler.
Fowler writes: "As I see it, a Nietzschean perspective can be correctly characterized as being a
certain configuration of affects--or perhaps better, a certain 'commonwealth of affects'.., which
are related in such a way that some of these affects are dominant and so responsible for imposing
order on what would otherwise be a chaos of motives and emotions . . . . A perspective is just a
structure of affects governed by a basic dominant affect (or small cluster of them)" ("Having a
Perspective," 115-16). Also see Schrift, Nietzzche and the Question of lnterpretation: Between Hermeneu-
tics and Deconstruction (New York: Routledge), chap. 6.
66"Insight: all estimation of value involves a certain perspective: that of the maintenance of the
individual, a community, a race, a state, a church, a faith, a culture" (WP 259).
67In BGE ~59, Nietzsche also notes that "the body" is an "aristocracy."
 THE "SUBJECT" OF NIETZSCHE'S PERSPECTIVISM 285
tissues, a n d cells, each o f which has a particular role a n d function. I n a healthy
body, these various parts fulfill their functions in service o f the whole; while in
a sick or d y i n g body, this relation o f parts to whole (and thus the integrity o f
the body) is t h r e a t e n e d or dissolving. 68 F u r t h e r m o r e , the relatively p r e - g i v e n
unity o f the b o d y is not an eternal verity but the p r o d u c t or result o f " i n t e r p r e -
tation" (in Nietzsche's b r o a d sense o f the word), i.e., o f millennia o f evolution-
ary struggle.
Second, a n d m o r e i m p o r t a n t for the p r e s e n t discussion, a subject has a
qualitative identity insofar as it is or has a m o r e or less stable "character" or
"self." But this unity, too. is an aggregate, and, m o r e o v e r , one that is inti-
mately related to the physical, bodily aggregate. I n d e e d , Nietzsche a r g u e s that
the organizational unity o f the b o d y provides the p r o p e r m o d e l for theorizing
a b o u t the "soul," "self," or "subject":

The body and physiology as the starting point: why?--We gain the correct idea of the
nature of our subject-unity, namely as regents at the head of a communality . . . . also
of the dependence of these regents upon the ruled and of an order of rank and
division of labor as the conditions that make possible the whole and its parts. In the
same way, how living unities continually arise and die and how the "subject" is not
eternal; in the same way, that the struggle expresses itself in obeying and commanding,
and that a fluctuating assessment of the limits of power is part of life. The relative
ignorance in which the regent is kept concerning individual activities and even distur-
bances within the communality is among the conditions under which rule can be
exercised . . . . The most important thing, however, is: that we understand that the
ruler and his subjects are of the s a m e k i n d , all feeling, willing, and thinking. (WP 49 2)

T h i s last r e m a r k is i m p o r t a n t ; for it suggests that the body not only presents the
a p p r o p r i a t e f r a m e w o r k for a conception o f the self, but also that the latter is
actually r o o t e d in the f o r m e r - - i n the affects, which are at once "physical" a n d
"spiritual," i.e., interpretive.69 T h e affects, then, are the point o f contact be-
tween "body" a n d "soul." In m i r r o r i n g formulas, Nietzsche tells us that "the
soul" is a "social s t r u c t u r e o f the drives and affects" (BGE 12), while the " b o d y is
but a social s t r u c t u r e c o m p o s e d o f m a n y souls" (BGE 19). We could s u m m a r i z e
this by saying that the self (the physical-spiritual "subject-unity") is a composite
o f m a n y "souls," each o f which has its own perspective, its own a r r a n g e m e n t o f
drives a n d affects, Fors a n d Againsts. T h e self is thus an a g g r e g a t e o f m a n y

6SOn this process of growth and decay, wee WP 678. Also see GM II 19 and WP 643, on
"physiological organs" as interpretive constructions.
69See BGE 19: "'we are at the same time the commanding aru/the obeying parties"; Z I 4:
" 'Body am I, and soul'--thus speaks the child . . . . But the awakened and knowing say: body am I
entirely, and nothing else; and soul is only a word for something about the body"; and Z II 17:
"Since I have come to know the body better.., the spirit is to me only quasi-spirit; and all that is
'permanent' is also a mere parable."
286 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 3 5 " 2 APRIL I 9 9 7

d i f f e r e n t p e r s p e c t i v e s a n d i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s , each o f w h i c h is affective, r o o t e d i n
t h e v a r i o u s d r i v e s , i m p u l s e s , desires, a n d p a s s i o n s o f the body.7o
T h i s i d e a r u n s t h r o u g h o u t Nietzsche's d i s c u s s i o n s o f subjectivity, selfllood,
a n d c h a r a c t e r . F o r i n s t a n c e , i n two s i m i l a r n o t e s f r o m 1884 , h e writes:

[A]II sorts of contradictory estimations and therefore contradictory drives swarm within
one man. This is the expression of the diseased condition in mankind, in contrast to the
animals, in which all existing instincts satisfy very specific tasks--this contradictory
creature has however in its nature a great method of knowledge: he feels many Fors and
A g a i n s t s - - h e raises himself to j u s t i c e - - t o a comprehension beyond the estimation of good
and evil. T h e wisest m a n would be the richest in contradictions, who has feelers for all
kinds of men" and, in the midst, his great moments of grandiose harmony--a rare
occurrence even in u s l - - a sort of planetary m o v e m e n t - - . (WP 259)7 ~
In contrast to the animals, m a n has cultivated an abundance of contrary drives and
impulses within himself: thanks to this synthesis he is master of the earth.--Moralities
are the expression of locally limited orders of rank in this multifarious world of drives: so
that m a n should not perish through their contradictions. Thus a drive as master, its
opposite weakened, refined, as the impulse that provides the stimulus for the activity of
the chief drive. T h e highest man would have the greatest multiplicity of drives, in the
relatively greatest strength that can be endured. Indeed, where the plant "man" shows
itself strongest, one finds driving instincts that powerfully conflict with one an-
other . . . . but are controlled. (WP 966)7 ~

H e r e , as e l s e w h e r e , N i e t z s c h e a r g u e s t h a t t h e h u m a n s u b j e c t is a m u l t i p l i c i t y .
I n c o n t r a s t with a n i m a l s , w h o a r e c o m p o s e d o f o n l y a few, very specific,
instinctive "perspectives," h u m a n beings are far more c o mp le x - - c o lle c tio n s of
a vast a r r a y o f c o m p e t i n g instincts, affects, drives, desires, beliefs, a n d capaci-
ties, a n d t h u s o f a vast a r r a y o f p e r s p e c t i v e s a n d i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s . H e n c e , h u -
m a n b e i n g s a r e at o n c e v e r y richly e n d o w e d a n d very f r a g i l e creatures.73
N i e t z s c h e c o n t e n d s that, f o r t h e m o s t part, h u m a n b e i n g s h a v e b e e n u n -

70See GS Preface 2.
7~Cf. GS 297 and KSA 11, 188" 26 [149]: "Justice, as the function of a broad panoramic power
that looks beyond the narrow perspectives of good and evil and thus has a broader horizon of
advantage--the intention to preserve something that is more than this or that person," cited in
Heidegger, Nietzsche, Vol III, 147, Krell's translation modified.
7, Cf. BGE 284, WP 933, 88 t.
73Cf. WP 684: "The richest and most complex forms--for the expression 'higher type' means
no more than this--perish more easily: only the lowest preserve an apparent indestructibility . . . .
Among men, too, the higher types, the lucky strokes of evolution, perish most easily as fortunes
change. They are exposed to every kind of decadence: they are extreme, and that almost means
decadents. . . . This is not due to any special fatality or malevolence of nature, but simply to the
concept 'higher type': the higher type represents an incomparably greater complexity--a greater
sum of co-ordinated elements: so its disintegration is also incomparably more likely. The 'genius'
is the sublimest machine there is--consequently the most fragile." Cf. also A 14: "relatively
speaking, man is the most bungled of all the animals, the sickliest, and not one has strayed more
dangerously from his instincts. But for all that, he is, of course, the most interesting."Cf. GS 3ol -
3o2, Z I 5 , GMI 16, III 13.
 THE " S U B J E C T " OF N I E T Z S C H E ' S PERSPECTIVISM 28 7
able to control the conflict o f interpretations and perspectives that compose
them. Pushed and pulled in multiple directions, the majority o f h u m a n beings
have shown themselves to be incontinent, unable not to r e s p o n d to the myriad
stimuli to which they are continually subjected.74 As a defense against this
wanton and painful condition, h u m a n beings have resorted to a drastic means
o f achieving o r d e r , control, and power: they have declared the entire r a n g e o f
affects evil and resolved to extirpate them.75 T h o u g h it would a p p e a r to be a
r a t h e r rare and e x t r e m e manifestation, Nietzsche argues that it is "one o f the
most widespread and e n d u r i n g o f all p h e n o m e n a " (GM III 1 0.76 H e discerns
this kind o f evaluation not only in the practices o f the religious ascetic but also
in those o f the rationalist philosopher (who distinguishes mind and body and
sets the f o r m e r above the latter), and the scholar-scientist (who strives for
objectivity conceived as "contemplation without interest").77 Indeed, "[a]part
f r o m the ascetic ideal," Nietzsche maintains, "man, the h u m a n animal, had no
m e a n i n g so far" (GM III 28). 78
T h e ascetic solution is not only extreme, but self-defeating. For, in the
guise o f extirpating the affects and denying the multiplicity o f perspectives, it
simply endorses o n e affective perspective and rejects all the others. It, too,
manifests a will to power and thus a privileged interpretation and d o m i n a n t
set o f affects. Disgusted with sensuous existence, it plots revenge t h r o u g h the
separation o f mind and body, and the elevation o f the "spiritual" and "an-
tinatural" over the bodily and natural. This situation is certainly p a r a d o x i c a l - -
for it sets a particular will o f life against life itself,79 an affect against all
affects, 8~ " n a t u r e against something that is also nature" (WP ~ 8 ) - - b u t it is
nonetheless prevalent.
T h i s strange p h e n o m e n o n , Nietzsche argues, is "the expression of the diseased
condition in man," a sign o f nihilism, decadence, and the d e g e n e r a t i o n o f life. 8'
In this condition, h u m a n beings are primarily reactive and negative. T h e y
declare their contradictory n a t u r e evil and surmise that there must be a better
c o n d i t i o n - - a good, noncontradictory, extranatural condition and world. 8~
T h u s , they c o m e to exemplify that u n n u a n c e d , binary morality o f ressentiment,

74See TI II 9, TI V 2, A 3o, WP 778.

75See BT/SC l, TI V, WP 228, 383-88.
76See GM III 13 and A 8- 9.
77On both of these, see GM III 12, 23-28. Also see TI II.
78Cf. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, where Nietzsche contends that this ascetic ideal is such a perva-
sive feature that it can be said to characterize humanity as a whole; hence, Zarathustra's condem-
nation of "man" and call for the "overman."
~9See TI V.
a~ BGE 117.
s~This theme runs throughout GM III, TI, and WP.
s, See WP 579-
288 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 3 5 : 2 APRIL 1 9 9 7
w h i c h d e c l a r e s a n o t h e r (in this case, t h e n a t u r a l a n d p h y s i c a l ) evil a n d c o n s e -
q u e n t l y i n f e r s t h a t it (in this case, t h e s p i r i t u a l ) m u s t i t s e l f r e p r e s e n t t h e good.83
Yet, t h e c o n t r a d i c t o r y s w a r m o f d r i v e s in h u m a n b e i n g s also p r e s e n t s
a n o t h e r possibility. N i e t z s c h e c o n t e n d s t h a t t h e r e a r e r a r e h u m a n b e i n g s in
w h o m t h e m a n y c o n t r a r y d r i v e s , affects, p e r s p e c t i v e s , a n d i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s a r e
m a n a g e d a n d o r g a n i z e d i n t o a r i c h a n d p o w e r f u l u n i t y . I n s u c h b e i n g s , all t h e
a f f e c t i v e p e r s p e c t i v e s a n d i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s a r e a l l o w e d to e x p r e s s t h e m s e l v e s ,
b u t in t h e s e r v i c e o f t h e whole.84 S u c h h u m a n b e i n g s "give style" to t h e i r
characters. Nietzsche explains:

T o "give style" to one's c h a r a c t e r - - a great and rare art! It is practiced by those who
survey all the strengths and weaknesses o f their nature and then fit them into an
artistic plan until every one o f them appears as art and reason and even weaknesses
delight the eye. H e r e a large part o f second nature has been added; there a piece o f
original nature has been r e m o v e d - - b o t h times through long practice and daily work at
it. Here the ugly that could not be removed is concealed; there it has been reinter-
preted and made sublime [Erhabene umgedeutet]. Much that is vague and resisted shap-
ing has been saved and exploited for distant views; it is meant to beckon toward the far
and immeasurable. In the end, when the work is finished, it becomes evident how the
constraint o f a single taste governed and formed everything large and small . . . . It will
be the strong and domineering natures that enjoy their finest gaiety in such constraint
and perfection u n d e r a law o f their own . . . . Conversely, it is the weak characters
without power over themselves that hate the constraint o f style. (GS 29o)85

A g a i n s t t h e s e n s u a l i s t a n d r e l a t i v i s t w h o s u b m i t s i n d i s c r i m i n a t e l y to all d r i v e s
a n d p e r s p e c t i v e s , a n d a g a i n s t t h e ascetic w h o a t t e m p t s to a n n i h i l a t e t h e p a s -
sions a l t o g e t h e r , N i e t z s c h e o p p o s e s t h e " h i g h e s t h u m a n , " w h o a f f i r m s t h a t life
is e s s e n t i a l l y a f f e c t i v e , a n d t h a t it e s s e n t i a l l y involves t h e will to p o w e r ( t h e
f o r m i n g , s h a p i n g , o r g a n i z i n g , e x p a n s i v e d r i v e o f all life). T h e " h i g h e s t h u -
m a n " is o n e c a p a b l e o f i n c o r p o r a t i n g t h e m u l t i p l i c i t y o f a f f e c t i v e p e r s p e c t i v e s
a n d e m p l o y i n g t h e m in t h e s e r v i c e o f t h e w h o l e . T h u s , N i e t z s c h e says, s u c h a

asSee BGE a6o and GM I 1o.

s4See BGE aoo.
85One finds this same idea throughout Nietzsche's notes of the late ~88os. See, e.g., WP 46,
384, 778, 881, 928, 933, 962ff-, 1o14- This notion also appears in a much earlier text, where
Nietzsche writes: "since we are the outcome of earlier generations, we are also the outcome of
their aberrations, passions, and errors, and indeed of their crimes; it is not possible wholly to free
oneself from this chain. If we condemn these aberrations and regard ourselves as free of them,
this does not alter the fact that we originate in them. The best we can do is confront our inherited
and hereditary nature with our knowledge of it, and through new, stern, discipline combat our
inborn heritage and implant in ourselves a new habit, a new instinct, a second nature, so that our
first nature withers away. It is an attempt to give oneself, as it were a posteriori, a past in which one
would like to originate in opposition to that in which one did originate:--always a dangerous
attempt . . . . But here and there a victory is nonetheless achieved, and for the combatants...
there is even a noteworthy consolation: that of knowing that this first nature was once a second
nature and that every victorious second nature will become a first" (UM II 3).
 THE "SUBJECT" OF NIETZSCHE'S PERSPECTIVISM z8 9
p e r s o n raises h i m o r h e r s e l f to "knowledge," '~}ustice," a n d "an estimation
b e y o n d g o o d a n d evil."
Yet this necessitates a redescription o f "knowledge" a n d '~ustice." "Knowl-
e d g e " can no longer m e a n " o b j e c t i v i t y . . . u n d e r s t o o d as ' c o n t e m p l a t i o n with-
out interest'," f o r this is "a nonsensical absurdity" (GM I I I 1 ~) that denies the
affective c h a r a c t e r o f all life a n d the affective perspectives a n d interpretations
that are the very conditions for any knowledge whatsoever. Similarly, '~ustice"
carl no l o n g e r m e a n the equalization o f power, the p r e v e n t i o n o f struggle, a n d
the insurance o f peace, for this r e p r e s e n t s "a principle hostile to life" (GM 11
11), since it denies "the relations o f s u p r e m a c y u n d e r which the p h e n o m e n o n
o f 'life' comes to be" (BGE 19). s6 Rather, for these "higher types," "knowl-
e d g e " a n d '~justice" signify the affirmation o f affective life a n d o f the organiz-
ing force that controls it in the service o f the subject as a whole.
T h e r e is no better f o r m u l a t i o n o f these aims t h a n the passage on perspec-
tivity cited at the outset. For the " h i g h e r types," "knowledge" a n d '~justice" are
precisely "the ability to have one's For a n d Against under control a n d to e n g a g e
a n d d i s e n g a g e t h e m , so that o n e knows how to e m p l o y a variety o f perspectives
a n d affective i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s in the service o f knowledge. ''sT Such a n u a n c e d ,
multifaceted estimation is i n d e e d s o m e t h i n g o t h e r t h a n the binary, slavish
morality o f "good a n d evil." It points toward a d i f f e r e n t ethics: a m o d e l o f
practice firmly r o o t e d in the ethos, one that extols self-control a n d fine dis-
crimination in the estimation o f the particular passions a n d actions a p p r o p r i -
ate for e v e r y given situation, ss I n d e e d , perspectivism m i g h t be seen as encap-
sulating Nietzsche's c o n c e p t i o n o f practical wisdom: it advocates the cultiva-
tion o f a variety o f affective centers within an overall organization (the subject)
that is finely a t t u n e d to its capacities and e n v i r o n m e n t , aware o f the affective
perspectives that are a p p r o p r i a t e to a given circumstance, a n d able skillfully to
d e p l o y these perspectives as required.

S6jean Granier construes "knowledge" and 'Justice" in this way, i.e., as attempts to see things
as they are, to "be true" to a putative ontological ground: "the text of Being." See his
"Perspectivism and Interpretation," in The New Nietzsche, ed~ David B. Allison (Cambridge: MIT
Press, 1977), 199.
s7Cf. BGE 284, where Nietzsche describes "nobility" as the ability "[t]o have and not have
one's affects, one's for and against, at will; to condescend to them, for a few hours; to seat oneself
on them as on a horse . . . . "
s8This formulation invites comparison with Aristotle's ethics ofarete. Robert C. Solomon draws
just such a comparison, arguing that Nietzsche's "affirmative ethics" is much closer to Aristotle's
than to that of any other ethicist in the Western philosophical tradition. See "A More Severe
Morality: Nietzsche's Affirmative Ethics," in From Hegel to Existentialism (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1987), to5-2 t. A similar comparison is made, with reservations, by Nehamas, Nietzsche: Life
as Literature, 193- Martha Nussbaum has recently argued that it is not Aristotle but the Roman Stoics
that provide the proper antecedent for Nietzsche's conception of ethics and self-formation. See her
"Pity and Mercy: Nietzsche's Stoicism," in Nietzsche, Genealogy, Morality, 139-67.
~9 o JOURNAL OF T H E H I S T O R Y OF P H I L O S O P H Y 3 5 : ~ APRIL 199 7
5- THE SUBJECT AS INTERPRETATION
Let me conclude by making explicit the result o f this discussion for the issue at
hand, the issue o f the "subject" o f perspectivism. C o n t r a r y to recent views, we
have seen that the subject o f perspectivism cannot simply be the individual
h u m a n k n o w e r p r e s u p p o s e d as atomic and given; for Nietzsche maintains,
rather, that the h u m a n subject is a multiplicity that is constantly being achieved,
accomplished, produced. Moreover, the subject does not have these various per-
spectives and interpretations; rather, they are what the subject is. According to
Nietzsche, the subject is nothing over and above the various physical/spiritual
affective perspectives and interpretations that compose it, and the relation-
ships between these perspectives and interpretations.
This is not mysterious p r o v i d e d that we take seriously Nietzsche's concep-
tion o f the subject as a political organization. Every such organization is a m o r e
or less t e m p o r a r y u n i o n o f various individuals and groups that often have
d i f f e r e n t experiences, views, and desires but agree (or are m a d e to agree) about
some central ideas, practices, and goals which supervene and serve to unify the
m e m b e r s h i p . T h e force o f the organization resides in the collective power o f its
members, in their ability to struggle in a particular direction and yet be flexible
and responsive to changing circumstances by drawing u p o n the capacities o f its
individual m e m b e r s o r subgroups. T h e r e is no organization without these mem-
bers, and no m e m b e r s h i p without the existence o f the organization as a whole.
Nietzsche argues that the subject is just like this.S9 It is nothing over and
above the sum and a r r a n g e m e n t o f the affective perspectives and interpreta-
tions that c o m p o s e it. T h e s e are not, and need not be, h o m o g e n e o u s . I n d e e d ,
Nietzsche argues that the m o r e h e t e r o g e n e o u s they a r e - - p r o v i d e d that they
maintain some c o h e r e n c e - - t h e richer and m o r e flexible the whole will be.9O
This union, however, is "mortal"; it is a changeable entity. Different circum-
stances force the acquisition o f new perspectives a n d / o r the loss o f old ones,
thus altering the overall structure. And, if these changes are significant
e n o u g h , or if particular factions cease to remain subordinate to the whole, the
whole is t h r e a t e n e d o r falls apart. Nietzsche writes:
No subject "atoms." The sphere of the subject constantly growing or decreasing, the
center of the system constantly shifting; in cases where it cannot organize the appropri-
ate mass, it breaks into two parts. On the other hand, it can transform a weaker subject

s9Along the lines of Quine's "web of belief," Richard Rorty has described the subject in a
similar fashion--as a self-reweaving web of beliefs and desires distinct from which there is no
subject or "self." See his "Inquiry as Recontextualization," 93-94- Ernesto Laclau and Chantal
Mouffe have recently developed in detail this political model of subjectivity. See their Hegemony
and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical DemocraticPolitics (London: Verso, 1985).
0oThis is a basic theme of Nietzsche'slater work. See GS 295-97,344, 373, 375, GM I 11 12, TI
V 3, 6, WP 259, 41o, 6oo, 655, 88x, 933, 1o51.
 THE "SUBJECT" OF NIETZSCHE'S PERSPECTIVISM 991

into its functionary without destroying it, and to a certain degree form a new unity with
it. No "substance," rather something that in itself strives after greater strength, and
that wants to "preserve" itself only indirectly (it wants to surpass itself--). (WP 488)

W e t h u s d i s c o v e r n o t o n l y t h a t the h u m a n subject is a fabricated entity, b u t

t h a t its f a b r i c a t i o n takes the s a m e f o r m as the fabrication o f an i n t e r p r e t a t i o n .
Recall that, in his h i g h l y g e n e r a l i z e d a c c o u n t o f i n t e r p r e t a t i o n (GM I I 11),
N i e t z s c h e writes:

whatever exists, having somehow come into being, is again and again reinterpreted to
new ends, taken over, transformed, and redirected by some power superior to it; all
events in the organic world are a subduing, a becoming master, and all subduing and
becoming master involves a fresh interpretation, an adjustment through which any
previous "meaning" and "purpose" are necessarily obscured or obliterated.

I f "all e v e n t s in t h e o r g a n i c w o r l d " are s u b m i t t e d to this process, it is n o t

s u r p r i s i n g t h a t this d e s c r i p t i o n also applies to t h e f o r m a t i o n o f subjectivity.
I n d e e d , we find t h a t Nietzsche n o t only views the subject as a multiplicity o f
m i c r o i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s a n d m i c r o p e r s p e c t i v e s ; he also views the subject itself as
a m a c r o i n t e r p r e t a t i o n . T h e p o i n t is simply that, f o r Nietzsche, i n t e r p r e t a t i o n
goes all the way d o w n a n d all the way up. R a t h e r t h a n positing the subject as
s o m e t h i n g r e m o v e d f r o m t h e r e a l m o f i n t e r p r e t a t i o n , s o m e t h i n g t h a t stands
b e h i n d a n d fabricates i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s , we find that, f o r Nietzsche, the subject
itself is f a b r i c a t e d by a n d as an i n t e r p r e t a t i o n . T h u s , the f a m o u s p a s s a g e
w h i c h claims t h a t t h e r e a r e n o facts b u t only i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s , c o n c l u d e s :

"Everything is subjective," you say; but even this is interpretation [Auslegung]. T h e

"subject" is nothing given [nichts Gegebenes], but something added, fabricated, and stuck
behind [etwas Hinzu-Erdichtetes, Dahinter-Gestecktes].Ol--Finally, is it necessary to posit an
interpreter [Interpreten] behind the interpretation [Interpretationen]? Even this is fiction,
hypothesis [Dichtung, Hypothese]. (WP 4 81 )9 2

University of Chicago

9, Here, Nietzsche calls attention to the etymology of the term "subject": "to throw under"
(sub, under, jacere, to throw).
~ Cf. BGE 34: "Why couldn't the world that concerns us--be a fiction? And if somebody
asked, 'but to a fiction there surely belongs an author?'--couldn't one answer simply: why?
Doesn't this 'belongs' perhaps belong to the fiction, too? Is it not permitted to be a bit ironical
about the subject no less than the predicate and object?" This dissolution of subject and object into
the general field of "interpretation" might be compared with Heidegger's attempt to dissolve this
pair into the general field of "being-in-the-world" (Beingand Time, Division I). Laclau and Mouffe
provide a fine overview of more recent Continental attempts to dissolve the subject-object opposi-
tion into the general field of "structure" (Ahhusser), "discourse" (Foucauh), and "differance"
(Derrida). See Hegemonyand SocialistStrategy, chap. 3.