RICERCA ITALIANA     

Text, extra-text, interpretation. Continuation of the critical edition of the published and unpublished works of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche (literary remains, works, and correspondence)

Università di Pisa

Abstract

This project concerns the continuation of the Italian and German critical editions of the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer, as well as the historical and interpretative study of their thought, cultural context, and influence. The project is divided into two main parts, one concentrating on Nietzsche, the other on Schopenhauer, while a third part will provide a hermeneutical, historical-interpretative link between these two, largely philological parts. The project employs five highly-experienced research groups which have already worked together for some time, and thus have not only accumulated numerous abilities, but also consolidated their collective vision of the project.

The project has five main objectives, two regarding Nietzsche (1-2), two regarding Schopenhauer (3-4), and one (5) regarding the hermeneutical linking of the two main parts.

Objective 1 will be pursued by the Pisa group (Campioni), and concerns the continuation of the publication of, and commentary on, Nietzsche’s literary remains, works, and correspondence, in the context of the German (De Gruyter) and Italian (Adelphi) editions. In particular, (1.a) the group will produce the Italian translation and publication of a wide selection of the Basle lectures, undertake the related research necessary to prepare the critical apparatus for the second section of the Colli-Montinari German critical edition (KGW, De Gruyter) and for the three planned books of the second volume of the Italian edition. In the two-year period 2007-9 the following lectures will be prepared: “Prolegomena zu den Choephoren des Aeschylus”; “Einleitung in die Tragödie des Sophocles”; “Encyclopädie der klassischen Philologie”; “Geschichte der griechischen Literatur”; “Der Gottesdienst der Griechen”. Furthermore, (1.b) the publication of the new Italian edition of Nietzsche’s notebooks (Collana Piccola Biblioteca, Adelphi) will continue, with volumes 7-12 (Beginning 1880 – Winter 1883-84). Finally, (1.c) the group will publish Nietzsche’s last letters from Torino (18th October 1888 – 6th January 1889) and complete the Adelphi edition of Nietzsche’s correspondence (vol. V, bks. I and II).

Objective 2, on which the Pisa group will work with the Florence group, concerns the continuation of the historical and philological research on Nietzsche’s readings and the interpretative work on his philosophy. (2.a) The readings discovered will be made available in paper or electronic form, and essays and books on Nietzsche and his relation to his cultural context, along with a revised edition of the correspondence between Colli and Montinari, with many previously-unpublished letters and both in Italian and in German translation (De Gruyter), will be published (Pisa group 1). (2.b) The Florence group will focus on the role of Greek myth, and particularly the Dionysian, in Nietzsche’s philosophy from The Birth of Tragedy onwards, in the published works and the correspondence, through research on Nietzsche’s readings and on the history of the Dionysian in German Romantic literature and philosophy.

Objective 3, ambit of the Padua group, concerns the completion of the Italian edition of Schopenhauer’s notebooks, through the publication of the following volumes: vol. 2: «Confronti critici 1809-1818»; vol. 5: «I manoscritti rilegati 1830-1852»; vol. 6: «I manoscritti senili. – Glosse - La biblioteca di Schopenhauer». Single essays discovered in Schopenhauer’s literary remains will also be published, possibly in German and in other languages, and group will also undertake to identify the contents of Schopenhauer’s personal library.

Objective 4, on which the second Pisa group (Barbera) will work, regards the completion of publication of Schopenhauer’s Nachlaβ on the internet platform, HyperSchopenhauer. Priority will be given to those manuscripts which have not yet been published (vols. 28 and 29), then to those of volumes 17-23. Seminars and conferences will also be organised, with the aim of diffusing and interpreting HyperSchopenhauer’s results in the academic community.

Objective 5 will be the concern of the Bologna group, and regards the analysis of Nietzsche’s relation to Hegel and the Hegelians in terms of the hermeneutic notions of ‘text’ and ‘supra-text’, and in three broad areas: (5.a) the analysis of Nietzsche’s relation to Hegel, through the mediation of Schopenhauer and later of the ‘left-Hegelians’; (5.b) the study of the relation between historicism and nihilism, with reference to Heidegger’s interpretation; and (5.c) the examination of the reception of Hegel in twentieth-century French culture. <<<

Principal Investigator

Giuliano Campioni Università degli Studi di PISA

Research Objectives

The research project has the following objectives, divided among the two main historical-philological parts (objectives 1-2, publication and interpretation of Nietzsche’s works; objectives 3-4, publication and interpretation of Schopenhauer’s works) and the third part, which will provide a hermeneutical, historical-interpretative link between them.

1. (Pisa research group – Campioni) The continuation of the publication of, and commentary on, Nietzsche’s literary remains, works, and correspondence, in the context of the German (De Gruyter) and Italian (Adelphi) editions, and in particular,

1.a. The Italian translation and publication of a wide selection of the Basle lectures, undertake the related research necessary to prepare the critical apparatus for the second section of the Colli-Montinari German critical edition (KGW, De Gruyter) and for the three planned books of the second volume of the Italian edition (Opere, Adelphi) . Besides the management of the overall project, in the two-year period 2007-9 the Pisa group will work on prepariing the following lectures: “Prolegomena zu den Choephoren des Aeschylus”; “Einleitung in die Tragödie des Sophocles”; “Encyclopädie der klassischen Philologie”; “Geschichte der griechischen Literatur”; “Der Gottesdienst der Griechen”;

1.b. Continuation of the new Italian edition of Nietzsche’s notebooks (Collana Piccola Biblioteca, Adelphi), with the publication of the following volumes: vol. 7: Beginning of 1880 - Autumn 1880; vol. 8: End of 1880 - Spring-Autumn 1881; vol. 9: Autumn 1881 - Summer 1882; vol. 10: July-August 1882 - Winter 1882-83; vol. 11: Spring-Summer 1883 - Summer-Autumn 1883; vol. 12: Autumn 1883 - Winter 1883-84;

1.c. Publication of Nietzsche’s last letters from Torino (18th October 1888 – 6th January 1889) and, beginning with this edition and its critical apparatus, completion of the Adelphi edition of Nietzsche’s correspondence (vol. V, bks. I and II).

2. (Pisa research group 1 – Campioni; Florence research group) Closely related to the work on objective 1, historical and philological work on Nietzsche’s readings (in the context of what Montinari defined as the reconstruction of Nietzsche’s ‘ideal library’) and interpretative perspectives on his philosophy. In particular:

2.a. The readings discovered will be made available in paper or electronic form, and essays and books on Nietzsche and his relation to his cultural context, along with a revised edition of the correspondence between Colli and Montinari, with many previously-unpublished letters and both in Italian and in German translation (De Gruyter), will be published (Pisa group 1);

2.b. Analysis of the role of Greek myth, and particularly the Dionysian, in Nietzsche’s philosophy from The Birth of Tragedy onwards, in the published works and the correspondence, through research on Nietzsche’s readings and on the history of the Dionysian in German Romantic literature and philosophy, and work on the history of Nietzsche’s role in the reception of the Dionysian in German twentieth-century literature (Florence group).

3. (Padua research group) The completion of the Italian edition of Schopenhauer’s notebooks, in time to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his death in 2010. In particular, the following volumes will be published: vol. 2: «Confronti critici 1809-1818», », critical apparatus to be added and editing to be concluded; vol. 5: «I manoscritti rilegati 1830-1852», work of translation and of preparing the critical notes assigned to Giovanni Gurisatti; vol. 6: «I manoscritti senili. - Glosse - La biblioteca di Schopenhauer», translation and critical notes by F. Volpi, approximately 500 pages. Single essays discovered in Schopenhauer’s literary remains will also be published, possibly also in German and in other languages, and the group will also undertake to identify the contents of Schopenhauer’s personal library.

4. (Pisa research group 2 – Barbera) Completion of the publication of Schopenhauer’s Nachlaβ on the internet platform, HyperSchopenhauer, created with PRIN 2005 funding. Having already published approximately 5000 manuscripts, the group will translate into code form and publish approximately 7000 more manuscripts. In particular, priority will be given to those manuscripts which have not yet been published (volumes 28 and 29: extracts and annotations on Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Leibniz, etc.; annotations on Schelling, Fichte, Jacobi, Fries, and extracts from the ‘Asiatic Researches’), and then to those of volumes 17-23 (notes concerning Kant; the so-called ‘first manuscripts’, 1811-18). Finally, seminars and conferences will also be organised, with the aim of diffusing and interpreting HyperSchopenhauer’s results in the academic community.

5. (Bologna research group) Analysis of Nietzsche’s relation to Hegel and the Hegelians in terms of the hermeneutic notions of ‘text’ and ‘supra-text’, and in three broad areas:

5.a. Analysis of Nietzsche’s relation to Hegel, through the mediation of Schopenhauer and later of the ‘left-Hegelians’;

5.b. Analysis of the relation between historicism and nihilism, with reference to Heidegger’s interpretation;

5.c. Study of the reception of Hegel in twentieth-century French culture.

The results of the group’s work in these three areas of research will be presented in publications and public seminars. <<<

First Results

The expected results of the research project, given in the objectives, are highly significant and also highly cohesive, as is shown in the section on the roles of the various research groups involved. The project plans, firstly, to complete and revise the critical edition of Nietzsche’s writings and correspondence and that of Schopenhauer’s works and literary remains. These two editions, founded some time ago by the same research groups which here propose to complete them, will provide the international scholarly community with the material and tools necessary to pursue the interpretation of these two important philosophers. Secondly, the project will extend its interpretative work, which obviously not only complements the philological work, but also brings it to fruition. Each research group concerned with philological areas of the project will also develop its interpretative work on the material it prepares for publication, and, further, one of the project’s specific objectives is that of connecting and integrating the two philological areas by means of a third, interpretative area, which will have a hermeneutic character.
It is clear, therefore, that an important quality of the project, and one if its most important atout, is the methodological, interpretative, and organizational harmony that exists between the research groups involved. Firstly, these groups already have lengthy experience of working together, on past projects which were not only related to the present one, but provided, as it were, its necessary premises. This common experience means, secondly, that the groups can now also employ each others’ specialist knowledge and capacities, and develop them through the deepening of the already well-consolidated relations between them. Thirdly, the groups make use of equally consolidated practices of exchange of results and of mutual feedback, practices which will continue to allow them to share and integrate each individual group’s research in the common development of methods and results.
The tangible results of the project will consist in the publication of books and electronic materials, making available Nietzsche’s and Schopenhauer’s works through critical editorial work; the publication of books and articles on the research themes that emerge from this editorial work, and on the more specific themes that members of the groups have identified; and, finally, the diffusion of results through scholarly events. As mentioned, another important result will be the already well-consolidated reciprocal benefits provided to each individual group by its membership of the broader project.
Regarding objective 1, which concerns the continuation of the publication of the edition of Nietzsche’s writings and correspondence, one expects the following specific results: the preparation of the German (De Gruyter) and Italian (Adelphi) Colli-Montinari editions of Nietzsche’s Basle lectures (“Prolegomena zu den Choephoren des Aeschylus”; “Einleitung in die Tragödie des Sophocles”; “Encyclopädie der klassischen Philologie”; “Geschichte der griechischen Literatur”; “Der Gottesdienst der Griechen”); the publication of volumes 7-12 (Beginning 1880 – Winter 1883-84) of the new Italian edition of Nietzsche’s notebooks (Collana Piccola Biblioteca, Adelphi); and the publication of Nietzsche’s last letters from Torino (18th October 1888 – 16th January 1889) and the completion of the Adelphi edition of Nietzsche’s correspondence (vol. V, bks. I and II).
Regarding objective 2, one expects the following results: the making available, in paper or electronic form, of readings discovered through the work towards objective 1; the publication of essays and books on Nietzsche and his relation to his cultural context, as well as on the role of Greek myth, and particularly the Dionysian, in his philosophy; and the publication of a revised edition of the correspondence between Colli and Montinari, to include many previously-unpublished letters and to be published both in Italian and in German translation (De Gruyter).
Regarding objective 3, the project expects the continuation of the Italian edition of Schopenhauer’s notebooks, and, in particular, the publication of the following volumes: vol. 2: «Confronti critici 1809-1818»; vol. 5: «I manoscritti rilegati 1830-1852»; and vol. 6: «I manoscritti senili. – Glosse - La biblioteca di Schopenhauer». Single essays discovered in Schopenhauer’s literary remains will also be published, possibly also in other languages.
Objective 4 also concerns Schopenhauer’s Nachlaβ, and here the expected results include the completion of the publication of the Nachlaβ manuscripts on the internet platform, HyperSchopenhauer. Approximately 7000 manuscripts will be transcribed, translated into code, and published in this form. Priority will be given to those manuscripts which have not yet been published (vols. 28 and 29: extracts and annotations on Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Leibniz, and so on.; annotations on Schelling, Fichte, Jacobi, Fries, and extracts from the ‘Asiatic Researches’), and then to those of volumes 17-23 (notes concerning Kant; the so-called ‘first manuscripts’, 1811-18). Seminars and conferences will also be organised, with the aim of making public and interpreting the results obtained by HyperSchopenhauer among the academic community.
Regarding objective 5, that concerning the work of connecting and integrating the two philological areas, the project expects to make extensive use of the results provided by the latter two areas. In particular, work will focus on Nietzsche’s relation to Hegel and the Hegelians, regarding which Schopenhauer’s mediating role was crucial. Work will also be done on the reception of Hegel in twentieth-century France. The results of this interpretative research will be made public by means of publications and public events. <<<

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

Regarding the first area of the research project, that concerning the critical edition in German and Italian of Friedrich Nietzsche’s collected works and correspondence, in the previous funding periods the members of the Pisa 1 and Florence research groups have made progress, in close cooperation with other international bodies of Nietzsche scholarship (Berlin, Basle, Vienna, Rome, Pisa, and Madrid) involved in various ways in work on the edition (Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Berlin, 1967- [KGW], and Briefwechsel. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Berlin, 1975- [KGB]).
Regarding objective 1.a, the materials for the German and Italian editions of the final section of Nietzsche’s works, that concerning his philological writings and lectures at Basle, have been prepared. This involved work on defining the text to be employed, and the collection of materials necessary for the preparation of the critical apparatus for the second section of the KGW and the Opere, work undertaken by M. Carpitella, G. Ugolini, and F. Fronterotta, under the direction of G. Campioni and G. Most. Of particular importance in this regard is the preparation for publication of the 158-page manuscript PII 11, the ‘Lectures on the Preplatonic Philosophers’, and of the manuscript PII 12b, ‘The Philosophers’ diadocai’. Work has also begun on the revised and updated Italian (Adelphi) edition of Nietzsche’s notebooks from 1869 to 1889 (20 volumes are planned, along with a final volume of criteria, concordances, indexes, and a list of the readings reflected in Nietzsche’s notes), as planned to achieve objective 1.b of the project. The first six volumes (covering the period from the Autumn of 1869 until 1879) have been published since 2004, thus covering the important notebook materials deriving from Nietzsche’s Basle period, regarding which they provide an essential source for scholars.
Finally, regarding objective 1.b, that concerning the edition of Nietzsche’s correspondence, work has continued on the critical apparatus for the last part of the Italian edition (in two volumes), that concerning the period 1885-89. This work also employs that undertaken on the KGB, which was completed in 2004 (vol. 7/3, ed. by R.Müller-Buck, Pisa group). The critical apparatus provided in the Italian edition contributes significantly to research on Nietzsche’s readings and on the relation between his readings and his works. In close coordination with KGW and “Opere”, the Sociedad Espanola de Estudios sobre Nietzsche (SEDEN) has begun work on the first Spanish edition of Nietzsche’s letters and notebooks. The first volume of letters, Correspondencia I (Junio 1850-Abril 1869), edited by L. E. de Santiago Guervos (Madrid 2005), and the first (1869-1874) and fourth (1885-1889) volumes of notebooks, Fragmentos Póstumos, edited by D. Sánchez Meca (Madrid 2006), have already been published (both editors are members of the Pisa group). Thomas Brobjer (Pisa group) is editing a Swedish edition of Nietzsche’s complete works (Stockholm 2002- ).
The work of the Pisa group 1 employs a now well-consolidated scholarly and organisational structure, the Centro ‘Colli-Montinari’ of Nietzsche studies (www.centronietzsche.net), which comprises the universities of Lecce, Pisa, and Padova and has its base in Pisa.
Regarding objective 2.a, and related to their work on the critical editions, the members of the Pisa group have also produced and published numerous scholarly works on Nietzsche. Particularly notable are those regarding the methods, criteria, and history of the Colli-Montinari edition. Among the most recent are the papers presented at the conference, ‘Mazzino Montinari. A vent'anni dalla sua scomparsa’, held at Pisa on the 6th of November 2006, and G. Campioni’s article, ‘“Der karren unserer arbeit”. Sechzehn briefe von Mazzino Montinari an Delio Cantimori’, in Nietzsche-Studien 2007. Regarding objective 2.b, on the other hand, the above work on the critical edition will provide the basis for the Florence research group’s work. Further, the analysis of Dionysus and the Dionysiac in Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy and later works will be based on suggestions made by Mazzino Montinari on this topic, and reference will also be made to the studies of M. S. Silk and J. P. Stern, Barbara von Reibnitz, and M. Frank, which, however, will have to be evaluated also in the light of more recent scholarly work.
The second area of the research project, that concerning the German and Italian critical editions of Schopenhauer’s works and Nachlaβ, will concern the relevant literary remains, as these are preserved in the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin (Preuβischer Kulturbesitz) and the Schopenhauer Archives in Frankfurt. These include numerous important unpublished texts and Schopenhauer’s private library, which represents the main philological tool for the identification and critical reconstruction of the sources of his philosophy, and which has recently been enriched with new acquisitions. The existing German standard edition of these texts, edited by Arthur Hübscher (Der handschriftliche Nachlaβ, 6 vols., Kramer: Frankfurt, 1966-1975), is not complete. A new complete edition is therefore long overdue, and will complete Hübscher’s edition by including the texts which he excluded or did not consider – such as the lectures at the University of Berlin and the so-called Senilia. F. Volpi planned and presented to the publishers, Adelphi, a project for a new German edition and an Italian translation of Schopenhauer’s notebooks, and this project has been accepted and volumes 1 and 3 of the six planned volumes have already been published. The continuation of this edition constitutes objective 3 of the present research project.
As far as objective 4 is concerned, MIUR 2005 funds were employed to translate the above-mentioned Nachlaβ into digital code and to publish it on the internet platform, HyperSchopenhauer. Approximately 12,000 high resolution coloured images of the manuscripts conserved at the Preuβischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin have been translated into code, the digital classification of the literary remains has been completed, and the internet platform has been created, being accessible at www.hyperschopenhauer.org. From January 2008, this platform will offer free access to approximately 5000 pages of these manuscripts – those of volumes 1-16, including (vols. 1-6) Schopenhauer’s student notes at Göttingen and Berlin, all as yet unpublished, with the exception of Fichte’s lectures, and (vols. 7-16) other manuscripts of 1828-1860, as yet published only in part. The manuscripts of volume 1 (Schulze’s lectures on metaphysics, logic, and psychology) and volume 15 (Repertorium) have already been transcribed and partially translated into code.
Finally, the basis of the work for the interpretative area, that connecting the other two areas of the project and concerned with objective 5, will be provided by the philological work on the critical edition of Nietzsche’s works in particular, since this has recently provided the grounds for the hermeneutic reconstruction of the ‘extra-textual’ elements of Nietzsche’s philosophy – that is, the wealth of cultural references which stimulated his thought and writing, and with which he engaged. The topic on which the Bologna group intends to concentrate, Nietzsche’s relation with Hegel and his legacy, is one of the most interesting among those to have emerged from this philological work. Furthermore, this relation was mediated by Nietzsche’s study of Schopenhauer’s philosophy. Particularly in his Untimely Meditations of 1873-76, Nietzsche makes substantial use of the short pamphlet, Universitätsphilosophie, in which Schopenhauer engaged in an open polemic against Hegel’s notion of the figure and social role of the philosopher. This pamphlet provides the starting point for the study of Nietzsche’s relation to Hegelianism, since Nietzsche’s own anti-Hegelian polemic is clearly filtered by his reading of it – indeed, he explicitly appropriates its arguments. The significance of Schopenhauer is increased by the minimal direct acquaintance which Nietzsche had with Hegel’s texts, although he was certainly a close reader of pupils of Hegel’s, such as Kuno Fischer, Bruno Bauer, perhaps Max Stirner, and certainly Ludwig Feuerbach, also an important influence on the early Wagner. A major contribution to research on this topic is that of Karl Löwith’s Von Hegel zu Nietzsche (1941), which locates Nietzsche’s philosophy in the ‘revolutionary fracture’ brought about by criticisms made by these so-called ‘left-Hegelian’ philosophers of the concrete incarnations of modern Europe’s absolute spirit, which Hegel had considered as the realization of philosophy itself. This provides the background for the understanding of Nietzsche’s position regarding metaphysics. Martin Heidegger’s well-known treatment of Nietzsche as the last metaphysician has recently been reconsidered, by scholars such as Wolfgang Müller-Lauter in Germany and French commentators such as Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, who emphasize Nietzsche’s particular conception of ‘genealogy’, in contrast to the Hegelian conception of history. <<<