The sixteenth annual conference of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society took place at the University of Leiden from 23-25 March 2007, under the auspices of the Faculty of Philosophy. Over 100 delegates came together from as far afield as Chile and Australia to discuss a range of topics under the rubric of Nietzsche, Power and Politics.
In 50 parallel papers and 5 plenary sessions some of the most contentious issues in the field were debated by leading scholars: Is Nietzsche a political thinker at all, or rather a non-political – even an überpolitische – thinker? (Dan Conway vs Paul van Tongeren) Is Nietzsche an aristocratic political thinker who condemns the rule of the people as an expression of the herd mentality, or can his philosophy, especially his reflections on the Greek agon, be fruitfully appropriated for contemporary democratic theory? (Bernhard Taureck vs Larry Hatab) Does Hannah Arendt, even if inspired by Nietzsche, go decisively beyond him with her concept of politics and the public sphere – or does her amor mundi stand in a relation of complementarity to Nietzsche’s amor fati? (Dana Villa vs Vasti Roodt) Besides these debates, there were also two plenary talks given by individual speakers: David Owen on Nietzsche’s concept of ethical agency and its implications for democratic politics, and Tracy Strong on Nietzsche’s politics of cultural revolution, which focused on the semantic richness and implications of his thoughts on tyranny.
The parallel sessions covered such topics as Nietzsche and ancient political thought, Nietzsche and the nineteenth century (Öffentlichkeit, money), key concepts like friendship, Rangordnung and grosse Politik, and Europe, as well as issues in contemporary politics, including terrorism, fundamentalism, globalisation and neo-conservatism.
The conference was marked by quality papers and lively debate in the beautiful city of Leiden. A selection of the papers will be published in a forthcoming book and in a special issue of the Journal of Nietzsche Studies.
