Philosophy Today

The growing interest in Nietzsche has reached the point where, in many ways, it is he rather than Hegel who is the point of departure and reference for much cetemporary philosophizing. His growing importance is reflected by a number of recent articles and books. Some of the more outstanding are those of F. Copleston ("Foreground and Background in Nietzsche,' in the Review of Metaphysics, March 1968, pp. 506-25), R. J. Hollingdcde (Nietzsche: the Man and his Philosophy. Baton Rouge: University of Louisiana Press 1965), and Arthur Danto (Nietzsche as Philosopher. New York: Macmillan Company 1965). Mention should be made also of the english translation of Earl Jasper's monumental work on Nietzsche (Nietzsche: an introduction to an understanding of his philosophical activity. Tucson: University of Arizona Press 1965) by Charles Wallreff and Frederick Schmitz. The following article is a look at some of the cornerstones in Nietzsche's philosophical edifice.

Philosophy Today is very pleased to publish the following article by special arrangement with Yale University Ptess. "The Analysis of Religious Discourse" is chapter six of Thomas Munson's book. Reflective Theology, to be published by Yale University Press (92A Yale Station, New Haven, Connecticut 06520) in November 1968. The book is subtitled, "philosophical orientations in religion," and is organized principally around the figures of Sartre, Eliade, Wittgenstein, Hegel, Hume, Descartes and Anselm as these philosophers interest the philosopher reflecting on religious experience.

The current vogue for structuralism has been stimulated by a number of French thinkers who have begun to apply the methodology of structural linguistics to their various fields of study. Among these thinkers are the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, the literary critic Roland Barthes, and the philosophers Michel Foucault and Louis Althusser. The wide reception of Michel Foucoult's recent book, Les Mots et les Choses, has been responsible for raising this interest. The significance of structuralism is its aqpplicability as a methodology to a multitude of problems in the human sciences. Eliade's work presents a particular instance of the way in which structuralism may be applied to hermeneutic and philosophical problems.