ABSTRACT
Friedrich Nietzsche always retained a philosophical presence due to the influence of Heidegger’s preoccupation with Nietzsche’s place in the history of Western metaphysics. The two most important receptions of Nietzsche’s work in recent times have both occurred in the context of what is conventionally called French poststructuralist thought; that is, in the context of another ending, that of structuralism. Nietzsche’s earliest writings are mainly concerned with classical Greek culture. The characterisation of certain instincts as evil, as opposed to merely natural, results in the turning of the instincts against themselves and in the emergence of ‘bad conscience’. Instead of the open affirmation of the instinctual, there occurs the turning of the instincts against themselves in Christianity. The task of thought in this situation is to succumb to a passive nihilism which is the result of thinking that now that the moral interpretation of the world has come to an end, all interpretation must come to an end.
