A new interpretation of what is arguably Nietzsche's most neglected work.

This study is an interpretation of the four essays that comprise Nietzsche's Untimely Considerations (also called the Untimely Meditations) as a single, coherent whole whose focus is to educate their readers toward self-cultivation and genuine culture and ultimately to the philosophic life. Jozef Majerník engages in a close reading of each of the essays, finding in them Nietzsche's theoretical understanding of human life in general as well as the best possible kind of life and plans for large-scale cultural reform in conjunction with Wagner's Bayreuth project. The focal point of Majerník's interpretation is the complex understanding of the nature of the human soul found in the Untimely Considerations, which he terms the "erotic-historic soul" after its two main constituent parts, desiring and memory. He argues that this conception of the soul is, at its core, the same model that we find in Nietzsche's mature works.

Jozef Majerník is Schwarz Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.