Fall 2003

Professor:               Alan Schrift
Office:                     Steiner 311
Office Phone:          3161
Office Hours:           T-TH 1:00- 3:00 and by appointment

Syllabus

Required Texts

The Birth of Tragedy
Untimely Meditations
The Gay Science
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Beyond Good and Evil
On the Genealogy of Morals
Twilight of the Idols
The Antichrist
Ecce Homo
The Will to Power

Course Requirements

This course is organized as a seminar, which means that active student participation is both expected and required. There will be a good deal of reading. Students will be expected to attend class having done all of the assigned reading and to come to class ready to discuss and/or ask questions about what they read. Formal work for the class will include the following:

1. Two Seminar Presentations:

The seminar presentation will consist of a 3-5 page written summary of the reading assigned for class. The summary, which will be read in class, must be submitted to the instructor by 5:00pm on the day before it will be presented (i.e., Sunday or Tuesday); they will be duplicated and made available in Steiner 209 (the Secretaries Office) by 10:00am the day of class. This summary should attempt to review the major claims articulated in the reading; it should also draw attention to aspects of the reading that the presenter finds most significant and worthy of further reflection in class. With their summaries, the presenters will be structuring the agenda for the day's discussion, and the written summary can (and should) raise questions for discussion. These questions can be exegetical (e.g., "what does Nietzsche mean by 'eternal recurrence'?"), critical (e.g., "is Nietzsche correct when he says that knowledge is a function of power?"), associative/comparative (e.g., "how does Nietzsche's position compare with Marx's on the role of critique?")

2. Term Paper: 18-20 page research paper, due on the last day of class. No extensions will be granted except for medical emergency. The topic for this paper will be determined by the student in consultation with the instructor. In most cases, the topics for papers will involve a critical analysis of a significant commentary on Nietzsche's works; a list of secondary sources is attached to this syllabus, with some of the more significant commentaries indicated in bold. In connection with this final paper, keep in mind the following requirements/deadlines:

Nov. 3: turn in a one?paragraph description of topic with annotated bibliography.
Nov. 14: turn in detailed outline.
Nov. 21: turn in 2 copies (one anonymous) of a 5?page thesis statement that describes your project in some detail. One copy will be evaluated by the instructor, and one copy will be evaluated by a fellow student.
Nov. 26: turn in comments on one another's thesis statements (xerox final page summary and submit this to the instructor).
Dec. 12: Paper Due.

3. Position Papers: each week that you don't make a seminar presentation, submit on Wednesday a one?page typed comment on some aspect of the reading of that week.

4. Web Discussion Board: once a week, you will be asked to submit a discussion question by 10:00am to the class "Bulletin Board" on the web. These questions will allow all seminar participants to get a sense for what topics and sections are drawing attention and interest from other members of the seminar. Address to be provided.

The final grade will be determined on the basis of these writing assignments and general performance in class during the course of the semester.

Citation Convention: There is a standard convention for making citations to Nietzsche's works by abbreviated titles and paragraph number. All written references to Nietzsche's texts should follow this convention, as explained in the appended page "Nietzsche Citations".

Class	Date	Assignment -
1	Sept. 1	Introduction -
2	Sept. 3	"On Truth and Lies in an Extramoral Sense" -
3	Sept. 8	BT: "Self-Criticism," § 1-10
4	Sept. 10	BT: § 10-25
5	Sept. 15	HL:
6	Sept. 17	GS: Preface, Books I-II
7	Sept. 22	GS: Books III-IV
8	Sept. 24	Z: Part I
9	Sept. 29	Z: Part II
10	Oct. 1	Z: Part III
11	Oct. 6	Z: Part IV
12	Oct. 8	BGE: Preface and Part I-II
13	Oct. 13	BGE: Parts III-IV
14	Oct. 15	BGE: Parts VII-VIII
Fall Break Oct. 17-26
15	Oct. 27	Prefaces
16	Oct. 29	GS: Book V
17	Nov. 3	Maxims + GM: Preface and Essay I
18	Nov. 5	GM: Essay II
	Description and Bibliography Due Nov. 3 -- 5:00pm
19	Nov. 10	GM: Essay III
20	Nov. 12	TI:
	Outline Due Nov. 14 -- 5:00pm
21	Nov. 17	A: § 1-30
22	Nov. 19	A: § 31-62
	Thesis Statement Due Nov. 21 -- 5:00pm
23	Nov. 24	EH: Parts I-II
24	Nov. 26	EH: Parts III-IV
Thanksgiving Break Nov. 26 - 30
25	Dec. 1	Seminar Reports
26	Dec. 3	Seminar Reports
27	Dec. 8	Seminar Reports
28	Dec. 10	Seminar Reports