OhioLINK History of Philosophy Website

Nineteenth-Century Philosophy
Macro Writing Assignment 2:
Using Nietzsche to Read Hegel and Marx

Professor Gayle Ormiston

1. Compose a first-draft paper that will not exceed 10 (ten) typed-written, double-spaced pages.

2. An aim of the paper is to use Nietzsche's three kinds of history to read and reconsider both Hegel and Marx on "history," and to reconsider Nietzsche from a perspective he has provided.

3. A point or purpose of the paper is to juxtapose the respective approaches taken toward history by Nietzsche, Hegel, and Marx. A further aim is to juxtapose the results each thinker projects based on their respective speculations regarding the needs for history, the purposes of history, and the outcomes or the realizations of history. More specifically, the juxtaposition of Nietzsche, Hegel, and Marx is directed toward developing and articulating the relation between history and action for each of the three thinkers.

4*. Use Nietzsche's three kinds of history--the monumental, the antiquarian, and the critical--to respond to each of the following items:

1. Hegel's approach to history, as encountered in Introduction to the Philosophy of History, would be classified as what kind of history, according to your understanding of Nietzsche three kinds of history? Identify no more than two themes on which you can focus to help you determine where Hegel falls within Nietzsche's scheme.
2. Include a comparison of
   1. Hegel's "three methods of history" and Nietzsche's three kinds of history
   2. Hegel's "three stages of history" and Nietzsche's three kinds of history
   3. Hegel and Nietzsche on the relation or connection between history and action.
3. Marx's approach to history, as encounter in The Manifesto of the Communist Party and some selections from The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and The German Ideology, would be classified as what kind of history, according to your understanding of Nietzsche's three kinds of history? Identify no more than three themes on which you can focus to help you determine where Marx falls within Nietzsche's scheme.
4. Include a comparison of
   1. Marx's and Nietzsche's conception of the necessity (or need) for history
   2. Marx and Nietzsche on the relation or connection between history and action.
5. The penultimate section of you paper will consist of a comparison and contrast of Nietzsche, Hegel, and Marx on the necessity of links between history and action.
6. The last section of your paper will consist of your attempt to turn Nietzsche's three kinds of history on Nietzsche's writings as selected and provided in NCP.
   1. According to Nietzsche's three kinds of history, where would you place Nietzsche's own understandings of history as you encountered them in the selections from NCP?
   2. Still using Nietzsche's kinds of history, where would you say Nietzsche is most explicit about the relation or connection between history and action.

This page is part of the OhioLINK History of Philosophy Instructional Website designed and developed by the Department of Philosophy at Kent State University. We are interested in any comments you may have concerning this Macro Writing Exercise. Send e-mail to the KSU Department of Philosophy Instructional Website Development Team or directly to Professor Gayle Ormiston, who designed this exercise.

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