Nietzsche: Writings from the Late Notebooks (review)

Without question, the chief obstacle for English-language Nietzsche researchers is the absence of a reliable translation of the Nachlass corpus and the late writings in particular. Since 1967, English-only readers have been reliant on Kaufmann's translation and edition of The Will to Power, itself based on the 1906/1911 "Taschen" edition published by Naumann. As Kaufmann himself recognizes, this edition was arranged systematically, under the false and untenable perspective of it being Nietzsche's philosophical "Hauptwerk," and with massive and violent editorial intervention by Nietzsche's sister and his friend Peter Gast. Rather bizarrely, Kaufmann justifies his use of the false systematic arrangement on practical grounds (WP xv), as if we could just overlook the misleading relations it establishes between the texts. He also believes that with the help of the notes, added by the editor Otto Weiss to the 1911 edition, he can correct editorial distortions. But as Montinari puts it: "Die Anmerkungen widerlegen den Text" (KSA 14: 10); nor are the notes by any means complete (see KSA 14: 392 f.). Add to this Kaufmann's inclination toward tendentious, strongly interpretative translations, and it is clear that there is a need for a new translation of the late Nachlass.

In Nietzsche: Writings from the Late Notebooks, the editor Rüdiger Bittner does not, however, improve on Kaufmann's reliance on an unreliable edition by supplying a good translation of the best available edition, namely, that in the Colli-Montinari edition. Instead, Bittner supplies us with another selection drawn from KGW (VII and) VIII/KSA (11,) 12, and 13.¹ If the long and twisted editorial history of the notebooks teaches us anything, it is the need for extreme caution in selecting the material.² Indeed, one could even go so far as to say: Do not select at all. Even the Colli-Montinari edition has been subject to critical scrutiny for its selection principles. Despite their scrupulous efforts at carefully controlling omissions, there are sufficient questions to warrant a new diplomatic edition of the notebooks that are the basis for the selections in KGW VII-3, VII-4.2, and VIII (KSA 11: 423 ff., 12, 13).³ The ongoing KGW Abteilung IX offers differentiated transcriptions of the actual manuscripts (reproduced in facsimile on a CD-ROM) without any selections whatsoever.⁴ While it is worthwhile checking specific notes in the critical edition against the transcriptions in KGW IX and especially against the corrections (Berichtigungen) listed in its Nachbericht sections, the critical edition remains a pretty reliable and far more practical basis for research. Still, the lesson is: select with extreme caution, if select you must. The texts themselves are well translated and a welcome, if only partial, complement to Kaufmann's translations in The Will to Power.⁵ But as we will try to indicate below, the edition is fundamentally flawed because Bittner offers a purely personal selection based on dubious claims about what is and what is not philosophically relevant. Worst of all, his selection leaves out numerous texts that would problematize the interpretation of the late notes he offers in the introduction. The result is that we get a weak interpretation of Nietzsche's late thought, supported by a misleading selection of the notes.

The problem for those reliant on English translations is compounded by delays in the Stanford University Press translation of the KSA, the project titled The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche.⁶ This means that Bittner's volume is not just one selection from the late Nachlass among others that can be compared against the best available critical edition. Until the publication of the Stanford translations of KSA 11, 12, and 13, currently projected for 2013, Bittner's selection could well become the edition through which the next generation of anglophone readers first...