Robert C. Miner Knihy

Focusing on Giambattista Vico's critique of modernity, the study reveals his subversive genealogical approach. Miner explores Vico's early writings, particularly his critique of Descartes and the 'verum-factum' principle, highlighting how Vico recognizes the benefits of modern advancements while exposing their roots in human pride. This examination sheds light on Vico's complex relationship with modernity, positioning him as a significant thinker in understanding its implications.

This book is a historically informed and textually grounded study of the connections between Montaigne, the inventor of the essay, and Nietzsche, who thought of himself as an “attempter.” In conversation with the Essais , Nietzsche developed key themes of his oeuvre: experimental scepticism, gay science, the quest for drives beneath consciousness, the free spirit, the affirmation of sexuality and the body, and the meaning of greatness. Robert Miner explores these connections in the context of Nietzsche's reverence for Montaigne—a reverence he held for no other author—and asks what Montaigne would make of Nietzsche. The question arises from Nietzsche himself, who both celebrates Montaigne and includes him among a small number of authors to whose judgment he is prepared to submit.