In 2004, South Africa celebrated its tenth anniversary of democracy. In those ten years, the nation has made tremendous progress towards protecting and advancing human rights, and continues to work towards the ideals of racial and gender equality in a variety of ways. The task of authentic reconstitution requires that we question our values and the presuppositions on which they are based. No philosopher to date has offered a more thorough critique of value and culture than Nietzsche; however, the question remains as to how Nietzsche’s thought is relevant to contemporary South Africa. This conference therefore aims to facilitate approaches to Nietzsche which explore the contemporary significance of his political and cultural thought, especially within a South African context. In particular, the conference will debate the possible value of Nietzsche’s thought to conceptions of race and multiculturalism, gender and equality, the political, reconciliation, truth, and liberalism. It is hoped that the conference will encourage greater awareness of Nietzsche studies as a resource for the discussion of these issues both within South Africa and abroad.

Friday 13th January
Panels 1 (11:00 – 12.30)
A: Ethics (Eden Grove Blue)
“Nietzsche and Bernard Williams on God and Morality. An Empathetic and Critical Appraisal”
Ton van den Beld – Utrecht University
“Generosity as a central virtue in Nietzsche’s ethics”.
Marinus Schoeman – University of Pretoria
B: Europeanism and Postcolonialism (Eden Grove Seminar Room 1)
“Peoples and Fatherlands”
John Moore – Independent Scholar
“The incommensurability of perspectives: A Nietzschean approach to postcolonialism”
Michaela Baker – Rhodes University

Panels 2 (14.00 – 15.30)
A: Culture and Modernity (Eden Grove Blue)
“Transvaluing the Popular: Nietzsche and the Work of Frank Miller”
Peregrine Dace – University of KwaZulu-Natal
“Nietzsche and ‘modern’ immortality”
Bert Olivier – Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
B: Conscience and Moral Psychology (Eden Grove Seminar Room 1)
“‘And Thy Commandment All Alone shall Live within the Book and Volume of My Brain’:
The Internalisation of Law in Freud and Nietzsche”
Deepak Mistrey – University of KwaZulu-Natal
“Nietzsche and Ubuntu: the encultured subject of moral psychology”
Rebecca Bamford – Rhodes University

Panels 3 (16.00 – 17.30)
A: Nietzsche and the Feminine (Eden Grove Blue)
“The Joy of Suffering: Nietzsche, Theodicy and Women’s Bodies”
Lisa Brown – University of KwaZulu-Natal
“Nietzsche and women”
Andrea Hurst – Villanova University/ Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
B: Culture and Humanity (Eden Grove Seminar Room 1)
“An Enemy of Culture: the Selfishness of the Moneymakers (An Essay of Cultural Criticism from Schopenhauer as Educator)”
Miguel Matilla – Polytechnic University of Madrid
“Nietzsche on the humaneness of the future”
Vasti Roodt – Stellenbosch University

Saturday 14th January
Panels 4 (09.00 – 10.30)
A: Forgiveness and Reconciliation (Eden Grove Blue)
“Reconciliation in Nietzsche’s thought?”
Isabelle Wienand – Univesity of Nijmegen
“On Forgiveness: A Nietzschean Critique”
Michael Ure – Monash University
B: Nihilism (Eden Grove Seminar Room 1)
“Nihilism and the Other”
Charles Villet – University of Johannesburg
“Hope Beyond Despair : Nietzsche’s Ecstatic Nihilism”
Yannis Constantinidès – University of Reims

Panels 5 (13.45 – 15.15)
A: Decadence and Intellectual Militancy (Eden Grove Blue)
“Nietzsche, Du Bois, and the Culture of Decadence”
Tom Meyer – Temple University
“Beyond Ethics: Nietzsche and the prospect of intellectual militancy”
Richard Pithouse
B: Nietzsche’s Übermensch (Eden Grove Seminar Room 1)
“Thus Spoke Zarathustra – to whom: to the One or the Many?”
Gudrun von Tevenar – Birkbeck College, University of London
“Embracing Nietzsche’s Superman: Challenges and Prospects for a New Post Apartheid Political Identity”
Bernard Matolino – St Augustine College

Panels 6 (15.45 – 17.15)
A: Democracy (Eden Grove Blue)
“Still to Come: Derridian Democracy and Nietzschean Friends.”
Joshua Andresen – American University of Beirut
“Nietzsche’s Critique of Democracy”
Herman Siemens – University of Leiden
B: Classicism and modernity (Eden Grove Seminar Room 1)
“Domination, public strength, impulses of power and self-esteem: Nietzsche’s reception of Thucydides of Athens’ ethical and political concept of power”
Ignace Haaz – University of Fribourg
“Empty Values: Nietzsche, Nihilism, and Plato”
James Ansell – Rhodes University

Nietzsche, Culture and Society

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