Abstract

The general context for this essay is the following: postmodern philosophy was strongly influenced by Nietzsche, especially in his postwar French readings from Bataille to Blanchot to Deleuze to Klossowski. It was Nietzsche in these readings who provided basic contours of a new self-image of the philosopher : instead of thinking about changing the social and political world, philosophers now found new terrains for thought. No longer associated with History, and less and less associated with politics. From the perspective of this essay, it is interesting to think about philosophy through the lenses of the self-images philosophers assume. The transformation of the self-image of philosophers entails the gradual transformation of the role and place of philosophy in culture. For what is philosophy, in broadest terms - is what philosophers regard as accepted as philosophy. The passage from the Hegelian to the Nietzschean self-image in France in recent decades heralded the advent of postmodernity - if we accept the idea that what philosophers think about themselves while practicing philosophy is culturally significant.