Nietzsche's Culture of Humanity: Beyond Aristocracy and Democracy in the Early Period [Book Review]

The overarching goal of this book is to rescue Nietzsche’s concept of culture from postmodernist appropriations and their critiques of modern subjectivity in order to reconcile it with the modern idea of the autonomous subject and the political principles of liberalism. On Jeffrey Church’s account, through his ideal of culture, Nietzsche sought to promote liberal conceptions of equality and liberty.Church argues that the politics that best supports Nietzsche’s vision of cultural renewal is a liberal conception of the state based on the rule of law and the protection of individual rights. While Nietzsche’s Culture of Humanity is impressively clear in its writing and in the general presentation and development of its argument,the main thesis of the book is ultimately unconvincing.