Review of Paul Stephan's 'Links-Nietzscheanismus'

Paul Stephan’s Links–Nietzscheanismus [Left–Nietzscheanism] attempts a mutually corrective mediation between anarchism and Marxism with the help of an explicitly political reading of Nietzsche. As such, it also brings together Marx with Nietzsche – or Marx’s critique of capitalism with Nietzsche’s critique of the belief in the productive forces and their progress, in the instrumental reason of the sci-tech-economic complex, and in the vitalist utilitarianism of (alienated) labour. By bringing together Nietzsche with Marx in this manner, Stephan reminds us that Left-Nietzscheanism and postmodernism do not have to – and in fact cannot – be the same, since the left, today, needs to transcend both, localist populism and globalist neoliberalism.