38: The Genius of the Species

Listen to this episode from The Nietzsche Podcast on Spotify. Another episode on a single passage: The Gay Science, book V, aphorism  354: “The Genius of the Species”. One of the most thought-provoking  passages in Nietzsche’s work, he expounds on his hypothesis that all  consciousness is a product of human sociality, and was only necessary as  a net of communication between human beings. This has dire implications  for Nietzsche’s aspirations to individualism, and makes suspect  everything to him which enters into consciousness. He believes that the  deeper, more profound aspects of human life remain, ultimately,  untranslatable. Episode art: Alphonse Maria Mucha - La Pater (1899)