The Ascetic Ideal: Genealogies of Life-Denial in Religion, Morality, Art, Science, and Philosophy

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Stephen Mulhall (Professor of Philosophy and Fellow of New College, Professor of Philosophy and Fellow of New College, University of Oxford)

The Ascetic Ideal

Genealogies of Life-Denial in Religion, Morality, Art, Science, and Philosophy

Stephen Mulhall (Professor of Philosophy and Fellow of New College, Professor of Philosophy and Fellow of New College, University of Oxford)

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English

Oxford University Press
24 July 2025

Philosophy: aesthetics; Ethics & moral philosophy; Social & political philosophy; Philosophy of religion

In The Ascetic Ideal, Stephen Mulhall shows how areas of cultural life that seem to be either essentially unconnected to evaluative commitments (science and philosophy) or to involve non-moral values (aesthetics) are in fact deeply informed by ethico-religious commitments, for better and for worse.

The book develops a reading of Nietzsche's concept of 'the ascetic ideal', which he used to track the evolution, mutation, and expansion of the system of slave moral values, associated primarily with Judaeo-Christian religious belief through diverse fields of Western European culture--not just religion and morality, but aesthetics, science, and philosophy. Mulhall also offers an interpretation of Nietzsche's genealogical method that aims to rebut standard criticisms of its nature, and to emphasize its potential for enhancing philosophical understanding more generally. The focus throughout is on developments in those fields which occurred after the end of Nietzsche's intellectual career, and in particular on influential modes of thought and practice that have a contemporary significance. The goal is not simply to argue that Nietzsche's diagnosis and critique retains considerable merit, but also to show that Nietzsche is himself significantly indebted to the ideals he criticizes, and that this opens up a possibility of synthesizing elements of his approach with those drawn from its target. Hence, the book also tracks various ways in which the object of Nietzsche's criticism has undergone further mutations (just as his genealogical method would suggest), and in doing so has generated ways of pursuing the values central to asceticism that avoid Nietzsche's criticisms, and might even further his own goals.

By: Stephen Mulhall (Professor of Philosophy and Fellow of New College Professor of Philosophy and Fellow of New College University of Oxford)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 155mm, Spine: 17mm
Weight: 468g
ISBN: 9780198966999
ISBN 10: 0198966997
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 24 July 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction Essay One: Authority and Revelation Essay Two: Writing the Life of the Mind Essay Three: Knowing, Framing, and Enframing

STEPHEN MULHALL is Russell H. Carpenter Fellow in Philosophy, New College, University of Oxford

Reviews for The Ascetic Ideal: Genealogies of Life-Denial in Religion, Morality, Art, Science, and Philosophy

It is an intelligent, albeit idiosyncratic, extension of Nietzsche's analyses * A. D. Schrift, Grinnell College, Choice Connect * The Ascetic Ideal is a generous work of hospitable translation between different disciplinary languages, one that paradoxically marries skepticism with optimism. * Joel Mayward, The Journal of Religion * If one can... say that The Ascetic Ideal offers a vigorous defence of the priority of becoming over being with regard to the self..., the real work of the book is in showing the kind of self-critical work that this requires of us. In other words, this is not a conclusion or message that can be detached from the actual process of philosophizing, a point I take to be equally Hegelian, Heideggerian and Wittgensteinian. Reading The Ascetic Ideal is an education in just this kind of philosophy * George Pattison, Reviews in Religion and Theology *