This book explores the imaginative possibilities for philosophy created by Nietzsche's sustained reflection on the phenomenon of ecstasy. From The Birth of Tragedy to his experimental 'physiology of art', Nietzsche examines the aesthetic, erotic, and sacred dimensions of rapture, hinting at how an ecstatic philosophy is realized in his elusive doctrine of Eternal Return. Jill Marsden pursues the implications of this legacy for contemporary Continental thought via analyses of such voyages in ecstasy as those of Kant, Schopenhauer, Schreber and Bataille.

Foreword
Preface
In the Horizon of the Infinite
The Tempo of Becoming
A Feeling of Life
Men of Fire
A General Theory of Collapse
The Night of Unknowing
Great Moments of Oblivion
The Sense of Eternity
Notes
Bibliography
Index

JILL MARSDEN is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Bolton Institute. She has published a number of articles on Nietzsche and related themes in contemporary European philosophy.