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Rating: 
Summary: Nietzsche contra Darwin
Review: In a breezy fashion, full barage of paper airplanes overhead this book, one need not agree a whit, usefully connects Nietzsche, Darwin, artificial life, and 'species evolution', past, present, future, in the process setting the record straight on Nietzsche and Darwin. One had thought the virulent extremes twixt the deeper chords of the great postmodern peer were an indication of the confusing Social Darwinist influence of Darwin on philosophers. In fact, one's suspicious are confirmed, that Nietzsche was too sharp to fall for Darwin, and saw the problem with Darwin's theory of natural selection almost at once, albeit mixing his cockeyed briliance with his own confusions about overmen. As everything is turned into a philosophic sausage of late, it might behoove the wielder of average opinions to decide to be a non-Darwinian, if he is a Nietzschean, or else vice versa, or else do so hard thinking about fundamentals. Nietzsche's views are complex, and one need not accept them, to see his point that natural selection can't be the resolution of evolutionary progression. In any case the discussion here was a curious sort of counterpoint to what I was thinking, and quite refreshing, read without conversion, and mindful one can misplace cultural history all too easily in the ceaseless revisionisms of the social phantom. Perhaps the only route to overman is via the Caves of Almora, but at least Nietzsche's wildman mien as Conaan the barbarian is at least topically to the point of the next Big Jump in the evolution of the 'schlemiel'.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware anthropomorphizing
Review: The first sentence of the introduction reads,"..I question,problematize,overturn,revalue,announce,renounce,advocate,interrogate,affirm,deny,celebrate,critique,the 'tranhuman condition'..". Yes,however I was confused by Mr.Pearson writing style and couldn't always tell when the overturning ends and the celebrating begins,etc. Perhaps it's just me though. I'm no trained philosopher and the books depth may be a bit too scholarly. But struggling through, I was frequently rewarded with sentences that gave me new insights into Nietzschean thought. And it's for those insights that I recommend this book. Hey, for just $5.00, you can't lose.
Rating:
Summary: Beware anthropomorphizing
Review: The first sentence of the introduction reads,"..I question,problematize,overturn,revalue,announce,renounce,advocate,interrogate,affirm,deny,celebrate,critique,the 'tranhuman condition'..". Yes,however I was confused by Mr.Pearson writing style and couldn't always tell when the overturning ends and the celebrating begins,etc. Perhaps it's just me though. I'm no trained philosopher and the books depth may be a bit too scholarly. But struggling through, I was frequently rewarded with sentences that gave me new insights into Nietzschean thought. And it's for those insights that I recommend this book. Hey, for just $5.00, you can't lose.
Rating: 
Summary: PoMo Gibberish
Review: Why can't people write books about these topics without using deconstructionist gibberish? If you can't be a great stylist, at least try to be clear. I'd have thought Ansell-Pearson would recognize by now that his reader are likely to conclude the obscure style is due to the arguments being so weak.
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