Christophe Corbier & Alice Giordano

The second session of the International Seminar Nietzsche’s Basel Lectures will be dedicated to the theme Greek Rhythmics and will take place online on 1 October 2025 (Wednesday), from 16:00 to 18:00 (UTC+1). The session will be led by Christophe Corbier, with a presentation entitled “Difference and Repetition in the Fragments on Greek Rhythm”, and Alice Giordano, who will speak on “The Force of Rhythm: Philology, Physiology, and Philosophy”.

Difference and Repetition in the Fragments on Greek Rhythm

Abstract: The five notebooks in which Nietzsche recorded his lectures and reflections on rhythm, rhythmics, and meter have never been published in their entirety. I will therefore first review the history of the editions of these notebooks and the difficulties that this edition poses today. I will then briefly present the ancient and modern sources used by Nietzsche to show the difference between previous theories and the new theory that Nietzsche announced to Erwin Rohde in 1870. In all his reflection on rhythm and meter, which involves body and language, is the opposition between repetition and difference. Thus, I will recall the well-known difference between quantitative rhythm and accentual rhythm, and I will evoke some of the fundamental concepts that Nietzsche seeks to define by referring to Greek texts in order to contradict German philologists. Following James Porter, I will finally return to the relationship between rhythmic theory and Nietzsche’s philosophical reflections, in particular his critique of numbers and signs fixing forces and durations.

Bio: Christophe Corbier is a researcher at the CNRS (Institut de Recherche en Musicologie, Paris, UMR 8233). He is the author of books and studies devoted to the history of modern Greek music and the relationship between literature, music, and philosophy. In 2024, he edited, with Sibylle Emerit and Christophe Vendries, the book De Villoteau à Saint-Saëns. An Archaeology of Ancient Music in the 19th Century (IFAO), in which he published an article on the metrical and rhythmic theories of philologists Gottfried Hermann, August Böckh, and Karl Otfried Müller. He is currently working on the creation of a virtual museum dedicated to the French phonetician and Hellenist Hubert Pernot and the history of phonetics and ethnomusicology in Greece in the early 20th century, based on the 92 wax cylinders that were recorded in 1898-1899 on the island of Chios, which he rediscovered in 2020-2021.

The Force of Rhythm: Philology, Physiology, and Philosophy

Abstract: During the winter semester of 1870-1871, Nietzsche delivered a series of lectures at the University of Basel that focused on the subject of ancient rhythm and meter. Subsequent to this, the drafting of four texts ensued: Griechische Rhythmik, Aufzeichnungen zur Metrik und Rhythmik, Zur Theorie der quantitirenden Rhythmik and Rhythmische Untersuchungen, all written between 1870 and 1873 and never published by Nietzsche.

The relevance of these writings will be argued for on three fundamental points: 1) They offer an original and unconventional perspective on ancient rhythm, situated within the context of classical studies of the time 2) They mark the inception of a project, which remained unfulfilled, entitled the “philosophy of rhythm” 3) Rhythm is considered a particularly suitable topic for portraying the interdisciplinary complexity that characterized Nietzsche’s thought, from his years in Basel and throughout his life.

Bio: Alice Giordano earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan. In 2021, she presented her thesis, which focused on the theme of rhythm in Friedrich Nietzsche’s thought. Building on the concepts introduced in the Basel lectures, her work examined rhythm as a recurring theme in Nietzsche’s corpus. The thesis was published in 2022 in a book titled Friedrich Nietzsche. L’arte del grande ritmo. She was visiting Ph.D. student at ICT and Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès, in Toulouse, France. Her academic interests are oriented towards the study of Italian, French, and German philosophy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is currently affiliated with Diaporein, the Research Center of Metaphysics and Philosophy of Art at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele.

About the seminar

It is now widely accepted among experts on Nietzsche’s work that his Basel lectures are essential to a proper understanding of the development of his thinking. Now that the lectures have been published in the critical edition of the complete works, it is necessary to study their sources and the methods used in them, as well as their philological and philosophical content. Despite this, they remain largely unexplored. While some relevant research has emerged, it has focused mainly on specific lectures. There is therefore still a need for research that covers all the lectures, studies them systematically and in their interrelationships, looking for differences and similarities and seeking to determine to what extent decisive aspects of what distinguishes Nietzsche’s thought are already present in them or not. This seminar aims to be a first contribution to filling this gap. It will consist of ten monthly sessions. Each session will focus on one of the series of lectures and its key topic. And it will feature two speakers. The seminar format, with its discussion among all participants after each presentation, is a fruitful model for a project of this kind. Attendance to each seminar session must be preceded by registration through one of the organisers, who will provide the respective link (carlottasantini@hotmail.it, enasser@uol.com.br, plima@fcsh.unl.pt). For more information, see the full seminar programme below.

Org. Carlotta Santini (CNRS/ENS, Paris), Eduardo Nasser (UFPE/UFABC), Paulo Lima (IFILNOVA/NOVA FCSH)

Next sessions

Session 3: Encyclopedia of Classical Philology

5 November 2025 (Wednesday), 16:00–18:00 (UTC)

Christian Benne, “Drives: Romantic Reflections in Encyclopädie der klassischen Philologie”

James Porter, “Thinking Backwards: Theocrasy and Syncretism in The Encyclopedia of Philology”

Session 4: Latin Grammar

16 December 2025 (exceptionally on Tuesday), 16:00–18:00 (UTC)

Christian Wolleck, “A Philosopher Talks About Grammar: On the Philosophical Implications of a Philological Stint”

Marina Silenzi, “Instinct, Shout and Mimicry: Toward a Genealogy of Language”

Session 5: The Pre-Platonic Philosophers

14 January 2026 (Wednesday), 16:00–18:00 (UTC)

André Laks, TBD

Helmut Heit, “The Pre-Platonic Philosophers”

Session 6: Plato

18 February 2026 (Wednesday), 16:00–18:00 (UTC)

João Constâncio, “Nietzsche on Plato’s Phaedrus and the Question of Writing”

Pieter De Corte, “Nietzsche on Plato’s Political Thought in the Basel Lectures”

Session 7: Cicero’s Academica

18 March 2026 (Wednesday), 16:00–18:00 (UTC)

Luca Lupo, “Saying Yes: The Doctrine of Assent”

Stefano Busellato, TBD

Session 8: Rhetoric

15 April 2026 (Wednesday), 16:00–18:00 (UTC+1)

Rogerio Lopes, “Much Ado About (Almost) Nothing: How to Avoid Philosophical Inflation of Genealogical Claims”

Aritz Pardina Herrero, “F. Nietzsche’s Rhetoric Lectures: Dating and Interrelationship (and Why These Are Important)”

Session 9: Tragedy

13 May 2026 (Wednesday), 16:00–18:00 (UTC+1)

Sotera Fornaro, TBD

Enrico Mueller, TBD

Session 10: Greek Literature

17 June 2026 (Wednesday), 16:00–18:00 (UTC+1)

Gemma Adesso, “The Art of Reading and Writing”

Rafael Carrión Arias, “History of Greek Literature from 1874-76: The Origins of Genealogical Method in F. Nietzsche”