|
 Philosopher
of the Month
February
2002 - Friedrich Nietzsche
Christopher
Budd
Hear me! For I am such and such a person. Above all, do not mistake
me for someone else.
Friedrich Nietzsche Ecce Homo (Preface, 1)
Friedrich
Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) was born in Rocken in Prussian Saxony.
Nietzsche’s father died in 1849, leaving the young Friedrich
to be raised by his mother, aunts and older sister. In 1864, Nietzsche
left for university in Bonn, and in 1865, he left Bonn for Leipzig,
changing his focus from theology to classical philology. In 1869,
Nietzsche accepted an appointment in classical philology at the
University of Basel. For the next ten years, until his retirement
due to disability in 1879; Nietzsche taught at Basel. After leaving
Basel, Nietzsche lived on his own, publishing at a steady rate until
he suffered a mental breakdown in 1889 in Turin, Italy that left
him completely incapacitated. From 1889 until his death in 1900,
Nietzsche remained an invalid, dependent on his mother and then
sister to care for him as he moved from clinic to clinic before
settling finally under his sister’s care in Weimar in 1897.
It
has been said that Nietzsche is one of the best known and yet least
understood of philosophers, and the reaction to his best known work,
Also Sprach Zarathustra, amply illustrates this point. Often read
by itself, without a firm grasp of Nietzsche’s other works,
Zarathutra’s religious imagery and metaphor leave many with
the impression that Nietzsche is not a thinker, but a prophet. While
Nietzsche consciously chose the style of Zarathustra for a purpose,
it was not to found a new religion, even an atheistic one. Rather,
Nietzsche, who begged not to be made holy in his self-assessment
Ecce Homo (the title itself being a tongue-in-cheek reference to
the New Testament), uses the language of religion in an attempt
to undermine religion. Zarathustra epitomises Nietzsche’s plight,
as what he saw as his finest, most subtle expression of his thought
is misunderstood and interpreted to mean the opposite of what he
intended.
Nietzsche’s
work is a struggle for the reader and that is often his intent.
The short aphorism, which Nietzsche favoured so much, makes it easy
for the reader to misjudge the complexity and depth of meaning,
almost inviting one to leaf through a copy of Beyond Good and Evil
while in waiting in line. To do so, though, is to court misunderstanding
and miss what Nietzsche purports to say. To truly read Nietzsche,
one must read and struggle with his works as a whole, cover to cover.
While
reading Nietzsche is a struggle, it is not a hopeless one. Though
his method and language are often oblique, Nietzsche is not negative
thinker: he has a positive direction to his thought, and that direction
is nothing less than the realization of the genius of humanity.
Nietzsche’s works can be seen as an ongoing struggle within
himself of the fundamental question of what it is to be human, and
how that humanity can strive to be greater, and realize its potential.
In this way, his writing is not deliberately obscurantist, but reflects
the tensions and difficulties humans face in grappling with a world
that is increasingly devoid of external meaning.
For
Nietzsche, the genius of humanity is the ability to create ex nihilo
values and beliefs and, in so doing, to propel ourselves to greater
heights than would be possible in an anarchic state of nature. While
Nietzsche does not believe in Christianity, he sees in it an expression
of the creation of values that impel us to greater achievements
than would otherwise be possible. Unfortunately, this does not happen
in a historical vacuum. In Nietzsche’s opinion, Christianity
has expended its last benefits and no longer carries us to the heights,
but weighs us down, preventing us from newer, greater achievements.
This is one of the subtexts behind his pronouncement that "God
is dead". For humanity to flourish, it must cast off that which
no longer fits, and move on.
How
to move on, though? What next? That is really the question at the
heart of Nietzsche, and that is why it is not enough to casually
read one or two of his works in isolation from the rest of his corpus.
Nietzsche’s works mirror the struggle to create meaning. When
one has read and struggled with Nietzsche, one will not have the
answers, but one will understand where to begin to formulate an
answer for oneself. Nietzsche never wanted disciples, indeed even
Zarathustra hopes to see his followers repudiate him in the end.
Nietzsche wants thinkers, able and willing to form their own answers
for themselves. In this way, Nietzsche is not so much telling his
readers what to think, but rather how to think. His works are meant
to convey not a product but a process, and that process is at the
heart of what it is to be human.
A
new philosopher of the month will be featured late-March 2002
Join
Our Café mailing list
To
receive *very* short messages, letting you know when the Café
has been updated, just fill in your email address below - and press
submit.
[If
you wish to unsubscribe from the mailing list, simply fill in your
subscriber email address, select "Unsubscribe", and press Submit.]
Previous
Philosophers of the Month
|
