The presence of Plato and the spectrum of Schopenhauer in Nietzsche’s lectures, On the Future of Our Educational Institutions
(2024) Estudios Nietzsche : revista internacional de filosofia — Vol. 24, p. 183-201 (2024)
Files
The_presence_of_Plato_and_the_spectrum_of_Schopenh.pdf
Open Access - Adobe PDF
- 365.67 KB
Details
- Authors
- Abstract
- We have set out here to highlight two references that underlie Nietzsche’s argument in his lecture On the Future of Our Educational Institutions. The philosopher shares with Plato and Schopenhauer a natural aristocracy of the mind, i.e. the idea that nature is stingy in its production of geniuses. In these conditions, it’s understandable that he should feel “frightened” by the democratization of the university he is witnessing. We show, however, that he plays Plato off against Schopenhauer, but does not follow the Greek philosopher all the way. First, Nietzsche stresses that far from believing that the university and culture should be at the service of the State, it is the State that should be at the service of Bildung, and it is what would emerge from the Platonic model. But we must also realize that this model is not entirely Platonic since the city does not serve the geniuses, even if they are philosophers, in Plato’s view. It is necessary to provide the best conditions for the appearance of the philosopher, but the philosopher is in turn responsible for the excellence and happiness of the city, so that the Platonic end is the whole, whereas the end that Nietzsche seems to be aiming for is the individual genius. In fact, although the starting point of the text is the future of institutions, we notice that there is little mention of this and that it is much more a question of thinking through what must be done to make true culture possible, as embodied in an individual. Indeed, Bildung is individual and the realization of the politics of Bildung in the individual. Nietzsche then starts from a Platonic device that he actually turns against the Platonic thesis. He uses Plato to overcome the pessimism of the old Schopenhauer (which does not seem to be the end of the story), but also Schopenhauer, among others, to arrive at an individualistic thesis that is no longer Plato’s at all, foreshadowing Nietzsche’s break with the university.
- Affiliations
Citations
Quérini, N. (2024). The presence of Plato and the spectrum of Schopenhauer in Nietzsche’s lectures, On the Future of Our Educational Institutions. Estudios Nietzsche : revista internacional de filosofia, 24, 183-201. https://doi.org/10.24310/en.24.2024.18078 (Original work published 2024)