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New Views of Nietzsche
| Article
# : |
12988 |
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Section : |
Modern Thought
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1987 |
2,359 Words |
| Author
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Robert Steuckers
Robert Steuckers is the editor-in-chief of the Belgian journal
Orientations and has written on European fascism and the
evolution of Nietzsche as a thinker. |
One hundred years ago Thus Speak Zarathustra appeared. The most celebrated work of Nietzsche, it has been read and cited by even moderately educated people. The German philosopher has a stormy reputation due to his tirades against Christianity and his aristocratic rejection of conventional moral views. Nietzsche provokes all kinds of reactions. Each reader may have his own Nietzsche, drawing from him a cherished opinion to be worn as a colored badge with the hope of shocking ordinary folk. And in fact in the last one hundred years, everything and anything has been said about Nietzsche.
This absence of professionalism and this facile subjectivism have produced occasionally disastrous consequences. From the beginning Nietzsche's thought has defied systematic construction. Even now the most memorable characteristics of his pioneering work are his ferocious fulminations, his deconstruction, and the acrid stench left by those who have raided his texts. One cannot hope to say finally what Nietzsche really meant. But it may be possible to find a unifying thread. This requires ignoring abusive and merely subjectivist interpretations while highlighting those of true value. The renewed interest in Nietzsche's works has produced a vast body of relevant literature, much of it critical.
In June 1981 Rudolf Augstein, editor of Der Spiegel, stated without qualification that Hitler was the man of action who put Nietzsche's thought into practice. The journalist took for proof the falsifications of some of Nietzsche's manuscripts by his sister Elisabeth Nietzsche-Forster, who had shaken Hitler's hand in the twilight of her life. This argument is perhaps a bit thin in view of the many other writings that his sister did not
... (1973 of 15431 Characters)
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