Influence and reception of Friedrich Nietzsche
Influence and reception of Friedrich Nietzsche
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Friedrich Nietzsche 's influence and reception varied widely and may be roughly divided into various chronological periods. Reactions were anything but uniform, and proponents of various ideologies attempted to appropriate his work quite early. By 1937, this led Georges Bataille to argue against any 'instrumentalization ' of Nietzsche 's thought; Bataille felt that any simple-minded interpretation or unified ideological characterization of Nietzsche 's work granting predominance to any particular aspect failed to do justice to the body of his work as a whole.[1]
Beginning while Nietzsche was still alive, though incapacitated by mental illness, many Germans discovered his appeals for greater individualism and personality development in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but responded to those appeals in diverging ways. He had some following among left-wing Germans in the 1890s; in 1894–95, German conservatives wanted to ban his work as subversive. During the late 19th century Nietzsche 's ideas were commonly associated with anarchist movements and appear to have had influence within them, particularly in France and the United States.[2] Nietzsche even had a distinct appeal for many Zionist thinkers at the turn of the century. It has been argued the his work influenced Theodore Herzl,[3] andMartin Buber went so far as to extoll Nietzsche as a "creator" and "emissary of life".[4]
By World War I, however, he had acquired a reputation as an inspiration for right-wing German militarism. German soldiers even received copies of Thus Spoke Zarathustra as gifts during World War I.[5][6] The Dreyfus Affair provides another example of his reception: the French anti-semitic Right labelled the Jewish and Leftist intellectuals who defended Alfred Dreyfus as "Nietzscheans"[7]. Such seemingly paradoxical acceptance by diametrically opposed camps is typical of the history of the reception of Nietzsche 's
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Friedrich Nietzsche 's influence and reception varied widely and may be roughly divided into various chronological periods. Reactions were anything but uniform, and proponents of various ideologies attempted to appropriate his work quite early. By 1937, this led Georges Bataille to argue against any 'instrumentalization ' of Nietzsche 's thought; Bataille felt that any simple-minded interpretation or unified ideological characterization of Nietzsche 's work granting predominance to any particular aspect failed to do justice to the body of his work as a whole.[1]
Beginning while Nietzsche was still alive, though incapacitated by mental illness, many Germans discovered his appeals for greater individualism and personality development in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but responded to those appeals in diverging ways. He had some following among left-wing Germans in the 1890s; in 1894–95, German conservatives wanted to ban his work as subversive. During the late 19th century Nietzsche 's ideas were commonly associated with anarchist movements and appear to have had influence within them, particularly in France and the United States.[2] Nietzsche even had a distinct appeal for many Zionist thinkers at the turn of the century. It has been argued the his work influenced Theodore Herzl,[3] andMartin Buber went so far as to extoll Nietzsche as a "creator" and "emissary of life".[4]
By World War I, however, he had acquired a reputation as an inspiration for right-wing German militarism. German soldiers even received copies of Thus Spoke Zarathustra as gifts during World War I.[5][6] The Dreyfus Affair provides another example of his reception: the French anti-semitic Right labelled the Jewish and Leftist intellectuals who defended Alfred Dreyfus as "Nietzscheans"[7]. Such seemingly paradoxical acceptance by diametrically opposed camps is typical of the history of the reception of Nietzsche 's
References: In recent years, Nietzsche has also influenced members of the analytical philosophy tradition, such as Bernard Williams in his last finished book, Truth And Truthfulness: An Essay In Genealogy (2002).