Nietzsche as the Student of Socrates

Abstract

This thesis examines Nietzsche’s relationship to Socrates through his positive philosophy of education, arguing that the latter is crucial to resolving the apparent contradictions of the former. While there is a good deal of literature dealing with Nietzsche’s criticisms of the educational system of his day, there is relatively little on his own account of what education should be. I point out that the Greek conception of agon (roughly “contest” in English), is central to Nietzsche’s understanding of education, and informs his ideal of the student-mentor relationship. This is the model on which, I contend, Nietzsche’s relation to Socrates needs to be interpreted. Such an interpretation helps to make sense of, and reconcile, the divergent pictures of Socrates Nietzsche presents in his texts, which are sometimes admiring and imitative, sometimes hostile and contemptuous, and have led to conflicting interpretations within the scholarship on this subject. My analysis aims to shed new light on both the figure of Nietzsche’s Socrates, and Nietzsche’s philosophy of education, by relating these to one another.