Nietzsche seems to have been accused of all deadly sins, and, had there been more such sins, he would have been accused of them too. The tag of ‘anti-Semite’ has been slapped on Nietzsche by his many critics, who love to quote the following line of his Antichrist, XXIV, to substantiate their charge: “Anti-Semitism is the final consequence of Judaism.” (For much more on the delicate subject of Nietzsche And The Jews, see the next entry.)
The essence of this famous sentence seems to place the blame for the phenomenon of anti-Semitism on the Jews themselves. When taken completely out of context of Nietzsche as a whole, it does sound “virulently anti-Semitic,” but is this the case in reality?
Many Nietzsche passages are extremely offensive to religion, to women, to men, to the British, to his own Germans, to the same individuals whom, in other passages, he would elevate on a lofty pedestal. There can be no question that his outspoken forthright style is often abrasive and insulting to things and persons that he would later praise and exalt. In a sense, he may be compared to a loving spouse, who occasionally scolds her husband, while being perfectly civil to strangers, which can be psychologically explained by her general indifference to strangers; but as to her husband, being the person she loves and cares about the most, he is subjected to the brunt of her storms of emotional engagement and deep caring. But there is another explanation for this as well: Nietzsche loves to challenge his readers and the world, and, on many occasions, he deliberately invites red-hot controversy, and delights in it. Here is what Nietzsche’s leading translator and commentator Walter Kaufmann says about Nietzsche’s extraordinarily controversial nature in his Translator’s Preface to the 1965 English translation of Jenseits:
"Nietzsche was controversial to the marrow. He sought controversy, and is still controversial. But the area of agreement about him is growing. Nietzsche was one of the greatest German writers and philosophers of all time, and one of the most interesting and influential Europeans of the nineteenth century."
Kaufmann goes even farther than this, in his exuberant praise for Nietzsche and Jenseits:
"This (Jenseits) is one of the great books of the nineteenth century, indeed of any century. There is much in it with which I do not agree; but that is also true of Plato’s and Aristotle’s writings, of Dostoyevsky’s and Dante’s ideas, and of the Bible.
"It is possible to say briefly what makes it great: The prophetic independence of its spirit; the hundreds of doors it opens for the mind, revealing new vistas, problems and relationships; and what it contributes to our understanding of much of recent thought and literature and history. Readers might ask, for example, about the relation of various passages to psychoanalysis, to analytical philosophy, or to existentialism. But even a longer list would not do justice to the book. There remains another dimension. This (Jenseits) is one of those rare books in which one encounters not only a great thinker, but also a fascinating human being of exceptional complexity and integrity."
These are very good words, and I could not agree more with Kaufmann’s assessment of Nietzsche. In fact, much of what he says closely corresponds to my own, independently made assessment, as the reader might remember. But we could rightly add here that Nietzsche’s exceptionally controversial nature is inseparable from his most admirable qualities. It is his honesty and courage, his challenge and intellectual innocence, which account for him being, in Kaufmann’s words, "not only a great thinker but also a fascinating human being of exceptional complexity and integrity."
There is nothing more controversial in the human world than intellectual honesty and truth itself. We may now be finally able to answer the ultimate question, What is truth? by replying: Truth is man’s intellectual honesty, and… God! In this last respect, Nietzsche is in very good company.
The essence of this famous sentence seems to place the blame for the phenomenon of anti-Semitism on the Jews themselves. When taken completely out of context of Nietzsche as a whole, it does sound “virulently anti-Semitic,” but is this the case in reality?
Many Nietzsche passages are extremely offensive to religion, to women, to men, to the British, to his own Germans, to the same individuals whom, in other passages, he would elevate on a lofty pedestal. There can be no question that his outspoken forthright style is often abrasive and insulting to things and persons that he would later praise and exalt. In a sense, he may be compared to a loving spouse, who occasionally scolds her husband, while being perfectly civil to strangers, which can be psychologically explained by her general indifference to strangers; but as to her husband, being the person she loves and cares about the most, he is subjected to the brunt of her storms of emotional engagement and deep caring. But there is another explanation for this as well: Nietzsche loves to challenge his readers and the world, and, on many occasions, he deliberately invites red-hot controversy, and delights in it. Here is what Nietzsche’s leading translator and commentator Walter Kaufmann says about Nietzsche’s extraordinarily controversial nature in his Translator’s Preface to the 1965 English translation of Jenseits:
"Nietzsche was controversial to the marrow. He sought controversy, and is still controversial. But the area of agreement about him is growing. Nietzsche was one of the greatest German writers and philosophers of all time, and one of the most interesting and influential Europeans of the nineteenth century."
Kaufmann goes even farther than this, in his exuberant praise for Nietzsche and Jenseits:
"This (Jenseits) is one of the great books of the nineteenth century, indeed of any century. There is much in it with which I do not agree; but that is also true of Plato’s and Aristotle’s writings, of Dostoyevsky’s and Dante’s ideas, and of the Bible.
"It is possible to say briefly what makes it great: The prophetic independence of its spirit; the hundreds of doors it opens for the mind, revealing new vistas, problems and relationships; and what it contributes to our understanding of much of recent thought and literature and history. Readers might ask, for example, about the relation of various passages to psychoanalysis, to analytical philosophy, or to existentialism. But even a longer list would not do justice to the book. There remains another dimension. This (Jenseits) is one of those rare books in which one encounters not only a great thinker, but also a fascinating human being of exceptional complexity and integrity."
These are very good words, and I could not agree more with Kaufmann’s assessment of Nietzsche. In fact, much of what he says closely corresponds to my own, independently made assessment, as the reader might remember. But we could rightly add here that Nietzsche’s exceptionally controversial nature is inseparable from his most admirable qualities. It is his honesty and courage, his challenge and intellectual innocence, which account for him being, in Kaufmann’s words, "not only a great thinker but also a fascinating human being of exceptional complexity and integrity."
There is nothing more controversial in the human world than intellectual honesty and truth itself. We may now be finally able to answer the ultimate question, What is truth? by replying: Truth is man’s intellectual honesty, and… God! In this last respect, Nietzsche is in very good company.
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