Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist
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Cover of the second edition
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| Author | Walter Kaufmann |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Friedrich Nietzsche |
| Publisher | Princeton University Press |
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Publication date
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1950 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 532 (2013 edition) |
| ISBN | |
Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (1950; second edition 1956; third edition 1968; fourth edition 1974; fifth edition 2013) is a book about the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche by the philosopher Walter Kaufmann, first published by Princeton University Press. The book was influential and is considered a classic study. Kaufmann has been credited with helping to transform Nietzsche's reputation after World War II by dissociating him from Nazism, and making it possible for Nietzsche to be taken seriously as a philosopher. However, he has been criticized for presenting Nietzsche as an existentialist, and for other details of his interpretation.
The following summary of the book is based on Nehamas's introduction.
Kaufmann seeks to counter the distorted understanding of Nietzsche as a psychologically flawed, totalitarian, irrationalist, and anti-semitic thinker. He places the responsibility for the creation of this Nietzsche "legend" partly on Stefan George and his followers, but mainly on Nietzsche's sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, who controlled the publication of his works and sometimes even changed his language. Kaufmann argues that The Will to Power, which she edited and published, is an arbitrary selection of Nietzsche's notes, taken out of context and chronological order and arranged according to Förster-Nietzsche's flawed understanding of her brother's thought, and that Nietzsche acquired his reputation for heartless cruelty, anti-semitism, and pervasive self-contradiction because critics felt free to quote short passages of his work, often written in exaggerated language, without concern for context.
In Kaufmann's view, Nietzsche's style indicates a specific approach to philosophical questions: it expresses the desire to look at things from as many different perspectives as possible and a willingness to "experiment" with ideas. By describing Nietzsche's concerns as "existential", Kaufmann connects him to the existentialism of Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Kaufmann sees Nietzsche as an heir to rationalism, rather than a Romantic critic of the Enlightenment. Nietzsche's ideal type is not Napoleon Bonaparte or Adolf Hitler, but Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who conquered not the world but himself. Kaufmann concludes that Nietzsche's philosophy has its roots in Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Socrates, who "became little less than an idol for him." He rejects the interpretation of Nietzsche's overman as a biological category referring to a German master race whose will to power would lead it to exploit the rest of the world.
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