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Essay on Socrates in the Eyes of Niezstche
Socrates in The Eyes of Niezstche: An Analysis
The Birth of Tragedy was Nietzsche’s first work. Nietzsche’s philosophy was still very much in the process of developing. In reality, his significant use of history there preceded his explanation of what critical history even was. Moreover, it strikes me as noteworthy that Nietzsche’s last critical uses of Socrates do allow for the variety of meaning and interpretation. Nietzsche’s last words on the topic are not ultimate. Instead, they are questions, offering competing images that serve to reveal the complexity of both the character of Socrates and the relationship that Nietzsche held with him. It might also be objected that one cannot decipher to what extent Nietzsche’s fight with Socrates, or critical use of Socrates, constitutes an aspect of Nietzsche’s project of fashioning an inimitable self.
Socrates was himself condemned and executed as a radical who had damaged the confidence of Athenian youth in the principles of Athenian democracy. Through his dialectical method, he taught everyone to doubt what they received or learned from society. Most importantly, his paradoxical style appeared to evade offering any alternative vision of society. The dialectical method appeared in Nietzsche’s eyes to be a sadistic device to ensure the self-destruction of its victims. In the words of Nietzsche: “Before Socrates, the dialectical manner was repudiated in good society: it was regarded as a form of bad manners, one was compromised by it.”
In disapproving of the dialectical method, Nietzsche reproaches Socrates as envious. The philosopher was physically ugly and plebeian. These material characteristics determined his life-denying philosophy, which paralyzed Athenian youth. Socrates’ hyper-acute call to self-knowledge and self-consciousness promoted an inwardness, which reflected the decay of Athenian society. Society had lost the capacity to act spontaneously, having lost touch with those instincts, which could have assured vigorous action directed outwardly to the external world...............
