Abstract

Sensitive to the fluidity of Nietzsche's thought, which often expresses itself in apparent contradiction, Karl Jaspers notes that “for nearly every single one of Nietzsche's judgements one can also find an opposite.” But Jaspers goes on to warn that the art of reading Nietzsche faithfully demands that we gradually locate the central axis of his philosophy so that seeming irreconcilables may be resolved into a hierarchy of importance. Not surprisingly, however, this painstaking study has seldom been performed, with the result that Nietzsche's paternity has been claimed by a wildly disparate band of selective readers. Thus in Wilhemine Germany the most radical wing of the SPD denounces rigid party orthodoxy by quoting approvingly Nietzsche's distaste for “herd morality,” while completely ignoring the fact that Nietzsche considered socialism itself to be alate blooming variety of just such morality