Nietzsche as educator: A reexamination

This essay argues that much can be gained from a close examination of Nietzsche's work with respect to education. In order to contextualise my argument, I provide a brief critique of Nietzsche's thinking on aesthetics, educators and education. I then turn my attention to the work of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the figures Zarathustra and the Ü bermensch, and other Nietzschean works with a view to outline what I mean by a Nietzschean education. My central thesis being that a Nietzschean education is primarily concerned with the cultivation of the self. This is certainly not an easy undertaking as it requires both an educator and education that can reveal to students ''what one is'' now (being), and who they could become (becoming). In order to bring this about, Nietzsche employs the use of an aesthetic model (ideal type) in the form of an exemplar for students to aspire to become. Here, the exemplar plays an important educative function in Nietzsche's thinking because the role of the ideal type is to unsettle the student so that they are inspired to attain their unattained self that they recognise in the other. Consequently, what makes my account of a Nietzschean education significant is due to its concern with fostering timeless educational aims, such as learning to see, think, speak, write, and feel, by unsettling students with an ideal educator and true education so that students can get a sense of who they are now and who they could become.

Journal of Philosophy of Education, 1985

Educational Theory, 2001

Educational Theory, 2019

In Nietzsche's Philosophy of Education 1 , Mark Jonas and Douglas Yacek provide a series of bold attempts to render Nietzsche useful for modern democratic pedagogy. They have chosen a tough row to hoe -though Nietzsche was keenly interested in education, and was himself for a time a professional educator at the University of Basel (and the local Pädagogium or grammar school in Basel), he was strikingly and infamously hostile to democracy, especially in its modern forms and especially in its effect on education. Jonas and Yacek seek to argue nonetheless that Nietzsche's views, when properly understood, serve to stimulate rather than to demolish democratic pedagogy. The first thing that should be mentioned (and lauded) about Jonas and Yacek's book is its ambition. There have been many article-length forays into Nietzsche's philosophy of education, in many cases limited to applying an isolated theory or striking claim of Nietzsche's to pedagogical issues. But treatments of this topic that are as extensive and ambitious as Jonas and Yacek's are rare. 2 They believe that all (or at least a lot) of Nietzsche's most influential ideas can inform all (or at least a lot) of our pedagogy in modern democracies. Their aim is not just to apply one or two

Routledge, 2018

Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical legacy for education is a source of enduring conflict among scholars. For some, Nietzsche’s seemingly radical ideas about perspectival knowledge and authentic self-creation appear to encourage the individual to cast aside all social, moral and epistemic constraints. Nietzsche seems to offer an educational vision that is inimical to organized education. Others maintain that Nietzsche endorses an elitist political order which openly militates against democratic values. Nietzsche must therefore be an enemy of democratic education, it seems. In this book, we argue that both of these interpretations of Nietzsche’s educational legacy are seriously mistaken. Nietzsche advocates neither licentious individualism nor radical elitism, but rather advocates a compelling and coherent vision of human flourishing which aims to promote the excellence of all individuals. Not only can Nietzsche serve as a crucial source of educational inspiration for modern democratic societies, but his educational philosophy offers four powerful educational ideas—perspectivism, self-overcoming, ressentiment and noble culture—which yield four compelling educational aims for the modern democratic school: empathizing with the perspectives of others, learning to think controversially, cultivating a disposition of gratitude, and creating a culture of emulation. Hence, this book is a committed effort to determine Nietzsche’s true legacy for democratic education.

Journal of the Philosophy of Education, 2001