Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Nietzsche's Title and Preface
- 2 “On the Prejudices of the Philosophers”: A Critique of Metaphysical Ground (Part 1 §§1–23)
- 3 “The Free Spirit”: The Philosopher Realigned to Will to Power (Part 2 §§24–44)
- 4 The Nature of Religion: Beyond Nihilism, Towards the Immanent Ideal (Part 3 §§45–62)
- 5 “Epigrams and Entr'actes” (Part 4 §§63–185)
- 6 The Natural History of Morality: The Development of Affects and Reactions (Part 5 §§186–203)
- 7 We Scholars: Science as the “Hammer” of Philosophy (Part 6 §§204–13)
- 8 Our Virtues: Honesty and the “Democratic Mixing” of Peoples, Classes, Genders (Part 7 §§214–39)
- 9 Peoples and Fatherlands: Towards the Political Task of Philosophy in Europe (Part 8 §240–56)
- 10 What is Noble? Past and Future Aristocracies (Part 9 §§257–96)
- 11 From High Mountains: Aftersong
- Glossary
- Selected Further Reading
- Index
7 - We Scholars: Science as the “Hammer” of Philosophy (Part 6 §§204–13)
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Nietzsche's Title and Preface
- 2 “On the Prejudices of the Philosophers”: A Critique of Metaphysical Ground (Part 1 §§1–23)
- 3 “The Free Spirit”: The Philosopher Realigned to Will to Power (Part 2 §§24–44)
- 4 The Nature of Religion: Beyond Nihilism, Towards the Immanent Ideal (Part 3 §§45–62)
- 5 “Epigrams and Entr'actes” (Part 4 §§63–185)
- 6 The Natural History of Morality: The Development of Affects and Reactions (Part 5 §§186–203)
- 7 We Scholars: Science as the “Hammer” of Philosophy (Part 6 §§204–13)
- 8 Our Virtues: Honesty and the “Democratic Mixing” of Peoples, Classes, Genders (Part 7 §§214–39)
- 9 Peoples and Fatherlands: Towards the Political Task of Philosophy in Europe (Part 8 §240–56)
- 10 What is Noble? Past and Future Aristocracies (Part 9 §§257–96)
- 11 From High Mountains: Aftersong
- Glossary
- Selected Further Reading
- Index
Summary
The title is “Wir Gelehrten”, “We Scholars”. What must not be missed is the relation to “Lehrer”, meaning teacher, as in the first section of Part 4. So we have the double idea of scholarship. First, as assiduous and objective enquiry, akin to or equivalent to science; indeed, in §204 Nietzsche uses the term “Wissenshaft” (science, but not exclusively natural science – thus, again, an objective, “scientific” enquiry) apparently equivalently. And, secondly, teaching or education. The second part of this meaning already anticipates one of Nietzsche's key points in this Part: being a scholar is not an end in itself, nor for that matter is the scholar's production of knowledge. The aim, rather, is to make something possible through scholarship as mode of a teaching.
§204
There has been, Nietzsche claims, a harmful change in the relative ranks assigned to philosophy and science [Wissenshaft]. As noted above, this term refers to activities well beyond the scope of the natural sciences (which is the “natural” usage of “science” in English), to include the human sciences (e.g. psychology, sociology, linguistics) and other disciplines that see themselves as objective and methodologically precise, such as history. Thus, the distinction between the terms “scientist” and “scholar” (as in the title of this Part) is by no means as marked in German as in English. Nietzsche is referring to philosophy's gradual replacement as the chief mode of approaching and knowing. There are, however, two risks associated with even raising this issue of relative rank.
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- Information
- Reading NietzscheAn Analysis of Beyond Good and Evil, pp. 135 - 152Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2006