Publication Details

Abstract

Nietzsche’s definition of history is based on his refusal to conceive it as “pure science”: We can employ history only “for the purpose of life”. This vitalistic perspective led us to initially tackle the nietzschean interpretation of life, which is concerned with a “dark, driving power that insatiably thirsts for itself”, which, in its effort to be redeemed from “the “unconsciousness of instinct”, can be find in a small minority of geniuses, the human types who will ensure the fulfillment of its ultimate demand for the Self – knowledge. But this demand, given the “terror” and “horror” of life itself, essentially announces the fight of man with the tragic aspect of the cosmic Being. Thus the nietzschean conception of history seems to fully reflect the intentions of life, aiming at the creation of a human being who is able to face the transference of suffering from the cosmic to the historical field. Nonetheless, due to the inability of life to accomplish this aim in its own right, Nietzsche had to employ the mediation of education, which should to help the genius to adapt the past to his own needs, in order to finally accomplish his own uniqueness.