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AN INTERPRETATION of Niefzsche's POLITICAL EDUCATION a DISSERTATION SUBMITTED to the GRADUATE DIVISION OF

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THE UNTIMELY EDUCATOR: AN INTERPRETATION OF NIEfZSCHE'S POLITICAL EDUCATION A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS AUGUST 2005 By Richard Anton St. Onge Dissertation Committee: David Ericson, Chairperson Graham Parkes Stacy Roberts Hunter McEwan Thomas Jackson Acknowledgments My good friend Peter Maguire helped me improve the content as well as the form ofthe dissertation. His patience, generosity, and counselwas invaluable. My father, Richard Arthur St. Onge, is rightly owed thanks. He is a physician and educator in the fullest and, often, the finest sense. I benefitted from our conversations about nature, health, education, and politics. His criticisms afforded constructive insights. To the members ofmy dissertation committee, I expressmy gratitude, most especially to David Ericson and Graham Parkes for their guidance and support over the years. Their encouragement was much appreciated, as was their advice-despite my not always seeming to follow it. Among my friends, I should like to mention Craig Chapman, Dean Dampney, Eric Haas, and the late Edis Begovic, whose memory abides me. Whether they are aware ofit or not, I am in indebted to each for contributions great and small. I am also grateful to the Emily Margaret White Education Trustfor its financial support for the duration ofmy graduate education. Finally, Bruna Brown St. Onge, my lovely daughter, was extremely patient and generous these past few years as her father devoted the bulk ofhis energies to a project that took longer than planned to complete. A constant, refreshing presence and source ofinspiration, Bruna is a most complementary human. This dissertation is dedicated to her. iii ABSTRACT At the core of Nietzsche's philosophy of education is a political teaching for the future ofhuman life on earth. Phrased in life-affirming terms of health, Nietzsche's aim is to "redeem" the earth and "enhance" humankind through a new teaching on nature, thereby raising culture to a level of "naturalness" hitherto unknown. Such a counternihilistic interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy of education has not been acknowledged by the Anglo-American philosophy ofeducation. The oversight is due in part to the fact that Nietzsche never intended for his political and educational ideas to have universal, much less broad egalitarian, appeal. His appeal, as both a self-conscious educator and political philosopher, is to certain imaginative individuals, who are themselves partially detached from the present but sufficiently attached to it to be able to set to work to create a radically different society from that which exists in the modern era-one of transformed (not reformed) human values for the future of life on earth. His proposition hinges on whether or not a future global culture can be founded upon a new ontology and nature-affirming, pantheistic, moreover, ecological philosophy of life. Nietzsche's hermeneutic of education and politics can generate discussion in ways both positive and edifying insofar as he challenges us to not only consider radical alternatives, but also reexamine the foundations ofour own principles and beliefs. Entertaining Nietzsche on his own philosophical terms challenges us to rethink and test our assumptions, expectations, and commitments in ways that could very well produce new, action­ guiding, and life-enhancing understanding. The educational possibility ofbecoming healthy and whole is essential to understanding the positive implications and relevance of Nietzsche's pursuit of a new definition ofjustice and, furthermore, his appeal to the highest types to join him in that quest. iv Table of Contents Achwwk~mems ill Key to Abbreviations of Nietzsche's Works vi Introduction 1 Chapter One: The Physician ofCulture 8 Chapter Two: Nietzsche Reconstructed? 33 Chapter Three: Nietzsche's Iustice 61 Chapter Four: Nietzsche's Political Education 73 Chapter Five: The Ecological Implications of Nietzsche's Political Education 113 Conclusion 143 Epilogue: The Contemporary Relevance ofNietzsche's Political Education 153 Bibliography 157 v Key to the Abbreviations ofNietzsche's Works The Anti-ChrisWan). AC Beyond Good and Evil. BGE The Birth of Tra~edy. BT The Case ofWa~ner. CW Daybreak. D Dithyrambs of Dionysus. DD Ecce Homo. EH On the Future of Our Educational Institutions. FEI The Gay (Joyous) Science. JS On the Geneal02Y of Morals. GM The Greek State. GS Homer and Classical Philol02Y. HCP Homer's Contest. HC Human. All Too Human. (Vols. I & II.) . HH Nietzsche Contra Wa2ner. NCW Philosophy in the Tra2ic A2e of the Greeks. PTG Thus Spoke Zarathustra. TSZ Untimely Meditations. Includes: David Strauss. the confessor and the writer; DS On the uses and disadvanta~es of history for life; HL Schopenhauer as Educator; SE and Richard WajWer in Bayreuth. WB The Will to Power. WP All references to Books orVolumes, within a book or essay, are cited with roman numerals (e.g., I, II, III); the references to sections contained within a Book, Volume, or essay, are noted as § 1,2,3, etc. vi Introduction At the core of Nietzsche's philosophy ofeducation is a political teaching for the future of human life on earth. Phrased in "life-affirming" terms of "health," Nietzsche's aim is to "redeem" the earth and "enhance" humankind, thereby raising culture to a level of "naturalness" hitherto unknown.! Such a counternihilistic interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy of education has not been acknowledged by the Anglo-American philosophy of education.2 The oversight is due in part to the fact that, unlike most modem philosophers, Nietzsche never intendedfor his political and educational ideas to have universal, much less broad egalitarian, appeal. His appeal, as both a self-conscious "educator" and political philosopher, is to the highest, most-gifted, and courageous human beings to create a radically different society from that which exists in the modem era, one of transformed (not reformed) human values for the future oflife on earth. Nietzsche's goal for new global culture is an account of the way of all beings (notjust humans), in that his philosophy concerns species- and ecologically-relevant issues which transcend anyone particular ethnocentric tradition or ideological viewpoint. Nietzsche takes the medical and aesthetic perspective of life. A distinct political pedagogy arises from this perspective, which counsels how human life might best be lived on earth: a Where To and For What. According to a philosophy that gains an ontological interpretation of nature, oftruth, and the relationship of the truth of nature to a new definition of the good, Nietzsche legislates new social and political values according to which all human beings should live. John Richardson observes that Nietzsche's pedagogical intention is that "as a matter of psychological fact a condition of authority over other persons is our 'highest end', all our other goals being chosen and pursued only as means to this."3 Richardson adds that "even if Nietzsche doesn't offer his values to everyone, he thinks they still take the measure of everyone."4 The global implications of the future political caste of rulers- "legislators of value"- Nietzsche aims to cultivate should be understood, argues Laurence Lampert, "in the full Platonic pedigree as philosophical rulers who legislate for a whole age[.]"s Nietzsche's elites will, if his ideas on rearing and 1 Ct. TSZ 111.13; 111.12 § 17, 30; TI"Expeditions" § 48. See also Plato, The Republic o408a - o415c. 2 There are two notable exceptions, although they do not have their source in the academic philosophy of education. In Nietzsche's Tragic Regime (1998), Thomas Heilke identifies Nietzsche as a political educator. Heilke concentrates on the early writings from Nietzsche's pre-aphoristic Basle period. Laurence Lampert's Nietzsche's Task (2001), a close systematic study of Beyond Good and Evil, elucidates Nietzsche's mature pedagogical politics in terms of the cultivation of a "new nobility." 3 Nietzsche's System, 1996: 19. 4Ibid.:218. 5 Nietzsche's Task: An Interpretation of Beyond Good and Evil, 2001 :199. 1 education are achieved, give new purpose and identity to the entire world. Like Plato, Nietzsche wants to restore" "the philosopher"-newly conceived6 -to the crown of cultural struggle.7 The principal aim of my dissertation is to mark the significance of Nietzsche's philosophy for political education. The relevance ofhis political education for contemporary ecology is of immediate import in such regard. In order to clarify Nietzsche's political teaching, I must also identify and discuss recent trends in the Anglo-American philosophy of education to "reconstruct" Nietzsche in a manner that seems to accommodate progressive liberal ideals. I will show that such "radically democratic" interpretations misrepresent and distort Nietzsche's philosophy in favor of timely prejudices. To elucidate the "aristocratic radicalism"s of Nietzsche's pedagogical politics, and what this teaching means for the future of an ecologically­ responsible culture and the "enhancement" of the human species, I trace the development of these ideas in his published works over the course of his philosophical career. ttt In contrast to modem political theorists, Nietzsche does not desire the appeal of the crowd; nor does he require their consent. The first Nietzschean political premise is one of basic, ineluctable inequality. According to his vision of politics and culture, a wide gulf separates the ruling caste from the ruled; not the consent of the governed but their submission is all that is required. Contrary to the democratic demand of egalitarianism, Nietzsche asserts that it is the business of the rulers to rule and of the ruled to obey. Nowhere does Nietzsche affirm the rights of the common man, the worker, or the masses. Echoing the political teachings ofPlato and Xenophon, Nietzsche provides no consolation to the ruled. His is an archaic authoritarian political principle ofthe highest, not the most common, order.
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