“I have set up the most difficult ideal of the philosopher. Learning is not enough! The scholar is the herd animal in the realm of knowledge”
The Will To Power, 421
This week, we consider Part Six of Beyond Good and Evil, which Nietzsche titled “We Scholars”.
This chapter is the most essay-like chapter in the text, and probably the easiest to read out of the entire book.
It is important to keep in mind throughout that when Nietzsche uses the term “science” this is a translation of the German Wissenscahft, which is not restricted to the natural sciences like Physics.
Kaufmann writes
“Wissenschaft might just as well be rendered as ‘scholarship’ in this section — and in much German literature: the term does not have primary reference to the natural sciences as it does in twentieth-century English”.
The core concerns Nietzsche expresses in this part of the book are the nature and fate of philosophy, the problem of the scholar, the possibility of greatness.
Section Commentary
204
Nietzsche opens t…
