Why Nietzsche Matters to Education

Abstract

A uniquely radical thinker, Friedrich Nietzsche undermines the most basic beliefs and values of Western culture, and challenges his readers to find a new approach to both knowledge and life. He has a lot to say about education, directly and indirectly. Nietzsche’s personal path took him from a university career to the role of unattached public intellectual. As a dissenting professor, he criticises the narrowness of academic scholarship, the decline of school standards and the pressures put on teachers. All these problems arise from neglect of the true aims of education, represented in the humanistic concept of ‘culture’. Nietzsche’s ideas on education are strongly influenced by his own experiences as student and teacher. Our real educators, he thinks, are the intellectual and moral models we choose for inspiration and guidance. A committed educator himself, Nietzsche sought opportunities to realise his vision of the relation between teacher and learner, with mixed success.