Nietzsche’s “Love” for Socrates

Abstract

In this essay I contest the prevailing view that Nietzsche almost exclusively criticizes Socrates, by a careful consideration of his encounter with Socrates in the Birth of Tragedy and Twilight of the Idols. By showing that in Nietzsche’s own sense he “loved” Socrates, I am able to raise a number of important issues for further consideration.

Keywords

• nietzsche
• socrates
• dionysian
• apollinian tragedy