Nietzsche claimed to be a philosopher of the future, but he was
appropriated as a philosopher of Nazism. His work inspired a long
study by Martin Heidegger and essays by a host of lesser disciples
attached to the Third Reich. In 1935, however, Karl Jaspers set out
to "marshall against the National Socialists the world of thought
of the man they had proclaimed as their own philosopher." The year
after publishing "Nietzsche," Jaspers was discharged from his
professorship at Heidelberg University by order of the Nazi
leadership.
Jaspers does not fall into the same trap as idealogues do,
citing bits and pieces from Nietzsche's work to reinforce already
held opinions. Instead, he openly shows the wide range of
Nietzsche's views, including his endorsement of wars and warriors,
his prophecies of world struggle and "new masters," and the cruel
arrogance of the supermen. Yet Jaspers finds Nietzsche's philosophy
to be extraordinary not only because he foresaw all the
monstrosities of the twentieth century, but also because he saw
through them.
"The appearance which Nietzsche's work presents can be expressed
figuratively: it is as though a mountain wall had been dynamited;
the rock, already more or less shaped, conveys the idea of a whole.
But the building for the sake of which the dynamiting seems to have
been done has not been erected. However, the fact that the work
lies about like a heap of ruins does not appear to conceal its
spirit from the one who happens to have found the key to the
possibilities of construction; for him, many fragments fit
together. But not unambiguously; many functionally suitable pieces
are present in numerous, only slightly varied repetitions, others
reveal themselves as precious and unique forms, as though each were
meant to furnish a cornerstone somewhere or a keystone for an
arch."--Karl Jaspers, from the introduction
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