The purpose of this research is to examine the political theories of Friedrich Nietzsche. The plan of the research will be to set forth the philosophical and cultural underpinnings of Nietzsche's political views, then to discuss the impact that Nietzsche as a political philosopher may have had on the ways in which his thought is used by contemporary political theorists to promote liberalism. At first glance, given the popular association of Nietzsche with reactionary Nazi ideology this may seem a peculiar enterprise. But as Adrian Collins has noted, "a radical confusion between philology, poetry, history, and philosophy is typical of [Nietzsche's] writing" (Collins, 1957, p. vii).
Nietzsche's "volcano of ideas" (Collins, 1957, p. vii), is hardly systematic in presentation but nonetheless (or for that very reason) strongly in the same tradition of romanticism that is defined by what Kenneth Clark refers to as a "consciousness of the sublime" (Clark, 1969, p. 307). What must be recognized is a conscious (if unsystematic) revolt against Western rationalism, whether defined by Hegel or Aristotle. When he refers to earlier philosophers or their systems, Nietzsche is almost uniformly critical. Commenting on Hegel's view that the rational World Spirit had reached its zenith in Berlin in his era, Nietzsche writes, "I believe there has been no dangerous turning point in the progress of German culture in this century that has not been made more dangerous by the enormous and still living influence of this Hegelian [i.e., historical-rational] philosophy" (Nietzsche, Use, 1957, p. 51). Elsewhere, he adds,
But it is sick, this life that is set free, and must be healed. . . . It suffers from the malady which I have spoken of, the malady of history. Excess of history has attacked the plastic power of life that no more understands how to use the past as a means of strength and nourishment (Nietzsche, Use, 1957, p. 69).
It is the plastic power ...