Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Introductionbecause he contends that the real achievement of any philosopher -Schopenhauer included - lies precisely in the example he providesto others of 'the courageous visibility of the philosophical life'(p. 137).To be 'educated' by a philosopher, therefore, has nothing to dowith subscribing to his favourite theories or philosophical doctrines:one is educated by Schopenhauer if one's own manner ofliving has been decisively affected by his 'example'. The word'example' is here placed within quotation marks for the simplereason that the 'example' provided to Nietzsche by Schopenhauerwas not really that of his actual life, though Nietzsche certainlydid admire him for his rejection of all academic and institutionalties in favour of a more independent mode of living. Though afew anecdotes are sprinkled throughout the third Meditation,Nietzsche is clearly not interested in relating Schopenhauer'sbiography. What he holds up to his readers instead is somethingaltogether different, a mere 'image' of human life: not an idealizedversion of the actual person, Arthur t;chopenhauer; still less,an ideal embodiment of the world-denying philosophy expoundedin The World as Will and Representation; but rather, 'the'Schopenhauerian image of man' (pp. 152-5) .What directly inspired - and thus educated - the youngNietzsche was a certain notion of human possibility, an image of a ,particular way of living and of a particular kind of person, animage that he apparently constructed for himself as he continuedto read and to reflect upon Schopenhauer throughout the late1860s and early 1870s. Nietzsche's image of the 'Schopenhauerianman', whom he describes as 'voluntarily taking upon himself thesuffering involved in being truthful' (p. 152) and as a 'destroyinggenius',15 resembles neither Arthur Schopenhauer himself norSchopenhauer's ideal of the world-denying 'saint', but is instead aproduct of Nietzsche's own philosophical imagination. He associatedthis image with Schopenhauer primarily out of simple gratitudefor the fact that he had arrived at this 'image of human life'through years of sustained, critical reflection upon Schopenhauer'sarguments and assumptions - as well, no doubt, as throughreflection upon the well-documented contradiction betweenSchopenhauer's life and his philosophy.1 6That Nietzsche drew from his personal encounter withSchopenhauer's philosophy conclusions radically at odds withthose drawn by Schopenhauer himself does not imply that there isxviii