Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Sclwpenhauer as educatorphilosophers of antiquity, while the latter breathes neither that norany other spirit. And finally, what in the world have our young mento do with the history of philosophy? Is the confusion of opinionssupposed to discourage them from having opinions of their own?Are they supposed to learn how to join in the rejoicing at.how wonderfullyfar we ourselves have come? Are they supposed even tolearn to hate philosophy or to despise it? One might almost think sowhen one knows how students have to torment themselves fo r thesake of their philosophical examinations so as to cram into theirpoor brain the maddest and most caustic notions of the human spirittogether with the greatest and hardest to grasp. The only critique of aphilosophy that is possible and that proves something, namely tryingt'o see whether one can live in accordance with it, has never beentaught at universities: all that has ever been taught is a critique ofwords by means of other words. And now imagine a youthful head,not very experienced in living, in which fifty systems in the fo rm ofwords and fifty critiques of them are preserved side-by-side andintermingled - what a desert, what a return to barbarism, what amockery of an education in philosophy! But of course it is admittedlyno such thing; it is a training in passing philosophical examinations,the usual outcome of which is well known to be that the youthto be tested - tested all too severely, alas! - admits to himself with asigh of relief: 'Thank God I am no philosopher, but a Christian and acitizen of my country!'What if this sigh of relief were the state's actual objective and'education in philosophy' only a means of deterring from philosophy?Let one ask oneself this question. - If it really is so, however, there isonly one thing to be feared: that youth may one day finally come torealize to what end philosophy is here being misused. The supremeobjective, the production of the philosophical genius, nothing but apretext? The goal perhaps the prevention of his production? Themeaning of it all reversed into its opposite? In that case - woe to thewhole complex of state and professorial policy! -And is something of the sort not supposed to have transpiredalready? I do not know; but I do know that university philosophy isnow the object of universal disrespect and scepticism. This is in partdue to the fact that a fe ebler race now holds sway over the lectureroom;and if Schopenhauer had to write his treatise on universityphilosophy now, he would no longer have need of the club butwould conquer with a reed. They are the heirs and progeny of thosepseudo-thinkers whose much-turned heads he battered: their187