Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Schopenhauer as educatoraround him. I n this way the philosopher, if instead of amalgamatingwith it he supervises it from a dignified distance, is able to be of useto the university.Finally, however - of what concern to us is the existence of thestate, the promotion of universities, when what matters above all isthe existence of philosophy on earth! or - to leave absolutely nodoubt as to what I think - if it is so unspeakably more vital that aphilosopher should appear on earth than that a state or a university'should continue to exist. ,The dignity of philosophy can increase inthe measure that servitude to public opinion and the danger tofreedom increases; it was at its greatest during the earthquakeattending the fall of the Roman republic and during the imperialera, when its name and that of history became ingrata principibusnomina. * Brutus demonstrates more for its dignity than does Plato;he belonged to an age in which ethics ceased to be platitudinous. Ifphilosophy is little regarded at present, one ought only to ask why itis that no great general or statesman at present has anything to dowith it - the answer is simply that at the time he sought it he encountereda feeble phantom bearing the name of philosophy, a scholarlylecture-hall wisdom and lecture-hall cautiousness; in short, it isbecause in his early years philosophy became to him somethingludicrous. What it ought to be to him, however, is something fearsome,and men called to the search fo r power ought to know what asource of the heroic wells within it. Let an American tell them what agreat thinker who arrives on this earth signifies as a new centre oftremendous forces. 'Beware', says Emerson, 'when the great Godlets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all things are at risk. It is aswhen a conflagration has broken out in a great city, and no manknows what is safe, or where it will end. There is not a piece of sciencebut its flank may be turned tom.orrow; there is not any literaryreputation, not the so-called eternal names of fame, that may not berevised and condemned; the things which are dear to men at thishour are so on account of the ideas which have emerged on theirmental horizon, and which cause the present order of things, as atree bears its apples. A new degree of culture would instantly revolutionizethe entire system of human pursuits.'t Now, if such thinkers aredangerous, it is of course clear why our academic thinkers are notdangerous; for their thoughts grow as peacefully out of tradition as*ingrata principibus nomina: names displeasing to princestQ.uoted from Emerson's essay entitled 'Circles'.193