Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

IntroductionBasel and the academy for an independent career as a free-lanceauthor of books 'for everyone and no one' .30Nietzsche's pride in having actually followed the path he laidout for himself in the third Meditation is evident in a letter writtenjust after he reread the Untimely Meditations in 1884: 'I have lived inthe very manner that I sketched out for myself in advance,' hereports with transparent delight, and then adds: 'In case youshould find the time to look at Zarathustra, take Schopenhauer aseducator along with you as well, simply for the sake of comparison.(The error of the latter is that it is not really about Schopenhauer,but almost solely about me - but I myself did not realize this as Iwas writing it.) '31This last point was elaborated publicly four years later, in EcceHomo, where Nietzsche insisted that the real subject of the third andfourth Meditations was Nietzsche himself: 'Richard Wagner in Bayreuthis a vision of my future, and, in contrast, Schopenhauer as Educatorrecords my innermost history, my becoming - and, above all, mypromise! '32 A controversial claim, to be s re, and one which everyreader of the Untimely Meditations must decide for himself or herself. ,1 See Nietzsche's letters to Richard Wagner, 21 May 1870 and to Erwin Rohde, 9December 1868. Nietzsche's letters are here cited by recipient and date. Translationsfrom his correspondence are my own and are based upon the critical edition edited byGiorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari, Nietzsche BrieJwechsel. Kritische Gesamtausgabe(Berlin and New York, Walter de Gruyter, 1975ff.) . For a recent study of Nietzsche'scomplex relationship to Wagner during the Basel period, see Carl PIetsch, YoungNietzsche: Becoming a Genius (New York, Free Press, 1991).2 Nietzsche's intention to switch from philology to philosophy during his later years atLeipzig is documented in his letters to Paul Deussen, end of April/beginning of May1868 and to Rohde, 3 April and 3 or 4 May 1868. He even went so far as to make extensivenotes for a projected dissertation on the topic 'Teleology since Kant' (see Nietzsche,Friihe Schriften, Band 3, ed. Hans Joachim Mette and Karl Schlechta [Miinchen, Beck,1994], pp. 371-95; trans. Claudia Crawford in The Beginnings of Nietzsche's Theory ofLanguage [Berlin and New York, Walter de Guyter, 1988], pp. 238-53).3 See William H. Schaberg, The Nietzsche Canon: A Publication History and Bibliography(Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, 1995), pp. 19-26.4 Ulrich WilamowitzMollendorf, Zukunfstphilologie! eine Erwiderung auf FriedrichNietzsches Geburt der Tragifdie, conveniently available in Der Streit um Nietzsches 'Geburt derTragiidie'. Die Schriften von E. Rohde, R. Wagner, U. v. Wilamowitz-M5llendorj, ed. KarlfriedGrunder (Hildesheim, Olms, 1969) , pp. 27-55. For a succinct but detailed summary ofWilamowitz-Mollendorfs case against Die Geburt der Tragifdie, see J. H. Groth,'Willamowitz-Mollendorf on Nietzsche', Journal of the History of Ideas, 11 (1950) , 179-90.5 See Richard Frank Krummel, Nietzsche und der deutsche Geist. Ausbreitung und Wirkungdes Nietzschean Werkes im deutschen sprachraum his zum Todesjahr des philosophen (Berlin andNew Yo rk, Walter de Gruyter, 1974), p. 14.xxx