Learning How To Read: Nietzsche in Leipzig

Abstract

Friedrich Nietzsche's philological career and his work in the field of classical studies have received relatively little interest until recently. A more historically oriented account of Nietzsche's intellectual development, which has emerged in recent years, makes it necessary to have a fresh look at his philological work and its influence on his later philosophical criticism. The current article contributes to such a contextual understanding of Nietzsche's intellectual development by focusing on his experience of classical scholarship as a student at the University of Leipzig between 1865 and 1868. In contrast to the widely held assumption that Nietzsche sought to overcome the historicist direction of German classical scholarship by an aestheticist and metaphysical approach, I argue that the main lesson he learnt from contemporary classical studies was a concise engagement with textual and hermeneutic criticism that continued to influence his historical thought long after he gave up classical scholarship as an academic career.