Untergang und Übergang : The Tragic Descent of Socrates and Zarathustra

Abstract

Through meticulous scholarship and innovative interpretation, Robert GoodingWilliams argues that we must approach the question of modernism historically, especially in relation to the ancients. As the title alone, Zarathustra s Dionysian Modernism (ZDM), suggests, we must revisit Dionysus in order to understand Zarathustra. The striking juxtaposition of ancient and modern in the title invites us to ask: How does Zarathustra relate to Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Greek tragedy? The young Nietzsche's esteem for the Greeks can hardly be overstated; he refers to the Greeks as luminous guides (BT 23) and writes of his desire to stimulate among the students an interest in the careful interpretation of Aristotle and Plato.1 Above all, Plato's Socrates held a pivotal position for Nietzsche throughout his life. Even in later works such as Z, Nietzsche continues to wrestle with Plato and Socrates, to esteem them and evoke them while simultaneously questioning them. One of the particular strengths of Gooding-Williams's book lies in the way it relates Nietzsche to myriad figures from the history of philosophy as well as to recent trends in analytical philosophy. But if we challenge the book's assumptions on Plato and Platonism, we will discover a more three-dimensional understanding of both Plato and Nietzsche. Nietzscheans today, I maintain, must concern them selves with Plato in order to remain true to the spirit of Nietzsche as well as that of Plato. A return to Plato?though a different Plato, liberated from commonplace assumptions?thus allows us to appreciate Gooding-Williams's readings of Zeven more: a new reading of Plato (which I will sharply distinguish from Platonism) yields a new reading of Nietzsche. By complicating our readings of Plato and Socrates, I aim to enhance the provocative readings of Gooding-Williams, to carry his analysis one step further by applying his perceptive insights on Nietzsche to Plato. I will focus on his reading of Zarathustra's prologue and relate it more exten sively to selected passages from the Republic and the Symposium, two classics that Nietzsche both evokes and parodies. Although Gooding-Williams stresses Nietzsche's departure from Plato, I will explore Nietzsche's creative, if ambivalent, inheritance from both Socrates and Plato.