On the Use and Abuse of Biography for Nietzsche

Abstract

The discussion here reported centres on the problem whether familiarity with Nietzsche's biography can be beneficial for understanding his philosophical views, and how our idea of the philosopher as a person, derived from his biography, can affect our perception of his texts and vice versa, if such reciprocal influence is at all possible. On the other hand, it is important to know to what extent a given biography may hamper the interpretation of Nietzsche's writings and further thinking following along the path tread by this philosopher. Participants in the panel attempt to find out what kind of biography of the philosopher would favour the study of his work rather than interfere with it; to this purpose, they critically examine the various Nietzsche biographies and the motives of the respective authors, to see how well they accord with the Nietzschean world-view. This involves the question, what does it mean to be in accordance with such world-view and whether it is a necessary condition for a biographer or there may be other ways to compose an adequate biography. Another line of discussion consists in drawing comparisons between the portraits of Nietzsche created by the biographers, which can be widely different depending on the purposes their authors had in mind. Finally, an interesting question is, what other uses a Nietzsche biography may have and what makes a biography of particularly this philosopher, in whose work the twists and turns of his own life play such an important role, a really special enterprise.