Skip to main content
Book cover

Friedrich Nietzsche

Reconciling Knowledge and Life

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

  • Discusses Nietzsche's contributions to educational thought and policy, and the presence of his ideas in critiques of schooling in today’s society
  • Reflects Nietzsche's interest in the professional ethics of teaching
  • Makes helpful links with later educationalists such as Maria Montessori and Hannah Arendt
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Education (BRIEFSEDUCAT)

Part of the book sub series: SpringerBriefs on Key Thinkers in Education (BRIEFSKEY)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (4 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

This book offers a succinct guide to Friedrich Nietzsche’s contributions to educational thought, placing them within the context of his overall philosophy and adding biographical background information that sheds light on his thinking. Topics discussed in detail include theories of knowledge and life, concepts of teaching and learning, and practice and policy issues in modern education. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a major Western thinker with much to say about education, both directly and indirectly. A fierce critic of the schools and universities of his time, he affirms the centrality of ‘culture’ and the exceptional individual as the true aim of education. For Nietzsche, the human predicament is characterised by the tension between knowledge and life. The task of education is to reconcile these demands, but that requires a radical rethinking of knowledge and a re-evaluation of morality. Nietzsche’s new conception of truth replaces facts with interpretations, and certaintywith bold experiment. His new virtues arise out of the ‘sublimation’ of drives that are condemned by traditional morality. An education of the future promotes these aspects of individual development. Even so, Nietzsche seems to think that, in the end, it is up to each of us to engage in a broader task of self-realisation, for which he has a cryptic formula:

“Become what you are.”

Authors and Affiliations

  • Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Robin Small

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us