Nietzsche, Goethe and the nineteenth-century tradition of Bildung

TL;DRAbstract

This thesis sets out to identify and analyse two themes that underpin the theory of Bildung that Nietzsche develops in his works and notebooks from between 1870 and 1876, and to show that these themes both shape and reflect his view of Goethe. These themes will be designated as ‘Freiheit’, which denotes the autonomy of culture and the individual that permits their untrammelled development, and ‘Fruchtbarkeit’, which prioritises creative, life-enhancing activity over the acquisition of knowledge. The thesis will also show that these two themes remain central to Nietzsche’s philosophy in the later stages of his active life, and that the importance he attaches to them can help to illuminate some of the changes and shifts in his thought during those periods. They also continue to form the basis of his Goethebild in his later works.

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