On The Advantage And Disadvantage Of History For Life

Drawing on a quotation from Goethe in which the writer and statesman says he has “an obscure inkling of his error,” Nietzsche claims that the historical focus of contemporary education produces skepticism in “more highly developed historical men” (49). Nietzsche proceeds to argue that this focus on history is derived from Christian theological scholarship:

Does not this paralyzing belief in an already withering mankind rather harbour the misunderstanding, inherited from the Middle Ages, of a Christian theological conception, the thought that the end of the world is near, of the fearfully expected judgment? (49).

Nietzsche is also critical of the notion that modernity is the culmination of history, because this apocalyptic mentality “is hostile toward all new planting” (49).

Furthermore, Nietzsche argues, judgment-orientated Christian theology has “dispersed itself into the skeptical consciousness” (50). This kind of history “makes its servants passive and retrospective” (50). Nietzsche goes as far as to state: “in this sense we still live in the Middle Ages and history is still a disguised theology” (50). Nietzsche turns to the idea of a “new age,” arguing that such an era must neutralize the “problem” of history in establishing itself.

Next, Nietzsche shows the influence of Hegelian thought on the contemporary “idolatry of the factual” (51). Hegel’s conceptualization of God, Nietzsche argues, privileges Hegel’s own experience, implying that what follows is “redundant” (52). Nietzsche criticizes the passivity with which his contemporaries “bow” before history’s power. There is an inconsistency in the conception that religion is extinct, ascribing a religious fervor to the modern preoccupation with history.