Socrates as a problem for Nietzsche

Abstract

There is a tragic element in the respective fates of these two men of genius, Socrates (446-399BC) and Nietzsche (1844-1900), that connects them and keeps them in the memories of sympathetic students of philosophy, in spite of the distance of time separating their earthly existence, their major temperamental differences, their distinct methods of expression as teachers and thinkers, and the many bad things the one has written about the other. For they were misunderstood and mistreated by their contemporaries, while they were alive; and only after their tragic deaths were they recognized and honoured as significant turning points in the history of European thought and culture, perceived now as heroes and martyrs of the spirit, the human spirit in its titanic and repeated attempts to liberate itself from the fetters of common customs and stupidity in order to live in accordance with the demands of human dignity understood differently by each, but felt deeply in their sensitive souls, and expressed exceptionally in their self fashioned lives.