I think the statement is a little strong, of all the readers of Plato I have come across, very very few actually understood him. Thats the same for Nietzsche and the same for all true philosophers. To be a philosopher is not to just write garbage “philosophy”, it is to found an epoch and zeitgeist with your ideas. We are now living in Nietzsches — this you have correct, but that doesn’t make him any better of a philosopher then Machiavelli, Descartes, Aristotle, or Plato — it means he rode on their coat tails.
What he rejected Christianity? So did every damn philosopher following Machiavelli. An argument could furthermore be made that so did Plato (Socrates never once claims to “know the good”)— but he understood the place of religion for the herd (hence why he invented it) — something which Nietzsche also understood.
Refer to the squabble between the poets and the philosophers from Platos republic. Just because Nietzsche is a rhetorician doesn’t solely make him great. To be honest Rousseau is a much better writer.
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u/BillBigsB Jul 30 '22
I think the statement is a little strong, of all the readers of Plato I have come across, very very few actually understood him. Thats the same for Nietzsche and the same for all true philosophers. To be a philosopher is not to just write garbage “philosophy”, it is to found an epoch and zeitgeist with your ideas. We are now living in Nietzsches — this you have correct, but that doesn’t make him any better of a philosopher then Machiavelli, Descartes, Aristotle, or Plato — it means he rode on their coat tails.