In 1869, young Friedrich Nietzsche became a professor of classical philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. The university’s professors of philosophy told their students not to take Nietzsche’s courses, arguing that he was not really a philosopher and a lightweight. As one scholar relates the tale:
“For a time, Nietzsche, then professor of classical philology at the University of Basle, had no students in his field. His lectures were sabotaged by German philosophy professors who advised their students not to show up for Nietzsche’s courses.”*
The common pattern is that second-rate thinkers don’t recognize the power of the new philosophy and/or don’t want to face the challenge it poses.
* Source: Cowan, Marianne. 1962. Introduction to Nietzsche’s Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks. South Bend, Indiana: Gateway Editions.
Related: Friedrich Nietzsche episodes in my Philosophers, Explained series: On the Genealogy of Morals and “The Greek State.”
Ahhh, Nietzsche. My favorite philosopher. Reincarnated (and simplified) as Voldemort by J.K Rowling.
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I think of a quote by Gandhi – for whom I have a great but highly qualified admiration e.g. the socialism he recommended for post British raj India ensured decades more of its extreme traditional poverty from which increasing market liberalization is only now beginning to lift it out of.
“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.”
I find the sloppy hysteria of the ad hominem attacks on Rand encouraging. Hysteria is never a defense of a rationally defensible position.
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