Marx, Nietzsche and Freud

Abstract

In July 1972 the international cultural centre of Cerisy-La-Salle (Normandy, organized a colloquium entitled Nietzsche today? It was attended by many French philosophers with a special interest in Nietzsche. A lecture was given by an authority on Nietzsche, the German Philosopher Karl Löwith († 1973), who expressed amazement and, in a certain sense, delight at the fact that contemporary French thought, unlike contemporary German thought, was focussing such attention on Nietzsche. At the same time however, he indicated his annoyance with the fact that in France Nietzsche was quite simply ranked with Marx and Freud. “Nietzsche cannot be put in the same category as Freud and Marx, for whom there is no question of totality. Freud and Marx have made valuable discoveries in the scientific realm, but scholars are never anything but specialists.” (T., II., p. 209–210.)