Nietzsche and Self-Education

Friedrich Nietzsche held that education, or the kind of it that concerned him, is self-education in a particular sense of the phrase. As he succinctly put it, “there are no educators,” and it is a point that it would profit us to examine (Nietzsche 1996, p. 132). What, in the final analysis, can one mind teach another? Who, for instance, taught Nietzsche how to write books of philosophy? Not only did Nietzsche write eloquently on the concept of self-education, but his own education as a philosopher exhibits rather well this very theme. Nietzsche was one of the greatest philosophical writers of his time and likely the greatest. His doctoral studies were in philology, not philosophy, and he did not complete them since, having gained a position at the University of Basel, this was not required. He was a professor there for a relatively short time until his medical leave allowed him to live the life of a wandering solitary, which is the period in which he wrote his greatest works. He did...