On The Advantage And Disadvantage Of History For Life

In one way, it’s meaningless to say that Nietzsche’s essay has Hegelian influences, since Hegel sits over modern thought and especially German philosophy in an almost godlike role, a role that echoes in his own ideas. Nietzsche writes that “[t]his history, understood in a Hegelian way, has contemptuously been called the sojourn of God on earth” (52).The influence of Hegel’s concept of spirit or “mind” is so profound it informed every aspect of the Germany in which Nietzsche lived.

Hegel was a staunch supporter of the constitutional monarchy of Prussia, the source of the contention and discontent that in Nietzsche’s view posed a hindrance to the cultural integrity of the German people. It is almost possible to replace the word “history” in the title of Nietzsche’s essay with “Hegel.” At the risk of being annihilated by the influence of Hegel, Nietzsche has to carve some space between he and his philosophical father by bypassing Hegel altogether and appealing directly to a classical thinker of whom Hegel wrote: Heraclitus.

The Hegelianism of Nietzsche’s essay is undeniable, and the now-obscure contenders Nietzsche summons (like Hartmann and Niebuhr) appear almost like stooges for Nietzsche’s contention with Hegel. The opening scuffle with Niebuhr over the feasibility of a “superhistorical” (or