Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T16:52:06.817Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 5 - Nietzsche and Moral Education

from Part I - Historical Insights for Contemporary Moral Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2023

Douglas W. Yacek
Affiliation:
Universität Dortmund
Mark E. Jonas
Affiliation:
Wheaton College, Illinois
Kevin H. Gary
Affiliation:
Valparaiso University, Indiana
Get access

Summary

In this chapter, I argue that the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche is of central importance to the theory and practice of moral education in the 21st century. To make this case, I examine an oft-neglected text of Nietzsche’s early philosophical work: Schopenhauer as Educator. I argue that this text advances a theory of moral education with three key components: (i) a view about the particular cultural context of moral education in modernity, (ii) a conception of the proper aims of moral education, and (iii) an account of the appropriate pedagogical methods of moral education. I then discuss the kind of theory Nietzsche advances. I show that Nietzsche’s theory fits within a broadly exemplarist outlook, though it expands the standard theory and practice of exemplarist moral education in important ways. I argue that Nietzsche’s theory of moral education suggests two novel forms of exemplarist motivation – self-exemplarism and fallibilistic exemplarism – and further specifies the psychological conditions for moral aspiration and transformation to occur in educational spaces.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alfano, M. (2013). The most agreeable of all vices: Nietzsche as virtue epistemologist. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 21(4), 767–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, A. (2017). Awaiting education: Friedrich Nietzsche on the future of our educational institutions. Philosophical Inquiry in Education, 24(3), 197210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansell-Pearson, K. (1994). An introduction to Nietzsche as political thinker: The perfect nihilist. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansell-Pearson, K. (1996). Nietzsche contra Rousseau: A study of Nietzsche’s moral and political thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Appel, F. (2019). Nietzsche contra democracy. New York, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Berry, J. N. (2015). Is Nietzsche a virtue theorist?. The Journal of Value Inquiry, 49(3), 369386.Google Scholar
Brobjer, T. H. (2003). Nietzsche’s affirmative morality: An ethics of virtue. The Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 26(1), 6478.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callard, A. (2018). Aspiration: The agency of becoming. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cavell, S. (1990). Conditions handsome and unhandsome: The constitution of Emersonian perfectionism. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, M. (2002). Nietzsche’s antidemocratic rhetoric. In Richard, W. (Ed.), Nietzsche (pp. 479502). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Conant, J. (2001). Nietzsche’s perfectionism: A reading of Schopenhauer as Educator. In Schacht, R. (Ed.), Nietzsche’s postmoralism (pp. 181257). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Conway, D. (2005). Nietzsche and the political. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daigle, C. (2006). Nietzsche: Virtue ethics… Virtue politics?. The Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 32(1), 121.Google Scholar
Detwiler, B. (1990). Nietzsche and the politics of aristocratic radicalism. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Fennell, J. (2005). Nietzsche contra “self-reformulation”. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 24(2), 85111.Google Scholar
Foot, P. (2006[1973]). Nietzsche: The revaluation of all values. In Richardson, J. & Leiter, B. (Eds.), Nietzsche (pp. 210220). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Golob, S. (2020). Exemplars, institutions, and self-knowledge in Schopenhauer as Educator. Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 51(1), 4666.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, L. H. (2005). Nietzsche and the origin of virtue. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janaway, C. (1998). Schopenhauer as Nietzsche’s educator. In Janaway, C. (Ed.), Willing and nothingness: Schopenhauer as Nietzsche’s educator (pp. 1336). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jonas, M. (2016). Advancing equality and individual excellence. The case of Nietzsche’s “Schopenhauer as educator”. History of Philosophy Quarterly, 33(2), 173192.Google Scholar
Jonas, M. (2018). Nietzsche on inequality, education, and human flourishing. In Smeyer, P. (Ed.), International handbook of philosophy of education (pp. 295304). Switzerland: Springer.Google Scholar
Jonas, M. E., & Nakazawa, Y. (2020). A Platonic theory of moral education: Cultivating virtue in contemporary democratic classrooms. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jonas, M. E., & Yacek, D. W. (2018). Nietzsche’s philosophy of education: Rethinking ethics, equality and the good life in a democratic age. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kahan, A. (2012). Arnold, Nietzsche and the aristocratic vision. History of Political Thought, 33(1), 125143.Google Scholar
Kain, P. J. (2009). Nietzsche, virtue and the horror of existence. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 17(1), 153167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufmann, W. (2013[1968]). Nietzsche: Philosopher, psychologist, antichrist. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kristjánsson, K. (2018). Epiphanic moral conversions: Going beyond Kohlberg and Aristotle. In Frey, J. A. & Vogler, C. (Eds.), Self-transcendence and virtue (pp. 1538). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lemm, V. (2007). Is Nietzsche a perfectionist? Rawls, Cavell, and the politics of culture in Nietzsche’s “Schopenhauer as Educator”. Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 34, 527.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. (2007). After virtue: A study in moral theory. 3rd ed. Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press.Google Scholar
Peters, R. S. (1971). Ethics and education. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Pugh, K. J. (2020). Transformative science education: Change how your students experience the world. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Pugh, K. J., Linnenbrink‐Garcia, L., Koskey, K. L., Stewart, V. C., & Manzey, C. (2010). Motivation, learning, and transformative experience: A study of deep engagement in science. Science Education, 94(1), 128.Google Scholar
Pugh, K. J., Linnenbrink-Garcia, L., Phillips, M. M., & Perez, T. (2015). Supporting the development of transformative experience and interest. Interest in Mathematics and Science Learning, 369–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reckwitz, A. (2017). Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten. Berlin, Germany: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Rowthorn, D. (2017). Nietzsche’s cultural elitism. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 47(1), 97115.Google Scholar
Sanderse, W. (2013). The meaning of role modelling in moral and character education. Journal of moral education, 42(1), 2842.Google Scholar
Solomon, R. C. (2004). Living with Nietzsche: What the great immoralist has to teach us. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Slote, M. (1998). Nietzsche and virtue ethics. International Studies in Philosophy, 30(3), 2327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strike, K. A. (2005). Trust, traditions, and pluralism: Human flourishing and liberal polity. In Carr, D. & Steutel, J. (Eds.), Virtue ethics and moral education (pp. 224237). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Swanton, C. (1998). Outline of a Nietzschean virtue ethics. International Studies in Philosophy, 30(3), 2938.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thiele, L. P. (2020). Friedrich Nietzsche and the politics of the soul. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Yacek, D. (2021). The transformative classroom: Philosophical foundations and practical applications. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zagzebski, L. (2017). Exemplarist moral theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×