Abstract:
One recent development in Nietzsche scholarship has been renewed attention to the works of the five years from Human, All-Too-Human to Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Books like Ruth Abbey’s Nietzsche’s Middle Period (2000) and my own Nietzsche and Rée: A Star Friendship (2005) are examples. In my case the focus was on the relationship between Nietzsche and his friend and philosophical partner Paul Rée. This is also the theme of my discussion here, but in a negative way. Instead of asking “What was Rée’s influence on Nietzsche?” I want to pose a hypothetical question: “What would Nietzsche’s development have been like if he and Rée had never met?” My answer is: much the same, but with some interesting differences of emphasis. In other words, I am postulating a specifically Nietzschean realism underlying various shifts in his outlook, and I will be pointing out some similarities and differences between this and the philosophical program that was common to Nietzsche and Rée for several years.
