Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Penn State University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Nietzsche
Studies.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
NIETZSCHE, THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, AND ESOTERICISM
Lawrence Lampert
Introduction
My paper is a reporton what I think is a great and neglected theme in the historyof
- the dread theme of esotericism. It is a theme that opens a whole new
philosophy territory
for our and appreciation, even for our gratitude. And it is a theme congenial to a
inspection
Nietzschean perspective partly because Nietzsche recognized its importance and called our
Part 1: Esotericism
Esotericism is somewhat repugnantor repellentto contemporaryscholarship.Let me first
define it,thensaywhy I thinkit seems repugnant,and thenwhy I thinkit should seem an
Esotericism employs salutary or at least orthodox opinions to mask its true conclusions. Such
36
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The esoteric or hidden core depends upon the exotericor open face: exoteric
itsartistry.
conformity permits esoteric nonconformity. Outward conformity permits inner freedom, the
freedom to entertain and communicate the most radical and dangerous thoughts.
Why does esotericism seem repugnant to us? I think there are two constant and basic reasons
seemsmorallysuspicious.Were
First: The need tohide and tohide by deceptiveconformity
the practitioners of esotericism our moral inferiors? Were they cowards who lose any claim
The second reason esotericism seems repugnant, I think, is that esotericism seems
In my view, Straussianism ismerely a passing phase that can't pass too quickly, whereas Leo
37
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Strauss himself deserves extremelyhigh regard for his lastingand matchless studies of
philosophic esotericism.
Second: It is perfectly understandable, why there was such a practice. Partly because of the
away from self-evident but actually false opinions toward implausible, even
apparently
philosopherssoundobsoleteorworse: irrational.
The passage of timehas placed thesecareful,
now makes them look dated, trappedinpast prejudicesfromwhich they in fact extricated
they could now be celebrated and thanked were that core to become accessible to us. To be
attentive to their esoteric art is to see that itwas driven by one thing above all: a concern for
38
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
A Nietzschean perspectiveon thehistoryof philosophyand itsesotericpracticesenables us
to judge thephilosophicpast as a noble spiritualadventure:carriedon in theface of great
it conducted a careful, responsible campaign on behalf of the greatest, most
danger, important
interesting statements. First, near the end of his work, in the Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche
reflected on 'the great, the uncanny problem which I have reflected on longest, the psychology
of the "improvers" of humanity.' He then recounted how this problem first presented itself to
him many years earlier: 'A small and really rather modest fact, that of the so-called pious
fraud, gave me my first access to this problem .... Neither Manu nor Plato, neither Confucius
'improvers' of humanity, great innovative teachers of a moral order, Plato among them,
early essay,On theUse and Disadvantage ofHistoryfor Life, he contrastedthe taskof the
presentgenerationto thetaskPlato gave himself:Plato fed thefirstgenerationof his citybuilt
39
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in speech themighty necessary lie, the lie to be sustained as sacred traditionby every
subsequent generation; Nietzsche on the other hand confronts his generation with the
deadly as it is.
necessary truth,
Let us compress the facts into a few brief formulas: to begin with, the
philosophic spiritalways had to use as a mask and cocoon thepreviously
man -
established types of the contemplative priest, sorcerer, soothsayer, and
in any case a religious type - in order to be able to existat all: theascetic
ideal fora longtime served thephilosopheras a form inwhich to appear, as
a precondition - he had to represent it so as to be able to be a
of existence
to its surroundings was a necessary survival mechanism. Adopting the protective coloration
'Has all this really altered?' Yes, all this has really altered. Old emergency conditions have
40
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
been replaced by new emergencyconditions,those of the presentday which, Nietzsche
seemed to think, again threatened the very existence of philosophy. The new emergency
conditions were powerful modern prejudices, beliefs in progress and enlightenment which
again put the frail growth of reason under the threat of extinction.
butterfly hitherto concealed in the ugly caterpillar. One important feature of Nietzsche's
response to the new emergency conditions is a new history of philosophy which, among other
Esotericism
Descartes.
esotericism. But Descartes told his readers as openly as possible that he was an esoteric writer.
conformity to the laws, customs, and religion of the people among whom you find yourself.
address it to theDean and Doctors of the Faculty of Sacred Theology. But that book
contained the principles of the new philosophy that would undermine and replace theirs; it
41
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
was a subversive work by a writer who took as his motto: 4He lived well who hid well.'
opposed.
Few readers today know how well Descartes lived. We should know because he tells us; we
don't know because he was forced to tell us obliquely, the onlyway open to him; he was
forced to leave the dangerous conclusions up to us. A fine and easy example occurs in Part
Six of the Discourse on theMethod where Descartes says that his thoughts on the speculative
sciences are not worth publishing for themselves: Part Four of the Discourse, those
meditationson God and the soul, is notworth publishingfor itself.He leaves itup to us to
draw the inferencethatwhen he in factpublisheswhat is notworth publishingfor itselfhe
But even such easy inferences about the relation of physics to metaphysics in Descartes have
become hard for us because they seem to go against the grain of intellectual honesty : one of
the great philosophers of our tradition seems to be transformed into something dishonorable,
- fears and
this life than have flies or ants hopes Descartes referred to in the Discourse as the
means of keeping weak minds on the straight road of virtue (Discourse 5 end). Readers would
also have to reflecton the presence in The Passions of theSoul of what Descartes calls
'divine providence,' for he quietly but definitively identifies divine providence with natural
necessity. Reflection on such absences and presences would lead readers to appreciate the
42
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
lovelyendingof The Passions of theSoul whereDescartes statesjustwhy it is imprudent
to
lose oneself when one can save oneself without dishonor and that if the contest is very
to certain death. By the end of the book readers can take pleasure in watching
senselessly
their author defend his virtue, the manly virtue advanced earlier in contrast to the unmanly
Discourse in the very act of evading and thwarting that authority (Discourse 6). In our own
time, readers can take pleasure in reflecting on the fact that this contest that was so unequal
between the powers that ruled the age and a solitary writer was won by the solitary writer;
his prudence, his refusal to be foolishly rash, enabled him to help defeat a seemingly
invincible foe, to reduce a tyrannical and pervasive spiritual power to a tepid anachronism.
torn by unreason, a world engaged in the religious wars generally conceded to be the worst
wars until our wars, wars fought over supremely irrational views of human nature and human
destiny, wars that cost Europe a Renaissance, as Nietzsche said. We gain Descartes as a
conspirator on behalf of a more reasonable view of things, a view thatwhen it gradually took
root with Descartes's posterity succeeded in fact in tempering the extreme ferocity of the
warring camps, thoseDescartes dared to call inThe Passions of theSoul 'thegreat friends
of God' whose very friendship with God dictated to them, Descartes said, 'the greatest crimes
man can commit, such as betraying cities, killing Princes, and exterminating whole peoples
just because they do not accept their opinions' (article 190). We gain Descartes as a genuine
that what matters most is always culture, and who sets out to give a new direction to
European culture and who, in doing so, had the elementary good sense to feign conformity,
to forbearsaying 'Giveme your gun, Iwant to kill youwith it' and to say only 'Giveme
your gun.'
Everyone reads Descartes. But not everyone reads Francis Bacon or Montaigne any more. If
we did read them and read them as master writers writing under the necessity of caution we
43
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
would be in a position to make further gains. We would see in them thinkers and actors on
philosophy.
But careful study of these great early modern thinkers as esoteric writers would help us to
Regaining their Plato would mean regaining Nietzsche's Plato. 'I'm a complete sceptic about
Plato,' Nietzsche said (77 Ancients 2). To read Plato sceptically meant to take Plato's irony
seriously. Like Montaigne, whom Nietzsche held in highest esteem, Nietzsche recognized that
[Plato]wrote for theneeds of society, like [his] religion ...When [Plato]plays the lawgiver,
he borrows a domineering and assertive style, and yet mixes in boldly the most fantastic of
conditionally true: namely, the separate existence and separate immortality of 'souls' (KGW
those who do not believe in 'men of knowledge.' Nietzsche's Plato is sceptical of claims to
knowledge and Nietzsche is therefore sceptical of Plato's claims to knowledge. But Nietzsche
has no doubt that Plato is a 'monster of pride and sovereignty' driven by the great passion
44
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
of the seeker after knowledge. He has no doubt thatPlato 'lived continually in the
and part of his answer is:Plato did notwant to deny them this- Plato who lived beyond
safety and security went out of his way to restore the safety and security of the common man
This is Plato's lack of courage in the face of reality: it's not fear for himself. The most
some degree accessible and fascinating to a mind and spirit like his own, is neither fascinating
nor bearable tominds and spirits less tenacious, less supreme than his own. Plato fears for his
brothers, for Glaucon and Adeimantus, and his fears turn him pre-existently Christian: in the
there exists a cosmic order so concerned with human morality that it is watchful and
philosophers: 'even theclaim thattheypossessed wisdom, which has beenmade here and
there on earth by philosophers, that maddest and most immodest of all claims, has it not
45
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
always been up till now a hideout above all? At times, a hideout chosen with pedagogical
which hallows so many lies; one has a tenderregardfor those still in the
intent,an intent
process of becoming, of growing, for disciples, who must often be defended against
themselvesbymeans of faith in a person - bymeans of an error*(JS 359). This is Plato's
Augustine is counted a Christian Platonist. No, Nietzsche says, as between Plato and
Augustine the motive is entirely different. Nietzsche is able to make little jokes about his
ability to discern fundamental motives, to sniff out the truly fundamental differences: 'my
lie that we live within a cosmic order attentive to our good and evil. An Augustine can turn
that noble lie into a system of cosmic revenge employing an all-powerful cosmic spider
Plato, the most beautiful growth of antiquity, ran a great risk with reason, the fragile plant
that had flowered so sublimely in Heraclitus and Democritus, in Aeschylus and Sophocles,
and inThucydides. Plato's greatrisk need not have been runNietzsche argues: inhis praise
of Epicurus,Nietzsche says Epicurus shared 'with all the profoundnaturesof antiquity'
disposition to life.
What do we gain when we read Plato thisway? We regain Plato himself as a genuine
philosopher inNietzsche's sense, a philosopher who gave shape to a whole culture. When we
congenial to the preservation of philosophy. From this perspective on Plato the whole history
46
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
can be understooddifferently
of Platonism,our dominantspiritualtradition, from theway it
has been understood. It has not been progress but regress, a betrayal of the rational view
which eventually gave rise to the necessity of Nietzsche's task on behalf of reason.
Where does Nietzsche himself stand in the historyof philosophyhe makes possible? In
particular, where does he stand in the history of esotericism? 'That's all over now.' This is
the definitive Nietzschean judgment on the great standards that have governed our past. And
it's all over now with the esotericism that has marked the philosophical tradition.
Nietzsche's judgment is historical: it's all over with pious fraud because of the power of the
demanding to be first; virtues insist on supremacy in a war of all against ail. Honesty is the
youngest virtue, scarcely two millennia old. Honesty, naively honed to acuteness by
Christianity, by science, by Romanticism, cost each of them their illusions. Honesty, the
youngest and now preeminent virtue, has sapped all forms of noble lying of their apparent
For Nietzsche mat historical judgment seemed obvious and he did not spend his time
chronicling the noble lies of Platonism or Jesuitism or any other supposed improvement on
our morals. But with Nietzschean resources we can do what he did not do, we can chronicle
genealogy of morals.
Nietzsche himself looked to the future: can a human community be founded on what noble
lies were meant to cover up? In an unpublished note Nietzsche has his Zarathustra say this:
recognition of his incapacity to master necessity, the incapacity of anyone to forestall this next
phase of humanity's history. An experiment with the truth is forced on the contemporary
47
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
by thehistoryof virtue.
thinker
pious fraud, can we say that it's all over now with esotericism? Nietzsche indicates that the
Esotericism survives inNietzsche's chosen art form, the art of the aphorism, an art of writing
does, it establishes intimacy between writer and reader, it creates accomplices for the writer
by forcing readers to make his discoveries, partly at least, on their own. The pedagogical
285). The vice of irony, so necessary for those very few as supreme as Nietzsche, hides their
virtue lest itoffendby casting the restof us into its shade, generatingpoisonous envy or
hatredor dismayor revenge.The philanthropichidingplace survives inNietzsche, not as the
mad claim to knowledge but as the vice of courtesy, the genuine philosopher's 'pathos of
distance.'
preserves themost profound esotericism. Such esotericism is neither chosen nor surmountable.
For Nietzsche, 'Nature loves to hide' is not a lament. That Nature loves to hide is the ultimate
48
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
gift of nature to nature's favourites, inquirers into nature: we dwell within a boundless whole
that will never sate us or bore us or make us disappointed. On the contrary, the enigmatic
49
This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 03 Oct 2015 02:24:09 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions