Nietzsche the young University lecturer and Plato

In an attempt to clarify certain ambiguities in Nietzsche's interpretation of Platonic philosophy, one proposes the examination of the university courses taught by Nietzsche in Basle and, more specifically, the Course on Plato entitled “Einleitung in das Studium der platonischen Dialoguen”. Such an analysis causes certain interesting aspects to come to light. Thus, for example, and opposed to other interpretations wich defend the contrary, one attempts to show on the one hand the philosophical relevance of his teaching activity in Basle and on the other hand the Nietzschean interpretation of Platonism was strongly influenced (from as early as his youth) more by the texts of Aristotile than by those of Schopenhauer. Analysis of the Basle Course also shows the continuity of -rather than ruture between- Nietzsche the young university lecturer and the more mature Nietzsche; a continuity which affects central aspects of Nietzsche's philosophy, such as his critique of metaphysics inherited from Platonism. The article attempts to show that the detailed study of the Platonic theses carried out by Nietzsche in this course would provide him with an arsenal of arguments for use in his later work. Nietzsche the young lecturer provides an explicit justification of the arguments which elide in his later writings or are simply taken for granted. The Nietzsche of the Basle Course and the Nietzsche of the later writings share such assertions as that the suffering provoked by the inapprehensible character of things present in the world in transformation leads Plato to condemn the world of the senses and to build an intelligible world of immutable essences subject to solid, sure knowledge. In Nietzsche's view, Plato's philosophy is built upon moral assumptions, shown by the very high importance given to the idea of Good in the Theory of ideas, a concept wich according to Nietzsche's interpreration may be compared to that of God. The mature Nietzsche's critique of ontoagatology or Platonic ontotheology finds a series of important observations if we examine what is expounded in the Course on Plato. Thus, for example, we find the starting point from which his critique of the entire edifice of western metaphysics would be developed, showing continuity more than rupture in Nietzsche's thought throughout all the periods which he experienced. It is a more than valid reason periods which he.