THE NEO-CYNICAL WISDOM OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
THE NEO-CYNICAL WISDOM OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Summary/Abstract: This paper approaches the twisted philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche considering the interpretation of Peter Sloterdijk, who asserts in his Critique of Cynical Reason that the philosopher from Basel is in fact a Neo-„Cynicalŗ thinker. For instance, the „Eternal Recurrence of the Sameŗ is one of Nietzscheřs most subversive thoughts that reflects a description of a resurgence of „kynicalŗ motives. Though often overlooked, we must say that Nietzsche himself occasionally practiced Cynicism as a strategy of survival. We know that he lived modestly and had no fixed abode, wandering from city to city with all his notes and just a few books. Because Nietzsche rejected not only the Academic style, but the citizenship in any one country just as much as Diogenes had protested against Platořs philosophy and had declared himself a „citizen of the worldŗ, we can affirm that he was a true cosmopolitan, namely a modern Cynical philosopher. That is why, before his mental breakdown, he ostentatiously stylized his fight against Western metaphysics, Christianity and Christian morality into Cynicism. Thus, I emphasize that „the transvaluation of all valuesŗ is an unfinished project about the virtues of Neo-cynical wisdom. Besides, his basic concepts Ŕ „the Overmanŗ, „the Eternal Recurrence of the Sameŗ, „the Will to Powerŗ Ŕ are nothing more than metaphors for „the love of fateŗ or for the acceptance of the idea of Becoming.

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