On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life by Nietzsche

Reviewed by David Freer

Animals generally seem happy enough and they don’t need history, notes Nietzsche.

Man’s lot will not be improved by mindlessly chewing the cud all day, however; we need

a memory of our past! But we need the right types of history and in the proper quantity.

History must inspire creativity in the present not dwell on details of the past. Nietzsche

believed the fanatical pursuit of objectivity in history will lead to its death by killing the

vitality of life. A deficit of history would make man an animal, whereas a surfeit of

history focuses attention inward and makes man a cripple.

What can we learn from history? First of all, Nietzsche explains that “history belongs

above all to the active and powerful man, to him who fights a great fight (p. 14)”. Great

men do not fear mortality but embrace their fame. Viewing the past as monumental

history, however, causes those who do become visible to be “distorted” (p. 17).

Monumental history suffers from an overuse of analogies, according to Nietzsche.

Antiquarian history is the second way of viewing the past, often with complete reverence.

It may bring about pleasurable feelings. But mankind may heap too much reverence on

what is old and undue scorn on what is newer. When history mummifies the past, the

present dies.
There is a third form of history, known to Nietzsche as critical history which requires

man to judge the past and eliminate that which does not enable him to live. Antiquarian,

monumental, and critical history all contain flaws which must be known to the historian.

Nietzsche felt Germans focused too much on abstraction which caused the loss of unity;

thus history was hindering German unification.

What can be done? Since there is an over reliance on ‘objectivity’, society needs to

unleash the artist on the empirical data to create history with a “depth of meaning power

and beauty (p. 36).” Those educated with the heroic will be superior to the “pseudo-

education” which stems from the objectivity of the nineteenth century. But Nietzsche

believes it is not simply any artist who can write history; it needs to be from “the head of

the rarest minds (p. 37).” There is a place, however, for assistants to do the manual labor.

What other good are common people? They contrast with the greats. They offer

resistance to the greats and they are tools of the greats (p. 55).

Despite his stated contempt for common people, Nietzsche did not believe men in general

to “sing more beautifully than their grandfathers”. Common people are, however,

“blinded early (p. 41)” by the onslaught of historical glorification. In fact, “moderns”

view music and art in a hurried and impulsive manner as history. Perhaps Nietzsche felt

history was a becoming burden in the nineteenth century. The push for objectivity was

smothering the human drama. Wars were reduced to fodder for those “greedy for history

(p. 28).” Stripped of our personalities, and history offers none, we are eunuchs, always
looking inward, who are entrusted to guard life for history. “Once personalities are

drained, to the point of…objectivity: nothing can affect them any longer”; by removing

the human element of history, we are destroying a vital part of our lives.

Hegelian philosophy proclaimed nineteenth century German culture to be the pinnacle of

human history. Nietzsche does not merely find this distasteful but dangerous.

“Overproud European of the nineteenth century”, Nietzsche writes, “you are mad! (p.

50)” Modern Europeans sacrifice their personality to the belief that their education and

age is the result of the ‘world process.’ To Nietzsche, the goal of humanity does not lie in

a process but in “its highest specimens. (p. 53)”

History demands youthful energy. Culture should not come from “toothless and tasteless

old men (p. 57)” but from those who are not yet drowned by the past. Life demands an

understanding of what is essential. The Greek culture dropped what was inessential to

life. Historians, lost in words, spend their time objectifying history or deifying past

minutiae, thus they deny life to the past. Nietzsche felt declaring nineteenth century

German culture as the pinnacle of humanity was a mistake. History is not a goal directed

process which will yield the highest form of culture; man must make history his servant

in his individual quest for greatness.