Publication Details
Becoming what One Is as Becoming Noble
Abstract
Nietzsche’s famous dictum “Become what you are” is one of the most difficult aspects of his philosophy. Although Nehamas’ (2001) influential interpretation elucidates how we can understand the apparent contradiction between being and becoming inherent in it, it does so only at the price of divorcing the dictum from the larger concerns of Nietzsche’s thought. Therefore, I will interpret this dictum in the light of Schopenhauer as Educator and its statement that “your true nature lies not concealed deep within you, but immeasurably high above you”. I aim to show that by understanding Nietzsche’s conception of human nature as it appears in the statement above we can grasp “becoming what one is” as inextricably bound together with his concepts of education and nobility and with his project of individual transformation, and thus with the core of his thought.
Culture, Education, F. Nietzsche, Nobility, “Become what you are”