Zarathustra's evolutionary epistemology

Christopher U.M. Smith*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Friedrich Nietzsche was the first great philosopher to be influenced at the core by Darwinian ideas. He regarded Also Sprach Zarathustra as his masterpiece and most subsequent commentators have agreed. There have been many interpretations of the Zarathustra, and like all great works it has many levels of meaning. An exposition in terms of evolutionary epistemology, however, has not yet been attempted. This article rectifies this omission and shows how Nietzsche's work carries Darwinian ideas into the domain of philosophical anthropology. It shows through the prism of Nietzsche's mature thought some of the consequences of an evolutionary epistemology both in opening up alternative visions of the world and in permitting a profound criticism of our commonsense metaphysics and ontology. © 1992.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)75-85
    Number of pages11
    JournalJournal of Social and Evolutionary Systems
    Volume15
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1992

    Keywords

    • Friedrich Nietzsche
    • Darwin
    • Sprach Zarathustra
    • Zarathustra
    • evolutionary epistemology
    • philosophical anthropology
    • metaphysics
    • ontology

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