Synthesis philosophica, Vol. 40 No. 2, 2025.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21464/sp40203
Becoming Savage? Nietzsche Versus Hegel (On Ancient Legacy)
Dragan Prole
orcid.org/0000-0001-7352-4583
; University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Philosophy, Dr Zorana Đinđića 2, RS–21000 Novi Sad
Abstract
In sharp contrast to the material heritage, which is most often precisely determined and subject to distribution, spiritual heritage is reassessed again and again. Especially when it comes to valuation, we note remarkable aberrations and disagreements. What is for some an unchallengeable value, the pillar of European civilisation, for others is a fatal source of corruption, a deceiving inspiration of decay. By following the examples of Hegel and Nietzsche, we will also briefly show how the description of Hellenic inheritance changes depending on differing notions of history favoured by its inheritors. Hegel is full of confidence in the historical movement of reason, understood in terms of development and progress. According to Nietzsche, history should be considered as an abuse, as should the trust in tradition, which he views as a form of voluntary enslavement. For Hegel, history functions as a medium of emancipation and self-knowledge, whereas with Nietzsche, we are entering into troubled terrain, not only with history itself but with the shared past as well.
Keywords
legacy; Hellenic philosophy; Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche; Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel; savage
Hrčak ID:
338859
URI
Publication date:
20.11.2025.
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