WI: Friedrich Nietzsche doesn't go insane

Tzadikim

Banned
And spend the last decade of his life under the care of various quack physicians hired by his sister.

Does a "Nietzsche cult" still develop in Germany? I assume he probably doesn't develop the respiratory problems that eventually took his life in 1900, given a more active existence. Is a Nietzsche that survives into the twentieth century able to distance himself from German nationalism and the anti-Semitism he abhorred? What effect does this have on German fascism later on? And how are the modern philosophical schools that were heavily influenced by him OTL - phenomenology, existentialism, postmodernism - affected?

I think that the biggest change philosophically is that Freudianism never catches on. A lot in Freud was repurposed (and distorted, imo) from Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, and that'll be more difficult to do if Freud has to acknowledge a living Nietzsche as a primary influence.
 
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And spend the last decade of his life under the care of various quack physicians hired by his sister.

Does a "Nietzsche cult" still develop in Germany? I assume he probably doesn't develop the respiratory problems that eventually took his life in 1900, given a more active existence. Is a Nietzsche that survives into the twentieth century able to distance himself from German nationalism and the anti-Semitism he abhorred? What effect does this have on German fascism later on? And how are the modern philosophical schools that were heavily influenced by him OTL - phenomenology, existentialism, postmodernism - affected?

I think that the biggest change philosophically is that Freudianism never catches on. A lot in Freud was repurposed (and distorted, imo) from Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, and that'll be more difficult to do if Freud has to acknowledge a living Nietzsche as a primary influence.

He has to not get syphilis from that prostitute.

I don't know about Freudianism and psychology not catching on, from my own reading of Nietzsche he was more a category on his own that I don't think would be traceable to psychology, I would say it's a much different beast then Schopenhauer by the end of his life. As for no traces to Fascism, that's more his sister screwing around and compiling the Will to Power, which is the only really suspect work of the later Nietzsche. If he's still sane an alt Will to Power could be a different work altogether.

As for a disassociation with fascism and nationalism that happened as soon he broke with Wagner. You could see Nietzsche being used as a critique against Wanger, but Nietzsche was very individualistic that he would appeal to more Libertarians than Democrats,Fascists or Communists.
 

Tzadikim

Banned
As far as I'm aware, Nietzsche probably actually didn't have syphilis.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/3313279/Madness-of-Nietzsche-was-cancer-not-syphilis.html

A study of medical records has found that, far from suffering a sexually-transmitted disease which drove him mad, Nietzsche almost certainly died of brain cancer.

The doctor who has carried out the study claims that the universally-accepted story of Nietzsche having caught syphilis from prostitutes was actually concocted after the Second World War by Wilhelm Lange-Eichbaum, an academic who was one of Nietzsche's most vociferous critics. It was then adopted as fact by intellectuals who were keen to demolish the reputation of Nietzsche, whose idea of a "Superman" was used to underpin Nazism.

The new research was carried out by Dr Leonard Sax, the director of the Montgomery Centre for Research in Child Development in Maryland, America. Dr Sax made his discovery after studying accounts of Nietzsche's collapse with dementia in 1889. He was admitted to an asylum in Basle, Switzerland, and was initially diagnosed as being in the advanced stages of syphilis.

According to Dr Sax, however, Nietzsche's notes show no signs of the symptoms which are now regarded as evidence of this disease, such as an expressionless face and slurred speech.

"Nietzsche exhibited none of these symptoms," said Dr Sax. "His facial expressions remained vivid, his reflexes were normal, tremor was not present, his handwriting after his collapse was at least as good as it had been in previous years - and his speech was fluent."

Dr Sax added that in the late 19th century more than 90 per cent of those with advanced syphilis rapidly declined and died within five years of diagnosis. Nietzsche, in contrast, lived for another 11 years.

Nietzsche's physicians, according to Dr Sax, suspected that he may not have had syphilis, but were unable to suggest an alternative. Reporting his findings in the current issue of the Journal of Medical Biography, Dr Sax argues that a more plausible diagnosis would have been that the philosopher was suffering from a slowly-developing brain tumour. This would account for both Nietzsche's collapse and the migraines and visual disturbances he suffered.

So let's say that Nietzsche doesn't develop brain cancer.
 
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Tzadikim

Banned
I don't think that's quite true, either. Walter Kaufmann, the leading twentieth century Nietzsche scholar, thought that his 'madness' was basically sudden onset, and had little influence on his writings prior. (Of course he dealt with serious migraines and vision problems while sane that certainly influenced his thinking and that may have been a result of a brain tumor that led to his insanity; butterflying a tumor away might also butterfly any writing that was a response to his physiological illnesses.)
 
I don't think that's quite true, either. Walter Kaufmann, the leading twentieth century Nietzsche scholar, thought that his 'madness' was basically sudden onset, and had little influence on his writings prior. (Of course he dealt with serious migraines and vision problems while sane that certainly influenced his thinking and that may have been a result of a brain tumor that led to his insanity; butterflying a tumor away might also butterfly any writing that was a response to his physiological illnesses.)
One possibility is Nietzsche still having a brain tumor causing migraines and visions but getting (somewhat) lucky and the tumor not developing further.
 
I suspect that despite everything he did actually mean (and a lot of Nietzschean philosophy is him speaking, not his disease), a Nietzsche who retains control over his public image and editorial legacy for longer is going to be a disappointment for many of his followers. I'm by no means an expert, but I remember rewading he had no problem telling his interpreters in no uncertain terms when they got him wrong.

He'd still have a following. He writes well, and he has an almost Kiplingesque facility at wrapping horrible (but popular) ideas in attractive words. But I don't think he'd grow into the Wagner of philosophy. If nothing else, he'd hate the idea of leading a mass movement.
 
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