NIETZSCHE AND THE HELLENISTIC THERAPIES: STOICS AND EPICUREANS AS FORERUNNERS OF CHRISTIANITY

Abstract

This article focuses on Nietzsche’s ambivalent relationship with the philosophers of the Hellenistic period, especially the Stoics and the Epicureans. More concretely, we will try to determine why, despite the extraordinary influence that these schools exerted on Nietzsche’s thought, he came to criticize them so vehemently in the final phase of his work. By tracing Nietzsche’s evaluation of these philosophical therapists – as himself a “physician of culture” – it becomes clear that his main points of criticism against them are similar to those he raises against Christianity and that they mostly concern the very idea of therapy as traditionally conceived. We will argue that Nietzsche views the Hellenistic philosophers as important forerunners of Christianity, holding them responsible for the creation of the framework and worldview without which Christianity could not have succeeded. Both the Stoics and the Epicureans are thus better conceived as “pseudo-physicians” who played a fundamental role in promoting the nihilism that Nietzsche diagnoses in Western culture.