Nietzsche and 'the Great Chinese of Königsberg'

NIETZSCHE AND “THE GREAT CHINESE OF KÖNIGSBERG” (ABSTRACT) The paper aims to demonstrate that, despite the hostile words that Friedrich Nietzsche has for Immanuel Kant on more than one occasion, his philosophical position is very much indebted to him. Even the famous appellative he gave to Kant – “The great Chinese of Königsberg” (Beyond Good and Evil, § 11) – reveals a discussion of the relation between criticism and philosophy that is far from trivial. Nietzsche transforms the Kantian anthropological conception so that the human being is reduced to his “species” dimension. This underlies the theme of beauty. Nietzsche regards the Kantian centrality of the human in the aesthetic judgements as a simple vice of anthropocentrism and anthropomorphism. All in all, Nietzsche’s thought can be therefore taken as an extreme radicalization of Kantian philosophy.