Conclusion

Summary

If you have read through the preceding chapters of this book, or even just a few of them, you will hopefully have begun to appreciate in how many areas, and in how many varied ways, Nietzsche's influence has been felt. You will perhaps have begun to feel a little at home in the Nietzschean “archipelago”, and perhaps you will feel inspired to explore it further. Rather than attempt anything like a summary of the variegated field of Nietzscheanism we have explored here, I would simply like to conclude with an observation concerning Nietzsche's continued relevance, and why I believe the field of Nietzscheanism is likely to continue to expand for a long while to come.

Nietzsche can be seen as a Janus-like figure, presenting us with two faces: one turned towards the ancients, the gods, the rhythms of nature, the sweetening balms of the arts and the encircling lifeworld, which keeps our horizons securely grounded in tradition; one turned to the future, the heavens, the infinite, the inhuman, the excoriating power of reason, technology, science and that which is hardest in human hearts and most uncompromising in human heads. In different phases of his career (most clearly exemplified by the “early” and “middle” periods), one of these faces showed itself almost to the exclusion of the other. Yet perhaps what is most distinctive about Nietzsche is that he possessed, and he presents us with, both faces.