The Influence of Nietzsche on Existentialism

Thinking Modernity Through to the Other Side

The emergence of existentialism as a major philosophical paradigm in the postwar era in many ways represented the culmination of the influence of thought of Friedrich Nietzsche in the late nineteenth century. One of the central components of Nietzsche’s thinking was his recognition of the implications of the decline of traditional Western metaphysics. The Western intellectual heritage that began with the Socratics postulated a metaphysical concept of moral truth that Nietzsche regarded as having been demolished by the Enlightenment and the rise of modern science. According to Nietzsche, neither classical nor Christian conceptions of justice and morality could withstand the assault of modernity (Bufe, 1908). Consequently, Nietzsche regarded Western culture as facing a crisis of nihilism. The emergence of existentialism was an effort to address that crisis.