Schopenhauer and the Will to Style 47rest of us, standing in the stream of things and of life, only longing for
that negation of the will as an island for the fortunate, we cannot judge
whether the consolation of this philosophy would also gratify us in
times of deep mourning" (Β 2,195). Schopenhauer's consolation
worked for his friend, which kept the two of them, Friedrich Nietzsche
and Carl von Gersdorff, united in the spirit of philosophy.
In an essay on Schopenhauer that Nietzsche wrote five years later, he
insisted that Schopenhauer was not only a teacher but above all an "edu-
cator." In this essay, he defined the true educator as a 'liberator" (1,341;
SE § 1) who helps a "young soul" discover the "fundamental workings
of one's true self." The liberator is also a reviver. Nietzsche considered
himself gready in need of revival at the time of his initial encounter with
Schopenhauer's writings, and outlined his shortcomings in 1872, in the
fifth address in his lecture series "On the Future of Our Educational
Institutions." Drawing on his own experience, he deduced that students
appear to live freely and independendy and feel as though they were in a
dream in which they think they can fly, but are held back by inexplicable
impediments. Nietzsche noted "that he cannot lead or help himself."
Although "proud and noble resolutions" germinate in him, they lack the
power to prevail. Thus, he plunged "despairingly into the world of the
day and daily grind," but after a short while was gripped by the horror of
it. He did not wish to lapse so early in life into "narrow-minded pedan-
tic professionalism." But pedantry would be his inevitable fate, were he
to suffer the "lack of a guide to cultivation" (l,744f.; FE Fifth Lecture).
For Nietzsche, Schopenhauer was just such a "guide," who radiated
what one expected from a "true philosopher," namely that one "could
obey him because one would trust him more than oneself" (1,342; SE §
2). This level of trust does not imply agreement with ever)^7 last detail of
these teachings. Personal credibility was more important to him than
factual content. For this reason, his trust in Schopenhauer was unshaken
after a second, critical reading yielded doubts and objections.
This second reading was influenced by Nietzsche's encounter with
the writings of Friedrich Albert Lange. Lange's Geschichte des Materialismus