This book offers a succinct guide to Friedrich Nietzsche's contributions to educational thought
placing them within the context of his overall philosophy and adding biographical background
information that sheds light on his thinking. Topics discussed in detail include theories of
knowledge and life concepts of teaching and learning and practice and policy issues in modern
education. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was a major Western thinker with much to say about
education both directly and indirectly. A fierce critic of the schools and universities of his
time he affirms the centrality of 'culture' and the exceptional individual as the true aim of
education. For Nietzsche the human predicament is characterised by the tension between
knowledge and life. The task of education is to reconcile these demands but that requires a
radical rethinking of knowledge and a re-evaluation of morality. Nietzsche's new conception of
truth replaces facts with interpretations and certaintywith bold experiment. His new virtues
arise out of the 'sublimation' of drives that are condemned by traditional morality. An
education of the future promotes these aspects of individual development. Even so Nietzsche
seems to think that in the end it is up to each of us to engage in a broader task of
self-realisation for which he has a cryptic formula: Become what you are.
