Q&A: Nietzsche
Originally published:
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Nietzsche
Question
Hello Rabbi. I wanted to ask what the Rabbi thinks of Nietzsche in general, and whether his doctrine is necessarily incompatible with Judaism.
Thank you very much.
Answer
I don’t have an opinion. I’m not familiar enough with him, and the question has no clear meaning. There are many details in his thought, and I don’t see what connection they have to “Judaism” (what is that, anyway?).
If you have a concrete question, please go ahead and formulate it here, and then it will be possible to discuss it.
Discussion on Answer
It has succeeded, it has succeeded. Wait a few hundred years, like with Maimonides, and today it’s much less so.
Could you elaborate, honored rabbi?
Since we’re already dealing with philosophers, why is it that the attempt made again and again (by Rabbi Soloveitchik, Hermann Cohen, and others) to convert His Eminence Kant to Judaism has not succeeded the way it did with Aristotle?