Il silenzio del «buon europeo»

Nietzsche e l’esperienza del pensiero

Abstract

Although Nietzsche’s writing may seem «bombastic» and «shouting», and although he does not disdain lapidary formulas and unilateral judgments, his thinking is woven with silence and subtle reserve, which find expression in his use of irony and his practice of a dancing lightness. More than individual statements and positions – often conflicting and even contradictory – what counts in Nietzsche is the ability to take on different perspectives, to move nimbly between them, making them coexist in a problematic and suspended way. Philosophy thus becomes an art of masking, a serious game, a form of ridendo dicere verum, which eludes any attempt to fix it in formulas or nail it down to doctrines. The philosopher in Nietzsche remains akin to the hermit and his silence, as well as to the Platonic motif that what is highest must be kept hidden to some extent. If one takes Nietzsche literally, one loses the most essential movement, the most intimate and elusive core of his reflection. Central to him is the moment of liberation of the spirit, as demonstrated by one of the most significant masks of his reflection, namely the figure of the «good European».