HARTMANN, NIETZSCHE AND THE ANTICHRIST

Abstract

In this article we will raise the hypothesis that the book
The Antichrist, written by Nietzsche in 1888, can be understood as an
ironic fulfillment of the “prophecy” of Eduard von Hartmann, in his
book Philosophy of the unconscious (1869), about a secular era of
humanity where Christianity would be no more than a shadow. To
arrive at this statement, it is first necessary to go back to Hartmann's
Philosophy of the Unconscious and the way in which the term
Antichrist is used by him. Later, it should be noted how Nietzsche
himself read and quoted it in his writing On the usefulness and
disadvantage of history for life (1873) and in his other writings, until
finally his book entitled The Antichrist. As we have suggested, the
name "Antichrist" was therefore appropriate to title the book that
brought the transvaluation of all Christian values with which
Nietzsche believed to launch a deadly attack on Christianity and thus
enable the conditions for a cultural renewal in which the values of
Christendom were, in fact, surpassed.