Meaning and suffering in the last Nietzsche

Abstract

In the PF 1888, 14 [89], Nietzsche distinguishes a tragic meaning and a christian meaning for suffering. With this conceptual pair, the philosopher designates the conflict between two antagonistic justifications of life, opposing two types of sufferers with contrary needs. Oriented by the posthumous fragment mentioned the argumentation will follow in a retrospective chronology the exam of the main texts in which Nietzsche discusses the themes of suffering and meaning in that period. Starting from the On the Genealogy of Morals, one will see how the methodological discussion involved in the fluidity of meaning implies a counterposition to the ascetic ideal's pretension of establishing a fixed and universal meaning for suffering. Next, The Gay Science §370 will be considered, inasmuch as the heuristic of necessity provides Nietzsche with the distinction between two types of sufferers, as well as the configuration of the arts and philosophies in correspondence with their needs. Finally, the prefaces of 1886 will be interpreted as the theoretical framework that establishes the way of thinking of suffering by antagonistic pairs, since, in this set of texts, Nietzsche narrates how he learned to see the distinction between two types of philosophy: one that comes from weakness and another, from strength. Conclusively, considerations will be drawn, aiming to establish the typological contraposition of antagonistic sufferers as a legit reading key to analyze suffering in the final period of Nietzsche's philosophy.