Philosophy as an Erotic Contest: Nietzsche contra Plato

Abstract Drawing on Nietzsche’s daring definition of Plato’s philosophy as an erotic contest in Twilight of the Idols (1889), I examine this conception in relation to Nietzsche’s own philosophy and to his engagement with Platonic philosophy. I begin by applying Nietzsche’s characterization of Plato’s philosophy as an erotic contest to Plato’s own writings. Plato grounds philosophy in the economy of the psyche by tying it to eros and the agonal drive. Although these drives are necessary, Plato insists that they should firmly remain under the control of reason, as any excess is highly dangerous. Nietzsche re-evaluated both the direction and the danger of these drives. The focus shifts from transcendence through rationality to thinking in accordance with the movement of life. Nietzsche replaces rational dialectics with experiments that incorporate extra-rational elements, the Versuch . However, simply replacing Plato’s focus on the beyond with Nietzsche’s focus on life would amount to an inverted Platonism that repeats the metaphysical closure that Nietzsche sought to avoid. Maintaining an agonal tension between the philosophies of Nietzsche and Plato prevents this closure and may be the most compelling way to transvaluate philosophy through “the prism of life.”