Abstract

Nietzsche's mature philosophy developed in intense antagonistic struggle with Charles Darwin and his theories. Many of Nietzsche's positions — for example, his notion of strong and weak wills, his concept of the overman and the will to power — are inconceivable without Darwin. In his final works, however, Nietzsche clearly expressed that he wished to be remembered as an "anti-Darwinian." This article traces the development of Nietzsche's Darwinian association, from the period of his earliest sustained references to Darwin — in his 'David Strauss' Essay of 1873 — until Zarathustra. It will argue thatNietzsche's philosophy in the middle period displayed an intense preoccupation with Darwin, and that Darwin's genealogical approach to the question of morality helped Nietzsche to locate and articulate his own hypotheses concerning morality and its origins. Butinstead of becoming closer to Darwin and his followers, Nietzsche had begun to explore alternative perspectives, which ultimately rendered his philosophy incompatible with Darwinism. This article will examine several key areas where Nietzsche had begun to diverge from Darwin, and how this middle-period critique opened up the vantage-point for hisfinal anti-Darwinian position