Socrates was for Nietzsche the “vortex and turning point of so-called world history” (BT 15). For readers of Nietzsche, however, investigating the problem of Socrates involves much more than the already difficult task of interpreting a widely anthologized essay from Twilight of the Idols. That essay, “The Problem of Socrates,” because of its humorous and shocking tone and content, masks and reveals what is for Nietzsche a complex set of issues that are to be approached with the greatest seriousness: Who is Socrates in the ancient world? How did he get himself taken seriously? And what does the Socratic ideal indicate, both in the ancient world and in Western intellectual history?
A litany of questions emerging from considerations of the problem of Nietzsche's Socrates could be developed well beyond what has been posed here. So it is surprising that this problem has not generated more reflection in the...
