Nietzsche Agonistes: Strife and Competition in Nietzsche's Reception of Greek Antiquity

In this thesis, I argue that Nietzsche’s reception of ancient Greece, embodied by such diverse historical personalities as Homer, Heraclitus, Socrates, Epicurus, and Thucydides, is structured by his approval of a particular conception of productive strife which he takes to be distinctive of the Greeks. I show that Nietzsche’s admiration for Greek antiquity (and his account of its putative decline) is due to what he perceives to be the characteristically Greek capacity to appraise regulated forms of conflict – in particular, competition – as positive. This capacity is most conspicuously realised in the concept of agon (ἀγών), the contest-idea of the Greek states of antiquity. I position Nietzsche’s interpretation of the metaphysics, ethics, politics, and literature of ancient Greece as essentially conditioned by his positive assessment of the agonal impulse, which he perceives as active on all levels of the Greek cultural output. I argue that, for Nietzsche, the unique achievements of the Greeks (whom he contrasts favourably with modern Europeans) spring in the first instance from the instinct for strife and competition that is embodied in, and regulated by, the social institution of agon. This has substantial implications for our interpretation of familiar concepts in Nietzsche’s philosophy more broadly, in particular his philosophical psychology and his political philosophy.