12: The Horse-Hugging That Never Happened (And 7 Other Nietzsche Myths)

Nietzsche's philosophy drove him mad, everyone knows that. If it wasn't his philosophy itself, then perhaps the syphilis did him in. He collapsed in the streets of Turin, throwing his arms around a beaten horse! He looked into the abyss, saw that nihilism was coming for society - and that's why we should all return to Christian values! We've all heard these takes before. But, unfortunately for "the Nietzsche legend", many of the stories about Nietzsche and his collapse are little more than myths. When we search for the evidence to support them, we find they're all unfounded. This week, I'm going after eight myths pertaining Nietzsche's life and ideas. While most scholars have moved on from taking these stories uncritically, they still coalesce in the popular consciousness to form the "Nietzsche legend". Hopefully I can uproot some of these here, so that more people can study Nietzsche (the person) rather than "Nietzsche" (the legend). Thanks to lebensmaler for compiling his own list of misconceptions, two of which I address in this episode (read it here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Nietzsche/comments/ogmf2e/top_5_misconceptions/)