Nietzsche: the tactical power of language

Abstract

The theme of language in Nietzsche has been widely addressed, either as an epistemological problem in itself, or in connection with other key concepts of his oeuvre. This paper will deal with such theme from Nietzsche’s concerns about the validity of his own language in its capacity to convey his ideas –namely, that of an ascending life. In order to achieve this, this paper intends to analyze Nietzsche’s work in search of the relationship between such idea and the kind of language utilized, starting from The Birth of Tragedy, through Human, All Too Human, to arrive at Thus Spoke Zarathustra –where Nietzsche declares to have reached his ‘own language’. From the answer to the question of why, in his posterior work, that much-searched language is abandoned, we will try to show –in the conclusion- how, in the nietzschean use into his own oeuvre, language itself acquires the character of a tactic tool.