Enlightenment#
Summary#
Nietzsche treats the Enlightenment with deep ambivalence, viewing the French Revolution as its culmination and as a “terrible farce” that noble spectators interpreted according to their own passions until “the text disappeared under the interpretation.” He argues that enlightenment “causes revolt” because the slave mentality, which desires only the unconditioned and tyrannous, cannot tolerate the aristocratic skepticism and tolerance that enlightenment represents. In his discussion of women, Nietzsche provocatively suggests that enlightenment has been “men’s affair” and questions whether woman desires or requires enlightenment about herself.