We Philologists

Nietzsche gave the topic of education a lot of thought, especially while he was living in Basel. His understanding of it was far more profound than that of, say, Herbert Spencer or even Johann Friedrich Herbart, who has recently had a lot of influence in academic circles. Nietzsche was well aware that the "philologists"—a term he mostly used to describe to the professors of classics in German colleges and universities—were wholly unsuited for their lofty duty because they were all unable to embody the spirit of antiquity. Although this work may appear to be disjointed at first glance, there are two primary streams of thought running through it: a sharp criticism of German professors, and a number of constructive suggestions about what classical culture might be.