The works of the middle period are sometimes labeled positivist, and one of their distinguishing features is the praise they contain for science. In these works, Friedrich Nietzsche repeatedly expresses his admiration for science’s methods and procedures, and for the values and characteristics of its practitioners. As part of his vision of an enlightened future, Nietzsche looks forward to the generation of a new aristocracy. This chapter explores the tension in these writings between his ideas of an aristocracy of spirit and an aristocracy of birth. The significance of embodiment in each of these models of aristocracy is discussed, and a Nietzschean ethic of care of the self is adduced.
Keywords: Nietzsche, aristocracy, science, enlightenment, Aristocracy of Spirit, Aristocracy of Birth, embodiment, care of self