Nietzsche contra Kant

The hostility that Friedrich Nietzsche expressed towards Immanuel Kant and Kant's legacy within German philosophy is widely documented and acknowledged. However, the merits of Nietzsche's attack on Kant are often overlooked and disregarded due to the belief that Nietzsche lacked a sound knowledge of Kant's work. In a recent publication, Kevin Hill demonstrates that Nietzsche was much better acquainted with the central tenets of Kant's philosophy than is widely believed. Moreover, Hill proceeds to argue that Nietzsche's philosophy is in fact largely situated within a Kantian framework. While I reject the latter claim, I hold that the evidence which Hill offers of Nietzsche's knowledge of Kant and the Critiques, suggests that Nietzsche's criticism of Kant warrants further consideration. This thesis examines Nietzsche's knowledge of Kant's work and his rejection of some of the key aspects of Kant's philosophy. Nietzsche challenges Kant's deduction of the categories of the understanding, which he presents as a form of falsification that cannot, as Kant claimed, lead to objective knowledge. In addition, Nietzsche rejects Kant's noumena/phenomena distinction, denying the possibility of an unconditioned thing-in-itself. I conclude that Nietzsche's unique critique of Kant adds to our understanding of the Kantian project, and reveals some of the original presuppositions which motivated Kant's philosophy.