Laura Langone, “Nietzsche Contra Wagner or Nietzsche Contra Nihilism. Wagner’s Music as the Sickness of Nihilism,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 81, no. 4 (2025): 1351–74, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2025_81_4_1351.
| Item Type | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Author | Laura Langone |
| Abstract | This paper aims to show that Nietzsche’s break with Wagner was also due to Wagner’s assimilation of Schopenhauer’s philosophy, which Nietzsche regarded as a nihilistic worldview. Insofar as Schopenhauer’s thought recommended hatred of life and resignation, it proved to be nihilistic. Schopenhauer’s was a kind of passive nihilism, together with Christianity and Buddhism. Physiologically, the type incarnating passive nihilism turned out to be characterised by an abnormal feeling of exhaustion due to low metabolism. Ultimately, the article argues, among others, Nietzsche rejected Wagner’s thought because, under the influence of Schopenhauer’s philosophy, it led to passive nihilism. |
| Date | 2025 |
| Library Catalog | 401; 401.43; 401.45; 160; 401.41 |
| License | © 2026 by Aletheia - Associação Científica e Cultural |
| Volume | 81 |
| Publisher | Axioma - Publicações da Faculdade de Filosofia |
| Section | Philosophy of Language: New Frontiers in Meaning and Use |
| Pages | 1351-1374 |
| Publication | Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia |
| DOI | 10.17990/RPF/2025_81_4_1351 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Journal Abbr | RPF |
| ISSN | 0870-5283 ; 2183-461X |
| Date Added | 1/31/2026, 7:42:14 PM |
| Modified | 1/31/2026, 9:22:46 PM |
Barbera, Sandro. La comunicazione perfetta. Wagner tra Feuerbach e Schopenhauer. Pisa: Ed. Univ., 1984.
Berry, Mark. “Nietzsche and Wagner.” In The New Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche, edited by Tom Stern, 97-120. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Brock, Eike. Nietzsche und der Nihilismus. Berlin-Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110318050.
Campioni, Giuliano. Der französische Nietzsche. Berlin-New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110213553.
Campioni, Giuliano. “Nietzsche e il nichilismo francese.” Bollettino Filosofico 30, (2015): 16-38. https://doi.org/10.6093/1593-7178/3688.
Del Caro, Adrian. “Nietzsche and Romanticism: Goethe, Hölderlin, and Wagner.” In The Oxford Handbook of Nietzsche, edited by Ken Gemes and John Richardson, 108-133. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Di Giacomo, Giuseppe, Alessandro Alfieri, eds. Prospettive su Wagner: Filosofia, Musica, Letteratura. Milano: Mimesis, 2019.
Fry, Katherine. “Nietzsche’s Critique of Musical Decadence: ‘The Case of Wagner’ in Historical Perspective.” Journal of the Royal Music Association 1, (2017): 37-172. doi:10.1080/02690403.2017.1286130.
Gentili, Carlo, Werner Stegmaier, Aldo Venturelli, eds. Metafisica e nichilismo: Löwith e Heidegger interpreti di Nietzsche. Bologna: Edizioni Pendragon, 2006.
Gentili, Carlo, Cathrin Nielsen, eds. Der Tod Gottes und die Wissenschaft: Zur Wissenschaftskritik Nietzsches. Berlin-New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110220759.
Gilman, Sander L. “Nietzsche, Bizet, and Wagner: Illness, Health, and Race in the Nineteenth Century.” The Opera Quarterly 2-3, (2007): 247-264. https://doi.org/10.1093/oq/kbn030.
Guanti, Giovanni. Romanticismo e musica: l’estetica musicale da Kant a Nietzsche. Torino: EDT, 1981.
Hollinrake, Roger. Nietzsche, Wagner, and the Philosophy of Pessimism. London-New York: Routledge, 2010.
Janz, Curt P. Friedrich Nietzsche. Biographie. München: Carl Hanser-Verlag, 1978–1979.
Lossi, Annamaria. La ragione estetica: saggio su Nietzsche. Pisa: ETS, 2012.
Magee, Bryan. The Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2000.
Müller-Lauter, Wolfgang. “Décadence artística enquanto décadence fisiológica: A propósito da crítica tardia de Friedrich Nietzsche a Richard Wagner.” Cadernos Nietzsche 6, (1999): 11-30.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Ecce Homo: How to Become What you Are. Edited by Aaron Ridley and Judith Norman. Translated by Judith Norman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Nietzsche contra Wagner. Edited by Aaron Ridley and Judith Norman. Translated by Judith Norman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morality. Edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson. Translated by Carol Diethe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. “Posthumous Fragments.“ In Digital Critical Edition of the Complete Works and Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche. Edited by Paolo D’Iorio. July 05, 2024, http://www.nietzschesource.org/#eKGWB/NF-1887,11[99].
Nietzsche, Friedrich. “Posthumous Fragments.“ In Digital Critical Edition of the Complete Works and Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche. Edited by Paolo D’Iorio. July 05, 2024, http://www.nietzschesource.org/#eKGWB/NF-1887,9[35].
Nietzsche, Friedrich. “Posthumous Fragments.“ In Digital Critical Edition of the Complete Works and Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche. Edited by Paolo D’Iorio. July 05, 2024, http://www.nietzschesource.org/#eKGWB/NF-1885,2[127].
Nietzsche, Friedrich. “Posthumous Fragments.“ In Digital Critical Edition of the Complete Works and Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche. Edited by Paolo D’Iorio. July 05, 2024, http://www.nietzschesource.org/#eKGWB/NF-1888,14[25].
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Case of Wagner. Edited by Aaron Ridley and Judith Norman. Translated by Judith Norman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy. Edited by Raymond Geuss and Ronald Speirs. Translated by Ronald Speirs. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Gay Science. Edited by Bernard Williams. Translated by Josefine Nauckhoff. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Prange, Martine. Nietzsche, Wagner, Europe. Berlin-New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110315233.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. Der handschriftliche Nachlaß: Berliner Manuskripte (1818-1830). Edited by Arthur Hübscher. Frankfurt am Main: Kramer, 1970.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays II. Edited by Adrian del Caro and Christopher Janaway. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139016889.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. The World as Will and Representation I. Edited by E. F. G. Payne. Translated by E. F. G. Payne. New York: Dover Publications, 1969.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. The World as Will and Representation II. Edited by E. F. G. Payne. Translated by E. F. G. Payne. New York: Dover Publications, 1969.
Sorger, Stefan L. 2016. “‘Wagners Kunst ist krank.‘ Nietzsches Reflexionen über Kultur, Musik und Krankheit.“ In Nietzsche und Wagner: Perspektiven ihrer Auseinandersetzung, edited by Jutta Georg and Renate Reschke, 94-110. Berlin-Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110378757.
Stegmaier, Werner. Orientierung im Nihilismus – Luhmann meets Nietzsche. Berlin-Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110481198.
Wagner, Richard. My Life. New York: Tudor Publishing Company, 1936.
Wagner, Richard. Selected Letters of Richard Wagner. New York and London: Norton & Co., 1987.
Young, Julian. The Philosophies of Richard Wagner. Lanham: Lexington, 2014.
