Nietzsche and Cosmopolitanism: reflections on Music and Politics Based on a Reading by Scarlett Marton

Abstract

Establishing a dialogue with Scarlett Marton, based on her book Nietzsche, “The Good European” – The Reception in Germany, France, and Italy, this article discusses notions such as nationalism and cosmopolitanism. Placing special emphasis on the rela- tionship between State and culture, which appear as antagonists in Nietzschean philosophy, and which Marton highlights well, we intend to show how musical aesthetics can help to understand the importance of culture for the idea of a supranational and cosmopolitan Europe. Nietzsche’s reflections on music throughout his works play a special role, since it was around Wagner’s ideas that many of these issues were elaborated, both in the period of enthusiasm for German nationalist culture, and later, when there was a rupture and the consequent defense of a cosmopolitan Europe. In this aspect, the question of the Jews gains important prominence from Human, All Too Human onwards.