Andrea Bertino

Bertino ponders the question of identity for Europeans and whether it requires a strong identity, comparable with national identities. It is based on a reconstruction of Nietzsche’s idea of the fundamental ambivalence of the democratic process, which nonetheless remains irresistible. While creating a European culture that affirms difference and fosters individuality - which is Nietzsche’s aim - requires dispensing with national limitations, democracy problematically levels individuals. Bertino emphasizes the historical and pluralistic view “good Europeans” adopt, and the ironical distance with which they consider determinations of their own identity.

The paper aims to present Nietzsche's project of a new Enlightenment on the basis of his use of the metaphor which the Enlightenment employs for its self-presentation, namely the metaphor of light. Firstly it is shown, above all in consideration of Nietzsche's early account of language, that it is methodologically necessary to examine Nietzsche's critique of the Enlightenment from a metaphorological point of view. Examining his differentiated use of the metaphor of light we can then more precisely understand, in which sense Nietzsche can recognize a strong bond between the notion of Enlightenment and the practice of transfiguration. Finally, we clarify the connection suggested by Nietzsche between the ideals of a new Enlightenment and the thought of eternal recurrence of the same.