Publisher's Synopsis
My partial translation of Nietzsche's Third Untimely Meditation (covering all of sections I-V, which actually deal with Schopenhauer, but not sections VI-VIII, which move on to other things) was initially prepared, with no thought of publication, for an especially fine group of students to whom I wanted to give a sense of Nietzsche's beautiful diction as I hear it having grown up with the language. Certain armchair critics have since seen fit to make it sound as if I were suppressing something, or even censoring a thinker and writer I admire: absurd charges with deplorable results, not only for me, but also for those potential readers who might have benefited from this version of the text, but who cannot go to the original to verify how faithful it in fact is to Nietzsche's German. Nothing has been willfully falsified; all I have done is to make an informed decision about the greater pertinence of the earlier sections to the subject announced in the title, namely Schopenhauer as an educator. Those who cannot see the clear break in the argument where I leave off, or who do not feel qualified to make such a call, I commend for their restraint; but to cry foul at the very thought of such judgements in order to draw attention to one's own superior wisdom is another matter altogether. (Since this translation went into print in 2014 it has been repeatedly revised and corrected. The current edition was last updated in early 2022.)
