Wolfgang Müller-Lauter, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetWolfgang Müller-Lauter
German philosopher
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Weimar, Thuringia, Germany
About Wolfgang Müller-Lauter
- Wolfgang Müller-Lauter (August 31, 1924 in Weimar – August 9, 2001 in Berlin) was a German philosopher and scholar.
- He is particularly known for his groundbreaking work on the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, considered to be one of the most important contributions to the study of Nietzsche in the twentieth century.
- He was Ordinary Professor of Philosophy at the Kirchliche Hochschule Berlin and from 1993 Emeritus Professor in the Theological Faculty of the Humboldt University Berlin. Müller-Lauter began his career with a doctoral thesis on Martin Heidegger, to whose work he had been led through a study of Jean-Paul Sartre.
- In preparing a lecture course on the roots of nihilism in the twentieth century at the Kirchliche Hochschule in Berlin, Müller-Lauter became increasingly interested in Nietzsche's treatment of the problem of nihilism.
- Müller-Lauter's own approach to Nietzsche is marked by a critique of Heidegger's then prevalent reading of Nietzsche's thought.
- In particular, Müller-Lauter took issue with Heidegger's characterization of Nietzsche as the “last metaphysician of the West.” Heidegger had seen Nietzsche as attempting, but ultimately failing, to overcome the metaphysical tradition.
- Müller-Lauter argued cogently on the basis of a detailed analysis of Nietzsche's texts that the role that Heidegger reserved for himself had in fact been effectively performed by Nietzsche himself.
- Central to this interpretation was the reexamination of the “doctrine” of the will to power found in Nietzsche's work, turning it from a metaphysical doctrine (as in Heidegger's interpretation) into a theory of a plurality of will-to-power quanta dynamically interacting with one another in processes with an inherently contradictory and perspectival character.
- This work set a new standard of rigor and seriousness in Nietzsche scholarship as well as establishing an influential reading of Nietzsche's work. Müller-Lauter was a co-founder of the journal Nietzsche-Studien in 1971, and continued to co-edit the journal until 1996.
- He was also co-founder and co-editor (from 1972 to 1996) of the book series Monographien und Texte zur Nietzsche-Forschung published by de Gruyter.
- After the death of Mazzino Montinari in 1986 Müller-Lauter took over the co-editorship of the complete critical edition of Nietzsche's Works (KGW) produced by de Gruyter. In 1996 he was the first recipient of the Friedrich Nietzsche Prize.
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