"Friedich Nietzsche and Weimar Classicism argues that the philosopher's polemics against the nineteenth-century reception of Goethe and Schiller should not obscure, as has generally been the case, his own more positive evaluation of Weimar classicism. Paul Bishop and R. H. Stephenson uncover the continuing influence of Weimar classicism at the very heart of Nietzsche's aesthetic theory, which in turn became the cornerstone of his epistemological and moral concerns." "The book provides an overview of related scholarly literature; discusses Nietzsche's aesthetic theory in The Birth of Tragedy; recounts the composition of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and offers an interpretation of the "aesthetic gospel" in this centeal work. A concluding chapter explores the continuities in aesthetic theory from Leucippus to Ernst Cassirer. By demonstrating the constitutive function of the aesthetics of Weimar classicism in his philosophy, this book opens up a fresh and original perspective on reading Nietzsche."--BOOK JACKET.