Why Nietzsche Hated Stoicism — His Rejection Explained

"Gradually it has become clear to me what every great philosophy has been — a confession on the part of its author and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir…"

Nietzsche didn't just disagree with Stoicism, he considered it a profound betrayal of human nature — a philosophy of life-denial disguised as wisdom, spiritual anesthesia masquerading as strength. For Nietzsche, Stoic emotional discipline isn't self-mastery but self-mutilation, deliberately numbing oneself to life's full spectrum. Behind this quest for invulnerability Nietzsche detects not strength but fear, cowardice, and self-loathing.

By contrast, Nietzschean flourishing doesn't promise tranquility but vitality, a life characterized by intensity, creative power, and joyful wisdom. Like a bow drawn taut, human greatness emerges from opposing forces held in productive tension rather than resolved into artificial harmony. Where the Stoic sees the tempest of human passion as something to be quelled, Nietzsche sees it as energy to be harnessed. The Stoic builds walls against life's storms, Nietzsche builds windmills, transforming resistance into power.

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We will discuss the episode “Why Nietzsche Hated Stoicism – His Rejection Explained” from Philosophy Coded at this meetup. Please listen to the episode in advance (25 minutes) and bring your thoughts, reactions, and queries to share with us at the discussion. Please also read the following passages by Nietzsche on Stoicism (about 7 pages in total) which we'll discuss:

• Beyond Good and Evil (1886) — Sections 9 and 198 (pdf here)
• The Gay Science (1882) — Sections 12, 326, 359, 120, 305, and 306 (pdf here)

Section timestamps from the episode for reference:

1. Introduction: The Contemporary Stoic Revival (00:00)
2. On "Nature" and Self-Deception (01:34)
3. On Emotions, Passion, and Meaning (03:43)
4. Stoicism as Ideology: On Society and Politics (12:16)
5. Philosophy as Unconscious Confession (15:00)
6. On Fate (16:52)
7. The Stoic's "Dichotomy Of Control" (19:35)
8. Philosophy as Self-Help and Therapy (21:48)

Optional related readings:

• "Amor Fati: the Stoics’ and Nietzsche’s Different Takes on Fate" from Philosophy Break
• "3 Reasons Not To Be a Stoic (But Try Nietzsche Instead)" from The Conversation
• "Nietzsche contra Stoicism: Naturalism and Value, Suffering and Amor Fati" from Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy (pdf here)
• “Ward No. 6”, a short story by Anton Chekhov we discussed in the group last year

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Future topics for this discussion series:

If you'd like to suggest a podcast episode for us to discuss at a future meetup, please send me a message or leave a comment below. This link here is my own (frequently updated) playlist of listening recommendations and potential fodder for future discussions (by default it's sorted from oldest to newest but you can reverse it with the "sort by" button.)

Podcast episodes we've previously discussed:

• Why Cynicism Is Bad For You (and The Surprising Science of Human Goodness) from The Gray Area
• The Culture Map: Decoding Cross-Cultural Communication from ReThinking
• The Price of Neutrality: Why “Staying Out of It” Backfires in Moral Disagreement from The Stanford Psychology Podcast
• Human Nature and The Impossibility of Utopia from Philosophy For Our Times
• Found By Faith from How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality
• What Is Faith? from Bishop Barron's Word On Fire
• This Pastor Thought Being Gay Was a Sin. Then His 15-Year-Old Came Out from The Opinions