Abstract

This paper corresponds to the first of two parts that make up a study on the question of teleology in the notes of the young Nietzsche between 1867 and 1869. On the whole, the study intends to offer a reading of three sets of notes written by the philosopher in that period: Zu Schopenhauer, Zur Teleologie, and Vom Ursprung der Sprache, with a clear focus on the notes on teleology of 1868. My aim is to try to show that, despite Nietzsche's various criticisms of teleology and his apparent adherence (via Lange) to Darwinism, his position is best understood as a kind of vitalism, which is receptive to the idea of an unconscious intentionality in nature, but which explicitly rejects the anthropomorphically inflated conception of a divine designer. In this first part of the study, I focus on an analysis of the text Zu Schopenhauer and part of the set of notes collected under the title Zur Teleologie.