Ecce Homo: Philosophical Autobiography in the Flesh

This essay argues that in Ecce Homo, Nietzsche engages critically with philosophical methodology as a part of his wider interest in the transvaluation of all values. It shows that Nietzsche’s remarks in the text are commensurate with his wider critical engagement with philosophical methodology in texts such as The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, and On the Genealogy of Morals. The advantage of reading the text as philosophical autobiography, this essay suggests, is that it helps us to appreciate that Ecce Homo offers a performative critique of philosophical methodology that prizes pure rationality at the expense of embodiment.