The Criminal – A Nietzschean Profile and Its Legal Implications

Abstract

This paper examines Nietzsche’s view of the criminal, based on his “The Pale Criminal” in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Nietzsche has two major reasons to be interested in the criminal. First, Nietzsche claims that there is a common denominator between criminals and artists -- so much so that one must consider whether one does not have the right to account all great men evil? This claim is at once infuriating and outrageous, yet at the same time presents us with an opportunity to re-set, as it were, our ideas about the criminal mind. Second, and more relevant for the legal context, Nietzsche altogether rejects the concepts of responsibility and guilt and therefore criticises the received procedures of judgement and punishment.

Keywords: Nietzsche, The criminal, Strong person, Crime