ABSTRACT
A number of commentators have remarked on a possible influence of the physicist Friedrich Zöllner on Nietzsche’s thinking about natural science, and in particular on his notion of space.1 On a wider level, Nietzsche’s ideas about the methodology of science may bear a relation to Zöllner’s scientific programme.2 Apart from this, however, there is a question about Nietzsche’s own opinion of Zöllner, which underwent a startling change in the eleven years between his several published references to Zöllner. The contrast is not to be explained in terms of any personal quarrel or broken friendship, since there is no evidence that the two men ever met, although they were indirectly linked through several intermediary figures.
