A collapse is not a refutation
The softening of the brain which ultimately overtook him was not a physical accident.
Nietzsche's mental collapse in early 1889 and subsequent prolonged incapacity are historical facts; the moral explanation Chesterton attaches to them is an additional claim. Charles André and André Rangel Rios's historical medical review reports that his physicians diagnosed general paresis, that he never recovered, and that no autopsy was performed. It also sets out competing later diagnoses and treats the cause as unresolved. ‘Furious Frederich’ (2015), opening paragraphs and abstract.
Chesterton then changes the form of his argument: ‘If Nietzsche had not ended in imbecility’ makes the philosophical verdict independent of Nietzsche's actual medical history. He means that proud, isolated thought defeats its own capacity to judge, whether or not its exponent becomes ill. That proposed contradiction must be assessed in the philosophy itself. The illness cannot establish it, and the sources inspected do not support the claim that refusal of compassion caused Nietzsche's neurological deterioration.
Sources
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