He concludes that European culture since the time of Socrates has remained one-sidedly Apollonian, repressed, scientific, and relatively unhealthy. As a means towards a cultural rebirth, Nietzsche advocates in contemporary life, the resurrection and fuller release of Dionysian artistic energies—those which he associates with primordial creativity, joy in existence and ultimate truth. The seeds of this liberating rebirth Nietzsche perceives in the German music of his time viz.
As one of his early books, The Birth of Tragedy has a strong Wagnerian and Schopenhauerian flavor, and scholars disagree about the extent to which Nietzsche departs from Schopenhauer in this work and in later works.
Viewing our existence from a vast and sobering distance, Nietzsche further notes that there was an eternity before human beings came into existence, and believes that after humanity dies out, nothing significant will have changed in the great scheme of things.
The first of these attacks David Strauss, whose popular six-edition book, The Old and the New Faith: A Confession encapsulated for Nietzsche the general cultural atmosphere in Germany. The third and fourth studies—on Schopenhauer and Wagner, respectively—address how these two thinkers, as paradigms of philosophic and artistic genius, hold the potential to inspire a stronger, healthier and livelier German culture.
The idea of power for which he would later become known sporadically appears as an explanatory principle, but he tends at this time to invoke hedonistic considerations of pleasure and pain in his explanations of cultural and psychological phenomena. Given his harsh criticisms of hedonism and utilitarianism in later works e. There are some differences of scholarly opinion concerning whether Nietzsche primarily intends this doctrine to describe a serious metaphysical theory, or whether he is offering merely one way to interpret the world among many others, which if adopted therapeutically as a psychologically healthy myth, can help us become stronger.
In , The Gay Science was reissued with an important preface, an additional fifth Book, and an appendix of songs, reminiscent of the troubadours. It is a manifesto of personal self-overcoming, and a guidebook for others towards the same revitalizing end. Thirty years after its initial publication, , copies of the work were printed by the German government and issued during WWI as inspirational reading to the young soldiers, along with the Bible.
Though Thus Spoke Zarathustra is antagonistic to the Judeo-Christian world-view, its poetic and prophetic style relies upon many, often inverted, Old and New Testament allusions.
Nietzsche also filled the work with nature metaphors, almost in the spirit of pre-Socratic naturalist philosophy, which invoke animals, earth, air, fire, water, celestial bodies, plants, all in the service of describing the spiritual development of Zarathustra, a solitary, reflective, exceedingly strong-willed, sage-like, laughing and dancing voice of heroic self-mastery who, accompanied by a proud, sharp-eyed eagle and a wise snake, envisions a mode of psychologically healthier being beyond the common human condition.
Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft , is arguably a rethinking of Human, All-too-Human , since their respective tables of contents and sequence of themes loosely correspond to one another.
Nietzsche alternatively philosophizes from the perspective of life located beyond good and evil, and challenges the entrenched moral idea that exploitation, domination, injury to the weak, destruction and appropriation are universally objectionable behaviors. As he views things from the perspective of life, Nietzsche further denies that there is a universal morality applicable indiscriminately to all human beings, and instead designates a series of moralities in an order of rank that ascends from the plebeian to the noble: some moralities are more suitable for subordinate roles; some are more appropriate for dominating and leading social roles.
What counts as a preferable and legitimate action depends upon the kind of person one is. The deciding factor is whether one is weaker, sicker and on the decline, or whether one is healthier, more powerful and overflowing with life. The first essay continues the discussion of master morality versus servant morality, and maintains that the traditional ideals set forth as holy and morally good within Christian morality are products of self-deception, since they were forged in the bad air of revenge, resentment, hatred, impotence, and cowardice.
He also discusses how punishment, conceived as the infliction of pain upon someone in proportion to their offense, is likely to have been grounded in the contractual economic relationship between creditor and debtor, i. In the third essay, Nietzsche focusses upon the truth-oriented ascetic ideals that underlie and inform prevailing styles of art, religion and philosophy, and he offers a particularly scathing critique of the priesthood: the priests are allegedly a group of weak people who shepherd even weaker people as a way to experience power for themselves.
In the Genealogy , Nietzsche offers a competing account of the origin of moral values, aiming to reveal their life-negating foundations and functions.
Nietzsche ultimately advocates valuations that issue from a self-confident, self-reinforcing, self-governing, creative and commanding attitude, as opposed to those that issue from reactive attitudes that determine values more mechanically and subordinatingly to those who are inherently more powerful. From the standpoint of a leader, in the appropriate circumstances it is good to be able to inflict pain and instil fear among those who are led, and bad not to be able to do so.
From the standpoint of those who are led, the infliction of pain and instillation of fear upon subordinates does not appear typically to be good at all, but rather evil.
Nietzsche, writing almost thirty years later, here accuses Wagner of having done the same. Nietzsche reiterates and elaborates some of the criticisms of Socrates, Plato, Kant and Christianity found in earlier works, criticizes the then-contemporary German culture as being unsophisticated and too-full of beer, and shoots some disapproving arrows at key French, British, and Italian cultural figures such as Rousseau, Hugo, Sand, Michelet, Zola, Renan, Carlyle, Mill, Eliot, Darwin, and Dante. In contrast to these alleged representatives of cultural decadence, Nietzsche applauds Caesar, Napoleon, Goethe, Dostoevsky, Thucydides and the Sophists as healthier and stronger types.
Fluch auf das Christentum , September [published ] , Nietzsche expresses his disgust over the way noble values in Roman Society were corrupted by the rise of Christianity, and he discusses specific aspects and personages in Christian culture—the Gospels, Paul, the martyrs, priests, the crusades—with a view towards showing that Christianity is a religion for weak and unhealthy people, whose general historical effect has been to undermine the healthy qualities of the more noble cultures.
As in most of his works, Nietzsche criticizes, either implicitly or explicitly, the anti-Semitic writers of his day. In this particular study, one of his main targets is the French, anti-Semitic, Christian historian, Ernest Renan — , who was known for works such as The Life of Jesus and History of the Origins of Christianity — , the fourth book of which was entitled The Antichrist Along the same lines, Ecce Homo recalls the interval between Human-All-too-Human and Daybreak , when Nietzsche plunged to a very low point in his health, coming close to death, and then dramatically recuperated.
In this self-portrait, completed only a month before his collapse, Nietzsche characterizes his own anti-Christian sentiments, and contemplates how even the greatest people usually undergo significant corruption.
The abruptness of his breakdown in combination with the lucidity of his final writings has fed speculation that rather than suffering from a slowly progressive mental disease, Nietzsche had a physical condition e.
This material is surrounded by controversy, since some of it conflicts with views he expresses in his published works. In his unpublished manuscripts, Nietzsche sometimes elaborates the topics found in the published works, such as his early s notebooks, where there is important material concerning his theory of knowledge. In the s notebooks—those from which his sister collected together a large selection after his death under the title, The Will to Power: Attempt at a Revaluation of all Values —Nietzsche sometimes adopts a more metaphysical orientation towards the doctrines of Eternal Recurrence and the Will to Power, speculating upon their structure, implications, and intellectual strength as interpretations of reality itself.
In English-speaking countries, his positive reception has been less resonant. Until the s in France, Nietzsche appealed mainly to writers and artists, since the academic philosophical climate was dominated by G.
Specific 20th century figures who were influenced, either quite substantially, or in a significant part, by Nietzsche include painters, dancers, musicians, playwrights, poets, novelists, psychologists, sociologists, literary theorists, historians, and philosophers: Alfred Adler, Georges Bataille, Martin Buber, Albert Camus, E.
The work of Rorty may certainly be characterized in this manner. Despite these attempts, tensions remain between Anglo-American readers who cultivate a neo-pragmatic version of Nietzsche and those who, by comparison, seem too comfortable accepting uncritically the problematic aspects of the Continental interpretation.
The following list is by no means exhaustive. A number of these writings are available to English readers, and a few are accessible in a variety of editions, either as supplements to the major works or as part of assorted critical editions.
The following list offers a sample of these writings. A firsthand and secondhand biographical narrative may be followed in the collected letters of Nietzsche and his associates:. The following list is by no means comprehensive, nor does it purport to represent all of the major themes prevalent in Nietzsche scholarship today. It is designed for the reader seeking to learn more about the intellectual history of Nietzsche reception in the twentieth century.
In addition to a typically large number full-length manuscripts on Nietzsche published every year, scholarly works in English may be found in general, academic periodicals focused on Continental philosophy, ethical theory, critical theory, the history of ideas and similar themes.
In addition, some major journals are devoted entirely to Nietzsche and aligned topics. Related both to the issue of orthodoxy and to the backlash against multiplicity in Nietzsche interpretation, the value of having so many outlets available for Nietzsche commentators has even been questioned. The following journals are devoted specifically to Nietzsche studies. Dale Wilkerson Email: dale.
Friedrich Nietzsche — Nietzsche was a German philosopher, essayist, and cultural critic. The following division is typical: i. Post—the later period Nietzsche transitions into a new period with the conclusion of The Gay Science Book IV and his next published work, the novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra, produced in four parts between and The Human Exemplar How and why do nihilism and the pessimism of weakness prevail in modernity?
Again, from the notebook of Will to Power, aphorism 27 , we find two conditions for this situation: 1. Will to Power The exemplar expresses hope not granted from metaphysical illusions. Zarathustra answers: Listen to my teaching, you wisest men! References and Further Reading a. Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Briefwechsel, ed. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari, 24 vols. Berlin: de Gruyter, Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Werke , ed.
At the present time, the project remains unfinished. Walter Kaufmann, New York: Vintage, Hollingdale Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, The four essays of this work are available separately in other editions Human, All Too Human Menschliches, Allzumenschliches [vol.
The later editions of this translation contain a helpful index. Walter Kaufman New York: Vintage, Hollingdale, New York: Penguin, Hollingdale New York: Penguin, Nietzsche contra Wagner Nietzsche contra Wagner , , first published , trans.
Walter Kaufmann, in The Portable Nietzsche , ed. Walter Kaufmann New York: Viking, Keith Ansell-Pearson; trans. Sander L. Gilman, Carole Blair, and David J. Marianne Cowan Washington, D. The Pre-Platonic Philosophers Die vorplatonischen Philosophen , lectures during various semesters at Basel from to ; ed. II, part 4 , ed. Unpublished Writings from the Period of Unfashionable Observations vol. Bernd Magnus; trans. Richard T. Walter Kaufmann and R.
Hollingdale New York: Vintage, Writings from the Late Notebooks writings from the Nachlass , ed. Biographies A firsthand and secondhand biographical narrative may be followed in the collected letters of Nietzsche and his associates: Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche , ed. Gilman, trans. David J. The following list includes a few of the most well known biographies in English.
Diethe, Carol. Hayman, Ronald. Hollingdale, R. Pletsch, Carl. Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography , trans. Shelley Frisch New York: Norton, Nietzsche , ed. Allison, David B. Ansell-Pearson, Keith. Aschheim, Steven E. Bambach, Charles R. Bataille, Georges. Allan Stoekl, trans. Stoekl, et. Brobjer, Thomas. Clark, Maudemarie. It is, perhaps, the best point of entry for readers hoping to gain such insight. Conway, Daniel W.
Nietzsche and the Political London: Routledge, Danto, Authur C. Deleuze, Gilles. Nietzsche et la philosophie , Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, , available in English under the title, Nietzsche and Philosophy , trans. For Deleuze, Nietzsche is a post-Kantian thinker of historical consciousness and a genealogist refuting the dialectic rationalism of Hegel Derrida, Jacques.
Derrida, Jacques. Diane P. Michelfelder and Richard E. Fink, Eugen. Goetz Richter London: Continuum, Foucault, Michel. Donald F. Gillespie, Michael Allen. Golomb, Jacob and Robert S. Wistrich ed. Nietzsche, Godfather of Fascism? Habermas detects two dominant strains of post-Nietzschean philosophical rhetoric: a Dionysian messianism transmitted through Heidegger and Derrida which longs for the absent god and a fetishization of power, heterogeneity, and subversion found in Bataille and Foucault.
Heidegger, Martin. William Lovitt; co-edited J. The published form of these lectures first appeared during in two volumes. Nietzsche, vol. I-IV, trans. The philosophy of Nietzsche plays a prominent role in several other works by Heidegger. II trans. Jaspers, Karl. Influence and reception of Friedrich Nietzsche Nietzsche and Zionism. Influence and reception of Friedrich Nietzsche Nietzsche and fascism. Influence and reception of Friedrich Nietzsche Nietzsche and psychoanalysis. Influence and reception of Friedrich Nietzsche Early 20th-century thinkers.
As always, there are conflicting passages in Nietzsche. Nietzsche's sympathetic commentators are no doubt correct that he would have been horrified by Nazism and the Third Reich.
In a move that anticipated Nietzsche and Freud, he inverts the Platonic-Christian view of man, claiming that man is essentially will , not reason. According to Schopenhauer, reason, consciousness, morality, judgment—all the properties that we associate with the ego —are mere epiphenomena of the essentially unfathomable and purposeless striving that animates all nature.
We celebrate the Sabbath of the penal servitude of willing; the wheel of Ixion stands still. Nietzsche believed that his solitary wanderings and meditations had brought him insights far too advanced and devastating for most of his contemporaries. Not only was the tradition wrong in seeing man as primarily a rational animal, Nietzsche argued, it was wrong in valuing being over becoming, permanence over evanescence, timelessness over time.
Making a virtue of a necessity, Nietzsche came to exalt willing —and hence suffering—as the source of all joy and power. This was his essential innovation on Schopenhauer. Where Schopenhauer saw art as a kind of propaedeutic to renunciation, for Nietzsche art was an alternative to renunciation and the pessimism it presupposed. Instead of disparaging the will, Nietzsche celebrated it. Whether Nietzsche believed he had achieved the radical affirmation of mortality that he championed is open to question.
T here is a tremendous pathos in Nietzsche's struggle to affirm life. In his investigation into the origin of values, he always asked what lack, what need, what deficiency could have prompted the creation of a given value.
The eldest of three children, he was named for Friedrich Wilhelm king of Prussia, whose birthday he shared. His father, Karl Ludwig, was a Lutheran preacher and son of a cleric. He was a cultivated man: musical, bookish, and not a little worldly. In the late s he served as a minor courtier, tutoring the three Prussian princesses at Altenburg.
When she married, in , the seventeen-year-old bride joined her husband in a household that included his widowed mother and two unmarried stepsisters. Early on the myopic young Friedrich began suffering from the migraines that would plague him throughout his life, while his aunts and grandmother chronically battled a variety of nervous and gastric complaints: these, too, would come to plague Nietzsche.
His father was even more unlucky. In he began suffering from a mysterious brain disease. More tragedy was to come. The serious, exceedingly fastidious youth seemed destined for the cloth. He did poorly in mathematics but excelled in languages and literature. By all accounts, Nietzsche became the mildest of men: quiet, unassuming, infallibly courteous and correct. Yet there can be no doubt that he possessed a will of iron. Nietzsche got into an argument about Gaius Mucius Scaevola, the legendary Roman soldier who, captured by the enemy, is said to have thrust his right hand unflinchingly into a fire to prove his indifference to pain.
Not to be outdone, the young Nietzsche took a handful of matches, lighted them, and held the burning sticks steadily in his outstretched palm until a prefect knocked them to the ground.
The boy had already been badly burned. Although he continued to be drawn to theology and music—Nietzsche would go on to compose a good deal of piano music, which is of approximately the same quality as his mature theology—he decided to study classical philology. He went first to Bonn, and then followed his mentor, the eminent philologist Friedrich Ritschl, to the University of Leipzig in It was in , too, that the distinctly unworldly Nietzsche visited Cologne.
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