| Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche | |||||||
| 尼采 | |||||||
| 弗裏德裏希·尼采 | |||||||
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弗里德里希·威廉·尼采【生平】
1844年10月15日，尼采出生於普魯士薩剋森州勒肯鎮的一個鄉村牧師家庭。尼采自幼相信自己有着波蘭貴族血統並為此而感到自豪。1865年，尼采進入萊比錫大學攻讀古典語言學，並開始接觸叔本華的哲學思想。這些思想後來成為尼采哲學思考的起點。1869年，年僅25歲的尼采被聘為瑞士巴塞爾大學古典語言學教授。1879年，尼采辭去了巴塞爾大學的教職，開始了十年的漫遊生涯，同時也進入了創作的黃金時期。1889年，長期不被人理解的尼采由於無法忍受長時間的孤獨，在都靈大街上抱住一匹正在受馬夫虐待的馬的脖子，最終失去了理智。1900年，尼采與世長辭，享年55歲。
尼采的生日恰好是當時的普魯士國王弗裏德裏希•威廉四世的生辰。尼采的父親是威廉四世的宮廷教師，他曾執教過四位公主，深得國王的信任，於是他獲得恩準以國王的名字為兒子命名。後來，國王指派尼采的父親到勒肯鎮擔任牧師，那個影響世界的天才尼采也就在這裏出生。尼采回憶：“無論如何，我選在這一天出生，有一個很大的好處，在整個童年時期，我的生日就是舉國歡慶的日子。”尼采學話很慢，他老是用嚴肅的目光註視着一切，老牧師非常喜歡他，經常帶着他一起散步。尼采5歲時，父親不幸墜車震傷，患腦軟化癥，不久就去世了。
不久他隨全家搬到了南堡(Naumburg)，但是尼采並沒有忘記父親，父親的身影早已刻入他的記憶當中，他希望以父親為榜樣成為一名牧師，因此他時常給夥伴們朗誦聖經裏的某些章節，為此，他獲得了小牧師的稱號。由於父親過早去世，他被傢中信教的女人們(他的母親、妹妹、祖母和兩個姑姑)團團圍住，她們把他嬌慣得脆弱而敏感，幼年的尼采深切地感受到了死亡的無常，因而變得孤僻，尼采曾經這樣講述形容他的童年：“那一切本屬於其他孩子童年的陽光並不能照在我身上，我已經過早地學會成熟地思考。”在尼采的成長過程中，虔誠的清教徒母親的影響是不容忽視的，他後來終生保持着清教徒的本色，猶如石雕一般純樸。
10歲時他就讀於南堡文科中學，對文學與音樂極感興趣。14歲時，進入普夫達中學，這個學校課程都是古典的，訓練很嚴格，出了很多偉人，如詩人和劇作傢Novalis，語言學家和研究莎士比亞的學者Schlegel，以及康德的繼承者、偉大的先驗主義和道德哲學的代表費希特。可是尼采卻難以接受這種新生活，他很少玩耍，也不願意接近陌生人。這時的他除了理智的發展並有着驚人的進步外，音樂和詩歌已經成為他感情生活的寄托。尼采幼年曾受教於普魯士當時最好的女鋼琴傢，當他的母親為他聘請這位老師時，尼采就深感日後的生活離不開這樣的精神支持了。
1864年，尼采和他的朋友杜森(Paul Deussen)進入波恩大學攻讀神學和古典語言學，但第一學期結束，便不再學習神學了。他常聽同學們交談，有些人毫無信念和激情地重複黑格爾、費希物、謝林的各種公式，那些偉大的體係已經喪失了激發人的力量；還有一批人喜歡實證科學，閱讀福格特和比希納的唯物主義論文。這些都沒能吸引尼采，他是一名詩人，需要激情、超常和具有神秘性的東西，他不再滿足於科學世界的清晰與冷靜。尼采在修養和氣質上更是一名貴族，所以他對平民政治不感興趣，而且他從沒想過要過一種安寧舒適的生活，所以他不會對有節制的歡樂和痛苦這樣一種可憐的生活理想感興趣。尼采有自己的喜好，他熱愛希臘詩人，崇尚希臘神話中各種具有鮮明特點的人物，並把他們巧妙地同德意志的民族精神結合起來。尼采還在校學習時就深深體會到精通和弘揚本國、本民族文化的重要性，這充分地體現在他對古文字、文學，古典主義藝術的熱愛。他熱愛巴赫、貝多芬，以及後來尼采在《悲劇的誕生》中熱情褒揚的那位歌劇巨人——瓦格納。
1865年，他敬愛的古典語言學老師李謝爾思(F. W. Ritschls)到萊比錫大學任教，尼采也隨之到了那裏。當時的尼采雖然年紀不大，但已經開始哲學沉思了。那時，尼采非常睏惑：為何像叔本華那樣的天才會被現世所拋棄，其偉大的著作為何衹在書架的偏僻角落纔找得到？叔本華是這個青年心中的偶像，他在以後也被認為是叔本華唯意志論的繼承者。這時的他，此外還從朗格、施皮爾、泰希米勒、杜林、哈特曼那裏汲取了傳統的抽象概念。
1867年，23歲的尼采應徵入伍。他是近視眼，又是寡婦的獨子，本來可以幸免，但在薩多瓦和色當的神聖日子裏即便是哲學家也要去當兵。後來他在行軍中從馬上摔下來扭傷了胸肌並因此而退役。
1868年，他的導師李謝爾思嚮巴塞爾大學推薦他：“39年來，我親眼目睹了這麽多的年輕人成長起來，但我還從未見到有一個年輕人像這位尼采一樣如此早熟，而且這樣年輕就已經如此成熟……如果上帝保佑他長壽，我可預言他將來會成為第一流的德國語言學家。他今年24歲，體格健壯，精力充沛，身體健康，身心都很頑強……他是萊比錫這裏整個青年語言學家圈子裏的寵兒……您會說，我這是在描述某種奇跡，是的，他也就是個奇跡，同時既可愛又謙虛。”李謝爾思第一個嚮世間預言尼采是位天才。
1869年2月，尼采被聘為巴塞爾大學古典語言學係副教授。此後的十年是尼采一生中相對愉快的時期。在巴塞爾，他結識了許多年長和年輕的朋友，例如瑞士著名文化藝術史學家雅可布•波剋哈特(Jakob Burckharat)。1869年5月17日，尼采初次到瑞士盧塞恩城郊的特利普拜訪了華格納。同月28日，他在巴塞爾大學發表就職演說，題為《荷馬和古典語言學》。當時，巴塞爾城裏所有貴族傢的大門都對他敞開，他成為巴塞爾學術界的精英和當地上流社會的新寵。1870年，尼采被聘為正教授。不久傳來了德法開戰的消息，尼采主動要求上前綫。在途經法蘭剋福時，他看到一隊軍容整齊的騎兵雄赳赳氣昂昂地穿城而過。突然間尼采的靈感如潮水般涌出：“我第一次感到，至強至高的‘生命意志’决不表現在悲慘的生存鬥爭中，而是表現於一種‘戰鬥意志’，一種‘強力意志’，一種‘超強力意志’！
1870年10月，尼采重返巴塞爾大學講壇。他結識了神學家弗蘭茨•奧弗爾貝剋(Franz Overbeck)，兩人很快成為摯友並共居一所住宅。1872年，他發表了第一部專著《悲劇的誕生》(Die Geburt der Tragodie)。這是一部傑出的藝術著作，充滿浪漫色彩和美妙的想象力；這也是一部幼稚的哲學作品，充滿了反潮流的氣息。尼采並不就此止步，他毅然攻擊最受尊敬的典範—大衛•斯特勞斯，以此抨擊德國人的粗俗的傲慢和愚笨的自得：“司湯達曾發出忠告：我一來到世上，就是戰鬥。”《悲劇的誕生》和《不合時宜的思考》(Unzeitgemabe Betrachtungen)的第一部發表之後，引來了一片狂熱的喝彩聲，同時也遭到了維拉莫維茨領導的語言學家圈子的排斥。
1873年，尼采寫了《希臘悲劇哲學》的片斷(後以未完成的手稿出版)。1874年，尼采又完成了《不合時宜的思考》的第二部分《論歷史對生命的損益》、第三部分《教育傢叔本華》。在這部作品中，他猛烈抨擊各沙文主義大學：“經驗告訴我們：國立大學慣於支持低劣哲學家，這是偉大哲學家發展的最大障礙……永遠也不會有一個國傢會庇護柏拉圖和叔本華這樣的人……國傢總是懼怕他們。”1875年10月，尼采結識了音樂傢彼德•加斯特(P. Gast)。1876年，尼采完成了《不合時宜的思考》的第四部分《理查•華格納在拜羅伊特》。在這部作品中，他稱華格納為齊格弗裏德，“他從不知道害怕為何物”，甚至把華格納稱為惟一真正藝術的奠基人。到了1876年8月，情況急轉直下。尼采出席了華格納主持的首屆拜羅依特音樂節。當時華格納創作的歌劇一夜一部地全部被搬上舞臺
1883年，他完成了《查拉圖斯特拉如是說》的第一、第二部分，1884年完成了第三部分，1885年完成了最後一部分。尼采在這部著作中闡述了著名的“同一性的永恆輪回”的思想。這是他的兩個主要思想體係中的一個。而另一個“趨嚮權力的意志”的構思，由於他的身心崩潰而半途夭折。著名的“超人”理想和“末人”形象就是在這部著作中首次提出的。尼采評價自己這部著作：“在我的著作中，《查拉圖斯特拉如是說》占有特殊的地位。它是我給予人類的前所未有的最偉大的饋贈。這部著作發出的聲音將響徹千年，因此它不僅是書中的至尊，真正散發高山氣息的書—人的全部事實都處在它之下，離它無限遙遠—而且也是最深刻的書，它來自真理核心財富的深處，是取之不盡用之不竭的泉水，放下去的每個吊桶無不滿載金銀珠寶而歸。這裏，沒有任何‘先知’的預言，沒有任何被稱之為可怕的疾病與強力意志混合物的所謂教主在布道，從不要無故傷害自身智慧的角度着眼，人們一定會首先聆聽出自查拉圖斯特拉之口的這種平靜的聲音的。‘最平靜的話語乃是狂飆的先聲；悄然而至的思想會左右世界。’”
1886到1887年，尼采把他浪跡天涯時寫下的箴言、警句、辭條匯集起來，組成了兩個集子：《善惡的彼岸》( 1886年)和《道德的係譜》(1887年)。在這兩個集子中，尼采希望摧毀陳舊的道德，為超人鋪平道路，但是他陳述的一些理由卻難以成立。此外，這兩個集子中所闡述的倫理學的體係還給人留下一種印象—充滿刺激性的誇張。以下五部著作—《華格納事件》、《偶像的黃昏》、《反基督徒》、《看那這人》、《尼采反駁華格納》都是以極快的速度一氣呵成的。它們寫得標新立異，很有深度。但同時這些書也具有聞所未聞的攻擊性和令人瞠目的自我吹噓。
1889年，圖林的災難降臨了。尼采進入了他的生命的最後十年。他先是住在耶拿大學精神病院。1890年5月，母親把他接到南堡的傢中照料。1897年4月，因母親去世，尼采遷居到位於魏瑪的妹妹伊麗莎白•福爾斯特-尼采的傢中居住。在尼采的一生中，他的家庭始終是他的溫暖的避風港，作為這個家庭中惟一的男性，傢中的五位女性成員始終圍着他轉，無微不至地關懷他，精心呵護他，盡量滿足他的一切願望。但尼采為了心中的崇高理想，毅然捨棄了這一切，像個苦行僧一樣在這個風雨飄搖的世界中飄泊遊蕩，忍饑挨餓，沉思冥想。1889年，長期不被人理解的尼采由於無法忍受長時間的孤獨，在都靈大街上抱住一匹正在受馬夫虐待的馬的脖子，最終失去了理智。1900年8月25日，這位生不逢時的思想大師與世長辭,享年45歲。“銀白的，輕捷地，像一條魚，我的小舟駛嚮遠方。”
【主要哲學思想】
尼采哲學在當時曾經被當作一種“行動哲學”，一種聲稱要使個人的要求和欲望得到最大限度的發揮的哲學。他的哲學具有傲視一切，批判一切的氣勢。這正是他的哲學被後現代主義欣賞的重要原因。
後現代主義對傳統哲學和現代哲學不是拒斥，就是消解。然而對尼采哲學卻情有獨鐘，後現代主義者從尼采哲學中吸納了他們所需要的一切。包括尼采哲學的基本思想觀點，甚至尼采的哲學風格。尼采哲學中的消解傾嚮成為後現代主義的精神支柱，尼采絶沒有想到，他成了後現代主義的理論先驅。
對他來說，哲學思索傢是生活，生活就是哲學思索。他創立了不同以往的形態迥異的奇特哲學，展示自己的哲學思想。他的哲學無須推理論證，沒有體係框架，根本不是什麽理論體係，是他對人生痛苦與歡樂的直接感悟。尼采，在他的第一部學術著作——《悲劇的誕生》中，就已開始了對現代文明的批判。他指出，在資本主義社會裏，儘管物質財富日益增多，人們並沒有得到真正的自由和幸福。僵死的機械模式壓抑人的個性，是人們失去自由思想的激情和創造文化的衝動，現代文化顯得如此頽廢，這是現代文明的病癥，其根源是生命本能的萎縮。尼采指出，要醫治現代疾病，必須恢復人的生命本能，並賦予它一個新的靈魂，對人生意義做出新的解釋。他從叔本華那裏受到啓示，也認為世界的本體是生命意志。
尼采猛烈的揭露和批判傳統的基督教道德和現代理性。在認識論上，尼采是極端的反理性主義者，他對任何理性哲學都進行了最徹底的批判。他認為，歐洲人兩千年的精神生活是以信仰上帝為核心的，人是上帝的創造物，附屬物。人生的價值，人的一切都寄托於上帝。雖然自啓蒙運動以來，上帝存在的基礎已開始瓦解，但是由於沒有新的信仰，人們還是信仰上帝，崇拜上帝。尼采的一句名言“一聲斷喝——上帝死了”——是對上帝的無情無畏的批判。他藉狂人之口說，自己是殺死上帝的兇手，指出上帝是該殺的。基督教倫理約束人的心靈，使人的本能受到壓抑，要是人獲得自由，必須殺死上帝。尼采認為，基督教的衰落有其歷史必然性，它從被壓迫者的宗教，轉化為統治者壓迫者的宗教，它的衰落是歷史的必然。
殺死了作為神的上帝，又迎來了資本的上帝，資本化身的上帝。尼采忽視了一個基本事實：被資本奴役，不會比被上帝奴役自由得多。但他的“上帝死了”的呼喊，斷喝的啓蒙價值是不能低估的。
尼采認為，在沒有上帝的世界上，人們獲得了空前的機會，必須建立新的價值觀，以人的意志為中心的價值觀。為此，要對傳統道德價值進行清算，傳統的道德觀念是上帝的最後掩體，他深深的滲透於人們的日常生活之中，腐蝕人們的心靈。尼采自稱是非道德主義者和反基督徒，他猛烈批判基督教的道德，基督教所崇尚的美德。
尼采對現代理性也持批判態度。他首先拿具有理性的哲學家開刀，他指出哲學家的第一特性是缺乏歷史感，幾千年來，凡是經哲學家處理的一切都變成了概念木乃伊。理性所起的作用無非是把流動的歷史僵固化，用一些永恆的概念去框定活生生的現實。結果是扼殺了事物的生滅變化過程，扼殺了生命。他認為，這個世界是一個充滿了偶然性的，動蕩不定的，從而無法捉摸的世界。他說，實況是沒有的，一切都是流動的，抓不住的，躲閃的。哲學家的第二個特性是“拒絶感官的證據”，顛倒了真正的世界和假象的世界。感性證據是真實的，可信的，衹是對它們加工時纔塞進了謊言。哲學家的第三個特性是混淆始末，他們否認生長過程，進化過程。哲學家的第四個特性是運用語言中的“理性”強製人們犯錯誤。“是”與“存在”混為一談，弄假成真，弄真成假，蒙騙無知的人們。他認為，從蘇格拉底到現代人都狂熱的訴諸理性，是很荒謬的。人類之所以崇尚理性，是指望它給人帶來自由和幸福；然而結果恰恰相反，理性處處與人的本能為敵，造成人的更大痛苦。
批判理性帶來的謬誤是正確的，但是不能否定理性的存在，理性的歷史地位和作用。理性是人類進步的標志，是人類文明進程的碩果。歷史上一些傑出的哲學家就是用理性的武器觀察世界認識世界的。理性本身沒有錯，理性是不能否定的。沒有理性，人類就不能正確的認識世界，認識真理。沒有理性，人類將落入迷茫可怕的境遇。
尼采要建立新的哲學，將生命意志置於理性之上的哲學，非理性的哲學。作為對理性提出了挑戰，他提出了強力意志說。用強力意志取代上帝的地位，傳統形而上學的地位。強力意志說的核心是肯定生命，肯定人生。強力意志不是世俗的權勢，它是一種本能的，自發的，非理性的力量。它决定生命的本質，决定着人生的意義。 尼采比較了強力意志和理性的不同特性，理性的特性是：冷靜，精確，邏輯，生硬，節欲；強力意志的特性是：激情，欲望，狂放，活躍，爭鬥。尼采認為，強力意志源於生命，歸於生命，它就是現實的人生。人生雖然短暫，衹要具有強力意志，創造意志，成為精神上的強者，就能實現自己的價值。強力意志作為最高的價值尺度，一方面肯定了人生的價值，另一方面也為人世間的不平等作了辯護。在尼采看來，人類與自然的生命一樣，都有強弱之分，強者總是少數，弱者是多數。歷史與文化是少數強者創造的，他們理所當然的統治弱者。尼采推翻了神的等級制度，卻肯定了人的等級制度，換湯沒換藥。
尼采還提出他的超人哲學，關於建構理想人生的哲學。超人是人生理想的象徵，是尼采追求的理想目標和人生境界。尼采對現代人，現代生活感到很失望，他夢想改善人，造就新的人，即是超人。超人不是具體的人，是一個虛幻的形象。超人具有大地，海洋，閃電那樣的氣勢和風格。尼采認為，超人還沒有現實的存在，它是未來人的理想形象；超人給現實的人生提出了價值目標；超人是人的自我超越。
尼采鼓吹人生的目的就是實現權力意志，擴張自我，成為駕馭一切的超人。超人是人的最高價值，應當藐視一切傳統道德價值，為所欲為，通過奴役弱者、群氓來實現自我。同時，他特別反對男女平等、婚姻自由、女性解放，在他看來，人們對待婦女的方式就是“別忘了你的鞭子”。
尼采的唯意志論哲學價值具有兩重性，一方面，尼采繼承了啓蒙運動的精髓，反映了現代意識的覺醒。對人生價值的積極肯定，引發了人們對人生意義人生價值的思考，重新定位人生；對工具理性和工業文明的否定性批判，開啓了現代非理性主義思潮。另一方面，對理性的批判，對傳統的否定也存在着片面性，這正是後現代主義欣賞的一面。他的倫理思想反映了正在形成的壟斷資産階級的利益，因而成為了法西斯主義思想的理論基礎。
【主要著作】
（中外文版）：
Die Geburt der Tragödie (1872, The Birth of Tragedy)
《悲劇的誕生》李長俊譯，臺北三民書店，1970年版；
《悲劇的誕生》劉崎譯，臺北志文出版社，1970年版；
《悲劇的誕生》繆郎山1965年譯，北京中國人民大學1979年版；
《悲劇的誕生，尼采美學文選》，周國平譯，北京三聯書店1986年版。
Philosophy in the Tragic Age
《希臘悲劇時代的哲學》
Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen, (1873-1876, Thought out of Season)
《不合時宜的考察》第一部：
《自白者和作傢大衛•斯特勞斯》
《不合時宜的考察》第二部：
《歷史之用途與濫用》淦剋超譯，臺北水牛出版社1969年版。
《不合時宜的考察》第三部：
《教育傢的叔本華》楊白萍譯，重慶商務印書館1945年版；
《尼采論叔本華》，蔡英文譯，臺北竜天出版社1979年版。
《不合時宜的考察》第四部：
《瓦格納在拜洛伊特》
Menschliches, All zu Menschliches (1878, Human ALL-to-Human)
《人性，太人性的》第一捲《啓示藝術傢和文學家之靈魂》，鬍宏述譯，臺北正中書局1966年版。
Morgenröte (1881, The Deun of Day)
《朝霞》，徐梵澄譯，上海商務印書館1935年版
Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (1882, The Joyful Wisdom)其中第五部分於1886年續寫
《快樂的知識》徐梵澄譯，商務印書館1939年版，上海商務印書館1945年再版
《樂觀的智慧》，餘鴻榮譯，臺北志文出版社1982年版。
《快樂的科學》，餘鴻榮譯，北京中國和平出版社1982年版。
<敵基督者>--Antichrist 大陸未有中文譯版
Also Sprach Zarathustra Pt.1-3 (1883-1884) and Pt.4(1891, Thus Spoke Zarthustra)
《察羅杜斯德羅序言》，魯迅譯，1918年載《新潮》第2捲第5期，1920年，收入《魯迅譯文集》第10捲，北京人民文學出版社1958年版。
《紮拉杜斯特拉這樣說》，譯者不祥，載《學匯》1922年10月至1923年1月連載。
《紮勒圖士之言》，馬君武譯，上海商務印書館1935年版。
《紮勒圖士特拉如是說》，肖贛譯，上海商務印書館1936年版，臺北1966年再版。
《蘇魯之語錄》，徐梵澄譯，上海生活書局1935-1936年（世界文庫第8、9輯），北京商務印書館1992年版；
《蘇魯之語錄》，鬍宏述譯，臺北正文出版社1966年版；
《蘇魯之語錄》，楊瑞琳譯，高雄則中出版社1962年版。
《查拉杜斯屈拉如是說》，雷白韋譯，昆明中華書局1940年版，上海中華書局1947年版。
《查拉杜斯屈拉如是說》，雷崧生譯，臺北臺灣中華書局1963年版，上1978年第七版。
《查拉杜斯圖拉如是說》，高寒譯，1978年貴陽中華書局版，華盛頓1972年再版。
《查拉杜斯圖拉如是說》，餘鴻榮譯，臺北志文出版社1983年版。
《查拉斯圖拉如是說》，嚴溟譯，北京文化藝術出版社1987年版。
Jenseits Von Gut und Böse (1886, Bevond Good and Evil)
《善與惡的超越》一譯 《善惡的彼岸》
Zur Genealogie der Moral(1887, On the Genealogy of Moral)
《道德係譜學》，陳芳鬱譯，臺北水牛出版社1975年版
《論道德的譜係》周紅譯，北京三聯書店1992年版。
Der Fall Wagner (1888, The Case of Wagner)
《瓦格納事件》周國平譯，譯文收入《悲劇的誕生，尼采美學文選》中， 北京三聯書店1986年版
Götzen-Dammerung (1889, Twilight of the Idols)
《偶像的沒落》，陳芳鬱譯，臺北水牛出版社1973年版。
《偶像的黃昏》周國平譯，長沙、湖南人民文學出版社1987年版。
Der Antichrist (1895, The Antichrist)
《上帝之死》（即《反基督徒》）劉崎（據英文版）譯，臺北志文出版社1968年、1971、1983、1986年再版。
Ecco Homo (1908)
《尼采自傳》，徐梵澄譯，上海良友圖書公司1935年版。
《看哪！這人》，高寒1933年譯，貴陽交通書局1947年版。
《看哪！這個人》劉思久譯，文化書局1947年版。
《瞧這個人》劉崎譯，臺北志文出版社1969年版。
《尼采自傳》，王琬芬譯，臺北正文書局1971年版。
《尼采的人生》，鄭捷生譯，臺北世界文物供應社1972年版。
《看那個人！》張念生，凌素心譯，收入《權力意志》一書，北京商務印書館1991年版。
Der Wiue Zur Macht (1901. The Will to Power)
《權力意志——重估一切價值的嘗試》，張念（1901年第一版，1906年第二版）
《尼采詩抄》，馮玉譯，載《文學》8捲，上海生活書局
《尼采詩選》，錢春綺譯，廣西灕江出版社1986年版。
【影響】
尼采的著作對後世的影響無疑是巨大的。他的思想具有一種無比強大的衝擊力，它顛覆了西方的基督教道德思想和傳統的價值，揭示了在上帝死後人類所必須面臨的精神危機。雅斯貝爾斯說尼采和剋爾凱郭爾給西方哲學帶來顫慄，而此顫慄的最後意義尚未被估價出來。20世紀初的整整一代思想傢和藝術傢都在尼采的著作中找到了那些激發了他們富於創造性的作品的觀念和意象。雅斯貝爾斯、薩特、海德格爾、福柯和德裏達等等都是深受尼采思想影響的哲學家，而直接受他影響的文學家同樣數不勝數：茨威格、托馬斯·曼、肖伯納、黑塞、裏爾剋、紀德、還有我們熟悉的魯迅。
【評價】
如果我們從世俗的角度來看，尼采的一生是不幸的，他的結局是悲慘的。他是一個典型的失敗者：他的思想的發展未能達到預期的目標；在他生活的年代能夠理解他的人寥寥無幾，可怕的孤寂始終包圍着他；最後，病魔緩緩地悄然而至，甚至成了他的生命的一部分。反過來，人們也可以這樣說，如果沒有他的患病與疾病的折磨，他的生平與著作都是無法想象的。
但是，任何一個沒有偏見的人拿起尼采的著作，都會發覺它們才氣橫溢、光彩奪目、豪氣衝天。當然，這裏面也夾雜了誇張和神經質式的自我陶醉。在這些著作中，尼采以非凡的勇氣和驚人的洞察力輕而易舉地顛倒了各種公認的觀念，奚落了一切美德，贊揚了所有的邪惡。尼采並沒有建立一個封閉而龐大的哲學體係，他衹寫散文、格言和警句；在他的字裏行間並不證明什麽，衹是預告和啓示；但恰恰不是憑藉邏輯推理而是憑藉神奇的想象力，他徵服了全世界；他獻給人類的不衹是一種新的哲學，也不僅僅是一首詩或一段警句，而且還是一種新的信仰、新的希望、新的宗教。很可惜，尼采的生命歷程太短暫，閱歷太簡單，還沒有來得及把自己的片面真理發展成智慧。如果他能活得更長一些，如果他能再多得到一些鼓勵，也許他會把自己那粗糙混亂的觀念梳理成和諧優美的哲學。
無論如何，尼采思想是現代思想的一座巍然聳立的里程碑。在尼采去世後的一個世紀中，他的思想深深地影響了如雅斯貝爾斯、海德格爾、裏爾剋、赫塞、托瑪斯•曼、斯蒂芬•喬治、蕭伯納、紀德、薩特和馬爾盧這樣一些著名的思想傢；他的著作不僅在德、法語區域聞名遐邇，而且還流傳於遙遠的北美、南美、亞洲、大洋洲、非洲。
尼采大無畏地反對哲學形而上學及其在認識論方面的絶對優勢；反對千百年來哲學以純理性觀察宇宙、運用邏輯推理程序建立的以理性為中心的龐大思辯體係；他熱愛生命，提倡昂然的生命力和奮發的意志力，肯定人世間的價值，並且視自然界為惟一的真實世界，給歐洲古典哲學註入新鮮血液並開闢了古典語言學的嶄新時代。從這個意義上說，他開創了人類思想史的新紀元，哲學史可以以尼采前和尼采後來劃分。在尼采之後，傳統的哲學體係解體了，哲學由非存在轉變為存在，從天上回到了地上，由神奇莫測、玄而又玄轉變為引起億萬人心靈的無限共鳴。
【名言、語錄】
1 自從厭倦於追尋，我已學會一覓即中；自從一股逆風襲來，我已能抗禦八面來風，駕舟而行。
2 許多東西被我拋卻，故而被諸君視為傲慢；若從外溢的酒杯裏豪飲，難免灑落許多佳釀，故不要懷疑酒的質量。
3“他沉淪，他跌倒。”你們一再嘲笑，須知，他跌倒在高於你們的上方。他樂極生悲，可他的強光緊接你們的黑暗。
4 此人往高處走---他應受稱贊！那人總是從高處降臨，他活着，自動捨棄贊美，他是從高處來的人！
5 即使是最有良心的人，良心的譴責面對這樣的情感也是軟弱無力的：“這個或那個東西是違背社會習俗的” 最強者也害怕旁人的冷眼和輕衊，他是這些人當中受過教育的，而且是為了這些人才接受教育的。他到底怕什麽呢？怕孤立！這個理由把做人和做事的最佳理由打倒了！---我們的群體本性如是說
6 我們為自己創造了一個適於生活的世界，接受了各種體綫面，因與果，動與靜，形式與內涵。若是沒有這些可信之物，則無人能堅持活下去！不過，那些東西並未經過驗證。生活不是論據；生存條件也許原本就有錯誤。
7 哪裏有統治，哪裏就有群衆；哪裏有群衆，哪裏就需要奴性；哪裏有奴性，哪裏就少有獨立的個人；而且，這少有的個人還具備那反對個體的群體直覺和良知呢。
8 當心！他一沉思，就立即準備好了一個謊言。
9 大勝的最大好處，莫過於解除了勝利者對失敗的恐懼感。“我為何不能失敗一次呢？”他自言自語，“我現在已有足夠的本錢了”
10 他現在窮了，原因並非別人剝奪了他的一切，而是他拋棄了一切。緣何如此？---他慣於尋覓。所謂窮人，正是那些對他甘願受窮做了錯誤理解的人。
11 他是思想傢，這意味着：他善於簡單的---比事物本身還要簡單---對待事物。
12 要破壞一件事，最刁鑽的辦法是：故意用歪理為這事辯護。
13 人們視需要為事物發生之因，其實，它往往是事物發生之果。
14 智者問傻子，通往幸福的途徑是什麽？傻子毫不遲疑，就象別人嚮他打聽去附近那個都市之路似的，答曰“自我欣賞，再就是東遊西蕩。”智者嚷道：“住嘴，你要求太多拉，自我欣賞就夠拉！”傻子回答說：“沒有一貫的蔑視，又怎能不斷的欣賞呢？”
15 人要麽永不做夢，要麽夢得有趣；人也必須學會清醒：要麽永不清醒，要麽清醒得有趣。
16“噢，我真貪婪！在這個靈魂裏安住的不是忘我精神，而是貪求一切的自我，似乎要用許多人幫他觀察和攫取的自我，要輓回一切的自我，不願失去屬於他的一切的自我！”
“噢，我貪婪的烈焰喲！我多麽願意獲得再生，變成一百個人呀！”
誰不能以自身體驗理解這位謂嘆者，誰就無法理解求知者的激情。
17 哪裏缺乏意志，哪裏就急不可待的需要信仰。意志作為命令的情感，是自主和力量的最重要標志。
18 你們根本不明白自己經歷之事，像醉汗在生活中奔波，跌倒了，從階梯上滾下去了。所幸，你們因為沉醉反而未受損傷。你們的肌肉無力，神智不清，便不象我們覺得階梯上的石頭如此之硬！
19 忠告：你是否旨在博取聲望？若是，這信條務請記取：自動放棄名譽，要及時！
20 伏爾泰！人類！白癡！真理和追求真理有點難辦，如果弄得太人性了---衹是為了行善而追求真理，我敢打賭，那將一無所獲！
21 若不是在通嚮知識的道路上，有如此多的羞愧要加以剋服，知識的魅力便會很小。
22 鄙薄自己的人，卻因此而作為鄙薄者，尊重自己。
23 要填飽肚子，是人不能那麽容易的把自己看作上帝的原因。
24 與怪獸搏鬥的人要謹防自己因此而變成怪獸。如果你長時間的盯着深淵，深淵也會盯着你
25“哪裏有知識之樹，哪裏就有天堂”---最古老和最現代的毒蛇都這樣說。
26 剋服一種感情的意志，最終衹是另一種感情或另外若幹種感情的意志。
27 由感覺産生一切信任，一切坦然的心境，一切真理的證據。
28 贊揚比責備有更多的強加於人的成分。
29 人最終喜愛的是自己的欲望，不是自己想要的東西！
30 其他人的虛榮心衹有在和我們的虛榮心相反時，纔會令我們反感。
31 人們不相信聰明人會做蠢事：人的權利竟喪失到了如此地步！
32 較為相同，較為普遍的人，一嚮總是占有優勢，較為傑出的，較為高雅的較為獨特的和難於理解的人，則往往孑然獨立；他們常常在孤獨中死於偶然事件，很少能繁衍下去。
33 誰不想看一個人的高度，而衹是睜大眼睛註視此人身上的那些明顯的低處---誰就會由此而將自己暴露無遺。
34 高貴的靈魂，是自己尊敬自己。
35 漫遊的人，你是誰？我看見你禹禹獨行，沒有嘲笑，沒有愛，目光深不可測，象一個綫棰那樣濕漉漉的，顯得悲傷不已。剛剛探測過每一深度，從水中 拉上來，一幅不滿足的樣子---它在水下要尋找什麽？胸中從不嘆息，雙唇掩蓋着厭惡之情，一隻手衹是在緩緩握緊：你是誰？你做了些什麽？你在這裏休息一下 吧！此處熱情款待每一個人---恢復恢復精神吧！你到底是誰，眼下什麽會使你高興？什麽會使 你恢復精神？說出來，衹要我有，我就給你！“使我恢復精神？使我恢復精神？哎，你真是多管閑事，你說的夠多的了！可還是給我吧，求求你~~~”給你什麽？ 什麽？快說出來！“另一個面具！第二個面具”
36 “這兒自由眺望，精神無比昂揚”。可是還有一種與此相反的人，這種人也處於一定的高度之上，也展現了自己的前景。---可卻兩眼往下看。
37 每一位深刻的思想傢較為害怕的是被人理解，而不是被誤解，後者可能會傷害他的虛榮心；但前者會傷害他的心靈，他的同情心，他的心靈總是說：“你怎麽也和我受過同樣的苦？”
38 人與人之間是應當保持一定距離的，這是每個人的“自我”的必要的生存空間。一個缺乏“自我”的人，往往不懂得尊重別人的“自我”需要生存空間。你剛好要獨自體驗和思索一下你的痛苦，你的門敲響了，那班同情者絡繹不絶的到來，把你連同你的痛苦淹沒在同情的吵鬧聲之中！
39 你們尊敬我，可你們尊敬的人某一天倒下了那又將如何呢？當心啊，別讓一根雕像柱把你們壓死。
40 我們越是接近事物的起源，事物對於我們就越是變得興味索然。
41 一些人統治是由於他們願意統治；另一些人統治是因為他們不願意被人統治---對於他們來說，統治不過是兩害中之輕者。
42 我走在命運為我規定的路上/雖然我並不願意走在這條路上/但是我除了滿腔悲憤的走在這條路上/別無選擇
43 孤獨生活的另一個理由。 甲：“現在你打算回到你的荒漠” 乙：“我不是一個快成急就的思想者；我必須長時間的等待我自己---水總是遲遲不肯從我的自我之泉噴涌而出，我經常焦渴得失去了耐心。我所以隱退到孤獨之 中，就是為了使我不至於不得不從公用的水槽飲水。當我生活在人群中時，我的生活恰如他們的生活，我的思想也不像是我自己的思想；在他們中間生活過一段時間 以後，我總是覺得，似乎所有人都在設法使我離開我自己，奪走我的靈魂---我對所有人都感到憤怒，並且恐懼他們。因此，我必須走進沙漠，以便恢復正常。”
44 充耳不聞的智慧。---如果我們整天滿耳朵都是別人對我們的議論，如果我們甚至去推測別人心裏對於我們的想法，那麽，即使最堅強的人也將不能幸免於難！因 為其他人，衹有在他們強於我們的情況下，才能容許我們在他們身邊生活；如果我們超過了他們，如果我們哪怕僅僅是想要超過他們，他們就會不能容忍我們！總 之，讓我們以一種難得糊塗的精神和他們相處，對於他們關於我們的所有議論，贊揚，譴責，希望和期待都充耳不聞，連想也不去想。
45 贊美使一些人變得謙遜，使另一些人變得無禮。
46 千萬不要忘記。我們飛翔得越高，我們在那些不能飛翔的人眼中的形象越是渺小。
47 緻孤獨者。 如果我們在我們一個人獨處時不能像我們在大庭廣衆之下時那樣尊重別人的榮譽，那我們就算不上正人君子。
48 生活是我們的靈丹妙藥。---如果我們像思想傢那樣，每天處在川流不息的思想和情感的洪流中，甚至在夜夢中也被它們推動着，那麽，我們就會渴望投入生活，以便得到寧靜和休息，而其他人正好相反，希望離開生活進入沉思，以便得到休息。
49 沒有根據的根據。 你討厭他並且為這種討厭提出了一大堆根據--但我衹相信你的討厭，而不相信你的根據！由於在你自己面前以及在我面前把那些本能使然的行為說成是理性思考的結果，你提高了你在你自己心目中的位置。
50 成為道德的行動本身不是道德的。 使人們服從道德的原因是各種各樣的：奴性，虛榮，自私，陰鬱的熱情，聽天由命或孤註一擲。服從道德，恰如服從一位君主，本身並無道德可言。
51 上帝死了
52 超人即是海洋，你們的偉大輕衊會在海中沉沒。
53 人是一根繩索，連接在動物與超人之間---繩索懸於深淵上方。
54 人之所以偉大，是因為他是一座橋梁，而非目的。
55 人人需求同一，人人都是一個樣，誰若感覺不同，誰就進瘋人院。
56 我的靈魂平靜而明亮，宛若清晨的群山。可是他們認為，我冷酷，是開着可怕玩笑的嘲諷者。
57 人的生存是可怕的，且總無意義：一個搞惡作劇的人可能成為它的厄運。我要嚮人們講授生存的意義，這意義就是超人，是烏雲裏的閃電。
58 對於強大的，有負載能力的精神而言，存在着許多沉重之物。這精神包含一種令人肅然起敬的東西：它的強大要求負載沉重，甚至最沉重之物。
59 有負載能力的精神要馱載這一切最沉重之物，猶如滿載重物而匆匆走嚮荒原的駱駝。精神也正是這樣匆匆走進荒原。然而，在寂寥的荒原中發生了第二次變形：精神變成了獅子，它要為自己奪得自由，做自己沙漠的主人。
60 不要再把頭埋進天堂這類東西的沙灘裏，而要使頭自由，使這顆塵世頭顱為塵世創造意義！
61 我學習過走路，從此我讓自己奔跑；我學習過飛翔，從此我能就地飛走，而不願首先被推送。我現在輕鬆自如，我現在飛翔，俯視下方，現在有個神明在我內心舞蹈。
62 人的情況和樹相同。它愈想開嚮高處和明亮處，它的根愈要嚮下，嚮泥土，嚮黑暗處，嚮深處---嚮惡
63 當我到達高處，便發覺自己總是孤獨。無人同我說話，孤寂的嚴鼕令我發抖。我在高處究竟意欲何為？
64 即使你對他們溫柔敦厚，但他們仍舊是覺得受到你的蔑視。他們以隱秘的傷害行為報答你的善舉。你無言的驕傲總與他們的口味不合；倘若你某次謙虛到虛榮的地步，他們就喜不自勝了。
65 總有一天孤寂將會使你厭倦，你的驕傲將會扭麯，你的勇氣將會咬牙切齒。有朝一日你會吶喊：“我孤獨！”
66 有些人之所以離群索居就是為了躲避流氓：他實在不願與流氓共飲井水，共享水果和火。有些人走進荒漠，與猛獸同受幹渴之苦，就是不願與骯髒的的趕駱駝者共坐在水槽邊。
67 誰被民衆仇恨呢？---如同一條被衆狗仇恨的狼呢？是奔放不羈的天才，是桎梏的死敵，是拒不頂禮膜拜並悠遊於林泉的高士。
68 我內心深處衹愛生命---而且，說真的，我恨它之時也是最愛它之時！
69 你們意欲高升，所以仰視高處，我既已高升，故做俯瞰。你們當中有誰既會大笑又已高升了呢？
70 攀登最高峰的人取笑一切悲劇和悲傷，嚴肅的態度。
71 所有的人都沒有我這樣的耳朵，在這樣的地方，我說話又有何用！我來這裏為時過早。
72 噢，孤寂呀，你是我的故鄉！我在野蠻的他鄉過野蠻的生活委實太久，所以嚮你回歸時不可能沒有眼淚！
73 誰明知恐懼而製服恐懼，誰看見深淵而傲然面對，誰就有决心。誰用鷹眼註視深淵，用鷹爪摳住懸崖，誰就有勇氣。
74 更高級的人呀，你們最大的壞處莫過於不學習舞蹈，人必須跳舞---超越你們自己而跳舞！你們的失敗，這又算得了什麽呢！可能會成功的事多着呢！因此你們要學會自嘲！高舉你們的人，優秀的舞蹈傢啊，高些，再高些！也別忘記大聲朗笑！
75 誰的思想過於豐富，誰就寧願把自己變愚。
76 在這兒，我最大的痛苦是孤獨……這種孤獨歸因於個人無法與世界達成公識
77 在孤獨中，一切都可以獲得---除了精神正常。
78 對財富的喜愛，以及對於知識的喜愛，是推動地球的兩種力量，其中一種力量增加了，另一種力量勢必減弱。
79 我的智慧終於被解除了魔力，我所知道的事情比哈姆雷特少，比蘇格拉底少，比一無所有少！這是最終的真理：並沒有真理，衹有垂死的靈魂痛苦的垂吊在“十字架”上……
80 如果我們老是尋根究底，那麽我們就會走嚮毀滅。
81 大無畏的思想傢最能體驗無比慘痛的悲劇；他們之所以尊重生活，是因為生活是他們最大的對手……
82 當心性靈：性靈會使我們極其孤獨，孤獨意味着毫無義務感與沒有約束；性靈會敗壞我們的性格……
83 不要將完全沒有信仰能力的無信仰和再也不能相信某種世界觀的無信仰混為一談。後一種情形一般來說是一種新的信仰的前兆。
84 藝術是什麽？是賣淫。
85 自我崇拜是達到性格之詩意和諧的一種手段。我們應該協調性格與能力，保持和增強我們的一切，方法就是崇拜。
86 斯多葛主義衹有一件聖事，那就是自殺……
87 平庸是一幅自負精神能忍受的幸福的假面具，因為，它不讓大多數的人，即平庸者去想到偽裝：他進行偽裝正是為了平庸者的緣故---為不觸怒他們，是的，常常出自同情和友善。
88 天生的精神貴族是不太勤奮的。
89每一個不曾起舞的日子 都是對生命的辜負！
90別理會！讓他們去唏噓！奪取吧！我請你衹管奪取！
91上等人有必要嚮群衆宣戰。
92創造了這個有價值的世界的是我們！
93想在善和惡中作造物主的人，必須首先是個破壞者，並砸爛一切價值。也就是說，最大的惡屬於最高的善。不過，後者是創造性的善。
94沒有更冷的天氣嗎？沒有更黑的夜晚嗎？沒有必要一大早就點燈嗎？
旁註：
如果說馬剋思的大幸在於他有個知己。
尼采之不幸在於他有個崇尚沙文主義的妹妹伊麗莎白。作為一個沙文主義狂熱的支持者、以及尼采的妹妹，她深知他哥哥理論的價值。事實上，一個別有用心的人可以非常輕鬆地從尼采的著作中斷章取義。於是這個妹妹在尼采在世時就一直試圖將其哥哥打扮為沙文主義分子。但問題是，尼采還活着，可以製止。然而，1900年，尼采，這個偉大的天才，離開了。事情變得微妙起來。首先，伊麗莎白手頭上有尼采的全部遺稿，包括那部尼采已經放棄成書的《權利意志》。伊麗莎白顯然不會放棄這個絶佳的好機會。於是納粹執政後，她與納粹政府便合作完成了《權利意志》。在此過程中，伊麗莎白從〈權利意志〉遺稿中挑選對宣傳納粹有利的格言，還對一部分格言進行了篡改。由此，尼采逐漸轉變為“混世魔王”
Nietzsche began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. At the age of 24 he became the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel (the youngest-ever holder of this position), but resigned in 1879 due to health problems, which would plague him for most of his life. In 1889 he exhibited symptoms of serious mental illness, living out his remaining years in the care of his mother and sister until his death in 1900.
Youth (1844–1869)
Born on 15 October 1844, Nietzsche grew up in the small town of Röcken, near Leipzig, in the Prussian Province of Saxony. He was named after King Frederick William IV of Prussia, who turned 49 on the day of Nietzsche's birth. (Nietzsche later dropped his given middle name, "Wilhelm".) Nietzsche's parents, Carl Ludwig (1813–1849), a Lutheran pastor and former teacher, and Franziska Oehler (1826–1897), married in 1843 and had two other children: a daughter, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, born in 1846, and a second son, Ludwig Joseph, born in 1848. Nietzsche's father died from a brain ailment in 1849; his younger brother died in 1850. The family then moved to Naumburg, where they lived with Nietzsche's paternal grandmother and his father's two unmarried sisters. After the death of Nietzsche's grandmother in 1856, the family moved into their own house.
Friedrich Nietzsche, 1861.Nietzsche attended a boys' school and later a private school, where he became friends with Gustav Krug and Wilhelm Pinder, both of whom came from respected families. In 1854 he began to attend the Domgymnasium in Naumburg, but after he showed particular talents in music and language, the internationally-recognized Schulpforta admitted him as a pupil, and there he continued his studies from 1858 to 1864. Here he became friends with Paul Deussen and Carl von Gersdorff. He also found time to work on poems and musical compositions. At Schulpforta, Nietzsche received an important introduction to literature, particularly that of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and for the first time experienced a distance from his family life in a small-town Christian environment.
After graduation in 1864 Nietzsche commenced studies in theology and classical philology at the University of Bonn. For a short time he and Deussen became members of the Burschenschaft Frankonia. After one semester (and to the anger of his mother) he stopped his theological studies and lost his faith. This may have happened in part due to his reading about this time of David Strauss' Life of Jesus, which had a profound effect on the young Nietzsche, though in an essay entitled Fate and History written in 1862, Nietzsche had already argued that historical research had discredited the central teachings of Christianity. Nietzsche then concentrated on studying philology under Professor Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl, whom he followed to the University of Leipzig the next year. There he became close friends with fellow-student Erwin Rohde. Nietzsche's first philological publications appeared soon after.
In 1865 Nietzsche thoroughly studied the works of Arthur Schopenhauer and he read Friedrich Albert Lange's History of Materialism in 1866. His encounter with Schopenhauer's ideas had an influence on him until the end of his sentient life. Lange's descriptions of Kant's anti-materialistic philosophy, the rise of European Materialism, Europe's increased concern with science, Darwin's theory, and the general rebellion against tradition and authority greatly intrigued Nietzsche. The cultural environment encouraged him to expand his horizons beyond philology and to continue his study of philosophy. In 1867 Nietzsche signed up for one year of voluntary service with the Prussian artillery division in Naumburg. However, a bad riding accident in March 1868 left him unfit for service. Consequently Nietzsche turned his attention to his studies again, completing them and first meeting with Richard Wagner later that year.
Professor at Basel (1869–1879)
Mid October, 1871. Left to right: Erwin Rohde, Carl von Gersdorff and Friedrich Nietzsche.Due in part to Ritschl's support, Nietzsche received a generous offer to become professor of classical philology at the University of Basel before having completed his doctorate or certificate for teaching. This opportunity came at the exact time that Nietzsche had begun to lose all interest in philology and to become extremely interested in philosophy. Before moving to Basel, Nietzsche renounced his Prussian citizenship: for the rest of his life he remained officially stateless.
Nevertheless, Nietzsche served in the Prussian forces during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to 1871 as a medical orderly. In his short time in the military he experienced much, and witnessed the traumatic effects of battle. He also contracted diphtheria and dysentery. Walter Kaufmann speculates that he might also have contracted syphilis along with his other infections at this time, and some biographers speculate that syphilis caused his eventual madness, though there is some dispute on this matter. On returning to Basel in 1870 Nietzsche observed the establishment of the German Empire and the following era of Otto von Bismarck as an outsider and with a degree of skepticism regarding its genuineness. At the University, he delivered his inaugural lecture, "Homer and Classical Philology". Nietzsche also met Franz Overbeck, a professor of theology, who remained his friend throughout his life. Afrikan Spir, a little-known Russian philosopher and author of Thought and Reality (1873), and his colleague the historian Jacob Burckhardt, whose lectures Nietzsche frequently attended, began to exercise significant influence on Nietzsche during this time.
Nietzsche had already met Richard Wagner in Leipzig in 1868, and (some time later) Wagner's wife Cosima. Nietzsche admired both greatly, and during his time at Basel frequently visited Wagner's house in Tribschen in the Canton of Lucerne. The Wagners brought Nietzsche into their most intimate circle, and enjoyed the attention he gave to the beginning of the Bayreuth Festival Theatre. In 1870 he gave Cosima Wagner the manuscript of 'The Genesis of the Tragic Idea' as a birthday gift. In 1872 Nietzsche published his first book, The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music. However, his colleagues in the field of classical philology, including Ritschl, expressed little enthusiasm for the work, in which Nietzsche forewent a precise philological method to employ a style of philosophical speculation. In a polemic, Philology of the Future, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff dampened the book's reception and increased its notoriety. In response, Rohde (by now a professor in Kiel) and Wagner came to Nietzsche's defense. Nietzsche remarked freely about the isolation he felt within the philological community and attempted to attain a position in philosophy at Basel, though unsuccessfully.
Friedrich Nietzsche in Basel, ca. 1875.Between 1873 and 1876, Nietzsche published separately four long essays: David Strauss: the Confessor and the Writer, On the Use and Abuse of History for Life, Schopenhauer as Educator, and Richard Wagner in Bayreuth. (These four later appeared in a collected edition under the title, Untimely Meditations.) The four essays shared the orientation of a cultural critique, challenging the developing German culture along lines suggested by Schopenhauer and Wagner. Starting in 1873 Nietzsche also accumulated the notes later posthumously published as Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks. During this time, in the circle of the Wagners, Nietzsche met Malwida von Meysenbug and Hans von Bülow, and also began a friendship with Paul Rée, who in 1876 influenced him in dismissing the pessimism in his early writings. However, his disappointment with the Bayreuth Festival of 1876, where the banality of the shows and the baseness of the public repelled him, caused him in the end to distance himself from Wagner.
With the publication of Human, All Too Human in 1878, a book of aphorisms on subjects ranging from metaphysics to morality and from religion to the sexes, Nietzsche's reaction against the pessimistic philosophy of Wagner and Schopenhauer became evident. Nietzsche's friendship with Deussen and Rohde cooled as well. Nietzsche in this time attempted to find a wife — to no avail. In 1879, after a significant decline in health, Nietzsche had to resign his position at Basel. (Since his childhood, various disruptive illnesses had plagued him — moments of shortsightedness practically to the degree of blindness, migraine headaches and violent stomach attacks. The 1868 riding accident and diseases in 1870 may have aggravated these persistent conditions, which continued to affect him through his years at Basel, forcing him to take longer and longer holidays until regular work became impractical.)
Independent philosopher (1879–1888)
Because his illness drove him to find more compatible climates, Nietzsche traveled frequently, and lived until 1889 as an independent author in different cities. He spent many summers in Sils Maria, near St. Moritz in Switzerland, and many winters in the Italian cities of Genoa, Rapallo, and Turin, and in the French city of Nice. In 1881, when France occupied Tunisia, he planned to travel to Tunis in order to gain a view of Europe from the outside, but later abandoned that idea (probably for health reasons).
Nietzsche occasionally returned to Naumburg to visit his family, and, especially during this time, he and his sister had repeated periods of conflict and reconciliation. He lived on his pension from Basel, but also received aid from friends. A past student of his, Peter Gast (born Heinrich Köselitz), became a sort of private secretary to Nietzsche. To the end of his life, Gast and Overbeck remained consistently faithful friends. Malwida von Meysenbug remained like a motherly patron even outside the Wagner circle. Soon Nietzsche made contact with the music-critic Carl Fuchs. Nietzsche stood at the beginning of his most productive period. Beginning with Human, All Too Human in 1878, Nietzsche would publish one book (or major section of a book) each year until 1888, his last year of writing, during which he completed five.
Lou Salomé, Paul Rée and Nietzsche, 1882.In 1882 Nietzsche published the first part of The Gay Science. That year he also met Lou Andreas Salomé through Malwida von Meysenbug and Paul Rée. Nietzsche and Salomé spent the summer together in Tautenburg in Thuringia, often with Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth as chaperone. However, Nietzsche regarded Salomé less as an equal partner than as a gifted student. Nietzsche fell in love with Salomé and pursued her with the help of their mutual friend Rée. Salomé reports that he asked her to marry him and that she refused, though the reliability of her reports of events has come into question. Nietzsche's relationship with Rée and Salomé broke up in the winter of 1882/1883, partially due to intrigues conducted by Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth. In the face of renewed fits of illness, in near isolation after a falling-out with his mother and sister regarding Salomé, and plagued by suicidal thoughts, Nietzsche fled to Rapallo, where he wrote the first part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra in only ten days.
After severing his philosophical ties with Schopenhauer and his social ties with Wagner, Nietzsche had few remaining friends. Now, with the new style of Zarathustra, his work became even more alienating and the market received it only to the degree required by politeness. Nietzsche recognized this and maintained his solitude, even though he often complained about it. His books remained largely unsold. In 1885 he printed only 40 copies of the fourth part of Zarathustra, and distributed only a fraction of these among close friends, including Helene von Druskowitz.
In 1886 Nietzsche broke with his editor, Ernst Schmeitzner, disgusted over his anti-Semitic opinions. Nietzsche saw his writings as "completely buried and unexhumeable in this anti-Semitic dump" of Schmeitzner — associating the editor with a movement that should be "utterly rejected with cold contempt by every sensible mind". He then printed Beyond Good and Evil at his own expense, and issued in 1886-87 second editions of his earlier works (The Birth of Tragedy, Human, All Too Human, Daybreak, and The Gay Science), accompanied by new prefaces in which he re-read his earlier works. Hereafter, he saw his work as completed for the time and hoped that soon a readership would develop. In fact, interest in Nietzsche's thought did increase at this time, even if rather slowly and hardly perceived by him. During these years Nietzsche met Meta von Salis, Carl Spitteler, and also Gottfried Keller. In 1886 his sister Elisabeth married the anti-Semite Bernhard Förster and traveled to Paraguay to found Nueva Germania, a "Germanic" colony — a plan to which Nietzsche responded with laughter. Through correspondence, Nietzsche's relationship with Elisabeth continued on the path of conflict and reconciliation, but they would meet again only after his collapse. He continued to have frequent and painful attacks of illness, which made prolonged work impossible. In 1887 Nietzsche wrote the polemic On the Genealogy of Morality.
During this year Nietzsche encountered Fyodor Dostoyevsky's work, which according to some, he quickly appropriated. He also exchanged letters with Hippolyte Taine, and then also with Georg Brandes. Brandes, who had started to teach the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard in the 1870s, wrote to Nietzsche asking him to read Kierkegaard, to which Nietzsche replied that he would come to Copenhagen and read Kierkegaard with him. However, before fulfilling this undertaking, he slipped too far into sickness and madness. In the beginning of 1888, in Copenhagen, Brandes delivered one of the first lectures on Nietzsche's philosophy.
Although Nietzsche had in 1886 announced (at the end of Beyond Good and Evil) a new work with the title The Will to Power. Essay of a transvaluation of all values, he eventually abandoned this project and used its draft materials to compose Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist (both written in 1888).
His health seemed to improve, and he spent the summer in high spirits. In the fall of 1888 his writings and letters began to reveal a higher estimation of his own status and "fate." He overestimated the increasing response to his writings, especially to the recent polemic, The Case of Wagner. On his 44th birthday, after completing Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist, he decided to write the autobiography Ecce Homo, which presents itself to his readers in order that they "[h]ear me! For I am such and such a person. Above all, do not mistake me for someone else." (Preface, section 1, translated by Walter Kaufmann) In December, Nietzsche began a correspondence with August Strindberg, and thought that, short of an international breakthrough, he would attempt to buy back his older writings from the publisher and have them translated into other European languages. Moreover, he planned the publication of the compilation Nietzsche Contra Wagner and of the poems Dionysian Dithyrambs.
Mental breakdown and death (1889–1900)
A photo by Hans Olde from the photographic series "The Ill Nietzsche", summer of 1899.On January 3, 1889, Nietzsche was first noted as having exhibited signs of mental illness. Two policemen approached him after he caused a public disturbance in the streets of Turin. What actually happened remains unknown, but the often-repeated tale states that Nietzsche witnessed the whipping of a horse at the other end of the Piazza Carlo Alberto, ran to the horse, threw his arms up around the horse’s neck to protect it, and collapsed to the ground. The first dream-sequence from Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment (Part 1, Chapter 5) has just such a scene in which Raskolnikov witnesses the whipping of a horse around the eyes. Incidentally, Nietzsche called Dostoevsky "the only psychologist from whom I have anything to learn."
In the following few days, Nietzsche sent short writings — known as the Wahnbriefe ("Madness Letters") — to a number of friends (including Cosima Wagner and Jacob Burckhardt). To his former colleague Burckhardt, Nietzsche wrote: "I have had Caiaphas put in fetters. Also, last year I was crucified by the German doctors in a very drawn-out manner. Wilhelm, Bismarck, and all anti-Semites abolished." Additionally, he commanded the German emperor to go to Rome in order to be shot and summoned the European powers to take military action against Germany.
On January 6, 1889 Burckhardt showed the letter he had received from Nietzsche to Overbeck. The following day Overbeck received a similarly revealing letter, and decided that Nietzsche's friends had to bring him back to Basel. Overbeck traveled to Turin and brought Nietzsche to a psychiatric clinic in Basel. By that time Nietzsche appeared fully in the grip of insanity, and his mother Franziska decided to transfer him to a clinic in Jena under the direction of Otto Binswanger. From November 1889 to February 1890 Julius Langbehn attempted to cure Nietzsche, claiming that the doctors' methods were ineffective to cure Nietzsche's condition. Langbehn assumed progressively greater control of Nietzsche until his secrecy discredited him. In March 1890 Franziska removed Nietzsche from the clinic, and in May 1890 brought him to her home in Naumburg. During this process Overbeck and Gast contemplated what to do with Nietzsche's unpublished works. In January 1889 they proceeded with the planned release of Twilight of the Idols, by that time already printed and bound. In February they ordered a 50-copy private edition of Nietzsche contra Wagner, but the publisher C. G. Naumann secretly printed 100. Overbeck and Gast decided to withhold publishing The Antichrist and Ecce Homo due to their more radical content. Nietzsche's reception and recognition enjoyed their first surge.
Peter Gast would "correct" Nietzsche's writings even after the philosopher's breakdown and so without his approval — something heavily criticized by contemporary Nietzsche scholarship.In 1893 Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth returned from Nueva Germania (Paraguay) following the suicide of her husband. She read and studied Nietzsche's works, and piece by piece took control of them and of their publication. Overbeck eventually suffered dismissal, and Gast finally co-operated. After the death of Franziska in 1897 Nietzsche lived in Weimar, where Elisabeth cared for him and allowed people, including Rudolf Steiner, to visit her uncommunicative brother.
Commentators have frequently diagnosed a syphilitic infection as the cause of the illness. While most commentators regard Nietzsche's breakdown as unrelated to his philosophy, some, including Georges Bataille and René Girard, argue that his breakdown may have been caused by a psychological maladjustment brought on by his philosophy. At least one study has suggested that brain cancer (rather than syphilis) led to his breakdown and killed him; others have classified Nietzsche's "madness" as frontotemporal dementia.
In 1898 and 1899 Nietzsche suffered from at least two strokes which partially paralyzed him and left him unable to speak or walk. After contracting pneumonia in mid-August 1900 he had another stroke during the night of August 24 / August 25, and died about noon on August 25. Elisabeth had him buried beside his father at the church in Röcken. His friend, Gast, gave his funeral oration, proclaiming: "Holy be your name to all future generations!" Nietzsche had written in Ecce Homo (then unpublished) of his fear that one day his name would be regarded as "holy".
Nietzsche's sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, compiled The Will to Power from notes he had written and published it posthumously. Since his sister arranged the book, the general consensus holds that it does not reflect Nietzsche's intent. Indeed, Mazzino Montinari, the editor of Nietzsche's Nachlass, called it a forgery in The 'Will to Power' does not exist. Among other forgeries and suppressions of passages, Elisabeth removed aphorism 35 of The Antichrist, where Nietzsche rewrote a passage of the Bible (see The Will to Power and Nietzsche's criticisms of anti-Semitism and nationalism).
Notes on citizenship, nationality and ethnicity
Nietzsche had Saxon ancestry, Prussian birth, a Polish self-image, Swiss residence, official statelessness and an international intellectual outlook/influence: he never held citizenship of the German Empire founded in 1871. At the time of his appointment to Basel, Nietzsche applied for the annulment of his Prussian citizenship The official response came in a document dated 17 April 1869. Janz comments:
Von diesem Tage an war Nietzsche also staatsrechtlich kein Preusse und kein Deutscher mehr, sondern... staatenlos, oder, wie der Terminus damals in der Schweiz lautete, heimatlos, was auf Nietzsche besonders zutrifft, und er blieb es... Er wurde und blieb Europäer.
[Translation:] So from this day onwards Nietzsche, in terms of international law, was no longer a Prussian and no longer a German, but... stateless, or in the terminology used in Switzerland at that time, "homeland-less", which was particularly appropriate for Nietzsche; and he remained so... He became and remained a European [italics in original].
Many commentators, whether emphasizing his cultural background or his language, label Nietzsche as a "German philosopher". Others omit to assign him a nationalist category. But although he emerged from the Central European cultural tradition and wrote in the German language and moves somewhere between Schopenhauer and Heidegger, much of Nietzsche's work does not fit readily into mainstream German philosophical currents.
Philosophy
Main article: Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882Nietzsche’s works did not reach a wide readership during his active writing career. However, in 1888 Georg Brandes (an influential Danish critic) aroused considerable excitement about Nietzsche through a series of lectures he gave at the university of Copenhagen. Then in 1894 Lou Andreas-Salomé published her book, Friedrich Nietzsche in seinen Werken [Friedrich Nietzsche in His Works]. Andreas-Salomé had known Nietzsche intimately in the early 1880s, and she returned to the subject of Nietzsche, years later, in her work Lebensrückblick – Grundriß einiger Lebenserinnerungen [Looking Back: Memoirs] (written in 1932), which covered her intellectual relationships with Nietzsche, Rilke, and Freud. Nietzsche himself had acquired the publication-rights for his earlier works in 1886 and began a process of editing and re-formulation that placed the body of his work in a more coherent perspective.
In the years after his death in 1900 Nietzsche's works became widely read, partly thanks to translations into other languages, including English. In the United States, extensive translations of Nietzsche's works appeared, translated by Walter Kaufmann, who also wrote influential interpretations of Nietzsche’s philosophy (such as Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (1950), which he revised and enlarged in numerous later editions). Many other major 20th-century philosophers wrote commentaries on Nietzsche’s philosophy, including Martin Heidegger, who produced a four-volume study. An even greater number of major 20th-century philosophers (particularly in the tradition of continental philosophy) cited him as a profound influence on their own philosophy — including Jean Paul Sartre, Foucault and Derrida.
Nietzsche’s works remain controversial, and no real consensus exists on their meaning. The interpretation of his works seems shakier than the interpretative literature on most other major philosophers. One can readily identify some key concepts, but the meaning of each, let alone the relative significance of each, remains contested.
Part of the difficulty in interpreting Nietzsche arises from the uniquely provocative style of his philosophical writing. Nietzsche called himself a philosopher of the hammer, and he frequently delivered trenchant critiques of Christianity and of great philosophers like Plato and Kant in the most offensive and blasphemous terms possible given the context of 19th-century Europe. His arguments often employed ad-hominem attacks and emotional appeals, and, particularly in his aphoristic works, he often jumps from one grand assertion to another (leaping from mountain-top to mountain-top, as he describes it), with little sustained logical support or elucidation of the connection between his ideas. All these aspects of Nietzsche's style run counter to traditional values in philosophical writing, and they alienated Nietzsche from the academic establishment both in his time and, to a lesser extent, today (when some analytic philosophers still tend to dismiss Nietzsche as inconsistent and speculative, producing something other than "real" philosophy).
A few of the themes that Nietzsche scholars have devoted the most attention to include Nietzsche's views on morality, his view that "God is dead" (and along with it any sort of God's-eye view on the world thus leading to perspectivism), his notions of the will to power and Übermensch, and his suggestion of eternal return.
Morality
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In Daybreak Nietzsche begins his "Campaign against Morality". He calls himself an "immoralist" and harshly criticizes the prominent moral schemes of his day: Christianity, Kantianism, and Utilitarianism. However, Nietzsche did not want to destroy morality, but rather to initiate a re-evaluation of the values of the Judeo-Christian world. He indicates his desire to bring about a new, more naturalistic source of value in the vital impulses of life itself (readers have also often seen this as a desire to return to the values of Homeric Greece).
In both these projects, Nietzsche's genealogical account of the development of master-slave morality occupies a central place. Nietzsche presents master-morality as the original system of morality—perhaps best associated with Homeric Greece. Here, value arises as a contrast between good and bad: wealth, strength, health, and power (the sort of traits found in an Homeric hero) count as good; whereas badness becomes associated with the poor, weak, sick, and pathetic (the sort of traits conventionally found among ancient Greek slaves).
Slave-morality, in contrast, can only come about as a reaction to master-morality. Nietzsche associates slave-morality with the Jewish and Christian traditions. Here, value emerges from the contrast between good and evil: good associated with charity, piety, restraint, meekness, and subservience; evil seen in the cruel, selfish, wealthy, indulgent, and aggressive. Nietzsche sees slave-morality as an ingenious ploy among the slaves and the weak (such as the Jews and Christians dominated by Rome) to overturn the values of their masters and to gain value for themselves: explaining their situation, and at the same time fixing themselves in a slave-like life.
Whatever its cynical cleverness, Nietzsche sees the slave-morality as a sociological illness which has overtaken Europe — a derivative and resentful value which can only work by condemning others as evil. In Nietzsche's eyes, Christianity exists in a hypocritical state wherein people preach love and kindness but find their joy in condemning and punishing others for pursuing the impulses they themselves are not publicly allowed to act upon. Nietzsche calls for the strong in the world to break their self-imposed chains and assert their own power, health, and vitality upon the world.
The death of God, nihilism, and perspectivism
Main articles: God is dead, nihilism, and perspectivism
The statement "God is dead," occurring in several of Nietzsche's works (primarily, and perhaps most notably, in The Gay Science), has probably become the single most-quoted line in all of Nietzsche's texts. Many people take the quotation as a reflection of Nietzsche's concerns about the development of Western society in the modern age. In Nietzsche's view, recent developments in modern science and the increasing secularization of European society had effectively "killed" the Christian God, who had served as the basis for meaning and value in the West for the previous thousand years.
Nietzsche claimed the "death of God" would eventually lead to the loss of any universal perspective on things, and along with it any coherent sense of objective truth. Instead we would retain only our own multiple, diverse, and fluid perspectives. This view has acquired the name "perspectivism".
Alternatively, the death of God may lead beyond bare perspectivism (to which some[who?] appeal in support of tolerant relativism) to outright nihilism, the belief that nothing has any importance and that life lacks purpose. As Heidegger put the problem, "If God as the suprasensory ground and goal of all reality is dead, if the suprasensory world of the Ideas has suffered the loss of its obligatory and above it its vitalizing and upbuilding power, then nothing more remains to which man can cling and by which he can orient himself." The secular-minded people of Nietzsche's day did not recognize this crisis , and both to clarify and to overcome it Nietzsche wrote Thus Spoke Zarathustra and introduced the concept of a value-creating Übermensch. According to Lampert, "the death of God must be followed by a long twilight of piety and nihilism (II. 19; III. 8). […] Zarathustra's gift of the superman is given to a mankind not aware of the problem to which the superman is the solution."
The Will to Power
Main article: Will to power
Probably[original research?] the most important aspect of Nietzsche's picture of human psychology arises in the "will to power", which Nietzsche at points claims as the motivation that underlies all human behavior.
Some commentators[who?] understand Nietzsche's notion of the "will to power" as a response to Schopenhauer's "will to live". Writing a generation before Nietzsche, Schopenhauer had regarded the entire universe and everything in it as driven by a primordial will to live, thus resulting in all creatures' desire to avoid death and to procreate. Nietzsche, however, challenges Schopenhauer's account and suggests that people and animals really want power; living in itself appears only as a subsidiary aim — something necessary to promote one's power. In defense of his view, Nietzsche appeals to many instances in which people and animals willingly risk their lives in order to promote their power, most notably in instances like competitive fighting and warfare. Once again, Nietzsche seems to take part of his inspiration from the ancient Homeric Greek texts he knew well: Greek heroes and aristocrats or "masters" did not desire mere living (they often died quite young and risked their lives in battle) but wanted power, glory, and greatness.
In addition to Schopenhauer's psychological views, Nietzsche contrasts his notion of the will to power with many of the other most popular psychological views of his day: utilitarianism, which claims all people want fundamentally to be happy (Nietzsche responds that only the Englishman wants that), and Platonism, which claims that people ultimately want to achieve unity with the good or, in Christian neo-Platonism, with God. In each case, Nietzsche argues that the "will to power" provides a more useful and general explanation of human behavior.
Übermensch
Main article: Übermensch
Nietzsche also introduced as an important concept: the Übermensch (variously translated (often without regard to the gender-neutrality of the German word Mensch) as superman, superhuman, or overman). Nietzsche contrasts the Übermensch with the Last Man, who appears as an exaggerated version of the degraded "goal" that unified the liberal democratic, bourgeois, socialist, and communist social and political programs. The plural Übermenschen never appears in Nietzsche's writings, which sharply contrasts with Nazi interpretations of his corpus. Michael Tanner suggests Übermensch means the man who lives above and beyond pleasure and suffering, treating both circumstances equally "because joy and suffering are... inseparable." Nietzsche's concept of the Übermensch was likely his most controversial and most misunderstood.
The principle of Eternal Return
Main article: Eternal return
Another of Nietzsche's ideas has become frequently cited, his notion of "eternal recurrence" or eternal return. Scholars disagree about the proper interpretation of this idea. In one view, Nietzsche proposes a thought-experiment to determine who actually leads their life in a strong and vital way: we need to imagine that this life which we lead does not simply end at our deaths, but will repeat over and over again for all eternity, each moment recurring in exactly the same way, without end. Those who recoil from this idea with horror have not yet learned to love and value life in the way that Nietzsche would admire; those who would embrace the idea cheerfully, ipso facto, lead the right sort of life.
However, based on some of the unpublished notes, many scholars think Nietzsche meant the suggestion as something more than a thought-experiment, and that he might have taken it quite seriously as a factual premise. This would, of course, only redouble the importance of living life in such a way that one could wish its eternal repetition.
Another interpretation, favored by many[who?] later Existential and Post-modern thinkers, argues that Nietzsche did not intend his readers to take eternal recurrence as a factual premise of physical reality but rather as a perpetually recurring condition of human existence. One faces, in every moment, infinite possibilities or modes of interpretation. A person may will a certain mode of being, but in each moment that will is exhausted and must be re-willed in the next. This would imply an eternal recurrence of the same state without necessitating a physical repetition of material beings in identical configurations.
The idea occurs in a parable in Sec. 341 of The Gay Science, and also in the chapter "Of the Vision and the Riddle" in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, among other places.
Works
Main article: List of works by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Birth of Tragedy
Main article: The Birth of Tragedy
Nietzsche published his first book in 1872 as The Birth of Tragedy, Out of the Spirit of Music (Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik) and reissued it in 1886 as The Birth of Tragedy, Or: Hellenism and Pessimism (Die Geburt der Tragödie, Oder: Griechentum und Pessimismus). The later edition contained a prefatory essay, An Attempt at Self-Criticism, wherein Nietzsche commented on this very early work.
In contrast to the typical Enlightenment view of ancient Greek culture as noble, simple, elegant and grandiose, Nietzsche characterizes it as a conflict between two distinct tendencies: the Apollonian and Dionysian. The Apollonian in culture he sees as Arthur Schopenhauer's concept of the principium individuationis (principle of individuation) with its refinement, sobriety and emphasis on superficial appearance, whereby man separates himself from the undifferentiated immediacy of nature. Nietzsche claims sculpture as the art-form that captures this impulse most fully: sculpture has clear and definite boundaries and seeks to represent reality, in its perfectly stable form. The Dionysian impulse, by contrast, features immersion in the wholeness of nature, intoxication, non-rationality, and inhumanity; rather than the detached, rational representation of the Apollonian that invites similarly detached observation, the Dionysian impulse involves a frenzied participation in life itself. Nietzsche sees the Dionysian impulse as best realized in music, which tends not to have clear boundaries, is unstable and non-representational, and, in Nietzsche's view, invites participation among its listeners through dance. Nietzsche argues that the Apollonian has dominated Western thought since Socrates, but he sees German Romanticism (especially Richard Wagner) as a possible re-introduction of the Dionysian, which might offer the salvation of European culture. The book shows the influence of Schopenhauer.
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff criticised The Birth of Tragedy heavily. By 1886 Nietzsche himself had reservations about the work, referring to it as "an impossible book... badly written, ponderous, embarrassing, image-mad and image-confused, sentimental, saccharine to the point of effeminacy, uneven in tempo, [and] without the will to logical cleanliness."
"On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense"
Main article: On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense
Nietzsche wrote his unpublished "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense" in 1873; and so it sits comfortably with The Birth of Tragedy as an important expression of his youthful romanticism, a romanticism that he would reject but which would also condition his views on "truth" and prepare him for so many of his mature projects: "the problem of science itself, science considered for the first time as problematic, as questionable... to look at science in the perspective of the artist, but at art in that of life."
As this work represents one of his first engagements with epistemology and the philosophy of language, Nietzsche often rewrites Kant’s description of perception and experience to emphasize the aesthetic over the conceptual: nodding at the categories of understanding, in particular time and space, Nietzsche notes that "the artistic process of metaphor formation with which every sensation begins in us already presupposes these forms and thus occurs within them".
Nietzsche expresses a nuanced but immature argument, and does not seem so much interested in refuting Kant — or even seriously arguing with Kant — on Kant’s own terms. As he later admitted, his early writings struggled to use Kantian, or even Hegelian, modes of expression in a spirit quite against Kant and Hegel: "I tried laboriously to express by means of Schopenhauerian and Kantian formulas strange and new variations which were basically at odds with Kant's and Schopenhauer's spirit and taste!"
Untimely Meditations
Main article: The Untimely Meditations
Started in 1873 and completed in 1876, this work comprises a collection of four (out of a projected 13) essays concerning the contemporary condition of European, especially German, culture. A fifth essay, published posthumously, had the title "We Philologists", and gave as a "Task for philology: disappearance".
David Strauss: the Confessor and the Writer, 1873 (David Strauss: der Bekenner und der Schriftsteller) attacks David Strauss's The Old and the New Faith: A Confession (1871), which Nietzsche holds up as an example of the German thought of the time. He paints Strauss's "New Faith" — scientifically-determined universal mechanism based on the progression of history — as a vulgar reading of history in the service of a degenerate culture, polemically attacking not only the book but also Strauss as a Philistine of pseudo-culture.
On the Use and Abuse of History for Life, 1874 (Vom Nutzen und Nachtheil der Historie für das Leben) offers—instead of the prevailing view of "knowledge as an end in itself"—an alternative way of reading history, one where living life becomes the primary concern; along with a description of how this might improve the health of a society. It also introduced an attack against the basic precepts of classic humanism. In this essay, Nietzsche attacks both the historicism of man (the idea that man is created through history) and the idea that one can possibly have an objective concept of man, since a major aspect of man resides in his subjectivity. Nietzsche expands the idea that the essence of man dwells not inside of him, but rather above him, in the following essay, "Schopenhauer als Erzieher" ("Schopenhauer as Educator"). Glenn Most argues for the possible translation of the essay as "The Use and Abuse of History Departments for Life", as Nietzsche used the term Historie and not Geschichte. Furthermore, he alleges that this title may have its origins via Jacob Burckhardt, who would have referred to Leon Battista Alberti's treatise, De commodis litterarum atque incommodis (1428 — "On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Literary Studies"). Glenn Most argues that the untimelessness of Nietzsche here resides in calling to a return, beyond historicism, to Humboldt's humanism, and, maybe even beyond, to the first humanism of the Renaissance.
Schopenhauer as Educator, 1874 (Schopenhauer als Erzieher) describes how the philosophic genius of Schopenhauer might bring on a resurgence of German culture. Nietzsche gives special attention to Schopenhauer's individualism, honesty and steadfastness as well as his cheerfulness, despite Schopenhauer's noted pessimism.
Richard Wagner in Bayreuth, 1876 investigates Richard Wagner's psychology — less flatteringly than Nietzsche's friendship with his subject might suggest. Nietzsche considered not publishing it because of this, and eventually settled on drafts that criticized the musician less than they might have done. Nonetheless this essay foreshadows the imminent split between the two.
Human, All Too Human
Main article: Human, All Too Human
Nietzsche supplemented the original edition of this work, first published in 1878, with a second part in 1879: Mixed Opinions and Maxims (Vermischte Meinungen und Sprüche), and a third part in 1880: The Wanderer and his Shadow (Der Wanderer und sein Schatten). The three parts appeared together in 1886 as Human, All Too Human, A Book for Free Spirits (Menschliches, Allzumenschliches, Ein Buch für freie Geister). This book represents the beginning of Nietzsche's "middle period", with a break from German Romanticism and from Wagner and with a definite positivist slant. Note the style: reluctant to construct a systemic philosophy, Nietzsche composed these works as a series of several hundred aphorisms, ranging in length from a single line to a few pages. This book comprises more a collection of debunkings of unwarranted assumptions than an interpretation, though it offers some elements of Nietzsche's thought in his arguments: he uses his perspectivism and the idea of the will to power as explanatory devices, though the latter remains less developed than in his later thought.
Daybreak
In Daybreak: Reflections on Moral Prejudices (Morgenröte. Gedanken über die moralischen Vorurteile, 1881), Nietzsche de-emphasizes the role of hedonism as a motivator and accentuates the role of a "feeling of power". His relativism, both moral and cultural, and his critique of Christianity also reaches greater maturity. In Daybreak Nietzsche devoted a lengthy passage to his criticism of Christian biblical exegesis, including its arbitrary interpretation of objects and images in the Old Testament as prefigurements of Christ's crucifixion. The clear, calm and intimate style of this aphoristic book seems to invite a particular experience, rather than showing concern with persuading his readers to accept any point of view. He would develop many of the ideas advanced here more fully in later books.
The Gay Science
Main article: The Gay Science
The Gay (Merry) Science (Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, 1882), the largest and most comprehensive of Nietzsche's middle-period books, continues the aphoristic style and contains more poetry than any other of his works (except possibly, "Human, All too Human, A Book for the Free Spirit," a book on "coming to grips with chaos and emptiness"). It has central themes of a joyful affirmation of life and of an immersion in a light-hearted scholarship that takes aesthetic pleasure in life (the title refers to the Provençal phrase for the craft of poetry). As an example, Nietzsche offers the doctrine of eternal recurrence, which ranks one's life as the sole consideration when evaluating how one should act. This contrasts with the Christian view of an afterlife which emphasizes later reward at the cost of one's immediate happiness. The Gay Science has however perhaps become best known for the statement "God is dead", which forms part of Nietzsche's naturalistic and aesthetic alternative to traditional religion.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Main article: Thus Spoke Zarathustra
A break with his middle-period works, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, A Book for All and None (Also Sprach Zarathustra, Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen, 1883–1885) became Nietzsche's best-known book and the one he considered the most important. Noteworthy for its format, it comprises a philosophical work of fiction whose style often lightheartedly imitates that of the New Testament and of the Platonic dialogues, at times resembling pre-Socratic works in tone and in its use of natural phenomena as rhetorical and explanatory devices. It also features frequent references to the Western literary and philosophical traditions, implicitly offering an interpretation of these traditions and of their problems. Nietzsche achieves all of this through the character of Zarathustra (referring to the traditional prophet of Zoroastrianism), who makes speeches on philosophic topics as he moves along a loose plotline marking his development and the reception of his ideas. One can view this characteristic (following the genre of the bildungsroman) as an inline commentary on Zarathustra's (and Nietzsche's) philosophy. All this, along with the book's ambiguity and paradoxical nature, has helped its eventual enthusiastic reception by the reading public, but has frustrated academic attempts at analysis (as Nietzsche may have intended). Thus Spoke Zarathustra remained unpopular as a topic for scholars (especially those in the Anglo-American analytic tradition) until the second half of the twentieth century brought widespread interest in Nietzsche and his unconventional style that does not distinguish between philosophy and literature. It offers formulations of eternal recurrence, and Nietzsche for the first time speaks of the Übermensch: themes that would dominate his books from this point onwards.
Beyond Good and Evil
Main article: Beyond Good and Evil
Of the four "late-period" writings of Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (Jenseits von Gut und Böse. Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft, 1886) most closely resembles the aphoristic style of his middle period. In it he exposes the deficiencies of those usually called "philosophers" and identifies the qualities of the "new philosophers": imagination, self-assertion, danger, originality, and the "creation of values". He then contests some of the key presuppositions of the old philosophic tradition like "self-consciousness," "knowledge," "truth," and "free will", explaining them as inventions of the moral consciousness. In their place he offers the will to power as an explanation of all behavior; this ties into his "perspective of life", which he regards as "beyond good and evil", denying a universal morality for all human beings. Religion and the master and slave moralities feature prominently as Nietzsche re-evaluates deeply-held humanistic beliefs, portraying even domination, appropriation and injury to the weak as not universally objectionable.
On the Genealogy of Morality
Main article: On the Genealogy of Morality
The three "treatises" that make up On the Genealogy of Morality (Zur Genealogie der Moral, 1887) represent the last of Nietzsche's works before his flurry of activity in 1888. Each treatise deals with the evolution of moral concepts and institutions, showing that the origins of contemporary morality reside in non-moral relationships in which power struggles and cruelty play an important part. The work appears more unproblematically philosophical in style and tone than many of Nietzsche's works, and has become a popular topic for scholarly analysis.
In the First Treatise Nietzsche traces Christian morality back to what he calls the "slave revolt in morality", which he attributes to the ressentiment experienced by the weak members of society vis-à-vis their strong, aristocratic masters. The morality of the nobles operates with the value-distinction "good/bad"; they view themselves as evidently good and their inferiors as beneath contempt. The slaves find their subjection to the strong intolerable and thus set up an "imaginary revenge" by labelling the strong as evil and themselves as good, thereby instituting the morality of Christianity, which says that the meek shall inherit the earth.
In the Second Treatise Nietzsche sketches a pre-moral society (what he calls a "morality of custom") in which the right to inflict harm on others emerges from man's capacity, as an animal capable of memory, to make promises. The infliction of harm on the transgressor can compensate for the breaking of promises. In this way, according to Nietzsche, the institution of punishment comes about, free from any moral purpose or justification. "Bad conscience", too, originates in a pre-moral situation. Here man turns his violent animal nature on himself once he loses the freedom to roam and to pillage.
In the Third Treatise Nietzsche considers the many ways in which the "ascetic ideal" (the paradigm of Christian morality) has manifested itself, ever taking on new forms and perpetuating itself by "underground" means. Nietzsche suggests that the "will to power" drives the need to hold on to the ascetic ideal in one form or another, as a surrogate for taking revenge on a hostile world.
The Case of Wagner
Main article: The Case of Wagner
In his first book of a highly productive year, The Case of Wagner, A Musician's Problem (Der Fall Wagner, Ein Musikanten-Problem, May - August 1888), Nietzsche launches into a devastating and unbridled attack upon the figure of Richard Wagner. While he recognizes Wagner's music as an immense cultural achievement, he also characterizes it as the product of decadence and nihilism and thereby of sickness. The book shows Nietzsche as a capable music-critic, and provides the setting for some of his further reflections on the nature of art and on its relationship to the future health of humanity.
Twilight of the Idols
Main article: Twilight of the Idols
The title of this highly polemical book, Twilight of the Idols, or How One Philosophizes with a Hammer (Götzen-Dämmerung, oder Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophiert, August-September 1888), word-plays upon Wagner's opera, The Twilight of the Gods (Götterdämmerung). In this short work, written in the flurry of his last productive year, Nietzsche re-iterates and elaborates some of the criticisms of major philosophic figures (Socrates, Plato, Kant and the Christian tradition). He establishes early on in the section The Problem of Socrates that nobody can estimate the value of life and that any judgment concerning it only reveals the judging person's life-denying or life-affirming tendencies. He attempts to portray philosophers from Socrates onwards as (in his own term) "decadents" who employ dialectics as a tool for self-preservation while the authority of tradition breaks down. He also criticizes the German culture of his day as unsophisticated, and shoots some disapproving arrows at key French, British, and Italian cultural figures. In contrast to all these alleged representatives of cultural decadence, Nietzsche applauds Caesar, Napoleon, Goethe, Dostoevsky, Thucydides and the Sophists as healthier and stronger types. The book states the transvaluation of all values as Nietzsche's final and most important project, and gives a view of antiquity wherein the Romans for once take precedence over the ancient Greeks.
The Anti-christ
Main article: The Antichrist (book)
In one of his best-known and most contentious works, The Anti-christ, Curse on Christianity (Der Antichrist. Fluch auf das Christentum, September 1888), Nietzsche launches into a polemic, hyperbolic attack on the morals of Christianity — the view of Nietzsche as an enthusiastic attacker of Christianity largely arises from this book. Therein he elaborates on his criticisms of Christianity expressed in his earlier works, but now using a sarcastic tone, expressing a disgust over the way the slave-morality corrupted noble values in ancient Rome. He frames certain elements of the religion — the Gospels, Paul, the martyrs, priests and the crusades — as creations of ressentiment for the upholding of the unhealthy at the cost of stronger sentiments. Even in this extreme denunciation Nietzsche does not begrudge some respect to the figure of Jesus and to some Christian elements, but this book abandons the relatively even-handed (if inflammatory) analysis of his earlier criticisms for outright polemic — Nietzsche proposes an "Anti-Christian" morality for the future: the transvaluation of all values.
Ecce Homo
Main article: Ecce Homo (book)
Though Ecce Homo, How One Becomes What One Is (Ecce Homo, Wie man wird, was man ist, October to November 1888) appears as a curiously-styled autobiography (with sections entitled "Why I Am So Clever", "Why I Am So Wise", "Why I Write Such Good Books") it offers much more of a history of Nietzsche's ideas than of the man himself, highlighting Nietzsche's project of genealogical analysis as well as de-emphasizing the splits between philosophy and literature, personality and philosophy, and body and mind. The author does this by tying certain qualities of his thought with idiosyncrasies of his physical person, as well as extremely candid remarks occasionally made throughout his half-joking self-adulation (a mockery of Socratic humility). After this self-description, wherein Nietzsche proclaims the goodness of everything that has happened to him (including his father's early death and his near-blindness — an example of amor fati) — he offers brief insights into all of his works, concluding with the section "Why I Am A Destiny", calmly laying out the principles he places at the center of his project: eternal recurrence and the transvaluation of all values.
Nietzsche contra Wagner
Main article: Nietzsche contra Wagner
A selection of passages concerning Wagner and art in general which Nietzsche extracted from his works from the period 1878 to 1887 appears in Nietzsche Contra Wagner, Out of the Files of a Psychologist (Nietzsche contra Wagner, Aktenstücke eines Psychologen, December 1888). The passages serve as a background for the comparison Nietzsche would make between his own aesthetics and those of Wagner and his description of how Wagner became corrupted through Christianity, Aryanism, and anti-semitism.
The unpublished notebooks
Main article: The Will to Power
Nietzsche's Nachlass contains an immense amount of material and discusses at great length the issues around which Nietzsche's philosophy revolves. Nietzsche's sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, who acted as executrix of his literary estate, arranged these pieces for publication as The Will to Power.
Later investigation would reveal that Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche had included material extremely selectively and that she gave these excerpts an order different to that of the author, leading to the current opinion of her manuscript as a revisionist corruption bringing her brother's text in line with her own beliefs, which he vehemently opposed. On the strength of this manuscript, Elisabeth later fostered sympathy for her brother's works among the Nazis, and her revisionism forms the cornerstone of the defense of Nietzsche against the charges of fascism and antisemitism.
In the 1960s Mazzino Montinari and Giorgio Colli published the first, integral notebooks, with the fragments arranged in a chronological order (whereas Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche and Peter Gast had arranged them thematically, added titles, cut parts, and included copied fragments of other authors such as Charles Féré) without quotation marks, as if Nietzsche himself had written them. This reference edition has subsequently appeared in translation in various languages. Martin Heidegger expressed in his courses on Nietzsche the opinion that this unpublished work of Nietzsche is fundamental to the understanding of Nietzsche's thought.
Nietzsche's reading
Main article: Library of Friedrich Nietzsche
The Nietzsche Archiv in Weimar, Germany, which holds many of Nietzsche's papers.As a philologist, Nietzsche had a thorough knowledge of Greek philosophy. He read Kant, Mill and Schopenhauer, who became his main opponents in his philosophy, and later Spinoza, whom he saw as his "precursor" on some counts but as a personification of the "ascetic ideal" on others. Nietzsche expressed admiration for 17th-century French moralists such as La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère and Vauvenargues, as well as for Pascal and Stendhal.
The organicism of Paul Bourget influenced Nietzsche, as did that of Rudolf Virchow and Alfred Espinas.Nietzsche early learned of Darwinism through Friedrich Lange. Nietzsche notably also read some of the posthumous works of Charles Baudelaire, Tolstoy's My Religion, Ernest Renan's Life of Jesus and Dostoevsky's The Possessed. Comments in several passages suggest that Nietzsche responded strongly and favorably to the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is also possible that he read and was significantly influenced by Max Stirner. However, this theory has a long and controversial history and, while such influence cannot be ruled out, it appears impossible to conclusively establish.
Nietzsche's influence and reception
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Friedrich Wilhelm NietzscheMain article: Influence and reception of Friedrich Nietzsche
Philosophers and popular culture have responded to Nietzsche's work in complex and sometimes controversial ways. Many Germans eventually discovered his appeals for greater individualism and personality development in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but responded to those appeals divergently. He had some following among left-wing Germans in the 1890s; in 1894–95 German conservatives wanted to ban his work as subversive.
By the First World War, however, he had acquired a reputation as an inspiration for right-wing German militarism. German soldiers even received copies of Thus Spoke Zarathustra as gifts during World War I. The Dreyfus Affair provides another example of his reception: the French anti-semitic Right labelled the Jewish and Leftist intellectuals who defended Alfred Dreyfus as "Nietzscheans".
Political dictators of the twentieth century, including Stalin, Hitler,, and Mussolini read Nietzsche. The Nazis made use of Nietzsche's philosophy, but did so selectively; this association with National Socialism caused Nietzsche's reputation to suffer following the Second World War.
Nevertheless, Nietzschean ideas exercised a major influence on several prominent European philosophers, including Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Martin Heidegger, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre. In the Anglo-American tradition, the scholarship of Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale rehabilitated Nietzsche as a philosopher, and analytic philosophers such as Alexander Nehamas and Brian Leiter continue to study him today. A vocal minority of recent Nietzschean interpreters (Bruce Detwiler, Fredrick Appel, Domenico Losurdo, Abir Taha) have contested what they consider the popular but erroneous egalitarian misrepresentation of Nietzsche's "aristocratic radicalism".
In popular culture, fictional characters sometimes appear ignorant and pretentious when they cite Nietzsche but mispronounce his name, for example as "Nitsh" (Anthony Jr in The Sopranos) or as "Kneeshaw" (Dakin in The History Boys, the film (2006), Faber & Faber Inc., p. 50 and The History Boys, a play by Alan Bennett (2004), Faber & Faber Inc., p. 47.)
See also
Absurdism
Albert Camus
List of works by Friedrich Nietzsche
List of works about Friedrich Nietzsche
Notes
^ a b Stangroom, Jeremy; James Garvey (2005). The great Philosophers. Arcturus Publishing Ltd., 116-119. ISBN 184193299X.
^ Kaufmann, Walter, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist, p. 22.
^ a b Schaberg, William, The Nietzsche Canon, University of Chicago Press, 1996, p. 32
^ Jörg Salaquarda, "Nietzsche and the Judaeo-Christian tradition," in The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 99.
^ For Nietzsche's account of the accident and injury see his letter to Karl Von Gersdorff: Letter of Friedrich Nietzsche to Karl Von Gersdorff - June, 1868
^ A letter containing Nietzsche's description of the first meeting with Wagner.
^ Hecker, Hellmuth: "Nietzsches Staatsangehörigkeit als Rechtsfrage", Neue Juristische Wochenschrift, Jg. 40, 1987, nr. 23, p. 1388-1391; and His, Eduard: "Friedrich Nietzsches Heimatlosigkeit", Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde, vol. 40, 1941, p. 159-186. Note that some authors (among them Deussen and Montinari) mistakenly claim that Nietzsche became a Swiss citizen.
^ Richard Schain, The Legend of Nietzsche's Syphilis (Westwood: Greenwood Press, 2001
^ A biography of Spir.
^ Stephan Güntzel, "Nietzsche's Geophilosophy", p.85 in: Journal of Nietzsche Studies 25 (Spring 2003), The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park (Penn State), 2003-10-15; re-published on HyperNietzsche's website (English)/(German)
^ Kaufmann, p.49
^ The Nietzsche Channel, Correspondences
^ Kaufmann, Walter, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist, pp. 306–340.
^ Mazzino Montinari, Friedrich Nietzsche (1974; translated into German in 1991, Friedrich Nietzsche. Eine Einführung., Berlin-New York, De Gruyter; and in French, Friedrich Nietzsche, PUF, 2001)
^ On whips, see also Paolo d'Iorio's discussion of whipping in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and in Schopenhauer's Parerga und Paralipomena, II, chap XXX: Über Lärm und Geräusch: "Genèse, parodie et modernité dans Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra", published on the HyperNietzsche website (French)
^ Twilight of the Idols, Friedrich Nietzsche, 1889, §45)
^ The Portable Nietzsche, trans. Walter Kaufmann.
^ Zweig, Stefan (1939) Master Builders [trilogy], The Struggle with the Daimon, Viking Press, p. 524.
^ Georges Bataille & Annette Michelson, Nietzsche's Madness, October, Vol. 36, Georges Bataille: Writings on Laughter, Sacrifice, Nietzsche, Un-Knowing. (Spring, 1986), pp. 42-45.
^ René Girard, Superman in the Underground: Strategies of Madness — Nietzsche, Wagner, and Dostoevsky, MLN, Vol. 91, No. 6, Comparative Literature. (December, 1976), pp. 1161-1185.
^ "Nietzsche 'died of brain cancer'"
^ "Friedrich Nietzsche's mental illness--general paralysis of the insane vs. frontotemporal dementia" in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 2006 Dec;114(6):439-44; summarised in PubMed
^ Concurring reports in Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche's biography (1904) and a letter by Mathilde Schenk-Nietzsche to Meta von Salis, August 30, 1900, quoted in Janz (1981) p. 221. Cf. Volz (1990), p. 251.
^ Schain, Richard. "Nietzsche's Visionary Values — Genius or Dementia?
^ See Radwan coat of arms for a discussion of Nietzsche's self-perception as a Pole.
^ Er beantragte also bei der preussischen Behörde seine Expatrierung [Translation:] "He accordingly applied to the Prussian authorities for expatrification". Curt Paul Janz: Friedrich Nietzsche: Biographie volume 1. Munich: Carl Hanser, 1978, page 263.
^ German text available as Entlassungsurkunde für den Professor Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche aus Naumburg in Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari: Nietzsche Briefwechsel: Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Part I, Volume 4. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1993. ISBN 3 11 012277 4, page 566.
^ Curt Paul Janz: Friedrich Nietzsche: Biographie volume 1. Munich: Carl Hanser, 1978, pages 263 - 264
^ For example:
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source: Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction (See Preview on Amazon)
Britannica
The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche, page 1
^
Edward Craid (editor): The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of philosophy. Abingdon: Routledge, 2005, pages 726-741
Simon Blackburn: The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, pages 252-253.
(2005) in Jonathan Rée and J. O. Urmson: The Concise encyclopedia of western philosophy, 3rd edition, London: Routledge, 267-270. ISBN 0-415-32924-8.
^ Compare Nicholas Martin (ed), Nietzsche and the German Tradition (Oxford; Peter Lang, 2003), especially the Preface.
^ Kaufmann, p.187. (Ecce Homo-M I)
^ Lampert, Nietzsche's Teaching, 17–8; Heidegger, "The Word of Nietzsche."
^ Heidegger, "The Word of Nietzsche," 61.
^ Lampert, Nietzsche's Teaching, 18.
^ Lampert, Nietzsche's Teaching, 18–27.
^ Tanner, Nietzsche, 50.
^ Johann Winckelmann, History of Ancient Art, 1764
^ Preface to The Birth of Tragedy, 1886 edition, p. 18
^ For Nietzsche's relationship to rationalism of the Kantian sort, see: Stanford Internet Encyclopedia: Friedrich Nietzsche, Nietzsche's 'Self-Criticism,' and such recent criticism as Richard Rorty's work.
^ "'Attempt at a Self-Criticism," p.24
^ a b Glenn W. Most, "On the use and abuse of ancient Greece for life", HyperNietzsche, 2003-11-09 (English)
^ Nietzsche, Friedrich, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" in the chapter "Why I Write Such Good Books" in Ecce Homo, 1888
^ Behler, Ernst, Nietzsche in the Twentieth Century in The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche, Magnus and Higgins (ed), Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996, pp. 281-319
^ The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche alone contains five essays (excluding the one that gives overviews of each of his works and forms one of the main references for this section) that discuss this book at length:
Robert B. Pippin, Nietzsche's Alleged Farewell: The Premodern, Modern and Postmodern Nietzsche
Salaquarda, Jörg, Nietzsche and the Judeo-Christian Tradition
Schrift, Alan D., Nietzsche's French Legacy
Solomon, Robert C., Nietzsche's 'Ad Hominem': Perspectivism, Personality and 'Ressentiment' Revisited
Strong, Tracy B., Nietzsche's Political Misappropriation
^ Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari compiled a complete collection of these notebooks, comprising 5000 pages in total (compared with the 3500 pages of the Großoktavausgabe edition of Nietzsche's complete works which includes The Will to Power)
^ Mazzino Montinari (postface of Paolo d'Iorio), The 'Will to Power' does not exist, Sigrid Oloff-Montinari original Italian edition Centro Montinari (Italian))
^ In fact, the French and Italian translations saw publication earlier than the German edition; the first volume of twenty has appeared in English. See http://www.washington.edu/research/showcase/1995c.html
^ Brobjer, Thomas. Nietzsche's Reading and Private Library, 1885-1889. Published in Journal of History of Ideas. Accessed via JSTOR on 18 May 2007.
^ Letter to Franz Overbeck, 30 July 1881
^ Brendan Donnellan, "Nietzsche and La Rochefoucauld" in The German Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 3 (May, 1979), pp. 303-318 (English)
^ See for example Ecce Homo, "Why I am So Clever", §3
^ Johan Grzelczyk, "Féré et Nietzsche: au sujet de la décadence", HyperNietzsche, 2005-11-01 (French). Grzelczyk quotes Jacques Le Rider, Nietzsche en France. De la fin du XIXe siècle au temps présent, Paris, PUF, 1999, pp.8-9
^ Johan Grzelczyk, "Féré et Nietzsche: au sujet de la décadence", HyperNietzsche, 2005-11-01 (French). Grzelczyk quotes B. Wahrig-Schmidt, "Irgendwie, jedenfalls physiologisch. Friedrich Nietzsche, Alexandre Herzen (fils) und Charles Féré 1888" in Nietzsche Studien, Band 17, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1988, p.439
^ Note sur Nietzsche et Lange: « le retour éternel », Albert Fouillée, Revue philosophique de la France et de l'étranger. An. 34. Paris 1909. T. 67, S. 519-525 (on French Wikisource)
^ Mazzino Montinari, "La Volonté de puissance" n'existe pas, Éditions de l'Éclat, 1996, §13
^ Mazzino Montinari, "La Volonté de puissance" n'existe pas, Éditions de l'Éclat, 1996, §13
^ Walter Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist, pp. 306-340.
^ Conversations with Nietzsche, A Life in the Words of his Contemporaries, Edited with and Introduction by Sander L. Gilman, Translated by David J. Parent, 1987, Oxford University Press, pp 113-114, p238
^ "We have every reason to suppose that Nietzsche had a profound knowledge of the Hegelian movement, from Hegel to Stirner himself." in Nietzsche and Philosophy, Gilles Deleuze, Hugh Tomlinson, (translated by Hugh Tomlinson), 2006, pp153-154; Albert Levy, Stirner and Nietzsche, Paris, 1904; Robert Schellwein, Max Stirner und Friedrich Nietzsche, 1892; K. Löwith, From Hegel To Nietzsche, New York, 1964, p187; T. A. Riley, "Anti-Statism in German Literature, as Exemplified by the Work of John Henry Mackay", in PMLA, Vol. 62, No. 3, Sep., 1947, pp. 828-843; O. Ewald, "German Philosophy in 1907", in The Philosophical Review, Vol. 17, No. 4, Jul., 1908, pp. 400-426; Seth Taylor, Left Wing Nietzscheans, The Politics of German Expressionism 1910-1920, p144, 1990, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York
^ Kaufmann, p.8
^ Schrift, A.D. (1995). Nietzsche's French Legacy: A Genealogy of Poststructuralism. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-91147-8.
^ D. Volkogonov: Stalin, part I, near the end of its introduction (2006).
^ See e.g. A. Kubizek: The Young Hitler I Knew, c. 17, p. 181, Greenhill Books, 2006.
^ See e.g. D. Irving: Hitler's War, part I, c. 3, near the beginning (2005).
References
Kaufmann, Walter (1974). Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. Princeton University Press..
Lampert, Laurence (1986). Nietzsche's Teaching: An Interpretation of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Magnus and Higgins, "Nietzsche's works and their themes", in The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche, Magnus and Higgins (ed.), University of Cambridge Press, 1996, pp.21-58.
Seung, T.K. Nietzsche's Epic of the Soul: Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005.
Tanner, Michael, "Nietzsche" Oxford: Oxford University Press 1994.
Wicks, Robert, "Friedrich Nietzsche", in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2004 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),.
O'Flaherty, James C., Sellner, Timothy F., Helm, Robert M., "Studies in Nietzsche and the Classical Tradition" (University of North Carolina Press)1979 ISBN:0--08078-8085-X
O'Flaherty, James C., Sellner, Timothy F., Helm, Robert M., ""Studies in Nietzsche and the Judaeo-Christian Tradition" (University of North Carolina Press)1985 ISBN:0-8078-8104-X