| Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche | |||||||
| 尼采 | |||||||
| 弗里德里希·尼采 | |||||||
阅读弗里德里希·威廉·尼采 Friedrich Nietzsche在百家争鸣的作品!!! 阅读弗里德里希·威廉·尼采 Friedrich Nietzsche在诗海的作品!!! | |||||||
弗里德里希·威廉·尼采【生平】
1844年10月15日，尼采出生于普鲁士萨克森州勒肯镇的一个乡村牧师家庭。尼采自幼相信自己有着波兰贵族血统并为此而感到自豪。1865年，尼采进入莱比锡大学攻读古典语言学，并开始接触叔本华的哲学思想。这些思想后来成为尼采哲学思考的起点。1869年，年仅25岁的尼采被聘为瑞士巴塞尔大学古典语言学教授。1879年，尼采辞去了巴塞尔大学的教职，开始了十年的漫游生涯，同时也进入了创作的黄金时期。1889年，长期不被人理解的尼采由于无法忍受长时间的孤独，在都灵大街上抱住一匹正在受马夫虐待的马的脖子，最终失去了理智。1900年，尼采与世长辞，享年55岁。
尼采的生日恰好是当时的普鲁士国王弗里德里希•威廉四世的生辰。尼采的父亲是威廉四世的宫廷教师，他曾执教过四位公主，深得国王的信任，于是他获得恩准以国王的名字为儿子命名。后来，国王指派尼采的父亲到勒肯镇担任牧师，那个影响世界的天才尼采也就在这里出生。尼采回忆：“无论如何，我选在这一天出生，有一个很大的好处，在整个童年时期，我的生日就是举国欢庆的日子。”尼采学话很慢，他老是用严肃的目光注视着一切，老牧师非常喜欢他，经常带着他一起散步。尼采5岁时，父亲不幸坠车震伤，患脑软化症，不久就去世了。
不久他随全家搬到了南堡(Naumburg)，但是尼采并没有忘记父亲，父亲的身影早已刻入他的记忆当中，他希望以父亲为榜样成为一名牧师，因此他时常给伙伴们朗诵圣经里的某些章节，为此，他获得了小牧师的称号。由于父亲过早去世，他被家中信教的女人们(他的母亲、妹妹、祖母和两个姑姑)团团围住，她们把他娇惯得脆弱而敏感，幼年的尼采深切地感受到了死亡的无常，因而变得孤僻，尼采曾经这样讲述形容他的童年：“那一切本属于其他孩子童年的阳光并不能照在我身上，我已经过早地学会成熟地思考。”在尼采的成长过程中，虔诚的清教徒母亲的影响是不容忽视的，他后来终生保持着清教徒的本色，犹如石雕一般纯朴。
10岁时他就读于南堡文科中学，对文学与音乐极感兴趣。14岁时，进入普夫达中学，这个学校课程都是古典的，训练很严格，出了很多伟人，如诗人和剧作家Novalis，语言学家和研究莎士比亚的学者Schlegel，以及康德的继承者、伟大的先验主义和道德哲学的代表费希特。可是尼采却难以接受这种新生活，他很少玩耍，也不愿意接近陌生人。这时的他除了理智的发展并有着惊人的进步外，音乐和诗歌已经成为他感情生活的寄托。尼采幼年曾受教于普鲁士当时最好的女钢琴家，当他的母亲为他聘请这位老师时，尼采就深感日后的生活离不开这样的精神支持了。
1864年，尼采和他的朋友杜森(Paul Deussen)进入波恩大学攻读神学和古典语言学，但第一学期结束，便不再学习神学了。他常听同学们交谈，有些人毫无信念和激情地重复黑格尔、费希物、谢林的各种公式，那些伟大的体系已经丧失了激发人的力量；还有一批人喜欢实证科学，阅读福格特和比希纳的唯物主义论文。这些都没能吸引尼采，他是一名诗人，需要激情、超常和具有神秘性的东西，他不再满足于科学世界的清晰与冷静。尼采在修养和气质上更是一名贵族，所以他对平民政治不感兴趣，而且他从没想过要过一种安宁舒适的生活，所以他不会对有节制的欢乐和痛苦这样一种可怜的生活理想感兴趣。尼采有自己的喜好，他热爱希腊诗人，崇尚希腊神话中各种具有鲜明特点的人物，并把他们巧妙地同德意志的民族精神结合起来。尼采还在校学习时就深深体会到精通和弘扬本国、本民族文化的重要性，这充分地体现在他对古文字、文学，古典主义艺术的热爱。他热爱巴赫、贝多芬，以及后来尼采在《悲剧的诞生》中热情褒扬的那位歌剧巨人——瓦格纳。
1865年，他敬爱的古典语言学老师李谢尔思(F. W. Ritschls)到莱比锡大学任教，尼采也随之到了那里。当时的尼采虽然年纪不大，但已经开始哲学沉思了。那时，尼采非常困惑：为何像叔本华那样的天才会被现世所抛弃，其伟大的著作为何只在书架的偏僻角落才找得到？叔本华是这个青年心中的偶像，他在以后也被认为是叔本华唯意志论的继承者。这时的他，此外还从朗格、施皮尔、泰希米勒、杜林、哈特曼那里汲取了传统的抽象概念。
1867年，23岁的尼采应征入伍。他是近视眼，又是寡妇的独子，本来可以幸免，但在萨多瓦和色当的神圣日子里即便是哲学家也要去当兵。后来他在行军中从马上摔下来扭伤了胸肌并因此而退役。
1868年，他的导师李谢尔思向巴塞尔大学推荐他：“39年来，我亲眼目睹了这么多的年轻人成长起来，但我还从未见到有一个年轻人像这位尼采一样如此早熟，而且这样年轻就已经如此成熟……如果上帝保佑他长寿，我可预言他将来会成为第一流的德国语言学家。他今年24岁，体格健壮，精力充沛，身体健康，身心都很顽强……他是莱比锡这里整个青年语言学家圈子里的宠儿……您会说，我这是在描述某种奇迹，是的，他也就是个奇迹，同时既可爱又谦虚。”李谢尔思第一个向世间预言尼采是位天才。
1869年2月，尼采被聘为巴塞尔大学古典语言学系副教授。此后的十年是尼采一生中相对愉快的时期。在巴塞尔，他结识了许多年长和年轻的朋友，例如瑞士著名文化艺术史学家雅可布•波克哈特(Jakob Burckharat)。1869年5月17日，尼采初次到瑞士卢塞恩城郊的特利普拜访了华格纳。同月28日，他在巴塞尔大学发表就职演说，题为《荷马和古典语言学》。当时，巴塞尔城里所有贵族家的大门都对他敞开，他成为巴塞尔学术界的精英和当地上流社会的新宠。1870年，尼采被聘为正教授。不久传来了德法开战的消息，尼采主动要求上前线。在途经法兰克福时，他看到一队军容整齐的骑兵雄赳赳气昂昂地穿城而过。突然间尼采的灵感如潮水般涌出：“我第一次感到，至强至高的‘生命意志’决不表现在悲惨的生存斗争中，而是表现于一种‘战斗意志’，一种‘强力意志’，一种‘超强力意志’！
1870年10月，尼采重返巴塞尔大学讲坛。他结识了神学家弗兰茨•奥弗尔贝克(Franz Overbeck)，两人很快成为挚友并共居一所住宅。1872年，他发表了第一部专著《悲剧的诞生》(Die Geburt der Tragodie)。这是一部杰出的艺术著作，充满浪漫色彩和美妙的想象力；这也是一部幼稚的哲学作品，充满了反潮流的气息。尼采并不就此止步，他毅然攻击最受尊敬的典范—大卫•斯特劳斯，以此抨击德国人的粗俗的傲慢和愚笨的自得：“司汤达曾发出忠告：我一来到世上，就是战斗。”《悲剧的诞生》和《不合时宜的思考》(Unzeitgemabe Betrachtungen)的第一部发表之后，引来了一片狂热的喝彩声，同时也遭到了维拉莫维茨领导的语言学家圈子的排斥。
1873年，尼采写了《希腊悲剧哲学》的片断(后以未完成的手稿出版)。1874年，尼采又完成了《不合时宜的思考》的第二部分《论历史对生命的损益》、第三部分《教育家叔本华》。在这部作品中，他猛烈抨击各沙文主义大学：“经验告诉我们：国立大学惯于支持低劣哲学家，这是伟大哲学家发展的最大障碍……永远也不会有一个国家会庇护柏拉图和叔本华这样的人……国家总是惧怕他们。”1875年10月，尼采结识了音乐家彼德•加斯特(P. Gast)。1876年，尼采完成了《不合时宜的思考》的第四部分《理查•华格纳在拜罗伊特》。在这部作品中，他称华格纳为齐格弗里德，“他从不知道害怕为何物”，甚至把华格纳称为惟一真正艺术的奠基人。到了1876年8月，情况急转直下。尼采出席了华格纳主持的首届拜罗依特音乐节。当时华格纳创作的歌剧一夜一部地全部被搬上舞台
1883年，他完成了《查拉图斯特拉如是说》的第一、第二部分，1884年完成了第三部分，1885年完成了最后一部分。尼采在这部著作中阐述了著名的“同一性的永恒轮回”的思想。这是他的两个主要思想体系中的一个。而另一个“趋向权力的意志”的构思，由于他的身心崩溃而半途夭折。著名的“超人”理想和“末人”形象就是在这部著作中首次提出的。尼采评价自己这部著作：“在我的著作中，《查拉图斯特拉如是说》占有特殊的地位。它是我给予人类的前所未有的最伟大的馈赠。这部著作发出的声音将响彻千年，因此它不仅是书中的至尊，真正散发高山气息的书—人的全部事实都处在它之下，离它无限遥远—而且也是最深刻的书，它来自真理核心财富的深处，是取之不尽用之不竭的泉水，放下去的每个吊桶无不满载金银珠宝而归。这里，没有任何‘先知’的预言，没有任何被称之为可怕的疾病与强力意志混合物的所谓教主在布道，从不要无故伤害自身智慧的角度着眼，人们一定会首先聆听出自查拉图斯特拉之口的这种平静的声音的。‘最平静的话语乃是狂飙的先声；悄然而至的思想会左右世界。’”
1886到1887年，尼采把他浪迹天涯时写下的箴言、警句、辞条汇集起来，组成了两个集子：《善恶的彼岸》( 1886年)和《道德的系谱》(1887年)。在这两个集子中，尼采希望摧毁陈旧的道德，为超人铺平道路，但是他陈述的一些理由却难以成立。此外，这两个集子中所阐述的伦理学的体系还给人留下一种印象—充满刺激性的夸张。以下五部著作—《华格纳事件》、《偶像的黄昏》、《反基督徒》、《看那这人》、《尼采反驳华格纳》都是以极快的速度一气呵成的。它们写得标新立异，很有深度。但同时这些书也具有闻所未闻的攻击性和令人瞠目的自我吹嘘。
1889年，图林的灾难降临了。尼采进入了他的生命的最后十年。他先是住在耶拿大学精神病院。1890年5月，母亲把他接到南堡的家中照料。1897年4月，因母亲去世，尼采迁居到位于魏玛的妹妹伊丽莎白•福尔斯特-尼采的家中居住。在尼采的一生中，他的家庭始终是他的温暖的避风港，作为这个家庭中惟一的男性，家中的五位女性成员始终围着他转，无微不至地关怀他，精心呵护他，尽量满足他的一切愿望。但尼采为了心中的崇高理想，毅然舍弃了这一切，像个苦行僧一样在这个风雨飘摇的世界中飘泊游荡，忍饥挨饿，沉思冥想。1889年，长期不被人理解的尼采由于无法忍受长时间的孤独，在都灵大街上抱住一匹正在受马夫虐待的马的脖子，最终失去了理智。1900年8月25日，这位生不逢时的思想大师与世长辞,享年45岁。“银白的，轻捷地，像一条鱼，我的小舟驶向远方。”
【主要哲学思想】
尼采哲学在当时曾经被当作一种“行动哲学”，一种声称要使个人的要求和欲望得到最大限度的发挥的哲学。他的哲学具有傲视一切，批判一切的气势。这正是他的哲学被后现代主义欣赏的重要原因。
后现代主义对传统哲学和现代哲学不是拒斥，就是消解。然而对尼采哲学却情有独钟，后现代主义者从尼采哲学中吸纳了他们所需要的一切。包括尼采哲学的基本思想观点，甚至尼采的哲学风格。尼采哲学中的消解倾向成为后现代主义的精神支柱，尼采绝没有想到，他成了后现代主义的理论先驱。
对他来说，哲学思索家是生活，生活就是哲学思索。他创立了不同以往的形态迥异的奇特哲学，展示自己的哲学思想。他的哲学无须推理论证，没有体系框架，根本不是什么理论体系，是他对人生痛苦与欢乐的直接感悟。尼采，在他的第一部学术著作——《悲剧的诞生》中，就已开始了对现代文明的批判。他指出，在资本主义社会里，尽管物质财富日益增多，人们并没有得到真正的自由和幸福。僵死的机械模式压抑人的个性，是人们失去自由思想的激情和创造文化的冲动，现代文化显得如此颓废，这是现代文明的病症，其根源是生命本能的萎缩。尼采指出，要医治现代疾病，必须恢复人的生命本能，并赋予它一个新的灵魂，对人生意义做出新的解释。他从叔本华那里受到启示，也认为世界的本体是生命意志。
尼采猛烈的揭露和批判传统的基督教道德和现代理性。在认识论上，尼采是极端的反理性主义者，他对任何理性哲学都进行了最彻底的批判。他认为，欧洲人两千年的精神生活是以信仰上帝为核心的，人是上帝的创造物，附属物。人生的价值，人的一切都寄托于上帝。虽然自启蒙运动以来，上帝存在的基础已开始瓦解，但是由于没有新的信仰，人们还是信仰上帝，崇拜上帝。尼采的一句名言“一声断喝——上帝死了”——是对上帝的无情无畏的批判。他借狂人之口说，自己是杀死上帝的凶手，指出上帝是该杀的。基督教伦理约束人的心灵，使人的本能受到压抑，要是人获得自由，必须杀死上帝。尼采认为，基督教的衰落有其历史必然性，它从被压迫者的宗教，转化为统治者压迫者的宗教，它的衰落是历史的必然。
杀死了作为神的上帝，又迎来了资本的上帝，资本化身的上帝。尼采忽视了一个基本事实：被资本奴役，不会比被上帝奴役自由得多。但他的“上帝死了”的呼喊，断喝的启蒙价值是不能低估的。
尼采认为，在没有上帝的世界上，人们获得了空前的机会，必须建立新的价值观，以人的意志为中心的价值观。为此，要对传统道德价值进行清算，传统的道德观念是上帝的最后掩体，他深深的渗透于人们的日常生活之中，腐蚀人们的心灵。尼采自称是非道德主义者和反基督徒，他猛烈批判基督教的道德，基督教所崇尚的美德。
尼采对现代理性也持批判态度。他首先拿具有理性的哲学家开刀，他指出哲学家的第一特性是缺乏历史感，几千年来，凡是经哲学家处理的一切都变成了概念木乃伊。理性所起的作用无非是把流动的历史僵固化，用一些永恒的概念去框定活生生的现实。结果是扼杀了事物的生灭变化过程，扼杀了生命。他认为，这个世界是一个充满了偶然性的，动荡不定的，从而无法捉摸的世界。他说，实况是没有的，一切都是流动的，抓不住的，躲闪的。哲学家的第二个特性是“拒绝感官的证据”，颠倒了真正的世界和假象的世界。感性证据是真实的，可信的，只是对它们加工时才塞进了谎言。哲学家的第三个特性是混淆始末，他们否认生长过程，进化过程。哲学家的第四个特性是运用语言中的“理性”强制人们犯错误。“是”与“存在”混为一谈，弄假成真，弄真成假，蒙骗无知的人们。他认为，从苏格拉底到现代人都狂热的诉诸理性，是很荒谬的。人类之所以崇尚理性，是指望它给人带来自由和幸福；然而结果恰恰相反，理性处处与人的本能为敌，造成人的更大痛苦。
批判理性带来的谬误是正确的，但是不能否定理性的存在，理性的历史地位和作用。理性是人类进步的标志，是人类文明进程的硕果。历史上一些杰出的哲学家就是用理性的武器观察世界认识世界的。理性本身没有错，理性是不能否定的。没有理性，人类就不能正确的认识世界，认识真理。没有理性，人类将落入迷茫可怕的境遇。
尼采要建立新的哲学，将生命意志置于理性之上的哲学，非理性的哲学。作为对理性提出了挑战，他提出了强力意志说。用强力意志取代上帝的地位，传统形而上学的地位。强力意志说的核心是肯定生命，肯定人生。强力意志不是世俗的权势，它是一种本能的，自发的，非理性的力量。它决定生命的本质，决定着人生的意义。 尼采比较了强力意志和理性的不同特性，理性的特性是：冷静，精确，逻辑，生硬，节欲；强力意志的特性是：激情，欲望，狂放，活跃，争斗。尼采认为，强力意志源于生命，归于生命，它就是现实的人生。人生虽然短暂，只要具有强力意志，创造意志，成为精神上的强者，就能实现自己的价值。强力意志作为最高的价值尺度，一方面肯定了人生的价值，另一方面也为人世间的不平等作了辩护。在尼采看来，人类与自然的生命一样，都有强弱之分，强者总是少数，弱者是多数。历史与文化是少数强者创造的，他们理所当然的统治弱者。尼采推翻了神的等级制度，却肯定了人的等级制度，换汤没换药。
尼采还提出他的超人哲学，关于建构理想人生的哲学。超人是人生理想的象征，是尼采追求的理想目标和人生境界。尼采对现代人，现代生活感到很失望，他梦想改善人，造就新的人，即是超人。超人不是具体的人，是一个虚幻的形象。超人具有大地，海洋，闪电那样的气势和风格。尼采认为，超人还没有现实的存在，它是未来人的理想形象；超人给现实的人生提出了价值目标；超人是人的自我超越。
尼采鼓吹人生的目的就是实现权力意志，扩张自我，成为驾驭一切的超人。超人是人的最高价值，应当藐视一切传统道德价值，为所欲为，通过奴役弱者、群氓来实现自我。同时，他特别反对男女平等、婚姻自由、女性解放，在他看来，人们对待妇女的方式就是“别忘了你的鞭子”。
尼采的唯意志论哲学价值具有两重性，一方面，尼采继承了启蒙运动的精髓，反映了现代意识的觉醒。对人生价值的积极肯定，引发了人们对人生意义人生价值的思考，重新定位人生；对工具理性和工业文明的否定性批判，开启了现代非理性主义思潮。另一方面，对理性的批判，对传统的否定也存在着片面性，这正是后现代主义欣赏的一面。他的伦理思想反映了正在形成的垄断资产阶级的利益，因而成为了法西斯主义思想的理论基础。
【主要著作】
（中外文版）：
Die Geburt der Tragödie (1872, The Birth of Tragedy)
《悲剧的诞生》李长俊译，台北三民书店，1970年版；
《悲剧的诞生》刘崎译，台北志文出版社，1970年版；
《悲剧的诞生》缪郎山1965年译，北京中国人民大学1979年版；
《悲剧的诞生，尼采美学文选》，周国平译，北京三联书店1986年版。
Philosophy in the Tragic Age
《希腊悲剧时代的哲学》
Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen, (1873-1876, Thought out of Season)
《不合时宜的考察》第一部：
《自白者和作家大卫•斯特劳斯》
《不合时宜的考察》第二部：
《历史之用途与滥用》淦克超译，台北水牛出版社1969年版。
《不合时宜的考察》第三部：
《教育家的叔本华》杨白萍译，重庆商务印书馆1945年版；
《尼采论叔本华》，蔡英文译，台北龙天出版社1979年版。
《不合时宜的考察》第四部：
《瓦格纳在拜洛伊特》
Menschliches, All zu Menschliches (1878, Human ALL-to-Human)
《人性，太人性的》第一卷《启示艺术家和文学家之灵魂》，胡宏述译，台北正中书局1966年版。
Morgenröte (1881, The Deun of Day)
《朝霞》，徐梵澄译，上海商务印书馆1935年版
Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (1882, The Joyful Wisdom)其中第五部分于1886年续写
《快乐的知识》徐梵澄译，商务印书馆1939年版，上海商务印书馆1945年再版
《乐观的智慧》，余鸿荣译，台北志文出版社1982年版。
《快乐的科学》，余鸿荣译，北京中国和平出版社1982年版。
<敌基督者>--Antichrist 大陆未有中文译版
Also Sprach Zarathustra Pt.1-3 (1883-1884) and Pt.4(1891, Thus Spoke Zarthustra)
《察罗杜斯德罗序言》，鲁迅译，1918年载《新潮》第2卷第5期，1920年，收入《鲁迅译文集》第10卷，北京人民文学出版社1958年版。
《扎拉杜斯特拉这样说》，译者不祥，载《学汇》1922年10月至1923年1月连载。
《扎勒图士之言》，马君武译，上海商务印书馆1935年版。
《扎勒图士特拉如是说》，肖赣译，上海商务印书馆1936年版，台北1966年再版。
《苏鲁之语录》，徐梵澄译，上海生活书局1935-1936年（世界文库第8、9辑），北京商务印书馆1992年版；
《苏鲁之语录》，胡宏述译，台北正文出版社1966年版；
《苏鲁之语录》，杨瑞琳译，高雄则中出版社1962年版。
《查拉杜斯屈拉如是说》，雷白韦译，昆明中华书局1940年版，上海中华书局1947年版。
《查拉杜斯屈拉如是说》，雷崧生译，台北台湾中华书局1963年版，上1978年第七版。
《查拉杜斯图拉如是说》，高寒译，1978年贵阳中华书局版，华盛顿1972年再版。
《查拉杜斯图拉如是说》，余鸿荣译，台北志文出版社1983年版。
《查拉斯图拉如是说》，严溟译，北京文化艺术出版社1987年版。
Jenseits Von Gut und Böse (1886, Bevond Good and Evil)
《善与恶的超越》一译 《善恶的彼岸》
Zur Genealogie der Moral(1887, On the Genealogy of Moral)
《道德系谱学》，陈芳郁译，台北水牛出版社1975年版
《论道德的谱系》周红译，北京三联书店1992年版。
Der Fall Wagner (1888, The Case of Wagner)
《瓦格纳事件》周国平译，译文收入《悲剧的诞生，尼采美学文选》中， 北京三联书店1986年版
Götzen-Dammerung (1889, Twilight of the Idols)
《偶像的没落》，陈芳郁译，台北水牛出版社1973年版。
《偶像的黄昏》周国平译，长沙、湖南人民文学出版社1987年版。
Der Antichrist (1895, The Antichrist)
《上帝之死》（即《反基督徒》）刘崎（据英文版）译，台北志文出版社1968年、1971、1983、1986年再版。
Ecco Homo (1908)
《尼采自传》，徐梵澄译，上海良友图书公司1935年版。
《看哪！这人》，高寒1933年译，贵阳交通书局1947年版。
《看哪！这个人》刘思久译，文化书局1947年版。
《瞧这个人》刘崎译，台北志文出版社1969年版。
《尼采自传》，王琬芬译，台北正文书局1971年版。
《尼采的人生》，郑捷生译，台北世界文物供应社1972年版。
《看那个人！》张念生，凌素心译，收入《权力意志》一书，北京商务印书馆1991年版。
Der Wiue Zur Macht (1901. The Will to Power)
《权力意志——重估一切价值的尝试》，张念（1901年第一版，1906年第二版）
《尼采诗抄》，冯玉译，载《文学》8卷，上海生活书局
《尼采诗选》，钱春绮译，广西漓江出版社1986年版。
【影响】
尼采的著作对后世的影响无疑是巨大的。他的思想具有一种无比强大的冲击力，它颠覆了西方的基督教道德思想和传统的价值，揭示了在上帝死后人类所必须面临的精神危机。雅斯贝尔斯说尼采和克尔凯郭尔给西方哲学带来颤栗，而此颤栗的最后意义尚未被估价出来。20世纪初的整整一代思想家和艺术家都在尼采的著作中找到了那些激发了他们富于创造性的作品的观念和意象。雅斯贝尔斯、萨特、海德格尔、福柯和德里达等等都是深受尼采思想影响的哲学家，而直接受他影响的文学家同样数不胜数：茨威格、托马斯·曼、肖伯纳、黑塞、里尔克、纪德、还有我们熟悉的鲁迅。
【评价】
如果我们从世俗的角度来看，尼采的一生是不幸的，他的结局是悲惨的。他是一个典型的失败者：他的思想的发展未能达到预期的目标；在他生活的年代能够理解他的人寥寥无几，可怕的孤寂始终包围着他；最后，病魔缓缓地悄然而至，甚至成了他的生命的一部分。反过来，人们也可以这样说，如果没有他的患病与疾病的折磨，他的生平与著作都是无法想象的。
但是，任何一个没有偏见的人拿起尼采的著作，都会发觉它们才气横溢、光彩夺目、豪气冲天。当然，这里面也夹杂了夸张和神经质式的自我陶醉。在这些著作中，尼采以非凡的勇气和惊人的洞察力轻而易举地颠倒了各种公认的观念，奚落了一切美德，赞扬了所有的邪恶。尼采并没有建立一个封闭而庞大的哲学体系，他只写散文、格言和警句；在他的字里行间并不证明什么，只是预告和启示；但恰恰不是凭借逻辑推理而是凭借神奇的想象力，他征服了全世界；他献给人类的不只是一种新的哲学，也不仅仅是一首诗或一段警句，而且还是一种新的信仰、新的希望、新的宗教。很可惜，尼采的生命历程太短暂，阅历太简单，还没有来得及把自己的片面真理发展成智慧。如果他能活得更长一些，如果他能再多得到一些鼓励，也许他会把自己那粗糙混乱的观念梳理成和谐优美的哲学。
无论如何，尼采思想是现代思想的一座巍然耸立的里程碑。在尼采去世后的一个世纪中，他的思想深深地影响了如雅斯贝尔斯、海德格尔、里尔克、赫塞、托玛斯•曼、斯蒂芬•乔治、萧伯纳、纪德、萨特和马尔卢这样一些著名的思想家；他的著作不仅在德、法语区域闻名遐迩，而且还流传于遥远的北美、南美、亚洲、大洋洲、非洲。
尼采大无畏地反对哲学形而上学及其在认识论方面的绝对优势；反对千百年来哲学以纯理性观察宇宙、运用逻辑推理程序建立的以理性为中心的庞大思辩体系；他热爱生命，提倡昂然的生命力和奋发的意志力，肯定人世间的价值，并且视自然界为惟一的真实世界，给欧洲古典哲学注入新鲜血液并开辟了古典语言学的崭新时代。从这个意义上说，他开创了人类思想史的新纪元，哲学史可以以尼采前和尼采后来划分。在尼采之后，传统的哲学体系解体了，哲学由非存在转变为存在，从天上回到了地上，由神奇莫测、玄而又玄转变为引起亿万人心灵的无限共鸣。
【名言、语录】
1 自从厌倦于追寻，我已学会一觅即中；自从一股逆风袭来，我已能抗御八面来风，驾舟而行。
2 许多东西被我抛却，故而被诸君视为傲慢；若从外溢的酒杯里豪饮，难免洒落许多佳酿，故不要怀疑酒的质量。
3“他沉沦，他跌倒。”你们一再嘲笑，须知，他跌倒在高于你们的上方。他乐极生悲，可他的强光紧接你们的黑暗。
4 此人往高处走---他应受称赞！那人总是从高处降临，他活着，自动舍弃赞美，他是从高处来的人！
5 即使是最有良心的人，良心的谴责面对这样的情感也是软弱无力的：“这个或那个东西是违背社会习俗的” 最强者也害怕旁人的冷眼和轻蔑，他是这些人当中受过教育的，而且是为了这些人才接受教育的。他到底怕什么呢？怕孤立！这个理由把做人和做事的最佳理由打倒了！---我们的群体本性如是说
6 我们为自己创造了一个适于生活的世界，接受了各种体线面，因与果，动与静，形式与内涵。若是没有这些可信之物，则无人能坚持活下去！不过，那些东西并未经过验证。生活不是论据；生存条件也许原本就有错误。
7 哪里有统治，哪里就有群众；哪里有群众，哪里就需要奴性；哪里有奴性，哪里就少有独立的个人；而且，这少有的个人还具备那反对个体的群体直觉和良知呢。
8 当心！他一沉思，就立即准备好了一个谎言。
9 大胜的最大好处，莫过于解除了胜利者对失败的恐惧感。“我为何不能失败一次呢？”他自言自语，“我现在已有足够的本钱了”
10 他现在穷了，原因并非别人剥夺了他的一切，而是他抛弃了一切。缘何如此？---他惯于寻觅。所谓穷人，正是那些对他甘愿受穷做了错误理解的人。
11 他是思想家，这意味着：他善于简单的---比事物本身还要简单---对待事物。
12 要破坏一件事，最刁钻的办法是：故意用歪理为这事辩护。
13 人们视需要为事物发生之因，其实，它往往是事物发生之果。
14 智者问傻子，通往幸福的途径是什么？傻子毫不迟疑，就象别人向他打听去附近那个都市之路似的，答曰“自我欣赏，再就是东游西荡。”智者嚷道：“住嘴，你要求太多拉，自我欣赏就够拉！”傻子回答说：“没有一贯的蔑视，又怎能不断的欣赏呢？”
15 人要么永不做梦，要么梦得有趣；人也必须学会清醒：要么永不清醒，要么清醒得有趣。
16“噢，我真贪婪！在这个灵魂里安住的不是忘我精神，而是贪求一切的自我，似乎要用许多人帮他观察和攫取的自我，要挽回一切的自我，不愿失去属于他的一切的自我！”
“噢，我贪婪的烈焰哟！我多么愿意获得再生，变成一百个人呀！”
谁不能以自身体验理解这位谓叹者，谁就无法理解求知者的激情。
17 哪里缺乏意志，哪里就急不可待的需要信仰。意志作为命令的情感，是自主和力量的最重要标志。
18 你们根本不明白自己经历之事，像醉汗在生活中奔波，跌倒了，从阶梯上滚下去了。所幸，你们因为沉醉反而未受损伤。你们的肌肉无力，神智不清，便不象我们觉得阶梯上的石头如此之硬！
19 忠告：你是否旨在博取声望？若是，这信条务请记取：自动放弃名誉，要及时！
20 伏尔泰！人类！白痴！真理和追求真理有点难办，如果弄得太人性了---只是为了行善而追求真理，我敢打赌，那将一无所获！
21 若不是在通向知识的道路上，有如此多的羞愧要加以克服，知识的魅力便会很小。
22 鄙薄自己的人，却因此而作为鄙薄者，尊重自己。
23 要填饱肚子，是人不能那么容易的把自己看作上帝的原因。
24 与怪兽搏斗的人要谨防自己因此而变成怪兽。如果你长时间的盯着深渊，深渊也会盯着你
25“哪里有知识之树，哪里就有天堂”---最古老和最现代的毒蛇都这样说。
26 克服一种感情的意志，最终只是另一种感情或另外若干种感情的意志。
27 由感觉产生一切信任，一切坦然的心境，一切真理的证据。
28 赞扬比责备有更多的强加于人的成分。
29 人最终喜爱的是自己的欲望，不是自己想要的东西！
30 其他人的虚荣心只有在和我们的虚荣心相反时，才会令我们反感。
31 人们不相信聪明人会做蠢事：人的权利竟丧失到了如此地步！
32 较为相同，较为普遍的人，一向总是占有优势，较为杰出的，较为高雅的较为独特的和难于理解的人，则往往孑然独立；他们常常在孤独中死于偶然事件，很少能繁衍下去。
33 谁不想看一个人的高度，而只是睁大眼睛注视此人身上的那些明显的低处---谁就会由此而将自己暴露无遗。
34 高贵的灵魂，是自己尊敬自己。
35 漫游的人，你是谁？我看见你禹禹独行，没有嘲笑，没有爱，目光深不可测，象一个线棰那样湿漉漉的，显得悲伤不已。刚刚探测过每一深度，从水中 拉上来，一幅不满足的样子---它在水下要寻找什么？胸中从不叹息，双唇掩盖着厌恶之情，一只手只是在缓缓握紧：你是谁？你做了些什么？你在这里休息一下 吧！此处热情款待每一个人---恢复恢复精神吧！你到底是谁，眼下什么会使你高兴？什么会使 你恢复精神？说出来，只要我有，我就给你！“使我恢复精神？使我恢复精神？哎，你真是多管闲事，你说的够多的了！可还是给我吧，求求你~~~”给你什么？ 什么？快说出来！“另一个面具！第二个面具”
36 “这儿自由眺望，精神无比昂扬”。可是还有一种与此相反的人，这种人也处于一定的高度之上，也展现了自己的前景。---可却两眼往下看。
37 每一位深刻的思想家较为害怕的是被人理解，而不是被误解，后者可能会伤害他的虚荣心；但前者会伤害他的心灵，他的同情心，他的心灵总是说：“你怎么也和我受过同样的苦？”
38 人与人之间是应当保持一定距离的，这是每个人的“自我”的必要的生存空间。一个缺乏“自我”的人，往往不懂得尊重别人的“自我”需要生存空间。你刚好要独自体验和思索一下你的痛苦，你的门敲响了，那班同情者络绎不绝的到来，把你连同你的痛苦淹没在同情的吵闹声之中！
39 你们尊敬我，可你们尊敬的人某一天倒下了那又将如何呢？当心啊，别让一根雕像柱把你们压死。
40 我们越是接近事物的起源，事物对于我们就越是变得兴味索然。
41 一些人统治是由于他们愿意统治；另一些人统治是因为他们不愿意被人统治---对于他们来说，统治不过是两害中之轻者。
42 我走在命运为我规定的路上/虽然我并不愿意走在这条路上/但是我除了满腔悲愤的走在这条路上/别无选择
43 孤独生活的另一个理由。 甲：“现在你打算回到你的荒漠” 乙：“我不是一个快成急就的思想者；我必须长时间的等待我自己---水总是迟迟不肯从我的自我之泉喷涌而出，我经常焦渴得失去了耐心。我所以隐退到孤独之 中，就是为了使我不至于不得不从公用的水槽饮水。当我生活在人群中时，我的生活恰如他们的生活，我的思想也不像是我自己的思想；在他们中间生活过一段时间 以后，我总是觉得，似乎所有人都在设法使我离开我自己，夺走我的灵魂---我对所有人都感到愤怒，并且恐惧他们。因此，我必须走进沙漠，以便恢复正常。”
44 充耳不闻的智慧。---如果我们整天满耳朵都是别人对我们的议论，如果我们甚至去推测别人心里对于我们的想法，那么，即使最坚强的人也将不能幸免于难！因 为其他人，只有在他们强于我们的情况下，才能容许我们在他们身边生活；如果我们超过了他们，如果我们哪怕仅仅是想要超过他们，他们就会不能容忍我们！总 之，让我们以一种难得糊涂的精神和他们相处，对于他们关于我们的所有议论，赞扬，谴责，希望和期待都充耳不闻，连想也不去想。
45 赞美使一些人变得谦逊，使另一些人变得无礼。
46 千万不要忘记。我们飞翔得越高，我们在那些不能飞翔的人眼中的形象越是渺小。
47 致孤独者。 如果我们在我们一个人独处时不能像我们在大庭广众之下时那样尊重别人的荣誉，那我们就算不上正人君子。
48 生活是我们的灵丹妙药。---如果我们像思想家那样，每天处在川流不息的思想和情感的洪流中，甚至在夜梦中也被它们推动着，那么，我们就会渴望投入生活，以便得到宁静和休息，而其他人正好相反，希望离开生活进入沉思，以便得到休息。
49 没有根据的根据。 你讨厌他并且为这种讨厌提出了一大堆根据--但我只相信你的讨厌，而不相信你的根据！由于在你自己面前以及在我面前把那些本能使然的行为说成是理性思考的结果，你提高了你在你自己心目中的位置。
50 成为道德的行动本身不是道德的。 使人们服从道德的原因是各种各样的：奴性，虚荣，自私，阴郁的热情，听天由命或孤注一掷。服从道德，恰如服从一位君主，本身并无道德可言。
51 上帝死了
52 超人即是海洋，你们的伟大轻蔑会在海中沉没。
53 人是一根绳索，连接在动物与超人之间---绳索悬于深渊上方。
54 人之所以伟大，是因为他是一座桥梁，而非目的。
55 人人需求同一，人人都是一个样，谁若感觉不同，谁就进疯人院。
56 我的灵魂平静而明亮，宛若清晨的群山。可是他们认为，我冷酷，是开着可怕玩笑的嘲讽者。
57 人的生存是可怕的，且总无意义：一个搞恶作剧的人可能成为它的厄运。我要向人们讲授生存的意义，这意义就是超人，是乌云里的闪电。
58 对于强大的，有负载能力的精神而言，存在着许多沉重之物。这精神包含一种令人肃然起敬的东西：它的强大要求负载沉重，甚至最沉重之物。
59 有负载能力的精神要驮载这一切最沉重之物，犹如满载重物而匆匆走向荒原的骆驼。精神也正是这样匆匆走进荒原。然而，在寂寥的荒原中发生了第二次变形：精神变成了狮子，它要为自己夺得自由，做自己沙漠的主人。
60 不要再把头埋进天堂这类东西的沙滩里，而要使头自由，使这颗尘世头颅为尘世创造意义！
61 我学习过走路，从此我让自己奔跑；我学习过飞翔，从此我能就地飞走，而不愿首先被推送。我现在轻松自如，我现在飞翔，俯视下方，现在有个神明在我内心舞蹈。
62 人的情况和树相同。它愈想开向高处和明亮处，它的根愈要向下，向泥土，向黑暗处，向深处---向恶
63 当我到达高处，便发觉自己总是孤独。无人同我说话，孤寂的严冬令我发抖。我在高处究竟意欲何为？
64 即使你对他们温柔敦厚，但他们仍旧是觉得受到你的蔑视。他们以隐秘的伤害行为报答你的善举。你无言的骄傲总与他们的口味不合；倘若你某次谦虚到虚荣的地步，他们就喜不自胜了。
65 总有一天孤寂将会使你厌倦，你的骄傲将会扭曲，你的勇气将会咬牙切齿。有朝一日你会呐喊：“我孤独！”
66 有些人之所以离群索居就是为了躲避流氓：他实在不愿与流氓共饮井水，共享水果和火。有些人走进荒漠，与猛兽同受干渴之苦，就是不愿与肮脏的的赶骆驼者共坐在水槽边。
67 谁被民众仇恨呢？---如同一条被众狗仇恨的狼呢？是奔放不羁的天才，是桎梏的死敌，是拒不顶礼膜拜并悠游于林泉的高士。
68 我内心深处只爱生命---而且，说真的，我恨它之时也是最爱它之时！
69 你们意欲高升，所以仰视高处，我既已高升，故做俯瞰。你们当中有谁既会大笑又已高升了呢？
70 攀登最高峰的人取笑一切悲剧和悲伤，严肃的态度。
71 所有的人都没有我这样的耳朵，在这样的地方，我说话又有何用！我来这里为时过早。
72 噢，孤寂呀，你是我的故乡！我在野蛮的他乡过野蛮的生活委实太久，所以向你回归时不可能没有眼泪！
73 谁明知恐惧而制服恐惧，谁看见深渊而傲然面对，谁就有决心。谁用鹰眼注视深渊，用鹰爪抠住悬崖，谁就有勇气。
74 更高级的人呀，你们最大的坏处莫过于不学习舞蹈，人必须跳舞---超越你们自己而跳舞！你们的失败，这又算得了什么呢！可能会成功的事多着呢！因此你们要学会自嘲！高举你们的人，优秀的舞蹈家啊，高些，再高些！也别忘记大声朗笑！
75 谁的思想过于丰富，谁就宁愿把自己变愚。
76 在这儿，我最大的痛苦是孤独……这种孤独归因于个人无法与世界达成公识
77 在孤独中，一切都可以获得---除了精神正常。
78 对财富的喜爱，以及对于知识的喜爱，是推动地球的两种力量，其中一种力量增加了，另一种力量势必减弱。
79 我的智慧终于被解除了魔力，我所知道的事情比哈姆雷特少，比苏格拉底少，比一无所有少！这是最终的真理：并没有真理，只有垂死的灵魂痛苦的垂吊在“十字架”上……
80 如果我们老是寻根究底，那么我们就会走向毁灭。
81 大无畏的思想家最能体验无比惨痛的悲剧；他们之所以尊重生活，是因为生活是他们最大的对手……
82 当心性灵：性灵会使我们极其孤独，孤独意味着毫无义务感与没有约束；性灵会败坏我们的性格……
83 不要将完全没有信仰能力的无信仰和再也不能相信某种世界观的无信仰混为一谈。后一种情形一般来说是一种新的信仰的前兆。
84 艺术是什么？是卖淫。
85 自我崇拜是达到性格之诗意和谐的一种手段。我们应该协调性格与能力，保持和增强我们的一切，方法就是崇拜。
86 斯多葛主义只有一件圣事，那就是自杀……
87 平庸是一幅自负精神能忍受的幸福的假面具，因为，它不让大多数的人，即平庸者去想到伪装：他进行伪装正是为了平庸者的缘故---为不触怒他们，是的，常常出自同情和友善。
88 天生的精神贵族是不太勤奋的。
89每一个不曾起舞的日子 都是对生命的辜负！
90别理会！让他们去唏嘘！夺取吧！我请你只管夺取！
91上等人有必要向群众宣战。
92创造了这个有价值的世界的是我们！
93想在善和恶中作造物主的人，必须首先是个破坏者，并砸烂一切价值。也就是说，最大的恶属于最高的善。不过，后者是创造性的善。
94没有更冷的天气吗？没有更黑的夜晚吗？没有必要一大早就点灯吗？
旁注：
如果说马克思的大幸在于他有个知己。
尼采之不幸在于他有个崇尚沙文主义的妹妹伊丽莎白。作为一个沙文主义狂热的支持者、以及尼采的妹妹，她深知他哥哥理论的价值。事实上，一个别有用心的人可以非常轻松地从尼采的著作中断章取义。于是这个妹妹在尼采在世时就一直试图将其哥哥打扮为沙文主义分子。但问题是，尼采还活着，可以制止。然而，1900年，尼采，这个伟大的天才，离开了。事情变得微妙起来。首先，伊丽莎白手头上有尼采的全部遗稿，包括那部尼采已经放弃成书的《权利意志》。伊丽莎白显然不会放弃这个绝佳的好机会。于是纳粹执政后，她与纳粹政府便合作完成了《权利意志》。在此过程中，伊丽莎白从〈权利意志〉遗稿中挑选对宣传纳粹有利的格言，还对一部分格言进行了篡改。由此，尼采逐渐转变为“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