Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) was a German philosopher. His writing included critiques of religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, using a distinctive style and displaying a fondness for aphorism. Nietzsche s influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism and postmodernism. He began his career as a philologist before turning to philosophy. At the age of 24 he became Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel, 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. His works include From my Life (1858), On Music (1858), Napoleon III as a President (1862), Free Willand Fate (1862), My Life (1864), The Birth of Tragedy (1872), Richard Wagner in Bayreuth (1876), Human, All-Too-Human (1878), Beyond Good and Evil (1886), The Antichrist (1888) and Ecce Homo (1888).
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture, who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24, but resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth F枚rster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes. Nietzsche's work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth in favour of perspectivism; a genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and a related theory of master鈥搒lave morality; the aesthetic affirmation of life in response to both the "death of God" and the profound crisis of nihilism; the notion of Apollonian and Dionysian forces; and a characterisation of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power. He also developed influential concepts such as the 脺bermensch and his doctrine of eternal return. In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, music, religion, tragedy, culture, and science, and drew inspiration from Greek tragedy as well as figures such as Zoroaster, Arthur Schopenhauer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Wagner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. After his death, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became the curator and editor of his manuscripts. She edited his unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism. 20th-century scholars such as Walter Kaufmann, R.J. Hollingdale, and Georges Bataille defended Nietzsche against this interpretation, and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy鈥攅specially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism, and post-structuralism鈥攁s well as art, literature, music, poetry, politics, and popular culture.
Individuality, honesty, culture, education, anyone? Schopenhauer as Educator, published in 1876, is a short, very lively, accessible, thought-provoking philosophical work by Friedrich Nietzsche. To provide a modest rasa of what a reader will find contained in its pages, here are several quotes along with my brief comments.
"Artists alone hate this sluggish promenading in borrowed fashions and appropriated opinions and they reveal everyone鈥檚 secret bad conscience, the law that every man is a unique miracle; they dare to show to man as he is, uniquely himself to every last movement of his muscles, more, that in being thus strictly consistent in uniqueness he is beautiful, and worth regarding, and in no way tedious."
Thus the core of education for Nietzsche: to nurture the uniqueness and beauty of each individual. Such educated individuals will be worth regarding and in no way boring.
"How reluctant later generations will be to have anything to do with the relics of an era ruled, not by living men, but by pseudo-men dominated by public opinion; for which reason our age may be to some distant posterity the darkest and least known, because least human, portion of human history."
You would think Nietzsche wrote this after a stop at one of our local convenience stores, observing the dull-eyed misshapen standing in line to buy their candy bars and soda. Six million years of human evolution for this?
"We are responsible to ourselves for our own existence; consequently we want to be the true helmsman of this existence and refuse to allow our existence to resemble a mindless act of chance. One has to take a somewhat bold and dangerous line with this existence, especially as, whatever happens, we are bound to lose it. Why go on clinging to this clod of earth, this way of life, why pay heed to what your neighbor says?"
Eddie Addis once told me he wished he could play his guitar during his lunch break but wouldn鈥檛 dare bring his guitar to work because 鈥榃hat would people think?鈥� I told him that people don鈥檛 give a fig about you, Eddie. Matter of fact, you could drop dead and half the people wouldn鈥檛 even notice. After reflecting on my words, the next week Eddie started playing his guitar at lunchtime. Nietzsche would have smiled.
"No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself alone. . . . There exists in the world a single path along which no one can go except you: whither does it lead? Do not ask, go it alone."
Lesson to last a lifetime. For example, I do not read reviews or overviews of a book until I have reviewed the book myself. I don't want my intuitions, feeling or my own creative juices in any way blocked or interfered with. I sense many other 欧宝娱乐 reviewers approach their reviews similarly. Thank goodness: freshness and uniqueness all round.
Nietzsche speaks here of his reading Schopenhauer: "The joy of living on this earth is increased by the existence of such a man. The effect on myself since my first acquaintance with that strong and masterful spirit, has been, that I can say of him as he of Plutarch 鈥� 鈥淎s soon as I open him, I seem to grow a pair of wings.鈥�
If you would like to gauge where you are on your life鈥檚 journey, a great question to ask: What have you truly loved up to now, what has drawn your soul aloft?
Nietzsche speaks with sarcasm about a culture so focused on money: 鈥淓ducation must be soon over to allow the pursuit of money to be soon begun, and should be just thorough enough to allow of much money being made. The amount of education is determined by commercial interests. In short, "man has a necessary claim to worldly happiness; only for that reason is education necessary." ---------- My goodness. Money, money, money. Some things never change!
This is one book where Nietzsche wrote with a lively sense of humor, as per below, Of course, since this is a review of a work by Nietzsche, Fritz gets the last word: 鈥淚 sometimes amuse myself with the idea that men may soon grow tired of books and their authors, and the savant of tomorrow come to leave direction in his will that his body be burned in the midst of his books, including of course his own writings. And in the gradual clearing of the forests, might not our libraries be very reasonably used for straw and brushwood? Most books are born from the smoke and vapor of the brain, and to vapor and smoke may they well return. For having no fire within themselves, they shall be visited with fire. And possibly to later century our own may count as the 鈥楧ark Age鈥�, because our productions heated the furnace hotter and more continuously than ever before.鈥�
Filozofija pru啪a 膷ovjeku azil na koji nijedna tiranija ne mo啪e prodrijeti, pe膰inu du拧e, lavirint srca.
U svom turobnom i tmurnom osje膰anju te u potrazi za krepko拧膰u Ni膷e sa jednom erudicijom i nadahnutom uzvi拧eno拧膰u osvjedo膷ava stremljenja 艩openhauerove filozofije ne bi li predstavio uzor istinskog filozofa. Filozofa koji treba da odgaja. On pravi paralelu time 拧to pokazuje odnos dva filozofa (u ovom slu膷aju Kant-艩openhauer) smatraju膰i da se samo na vlastitom primjeru 啪ivota mo啪e izvu膰i ono 拧to zovemo istinskim filozofom, a time i odgajateljem. Tako pi拧u膰i o Kantu koji se dr啪ao akademije, pokoren vladama, kao takav daje za primjer profesorsku filozofiju i time 啪estoko odbacuju膰i furor philosophicus te u tome vidi prednost kod 艩openhauera, zbog njegove su拧te suprotnosti Kantu, odvojenom od bilo kakvih institucija. Ni膷e 啪estoko napada akademsku filozofiju smatraju膰i je mumificiranom, te da je ona tu zbog ispita a ne same filozofije, da ide u korist dr啪ave a ne u korist istine. Sve ovo je i拧lo u prilog 艩openhaueru koji je pojave mogao sagledavati objektivnom istinito拧膰u, a ne subjektivno kao 拧to to ona radi. Ni膷e smatra da na nadgrobnom spomeniku akademske filozofije treba da pi拧e "Nikoga nije snu啪dila".
沤ive膰i van religijskih dogmi, porodice, vlade i univerzitetske karijere 艩openhauer je po Ni膷eu okru啪en sa tri opasnosti. Prva 膷ini samo膰u. Naime, kod nekih misle膰ih ljudi 膷esto se pravi distinkcija samo膰e i usamljenosti. Dok po samom 艩openhaueru samo膰a predstavlja izvor mira i harmonije dotle je usamljenost po nekima 膷eznu膰e koje stvara bol i patnju, 啪elja modernog 膷ovjeka da ima upori拧te u svemu. Druga opasnost jeste o膷ajanje nad istinom. Ovdje Ni膷e izvla膷i 艩openhauerovo suo膷avanje sa slikom 啪ivota kao cjelinom te samo njeno tuma膷enje kao cjelinu. A da bi se razumjela slika mora se prije svega odgonetnuti slikar, platno i same boje. Dakle cjelokupnost 啪ivota razumijeti iz unutra拧njosti tako 拧to bi se razumjele boje i platno, a ne slika koja 膷ini glazuru predstavljenog. Ni膷e ovdje govori o duhu onoga 拧to ne拧to 膷ini, a ne sam 膷in. I tre膰u opasnost 膷ini okorjelost u moralnom ili intelektualnom. Ovdje se govori o napu拧tanju samog sebe, jednom ohla膽eno拧膰u gdje dolazi do punog i kristalnog "ja" te se gubi sopstveni ideal i u smislu kulture postaje slaba拧an.
Nietzsche inquieta, perturba, desestabiliza porque confronta. Su tono es rotundo, pero tambi茅n 铆ntimo. Parece que me invitara a pensar, pero tambi茅n me se帽ala como vector patol贸gico de esa modorra existencial en la que vivimos nuestros d铆as. Lo curioso es que la fiebre que causa, deja una sensaci贸n de revitalizaci贸n, de fuerza contenida, de potencial oportunidad. 驴Qu茅 otro fil贸sofo tiene ese poder vivificante en nuestros d铆as? 驴D贸nde pensar para fortalecer el esp铆ritu en lugar de capacitarse para funcionar como bur贸crata de la cultura y la educaci贸n?
I have come to appreciate Nietzsche ever more as a writer of philosophical literature, not exactly philosophy. His mind uplifts your own into the heights of thought, taking you on a journey of wisdom to whatever his precocity thought up. "Schopenhauer as Educator" is not about Schopenhauer, but really the meaning of Life and how humans fit into it.
Nietzsche asks and answers many questions, like: "What is the meaning and purpose of individuality?", "What is genius?", "What purposes do geniuses serve in the evolution of Life and the universe?", "What is more valuable, quality or quantity in humans?", "How is scholarship a perversion of true genius?", "What differentiates true philosophy from state-funded philosophy and the history of philosophy?", "What does it take to add to the understanding of nature and of Life, to be a true genius?", and "Why must the genius have a soul of iron?".
Nietzsche answers his question "with a hammer", in his trademark way of force and disdain for public opinion. His unabashed elitism and aristocratic nature shine throughout this work. It is essential reading for all of those who have asked the question: what is the worth of the great man for his kind, for history, and for Life itself? It is a wonderful work! I cannot but say that this is my favorite literary piece I have read yet.
P.S. Nietzsche is not disdainful of Christianity in this essay, but simply the form it has taken in the modern era. I would recommend the faithful to read his thoughts in this work and value their worth for themselves.
So far, this is my favorite Nietzsche read yet and one of my favorite philosophy reads in a long time. I always appreciate Nietzsche's insight when speaking of what philosophy is and what a true philosopher is. In "Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks," he conceives of the philosopher as someone seeking to hear within himself the echoes of the world symphony and to re-project them in the form of concepts. In this work, he is up to something similar. Academic philosophers, he says, 鈥渆lude the challenge of every great philosophy, which as a whole always says only: this is the picture of all life, and learn from it the meaning of your own life. And the reverse: only read your own life and comprehend from it the hieroglyphics of universal life.鈥�
The philosophy of education and education of philosophy in this work is perhaps priceless. Nietzsche describes education as knowing oneself--a task requiring almost herculean effort. Here's one great passage among many: 鈥淟et the youthful soul look back on life with the question: what have you truly loved up to now, what has drawn your soul aloft, what has mastered it and at the same time blessed it? Set up these revered objects before you and perhaps their nature and their sequence will give you a law, the fundamental law of your own true self. Compare these objects with one another, see how one completes, expands, surpasses, transfigures another, how they constitute a stepladder on which you have clambered up to yourself as you are now; for your true nature lies, not concealed deep within you, but immeasurably high above you, or at least above that which you usually take yourself to be.鈥�
The short length of this extended essay makes it an easy book to read (or reread) in a few sittings.
Iz ovoga ne膰ete nau膷iti ni拧ta o Schopenhaueru kao odgajatelju, nau膷it 膰ete samo 拧to Nietzsche misli o odgajanju, znanosti i malo o njegovoj percepciji genija. Vidim da je i Nietzsche izvor mnogih dana拧njih mitova (poput onoga o velikoj naprednosti Grka) koji se nekriti膷ki uzimaju u usta i stalno ponavljaju.
Quanto segue non 猫 una recensione. Non perch茅 io non voglia fare una recensione della terza inattuale e nemmeno perch茅 non ne sono in grado, il che sarebbe pur vero. Pi霉 semplicemente sono fermamente convinto che non si possa fare una recensione di un libro del genere. Se dovessi rispondere a una domanda relativa al mio gradimento del libro, probabilmente direi che mi 猫 piaciuto meno della seconda inattuale, sebbene l'abbia trovato pi霉 chiaro. Tuttavia aggiungerei che, per un parere puramente personale e probabilmente poco obiettivo, ho trovato la traduzione della seconda inattuale pi霉 curata e scorrevole, non essendo tra l'altro la prima volta che mi trovo a preferire traduzioni di Giametta ad altre. Con questo rischierei comunque di sminuire o insultare l'illustre Montinari quindi, se mi venisse posta la domanda suddetta, non risponderei. Ecco perch茅 non conto di recensire questo libro ma solamente di raccontare l'esperienza personale che mi lega a Nietzsche. O meglio, la decisione che mi lega a Nietzsche. Ero un novellino del mondo della filosofia quando ho aperto per la prima volta una esecrabile edizione economica dello Zarathustra. Ho letto due capitoli, mi sono fermato, non ci avevo capito nulla, e nondimeno ero tremendamente affascinato. Ho riprovato qualche tempo dopo, ma continuava a sembrarmi una montagna troppo ripida da scalare. Eppure non riuscivo a liberarmi della sensazione che io avessi bisogno di capire quel libro, che Nietzsche avesse qualcosa di molto importante da dire proprio a me. Molti anni dopo, di cui sei passati a studiare filosofia all'universit脿, sorrido a quella sensazione, perch茅 so che succede alla stragrande maggioranza dei filosofi in erba, succede che Nietzsche riesca a parlare al lettore, a parlare proprio di te e a te, in un modo credo unico in assoluto. In pochi potrebbero vantare di non essere mai cascati nella trappola, e non sono comunque sicuro che si possa parlare di vanto. Comunque sia, ci vuole del tempo per liberarsi di quella sensazione, per capire che Nietzsche fu semplicemente troppo bravo a parlare al genere umano, a toccare i tasti giusti utilizzando parole abbastanza universali da rivolgersi a casi spesso molto particolari (se questa cosa si possa ricondurre all'effetto Barnum non saprei, ma potrebbe darsi). Ebbene, ecco una confessione: la sensazione, a me, non 猫 mai passata veramente. Certo la interpreto in modo diverso e la valuto da un punto di vista oggettivo, ma non posso fare a meno di chiedermi, sotto sotto, 'e se...?'. Se questo si pu貌 intendere come un parallelo con la storiella di Bohr che teneva appeso alla porta un ferro di cavallo porta fortuna ebbene, ai lettori la sentenza. Il percorso universitario mi ha portato lontano da Nietzsche, ho studiato tutt'altro, ma la decisione di cui sopra l'avevo gi脿 presa ancora prima di allontanarmi da lui, per l'esattezza quando, per due esami universitari abbastanza vicini fra loro, decisi di portare 'La Nascita della Tragedia dallo Spirito della Musica ovvero Grecit脿 e pessimismo' (diamine Friedrich, puoi almeno evitare di emozionarmi al solo pronunciare il titolo dei tuoi libri?) e la 'Genealogia della Morale'. Non ci avevo capito nulla, n茅 dell'uno n茅 dell'altro, a parte quanto bastava per passare gli esami, ovvero i concetti. Il senso profondo di quegli scritti rimaneva un mistero. La decisione, dicevo, fu quella di pormi un obiettivo vitale, dove con vitale intendo una di quelle missioni che si propongono di dare un senso alla vita umana. Come voler visitare ogni cattedrale del mondo o girare tutti i pub della provincia granda (gli esempi sono puramente casuali), ebbene io volevo, e voglio, leggere tutto quello che ha scritto Nietzsche. Ma proprio tutto, scritti pubblicati, frammenti postumi, lettere; accompagnando tutto, in fondo perch茅 no, dalla monumentale biografia di Curt Paul Janz, che posseggo da pi霉 di cinque anni e che ancora non ho avuto il coraggio di aprire. Sono arrivato alla terza inattuale, ovvero ho appena infilato gli scarponi per iniziare la scalata della montagna e il tempo gi脿 si preannuncia tempestoso. Ma proprio qui in questo libricino Nietzsche parla di Schopenhauer (e di Montaigne) in questi termini: "Veramente per il fatto che un tal uomo abbia scritto, il piacere di vivere su questa terra 猫 stato aumentato". Caro Friedrich, non fare il furbo, gi脿 lo sapevi che presto o tardi saresti stato annoverato nella loro stessa categoria. Un qualsiasi filosofo intento a specializzarsi su Nietzsche porterebbe a compimento questa missione probabilmente in due o tre anni, ma non 猫 quello che voglio io. In effetti, ho iniziato gi脿 qualche anno fa e sono solo all'inizio. Ma voglio che questo compito mi accompagni per molto tempo, voglio arrivare allo Zarathustra sicuro di essere pronto a capirlo. Hai visto mai che Nietzsche voglia dire qualcosa proprio a me. Salter貌 il caso Wagner perch茅 conto di leggerlo pi霉 avanti, insieme alle lettere e alla biografia, dunque passer貌 all'opera pubblicata successiva, fra qualche tempo. Spero di essere pronto a comprenderla perch茅 in fin dei conti sono umano, troppo umano.
Interesting but typically rambling and tiresome early Nietzsche, with all the seeds of his later signature ideas but overall more indebted to Emerson and the High Romantic ideal. He's not even totally dismissive of Christianity and the classical metaphysical categories here. As is always the case with Friedrich, some good and helpful thoughts on education and culture are to be found within the ramblings.
A philosophy genius Nietzche, basically explains another Philosophy Genius. Nietzche And Schopenhauer are the masters of existentialism and lifetime guidance.
"Mientras contin煤e entendi茅ndose por cultura esencialmente el fomento de la ciencia, aquella ignorar谩 siempre con p茅trea frialdad al gran sufridor que es el ser humano, porque la ciencia 煤nicamente ve por todas partes problemas de conocimiento, y porque el sufrimiento, en el interior de su mundo, es, precisamente, algo inoportuno e incomprensible, como mucho un problema m谩s". Cuando resuena en tu cabeza porque la voz est谩 rota.
This essay demonstrates Nietzsche at his best. He goes on to praise Schopenhauer for being a true philosopher. And along the way Nietzsche doesn't hold back his opinion on other philosophers and statesmen who he sees as phonies. At one point, Nietzsche completely busts out against the whole entire establishment. Like all his other writings, I very much enjoyed this essay.
This excerpt gets me every time (!!!): 鈥淟et the youthful soul look back on life with the question: what have you truly loved up to now, what has elevated your soul, what has mastered it and at the same time delighted it? Place these venerated objects before you in a row, and perhaps they will yield for you, through their nature and their sequence, a law, the fundamental law of your own true self. Compare these objects one with another, how they constitute a stepladder upon which you have clambered up to yourself as you are now; for your true nature lies, not concealed deep within you, but immeasurably high above you, or at least above that which you usually take yourself to be.鈥�
As this has been my first Nietzsche read I didn't know what to expect (and it didn't help that my friends scared me about his work) but I thoroughly enjoyed it! I especially loved the critique of sience and nature. The whole book was like being petted after a slap in the face. It also included some great reminders of how to think and move through life. Seems like Nietzsche was really born in the wrong generation.