Position:Home>Philosophy> What was Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche ? How Many of you had read Him ?

If you would like to buy a book to introduce yourself to Nietzsche, I would recommend "The Basic Writings of Nietzsche", edited by Walter Kaufman!. It contains some of his most important books in their entirety, excerpts from others, and wonderful commentary from Kaufman, the most respected scholar and translator of Nietzsche's work!.

Nietzsche's ideas are not easy to summarize!. They are a wide-ranging and sometimes inconsistent set of critiques of the ideas about Truth and morality formulated by Plato, Kant and the Christian philosophers!. It's also important to remember that Nietzsche's thought evolved over his career, so somethings he wrote early on, like in "The Birth of Tragedy" he would later disagree with!. If you would like to get a quick overview of his thoughts on one topic - like ethics, politics or knowledge - then I'd recommend beginning with the articles at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy!.

also, in response to the first poster, Nietzsche was not a hater of Jews!. Nietzsche held nationalists, pan-Germanists and anti-Semites in high contempt because he thought their herd mentalities resembled exactly what he hated about the anti-individualist tendencies of Christianity and socialism!. His friendship with Wagner was ruined by the composer's buying-in to the Volkisch philosophies, and he recoiled at his work being appropriated by anti-Semites!. Kaufman addresses this issue in the introduction to his book!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---

Nietzsche stands for individualism!. He was an anti-conformist in all senses of the word!.

He was a rebel!. I say rebel, not revolutionary, because a rebel sees, at the outset, the futility of gathering supporters around oneself, for when a high or noble cause gets adulterated by the support of mere numbers, the result can only be an established institution!. The original ideal is then lost sight of as soon as the founder himself is out of sight, and we have another degenerate established institution!. Such are the workings that bring institututions about!.

The emphasis of his philosophy is not, as is generally believed, and 'thanks' to which political capital was able to be made, to raise the rabble, but those already higher than the rabble -which are and always must remain few - to the status of superman!. From 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra': " The mob blink and say, 'men are all equal before God'!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.but let US not be equal before the mob! You Higher Men, depart from the marketplace! "

I recommend you buy the book by all means; all the more so if you can read German!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---

He knew theology and had some kind of resentment against Jews!. Most of his stuff is useless except to provide historical context!. A big brain but major issues are left out!. It would take great effort and a scholar in world theology to completely understand him!.

Personally, all the notions about the umber mensch and such is just his notions and wild ideas!. That is my opinion!. Read his bio before reading his daunting masterworks!. I could have skipped all the wild and romantic musings about Wagner!. I think he was second generation theologan!. Oh, he knew a lot!. He considered Jesus to be something the Jews created to fool people and weaken them!. I guess he hated Jews and had great contempt for Christians, when it is all said and done!. Not a very good guide to making friends and influencing people!. But I might have simply misinterpeted the whole thing!. I read it as a senior in high school and did a little research on him at the library!. The Nazis used selected writings to try make a case!. It is too time consuming and, except for the Jesus theory, a real waste of tme for me when I should have been concentrating on my chemistry and physics studies!. But it was hip back then to quote Nietzsche!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---