Lesson #: 7.

Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche is a German philosopher and critic of culture, who influenced a number of the
major writers and philosophers of the 20th century Germany and France. Nietzsche's most popular
book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-1885), went ignored at the time of its appearance. Full of
provocative ideas, Nietzsche was a master of aphoristic form and use of contradictions. Before and
after the rise and fall of the Nazis, he was widely misrepresented as an anti-Semite and a woman
hater, and many philosophers found it difficult to take his writings seriously. Like the Danish
philosopher Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Nietzsche often contradicted himself.

Objectives:
To be more knowledgeable about the life and works of Friedrich Nietzsche and his Philosophy.

Activity:
Arrange the jumbled letters to form a word about this topic.

1.It is the most popular book of Nietzsche.____________________________

HTUS OKPSE RAZAARSTUHT

2.Since God is dead, Neitzsche sees the necessity for the emergence of the Übermensch, the
_________________ or over man, who is to replace God.

NAMPREUS

3. Friedrich Nietzsche studied classical_______________________.

GYPHIOLLO

4. Like the Danish philosopher_________________, Nietzsche often contradicted himself.

KRIEKGAEDRA

5. At the university he proved himself a brilliant student, studied classical philology, and, on
the strength of glowing recommendations, was appointed professor at ____________
before graduating.

ELSAB
 BIOGRAPHY
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born October 15, 1844 in Röcken, Germany. After his father
died in 1849, Nietzsche was raised his mother and aunts and grew up in a strongly religious
environment. At the university he proved himself a brilliant student, studied classical philology,
and, on the strength of glowing recommendations, was appointed professor at Basel (1869-79)
before graduating. In May of 1869, he first met Richard Wagner at Tribschen and spent weekends
and Christmas with him. Strongly influenced by Schopenhauer's views on art and his notion of a
will to power, he dedicated his first book, Die Geburt der Tragödie (1872, The Birth of Tragedy) to
Wagner, whose operas he regarded as the true successors to Greek tragedy. In 1874, he wrote
Schopenhauer as Educator. In 1875, plagued by failing eyesight and chronic illness, Nietzsche
collapsed Christmas day and temporarily had to stop teaching at University. In 1876, he finished
his essay on Wagner.These two works mark his "declaration of independence" from the two figures
that had provided the basis of his first philosophical writings. In 1879 Nietzsche's illness worsened
and he resigned from the university, settling in St. Moritz. He now began his truly independent
work, including Human, All Too human, and Daybreak. In 1881, Nietzsche first conceived the
ideas which would become the themes of his literary masterpiece, Also Sprach Zarathustra (1883-
5, thus Spoke Zarathustra): the distinctively Nietzschean concepts of the Übermensch or
"overman," and eternal return. In 1887, Nietzsche began the works which contain his final
philosophy: Genealogy of Morals, Twilight of the Idols, Antichrist, and Ecce Homo. In 1889,
Nietzsche collapsed in the street in Turin. His friend over beck took Nietzsche back to Basel,
where he underwent treatment, but he never recovered. His sister, Elizabeth, who had been his
close to him in his middle period, had married, against Nietzsche's strong opposition, the anti-
Semite Bernhard Foerster and had moved with him to Paraguay where they would found a utopian
society. After Foerster committed suicide, Elisabeth returned from Paraguay and began work on
the Nietzsche Archive through which she gained complete control over Nietzsche's works. A
convinced anti-Semite and racist she presented Hitler with Nietzsche's walking stick and allowed
the Nazis to tarnish Nietzsche's reputation, by equating their racial theories with Nietzsche's ideas,
particularly of the Übermensch. On August 25, 1900, Nietzsche died, never having had more than
a few moments of lucidity after his complete mental breakdown.

 Friedrich Nietzsche and his philosophy of the Superman

Between the very many interventions of his sister Elisabeth and also given the
misrepresentations of his work that are associated with the Nazi Era it is difficult to get a true
picture of Friedrich Nietzsche and his philosophical legacy.

He began to actually write Thus Spake Zarathustra in February of 1883 but the germ of the idea
behind it had been developing in his mind for some eighteen months. In Ecce Homo it is related
how the idea occurred to him in August 1881 and remained in gestation. When he came to actually
write based upon his initial idea Nietzsche felt that he was actually inspired - as one of the most
intriguing quotes from Ecce Homo suggests:-
 "One hears but one does not seek; one takes - one does not ask who gives; a thought flashes up
like lightning, it comes of necessity and unfalteringly formed".

His fundamental contention was that traditional values (represented primarily by Christianity)
had lost their power in the lives of individuals. He expressed this in his proclamation "God is
dead."

Since God is dead Neitzsche sees the necessity for the emergence of the Übermensch, the
Superman or over man, who is to replace God.

The first of the quotes attributed to Zarathustra is:-

"I teach you the Superman. Man is something that should be overcome. What have you done to
overcome him?
All creatures hitherto have created something beyond themselves: and do you want to be the ebb
of the great tide, and return to the animals rather than overcome man?
What is the ape to men? A laughing stock or a painful embarrassment. And just so shall man be
to the Superman: a laughing stock or a painful embarrassment".

The context in which Supermen are to be judged to be such is implied by Neitzsche's previous
works. He maintained that all human behavior is motivated by the will to power. In its positive
sense, the will to power is not simply power over others, but the power over oneself that is
necessary for creativity. Supermen are those who have overcome man - i.e. the individual self - and
culminated the will to power into a momentous creativity.

Supermen are creators of a "master morality" that reflects the strength and independence of one
who is liberated from all values, except those that he deems valid. Such power is manifested in
independence, creativity, and originality.

Nietzsche saw the Superman as the answer to the nihilistic rejection of all religious and moral
principles that would be consequent on a widespread acceptance that God is dead. The Superman
being the exemplar of true humanity.

Although he explicitly denied that any Supermen had yet arisen, he mentions several individuals
who could serve as models. Among these models he lists Socrates, Jesus, Julius Caesar, Leonardo
da Vinci, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Goethe, and Napoleon.

 God is dead quote

Friedrich Nietzsche is notable for having declared that God is dead and for having written several
of his works in the presumption that man must find a new mode of being given the demise of God.
 Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the
market-place, and cried incessantly: "I am looking for God! I am looking for God!"
As many of those who did not believe in God were standing together there, he excited
considerable laughter. Have you lost him, then? Said one. Did he lose his way like a child? Said
another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? Or emigrated? Thus they
shouted and laughed. The madman sprang into their midst and pierced them with his glances.

"Where has God gone?" he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his
murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the
sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its
sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not
perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left?
Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has
it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all the time? Must not lanterns be
lit in the morning? Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying
God? Do we not smell anything yet of God's decomposition? Gods too decompose. God is dead.
God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console
ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has
bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify
ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the
greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of
it? There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us - for the sake of this
deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto."

Here the madman fell silent and again regarded his listeners; and they too were silent and stared
at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern to the ground, and it broke and went out. "I
have come too early," he said then; "my time has not come yet. The tremendous event is still on its
way, still traveling - it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time, the
light of the stars requires time, deeds require time even after they are done, before they can be seen
and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than the distant stars - and yet they have done
it themselves."

It has been further related that on that same day the madman entered divers churches and there
sang a requiem. Led out and questioned, he is said to have retorted each time: "what are these
churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?"

What Nietzsche is concerned at in relating the above is that God is dead in the hearts of modern
men - killed by rationalism and science. This same God however, before becoming dead in men's
hearts and minds, had provided the foundation of a "Christian-moral" defining and uniting
approach to life as a shared cultural set of belief fully within which people had lived their lives.

Nietzsche seems to be suggesting that the acceptance of the Death of God will also involve the
ending of accepted standards of morality and of purpose. Without the former and accepted faith
based standards society is threatened by a nihilistic situation where people’s lives are not
particularly constrained by considerations of morality or particularly guided by any faith related
sense of purpose.

References:

• HOMER UND DIE KLASSISCHE PHILOLOGIE, 1869

• DIE DIONYSISCHE WELTANSCHAUUNG, 1870 - suom. Aarni Kouta, 1909
• SOKRATES UND DIE TRAGÖDIE, 1870
• DIE GEBURT DER TRAGÖDIE AUS DEM GEIST DER MUSIK, 1872 - The Birth of
Tragedy
• DIE PHILOSOPHIE IM TRAGISCHEN ZEITALTER DER GRIECHEN, 1873 -
Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks
• UNZEITGEMÄSSE BETRACHTUNGEN, 1873-76 - Unmodern Observations / Untimely
Meditations
• MENSCHLICHES, ALLZUMENSCHLICHES, 1878- Human, All Too Human
• MORGENRÖTHE, GEDANKEN ÜBER DIE MORALISCHEN VORURTEILE, 1881 -
The Dawn of Day / Daybreak
• DIE FRÖCHLICHE WISSENSCHAFT, 1882 - The Gay Science - Iloinen tiede, suom. J.A.
Hollo
• ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA 1883-85 - Thus Spoke Zarathustra - suom. Näin puhui
Zarathustra, suom. Aarni Kouta 1907, tark. Otto Manninen, uusittu suom. edellisestä
laitoksesta v. 1961 J.A. Hollo
• JENSEITS VON GUT UND BÖSE, 1886 - Beyond Good and Evil - suom. Hyvän ja pahan
tuolla puolen, suom. J.A. Hollo
• ZUR GENEALOGIE DER MORAL, 1887 - On Genealogy of Morals - Moraalin
alkuperästä, suom. J.A. Hollo
• DER ANTICHRIST, 1888 - The Antichrist - Antikristus, suom. Aarni Kouta 1908
• DER FALL WAGNER, 1888 - The Case of Wagner
• GÖTZEN-DÄMMERUNG, 1889 - The Twilight of the Idols
• NIETZSCHE CONTRA WAGNER, 1889 - Nietzsche contra Wagner
• GEDICHTE UND SPRÜCHE, 1898
• DER WILLE ZUR MACHT, 1901 - The Will to Power
• GESAMMELTE BRIEFE, 1902-09
• WERKE, 1894-1904
• ECCE HOMO, 1908 - Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is
• BRIEFE AN PETER GAST, 1908
• BRIEFE AN MUTTER UND SCHWESTER, 1909
• FRIENDRICH NIETZSCHES GESAMMELTE BRIEFE, 1900-09 (5 vols.)
• BRIEFE AND MUTTER UND SCHWESTER, 1909
• The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche, 1909-13 (18 vols.)
• BRIEFWECHSEL MIT FRANZ OVERBECK, 1916
• Selected Leters of Friedrich Nietzsche, 1921
• GESAMMELTE WERKE, 1920-29 (23 vols.)
• LEIDER FÜR EINE SINGSTIMME MIT KLAVIERBEGLEITUNG, vol. I of
MUSIKALISCHE WERKE VON FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, 1924
• WERKE UND BRIEFE, 1933-42 (9 vols.)
• SOKRATES UND DIE GRIECHISCHE TRAGÖDIE, 1933
• The Philosophy of Nietzsche, 1937
• WERKE IN DREI BÄNDEN, 1954-56 (3 vols.)