Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

(1844-1900)
 Early Life
 Born October 15, 1844
 1849 father dies

 1864 goes to Bonn University to

study theology and philology
(classics and ancient languages)
 1865 transfers to Leipzig University
to study philology
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
 emphasized the
centrality of the
will/desire in
understanding the
world (most
importantly
humanity)
 Philosophical
pessimism
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
 Met in 1868
 Became a father
figure for Nietzsche
 Nietzsche saw him as
the reincarnation of
Greek tragedy
 Heavily influenced
Nietzsche’s
understanding of art
 Broke with Wagner
due to anti-Semitism
and Parsifal
 Scholarly Career
 Offered the Chair of the Department
of Philology at Basel University in
1869 before completing his doctoral
work
 Gave popular lectures on Homer,
Greek Tragedy and Pre-Socratic
philosophy
 “On Truth and Lie in Their
Nonmoral Sense”
1870
 First began to question the notion of
eternal truth
 Defined ‘truth’ as “errors whose
origin has been forgotten”
 Left unpublished at the time of his
death
 The Birth of Tragedy
1872
 Originally dedicated to Wagner;
removed in the 2nd edition
 Focused on Greek theater (especially
drama) and music
 Saw these as the Greeks’ way of
overcoming pessimism
 Distinguished between Apollonian
and Dionysian lives—sought a
reconciliation of them
The Apollonian
 Apollo was charioteer
of the sun and the god
of reason
 The Delphic Oracle, an
oracle of Apollo,
inspired the mission of
Socrates
 Represents life as a
problem that must be
solved through reason
and principle
 Who is Apollinian?
 Music and Art: Johann Sebastian
Bach, Jacques-Louis David, Richard
Collier, Duke Ellington, George
Gershwin, Josh Groban
 Religion and Philosophy: Moses,
Tsadok, Confucius, Plato, Rene
Descartes, Immanuel Kant
 Fictional: Captain America, Darth
Vader, Doctor Doom, Sherlock
Holmes, Superman, Yoda
The Dionysian
 Dionysus (Roman:
Bacchus) was god of
wine
 His dismemberment
by the gods was
recreated in traditional
bacchanalia
 Represents passion
and the overcoming of
pessimism through
celebration
 Who is Dionysian?
 Music and Art: Heironymous Bosch,
James Ensor, Jim Morrison, Little
Richard, Elvis Presley
 Religion and Philosophy: Carvaka,
Ezekiel, John the Baptist, Friedrich
Nietzsche
 Fictional: Barbarella, Krishna, Han
Solo, Spider-Man
 Human, All-Too-Human
1878-1880
 Nietzsche’s first approach to
understanding human psychology
 One of the earliest developments of depth
psychology
 Developed several ideas crucial to
Freudian psychoanalysis, including
repression, sublimation and projection
 Critically influential on his later work on
religion and morality
 Health Problems
 Visited a brothel in his college days, where he
contracted syphilis
 Long list of physical ailments, including
gastrointestinal problems, migraines and vision
problems
 Retired due to his condition in 1879
 Spent summers in cooler climates (primarily Sils-
Maria, Switzerland) and winters in warmer
climates (primarily Turin, Italy)
 Tertiary effects eventually led to his breakdown
from dementia in 1889
 Spent last 11 years of his life as an invalid
 Daybreak
1881
 First initiated his evaluation of moral
ideals
 Insisted in looking for the
motivations that led to certain moral
concepts and ideals—genealogical
method
 First contrasted ‘morality’ with ‘life’,
insisting that morality as we know it
is hostile to worldly life
 The Gay Science
1882 (part 5: 1885)
 Firstproclaimed the death of God
 Completes his break with
Schopenhauer’s pessimism and
begins constructing his positive
philosophy
 Begins his full-scale assault on the
ideas of eternal truth and ethics
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
1883 (part 4: 1887)
 Inspired by the historical
Zoroaster (c.628-551
BCE); written in scriptural
style
 Proclaims the coming of
Nietzsche’s higher man,
the Übermensch
 Introduces the idea of the
Eternal Recurrence of the
Same (first mentioned in
The Gay Science)
 Aims at the overcoming of
pessimism through
celebration of life
 Beyond Good and Evil
1886
 One of Nietzsche’s best-known and
widely read works, inaugurated a
period of incredible productivity
 Explicitly connected morality and
religion to hatred of life
 Advocated a return to ancient
systems of ethics that focuses on
character
 Advocated an ethics of nobility
 The Genealogy of Morals
1887
 Nietzsche’s most “traditional”
philosophical writing
 Sought to locate the origin of
morality in ressentiment
 Exposed the negative psychological
motivations behind pity, guilt,
responsibility and punishment
 Twilight of the Idols
The Antichrist
1888
 Nietzsche’s grand declaration of war
against Christianity and morality
 Twilight focuses on the origin of
philosophy’s errors in Socrates
 The Antichrist focuses on Paul as the
initiator of Christianity’s denial of life
 Treats Paul as a perversion of Jesus’
teachings as a result of his commitment to
the philosophy of Plato
 Ecce Homo
1888, published 1908
 Retrospective on his own work
 Outlines his approach to philosophy

 Intended to prevent both misuse of

his work and blind obedience to his
philosophy
 Success and Destruction
 First public lectures were given on
Nietzsche’s philosophy in 1888, leading to
a sudden interest in his works
 Nietzsche’s long-time friend Lou Salomé
publishes the first book on Nietzsche’s
philosophy in 1894
 Suffered mental breakdown in early 1889

 Died August 25, 1900

Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche
1846-1935
 Had control of Nietzsche’s
literary estate
 Estranged from her brother
because of her husband
Bernhard Förster, an early
member of the Nazi party
 Founded the Nietzsche
Archives in 1894, to which
she alone granted access
 Used Nietzsche’s writings
to support Hitler and
National Socialism
 Published My Sister and I,
a fraudulent work of
Nietzsche’s proclaiming her
to be his sole interpreter
 The Will to Power
1901
 Edited by Nietzsche’s sister
 Made up of notebook entries from a
10-year period ordered thematically
 Presented as Nietzsche’s
uncompleted masterwork
 Exposed for what it really is by
Walter Kaufmann
 Nietzsche Rehabilitated
 1950 publication of Walter Kaufmann’s
Nietzsche rescues Nietzsche from
traditional Nazifications of his thought
 1952 Walter Kaufmann exposes My Sister
and I as a fraud
 1965 Arthur Danto’s Nietzsche and
Philosophy sufficiently “normalizes”
Nietzsche to make his work studied in the
English-speaking world