Friedrich Nietzsche ( )

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 ( )  emphasized the centrality of the will/desire in understanding the world (most importantly humanity)  Philosophical pessimism

Richard Wagner ( )  Met in 1868  Became a father figure for Nietzsche  Nietzsche saw him as the reincarnation of Greek tragedy  Broke with Wagner due to anti-Semitism and Parsifal

Scholarly Career  Offered the Chair of the Department of Philology at Basle 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began to question the notion of eternal truth  Defined ‘truth’ as “errors whose origin has been forgotten”  Left unpublished at the time of his death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 2 nd 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

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

Human, All-Too-Human  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  First proclaimed 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 human nature

Thus Spoke Zarathustra  Inspired by the historical Zoroaster (c 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  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