1. Nietzsche: The Canary in the Coal Mine

2. Nietzsche: Life and Influences Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) Some early influences: Lutheranism Friedrich Ritschl. Schopenhauer. Wagner. Source: Flickr user Escolanomade

3. Nietzsche on… Utilitarianism: “People don’t strive for happiness, only the English do.” Christianity: “There was really only one Christian, and he died on the cross.” Nietzsche’s aphoristic style is meant to be shocking. To calmly weigh his claims as academic theses would be to fail to recognize how radical those claims are. Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, trans. Judith Norman (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 157. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist, trans. Judith Norman (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 35.

4. Key Concepts: The Death of God “God is dead; but given the way people are, there may still for millennia be caves in which they show his shadow. – And we – we must still defeat his shadow as well!” Nietzsche is not claiming that there was once a supernatural creator of the universe who has died. What has died is the idea of God. He thinks it is no longer plausible to believe in such a creator. The challenge is to recognize and reject the many ways in which we still see the world as if there were a God – to defeat God’s shadow. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, trans. Josefine Nauckhoff (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), §108.

5. Key Concepts: The Last Man “Beware! The time of the most contemptible human is coming, the one who can no longer have contempt for himself. Behold! I show you the last human being. ‘What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star? – thus asks the last human being, blinking. Then the earth has become small, and on it hops the last human being who makes everything small. His kind is ineradicable, like the flea beetle, the last human being lives longest.” Learning to live without God does not automatically lead to improvement. Nietzsche is worried that in the absence of religious belief most people are losing the aspiration for anything beyond a comfortable life. Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, trans. Adrian Del Caro (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 9-10.

6. Key Concept: The Übermensch Beethoven is not an Übermensch, but he comes closest to Nietzsche’s ideal. Other figures who Nietzsche particularly admired include Heinrich Heine, Shakespeare, and Goethe. Source: Flickr user Immugmania