Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) has born as a philologist and not as a philosopher, even though his innovating way of thinking, influenced remarkably the view on the meaning of life within the whole modern Europe.
It is considered one of those great minds, as Marx and Freud, which have been able to create a new ideology to rely on, to create a new perspective both socially and psychologically, to give human kind a chance to open to the true consciousness, to revaluate the ethics of life and the true moral values.
Nietzsche represents the philosophy of symbolism and metaphor, sometimes more clear and detailed, some other times more fragmentary and poetic.
In order to progress within the psychological asset of the world’s big picture, Nietzsche relies on ‘historical philosophizing’ which he considered as the first attempt to draw the consequences of human history intellectual epochs; his main works focus on the political and social situation in Europe, particularly within Germany during the 19th century, which according to the philosopher, expresses the psychological realm of human beings, during his epoch.
To truly understand the aim of his philosophy, it is necessary to explore the meaning of one of his most famous claims, namely the Death of God, still widely discussed.
At first, it is very interesting that such a claim derives from a man, Nietzsche, born in a family of Lutheran ministers, someone grown up within a religious setting, who has been studying theology and the others main holy books. In Nietzsche’s case, instead of increasing his faith in religion, his investigative essence played the role of leading to consider himself the first perfect Nihilist. I will come back to this point hereinafter.
Furthermore, it is also i...
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...thics and Nihilism in Reginster’s The Affirmation Of Life.The Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 43 (1), 99-117. Penn State University Press.
Nietzsche, F., (1888, 1895). The Antichrist, trans. Mencken. New York, Alfred Knopf. Available online at URL http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19322/19322-h/19322-h.htm
Nietzsche, F., (1891). Thus Spoke Zarathustra, trans. Common. Available online at URL http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1891nietzsche-zara.asp
Nietzsche, F., (1882, 1887). The Gay Science. Available online at URL http://nietzsche.holtof.com/Nietzsche_the_gay_science/the_gay_science.htm
Samuel, A., (2007). Nietzsche and God (Part I). Richmond Journal of Philosophy, 14.
Stern, J.P., (1980). Guida a Nietzsche. Rizzoli Editore. Milano.
Tubert, A., (2006). Bernard Reginster, The Affirmation of Life: Nietzsche on Overcoming Nihilism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Nietzsche, Friedrich On the Genealogy of Morals contained in: Nietzsche Basic Writings Of Nietzsche translated and edited Walter Kaufman. New York: The Modern Library, 1992.
Madigan, P. The Modern Project to Rigor: Descartes to Nietzsche. Landham: UP of America, 1986.
Fridreich Nietzsche writes in The Gay Science "God is dead....And we have killed him," (99, Existentialist Philosophy) referr...
Madigan, P. The Modern Project to Rigor: Descartes to Nietzsche. Landham: UP of America, 1986.
When Nietzsche claims that God is dead he is not making an empirical claim about God’s existence, nor even merely about the state of belief in his existence. His claim is that the conceptual relationship between God and the ‘Truth’ fundamentally changed with the Enlightenment. Previously ‘Truth’ was understood via its relationship with God; Nietzsche argues that:
Nietzsche begins the essay with a question about fame “Is fame actually nothing but the tastiest morsel of our self-love?” saying how fame is like a moment of illumination “it has been linked to the rarest of men and to their rarest moments. These are moments of sudden illumination” he then goes on using metaphors to describe the “illumination” and man’s relationship with fame. Believing that with fame people feel immortal because culture dictates that anything great will live on forever and the feeling of immortality will have people thinking the world is their’s to own “From now on humanity needs him.” “he believes himself to be immortal as the man of this moment.” Later in the essay he furthers his
Friedrich Nietzsche is a German philosopher who lived in 1844 to 1900, and his proposition on eternal recurrence was one of his most discussed works. The concept states that the world is eternally self – destroying, then self – creating, over time. He radicalizes the Christian concept of eternity and combines it with simple reasoning to come up with an innovative concept. This paper will discuss in detail what eternal recurrence is and the implications of such a concept on free spirits, and whether adopting such a belief will make a person’s life better or not. The paper will then proceed to offer a response to criticism on Nietzsche’s proposition. The text to be used is the second edition of ‘Existentialism: Basic Writings’ by Charles Guignon and Derk Pereboom. This book offers good rudimentary synopsis of the four major proponents of existentialism: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, and Kierkegaard, with excerpts from Husserl and Hegel aimed at giving a better explanation on the origin of existentialism. The author offers a simplified explanation on the various philosophical concepts by the philosophers mentioned above, making it easier to understand than would have been possible if one was reading the original works. The specific area of interest from the book is the area that covers Nietzsche’s Gay Science, as it offers insight on his concept of eternal recurrence.
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale, ed. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Random House, 1967).
Friedrich Nietzsche’s On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense represents a deconstruction of the modern epistemological project. Instead of seeking for truth, he suggests that the ultimate truth is that we have to live without such truth, and without a sense of longing for that truth. This revolutionary work of his is divided into two main sections. The first part deals with the question on what is truth? Here he discusses the implication of language to our acquisition of knowledge. The second part deals with the dual nature of man, i.e. the rational and the intuitive. He establishes that neither rational nor intuitive man is ever successful in their pursuit of knowledge due to our illusion of truth. Therefore, Nietzsche concludes that all we can claim to know are interpretations of truth and not truth itself.
Martin Heidegger (1889 -- 1976) was, and still is considered to be, along with the likes of Soren Kierkegaard, Edmund Husserl and Jean-Paul Sartre, one of the principal exponents of 20th century Existentialism. An extraordinarily original thinker, a critic of technological society and the leading Ontologist of his time, Heidegger's philosophy became a primary influence upon the thoughts of the younger generations of continental European cultural personalities of his time.
The Merriam – Webster Dictionary defines existentialism as a chiefly 20th century philosophical movement embracing diverse doctrines but centering on analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad (Merriam, 2011). In other words, an existentialist believes that our natures are the natures we make for ourselves, the meaning of our existence is that we just exist and there may or may not be a meaning for the existence, and we have to individually decide what is right or wrong and good or bad for ourselves. No one can answer any of those things for us. A good example of existentialism is Woody Allen’s movie, Deconstructing Harry. A man is haunted by his past and his past has followed him into the present. He is a wreck not because of the things that happened to him, but because of the choices he made. He is consumed by regret and insecurity and he tries to find blame in his situation with someone other than himself, however he cannot (Barnes, 2011). Throughout the rest of this paper I will be discussing two of the most prominent existentialists, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche.
On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense, Nietzsche. United States of America: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2001. 1171-1179. Print
Nietzsche believed this to be a form of nihilism because mankind valued precisely what was halting his advancement. With this in mind, Nietzsche began his bold movement towards the revaluation of all values.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. "Human, All Too Human by Friedrich Nietzsche: From the Soul of Artists and Writers." Classic Authors.net / Great Literature Online. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. .
Friedrich Nietzsche, although not one of the “greatest” philosophers in the book, is still very important to the world that we live in today. With the ideas and theories that he was capable of producing in the short amount of time that he was alive is astonishing. He had many ideas that were predominant in the European world, but one of the ideas that was capable to spread more so to the English speaking countries was the idea that “God is dead”. With this idea Nietzsche was capable of challenging peoples mind; showing the population that there is more to you and I than we believe. His idea is simple yet so complex at the same time. You take out one variable, something that many rely on, and you set the world on fire.