Continental philosophy - Continental philosophy - Nietzsche: As a youthful disciple of Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was influenced by the older philosopher’s critique of reason and by his suggestion that art, as an expression of genius, afforded a glimpse of being-in-itself. Nietzsche wastes no time by starting with some strong words against the ancient philosophers and religions. “Today we possess science precisely to the extent to which we have decided to accept the testimony of the senses” (481). To quote Nietzsche out of context, he “flows out, he overflows, he uses himself up, he does not spare himself” (548). He owed the awakening of his philosophical interest to reading Arthur Schopenhauer's Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (The World as Will and Representation, 1819, revised 1844) and said that Schopenhauer was one of the few thinkers that he respected, dedicating to him his essay Schopenhauer als Erzieher (Schopenhauer as Educator), published in 1874 as one of his Untimely Meditations. Haussmann and included in the indispensable Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche … Lesson Summary. [1] Why the fury? Ed. The Will to power at the heart of Nietzsche’s Philosophy. Elaborating the concept in T.. Equality. After much deliberation, it appears that the way forward is, in some ironic sense, to look backward. He is the subject, the verb, and the object. One can hardly tell that he is less than a year away from insanity, which will take hold in January of 1889 and continue until his death in 1900. The focus is narrowed and in the eighth section Nietzsche turns to expound upon “What the Germans Lack.” In some sense the Germans lack their own spirit, which has become “cruder” and “shallower.” This, however, is not without explanation: “This people has deliberately made itself stupid” (507). Nietzsche’ s investigations into the problem of the birth (Geburt) or origin (Herkunft) of concepts — the problem of genealogy — did not begin with On the Genealogy of Morals (1887).Nietzsche had always sought to understand the genesis of cultural facts. On one hand, this is shocking. He wrote with “letters to make even the blind see.” As he hated the first day of Christianity, so he dreamed of seeing its last. New York: Penguin Books, 1982. It causes the reader to sit up straight. Evolutionary theory suggests that it’s nothing more than survival and genetic endurance. What they do think is that reason can’t get to the core of what it is to be human, to be anxious, to suffer, to contemplate our deaths, to understand the meaning of life, etc. His name alone is a sentence. Nietzsche's Concept of the Will to Power Hulton Deutsch / Getty Images The “will to power” is a central concept in the philosophy of 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. However, existentialism’s critique of western philosophy doesn’t come from that angle. Passion and instinct has been smothered. A man who does not only stand, but also towers above his peers, he is thought to be without match. Another philosophy of Nietzsche was related to … Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006. For Nietzsche we act like other animals, primarily by our instincts. After all, it is water, not waves that quench the thirst. In an attempt to do away with the body, the senses, the instincts, they have brought about the “decline of life” (484). Will to pleasure, which is inspired by the beliefs of Sigmund Freud. What did he say, what did he do, that continues to evoke such acclaim even a century after his death? To start, he offered the most forceful attack upon the Christian faith to emerge from the 19th ce… Nietzsche, as a mid-19th-century German philosopher, first declared God dead in the context of this idealism. In european individualist anarchist circles his influence might have been stronger. Dionysius no longer dances amidst the tragedy. On two accounts they are seen to be against life: they seek to “tame” it, and they seek to “breed” it (though the second is not nearly as bad as the first). Nietzsche)and)Plato)! It is only honest for him to ask, and it seems that more of us should be asking this question along with him. Nietzsche's work remains some of the most controversial and discussed philosophy of the 19th century. Highly recommended. To hear human life construed in such indifferent terms is chilling. “We deny God, we deny the responsibility in God: only thereby do we redeem the world” (501). The will to power is the title of an unfinished work, begun to 1883, which was intended to reflect on the transmutation of values. According to Nietzsche, the idea of God was created to help people handle widespread and seemingly senseless suffering. Nietzsche opposed the optimistic attachment to reason in both Kant and Hegel. The man is not a Nietzschean beast-god, but the true God-man, Christ Jesus, the eternal Word, who never rings hollow and silences all hammers. He does on a large scale what we can only hope to do on a small scale here. Within the span of 12 months he penned no less than four of his major works. The “idols,” featured in the main title, are to be “touched with a hammer as with a tuning fork.” The idols in view are “eternal idols…those in which people have the most faith” (466). [5] Though he does not return to this metaphor throughout the work, it may serve as an adequate hermeneutical framework for reading TI. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis … Maybe you didn’t hear, but God is dead. God is dead 2. Though we dare not hope to comprehensively understand Nietzsche, let alone explain him, we choose to ignore him at our own peril. Two policemen approached him after he caused a public disturbance in the streets of Turin. Friedrich Nietzsche’s Twilight of the Idols, or How to Philosophize with a Hammer (Götzendammerung, oder: Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophirt, 1889) is a statement of many important aspects of his philosophy.The book’s title is a satirical reference to the title of Wagner’s opera, Twilight of the Gods (Götterdammerung). 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