Ask friedrich nietzsche biography summary

Introduction

Friedrich Nietzsche was an influential modern philosopher who is remembered for his categorical disparagements of traditional European morality and religion, conservative philosophical ideas, contemporary culture, and political ideologies connected to modernity. Unlike his contemporaries, Nietzsche had a brief career. However, his writings played a significant role in influencing numerous thinkers and writers of the 20th century. His publications are significant to this day, and he is often cited as one of the most influential philosophers of the 19th century.

Biography

Nietzsche was born in a small village called Rocken, Germany on October 15, 1884 to Carl Ludwig Nietzsche and Franziska. His father, a Lutheran minister, died when he was 4 years old, after which his family relocated to Naumburg. He was raised by his mother, together with his younger sister called Elisabeth (Anderson). Nietzsche attended two schools during his childhood: a private preparatory school and Schulpforta school. He graduated in 1864 and attended the University of Bonn, later transferring to the University of Leipzig. Nietzsche named Arthur Schopenhauer as one of his major influences. He started writing while working as a professor of classical philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. During that time, he began to desert his earlier ideologies that were based on the writings of Schopenhauer, instead of developing an interest in the development of modern civilization (Anderson). For the larger part of the 1880s, Nietzsche live in seclusion and published several literary works. For example, one of his most popular works, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” was published during that period (Anderson). Other works, including “Beyond Good and Evil,” “Twilight of the Idols,” and “The Genealogy of Morals” were p

German philosopher (1844–1900)

"Nietzsche" redirects here. For other uses, see Nietzsche (disambiguation).

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philologist, philosopher, poet, cultural critic and composer who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. He began his career as a classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche became the youngest professor to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel. Regarded as one of most influential intellectuals of modern history, Nietzsche’s works and views have earned him enduring influence and admiration. Having had health problems that plagued him most of his life, he resigned from university in 1879, after which he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, aged 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years under care of his family until his death, in 1900.

Nietzsche's work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth in favour of perspectivism; a genealogicalcritique of religion and Christian morality and a related theory of master–slave morality; the aestheticaffirmation of life in response to both the "death of God" and the profound crisis of nihilism; the notion of Apollonian and Dionysian forces; and a characterisation of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power. He also developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and his doctrine of eternal return. In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in

Books

Eva Cybulska is in two minds over a new Nietzsche biography.

Having read and enjoyed Julian Young’s other publications on Friedrich Nietzsche, I was looking forward to this biography. The author, who is anything but a puffed-up academic, has impressed me with his incisive, provocative and elegant writing. He also seems to have a gift for sleuth-work. Yet although I regard this book as a highly worthwhile read, for me it is tinged with some disappointments.

The book’s structure revolves round a discussion of Nietzsche’s life and writings and their mutual influence. Young’s arguments are persuasive, yet leave enough space for the reader to form his/her own interpretation. This is a welcome improvement on Hollingdale’s version from 1965, full of orthodox certainties. Hayman’s biography of 1980 is balanced and engaging, but misses in the philosophical dimension. After all, Hayman is not a philosopher and he knows his limits. Kaufmann’s classic Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (1950) is surprisingly absent from the bibliography, as are Elsner’s and Safranski’s books (1992 and 2002) – both with titles identical to Young’s (eternal return?)

An important asset of Young’s philosophical biography is that it portrays both Nietzsche the philosopher and Nietzsche the man amidst the backdrop of historical, political and cultural events, including the Franco-Prussian war, Bismarck’s rise to power, the ascent of the sciences, and the growing fame of his friend Richard Wagner.

Young traces Nietzsche’s ‘philosophy of religion’ to his pious