Friedrich Nietzche

Central to understanding evil in Nietzsche philosophy was the idea of affirmation of life. Nietzsche was known to question everything. He questioned socially accepted doctrines and was referred to as the first existentialist philosopher. Nietzsche's education and associations with other philosopher's defined his thinking for what later became an understanding of evil in Nietzsche's Philosophy. The basis for Nietzsche philosophy of good and evil can best be explained by Nietzsche's belief that truth is nothing more than the invention of fixed conventions for practical purposes.

Beyond Good and Evil

God Is Dead“I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.” - Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra Zarathustra in Thus Spake Zarathustra is not the Persian founder of Zoroastrianism, he is just a means to Friedrich Nietzsche’s end. Through Zarathustra, Nietzsche tries to define his own philosophy attacking the Christian values of good and evil and predicting the rise of a new man, the superman, a self-mastered, self-cultivating, self-directed and self-overcoming individual.

Thus Spake Zarathustra

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Helen Zimmern

Summary Nietzsche opens with the provocative question, "Supposing truth is a woman-what then?" Then truth would need to be cajoled and flattered, not pursued with the tactless dogmatism of most philosophers. While philosophy must overcome its dogmatic thinking, it has at least provided our culture with the tension to spring forward into something new and better. Nietzsche catalogs a number of the dogmatisms inherent in philosophy, such as the separation of ideas into binary opposites like truth and falsehood; "immediate certainties," like Descartes' certainty that he is thinking; and the idea of free will. Philosophy is interested in giving us insight not into truth but into the minds of the different philosophers. Everything is governed by a will to power, and in philosophy, we see great minds trying to impose their will on the world by persuading others to see the world as they see it. The will to power is the fundamental drive in the universe. Behind truth, thought, and morality lie drives and passions that we try to mask behind a veneer of calm objectivity. What we call truth, for instance, is just the expression of our will to power, where we declare our particular perspective on reality to be objectively and universally true. Ultimately, all reality is best understood in terms of competing wills. Nietzsche praises "free spirits" who struggle to free themselves from the prejudices of others and to question their own assumptions. In particular, they will look beneath the "moral" worldview that examines people's motives and perceive instead the "extra-moral" worldview that examines the unconscious drives that determine our expressed motives.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a philosophical novel by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, composed in four parts. Described by Nietzsche himself as "the deepest ever written," the book is a dense and esoteric treatise on philosophy and morality, featuring as protagonist a fictionalized prophet descending from his mountain retreat to mankind, Zarathustra. Zarathustra has a simple characterisation and plot, narrated sporadically throughout the text. It possesses a unique experimental style, one that is, for instance, evident in newly invented "dithyrambs" narrated or sung by Zarathustra. The book embodies a number of innovative poetical and rhetorical methods of expression. It serves as a parallel and supplement to the various philosophical ideas present in Nietzsche's body of work. He has, however, said that "among my writings my Zarathustra stands to my mind by itself". Emphasizing its centrality and its status as his magnum opus.

Friedrich Nietzche

About

Books

Join the club