He diagnosed nihilism as a latent presence within the very foundations of European culture and saw it as a necessary and approaching destiny. Nietzsche saw nihilism as the outcome of repeated frustrations in the search for the meaning of religion. While Nietzsche is often associated in the public mind with fatalism and nihilism, Nietzsche himself viewed his project as the attempt to overcome the pessimism of Arthur Schopenhauer. His later works involved a sustained attack on Christianity and Christian morality, and he seemed to be working toward what he called the transvaluation of all values ( Umwertung aller Werte). Other concepts appear rarely, or are confined to one or two major works, yet are considered centerpieces of Nietzschean philosophy, such as the Übermensch and the thought of eternal recurrence. Other major currents include the will to power, the claim that God is dead, the distinction between master and slave moralities, and radical perspectivism. His earliest work emphasized the opposition of Apollonian and Dionysian impulses in art, and the figure of Dionysus continued to play a role in his subsequent thought. Added to this challenge is the fact that Nietzsche did not seem concerned to develop his thought into a system, even going so far as to disparage the attempt in Beyond Good and Evil.Ĭommon themes in his thought can, however, be identified and discussed. Nietzsche noted in his autobiographical Ecce Homo that his philosophy developed and evolved over time, so interpreters have found it difficult to relate concepts central to one work to those central to another, for example, the thought of the eternal recurrence features heavily in Also sprach Zarathustra ( Thus Spoke Zarathustra), but is almost entirely absent from his next book, Beyond Good and Evil. Because of Nietzsche's evocative style and his often outrageous claims, his philosophy generates passionate reactions running from love to disgust. Nietzsche applied himself to such topics as morality, religion, epistemology, poetry, ontology, and social criticism. Since the dawn of the 20th century, the philosophy of Nietzsche has had great intellectual and political influence around the world. 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. Hollingdale worked in the editorial department of the Guardian for over twenty years and has written book reviews for the Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement.The cover for the first part of the first edition of Thus Spoke Zarathustra.įriedrich Nietzsche developed his philosophy during the late 19th century. Hollingdale has translated and edited several of Nietzsche's texts, as well as other prestigious German thinkers. This is the ideal book for anyone interested in Nietzsche's life and work who wishes to learn why he is such a significant figure for the development of modern thought. Hollingdale, one of the preeminent translators of Nietzsche, allows Nietzsche to speak for himself in a translation that transmits the vividness and virtuosity of Nietzsche's many styles. The final part of the book considers the development of the Nietzsche legend during his years of madness. It follows the years of his maturity and his mental collapse in 1889. The biography chronicles Nietzsche's intellectual evolution and discusses his friendship and breach with Wagner, his attitude toward Schopenhauer, and his indebtedness to Darwin and the Greeks. Long out of print, it is now reissued with its text updated in the light of recent research. This classic biography of Nietzsche was first published in the 1960s and was enthusiastically reviewed at the time. Hollingdale's biography remains the single best account of the life and works for the student or nonspecialist.
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