Friedrich Nietzsche
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Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (born October 15, 1844 - died August 25, 1900) was a German author and philosopher. He wrote several books that he hoped would change the world. Many people have found his books interesting and acknowledged them as great works of literature and philosophy.
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[change] Beliefs
Nietzsche wrote a lot about how people should live their lives. He attacked most of the moral ideas that were popular at the time because he did not believe that there are any real facts about what is right or wrong. He thought people should create their own facts about morality.
He also often attacked the morality of the Christian religion. He believed that the Christian idea that one should feel pity when one sees weakness was unhelpful. According to him, weak people rely on other people's love as a way of protecting themselves. Nietzsche believed that people should be stronger than that.
He thought that people should be very aware of their body and of the real world in which they actually live. He told his readers not to live in a daydream or make decisions based on unrealistic thoughts.
Nietzsche considered the world to be one connected thing, including mankind and nature. He invented the idea of the "will to power". This idea is that everyone and everything is trying to overcome itself, or defeat or take control from itself. Therefore, if the world is just one thing, this is the force that makes the world.
Nietzsche thought that human beings would be successful at overcoming themselves, and he thought that when they did, they would be different and better. He named the person who would this someday a "superman" (or "übermensch" in German). He thought that the supermen would be stronger than normal humans, and not restricted by other people's ideas of right and wrong.
[change] Ideas
- The Übermensch (Overman)
- The Will to Power
- Apollo & Dionysus
- Master & Slave Morality
- Amor Fati (Love of Fate)
- Eternal Recurrence
[change] Influence
Adolf Hitler, the German Chancellor and leader of the Nazis in World War II, read Nietzsche's work, and it has been suggested that he misinterpreted Nietzsche's ideas to justify his actions.
Nietzsche wrote in a very fiery and exciting way. He was a good writer. However, what he wrote later in his life became more and more odd. When he was forty years old, Nietzsche went insane. Supposedly, one day in the city of Turin, Italy, he saw a horse being whipped by its owner and ran to save it, hugging it around the throat. After this, Nietzsche never wrote again and could not look after himself. This illness may have been caused by the disease syphillis, or a brain tumour.
His writing and ideas are still popular and of interest to academics and intellectuals.
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