Thoughts and Work of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche

To a great extent, phenomenologist, existentialist, poststructuralist and postmodern thinkers are recognized as debtors of the philosopher, philologist, and German poet. A characteristic accentuated not only by the clarity of his statements and his break with all conventionalism, but also by the unusual autobiographical nature of his work, and the controversial circumstances of the misrepresentation of his ideas.

First, famous in the Germany of the beginning of the century, then condemned after being monopolized indiscriminately by the Nazi regime and, finally, in the late 50s, rehabilitated by Italian and French revolutionary thinkers.

His thought fits perfectly in the context of the crisis of the ideals of progress and enlightened rationality. His philosophy coincides with the death of the classical philosophical systems, as well as the loss of power of the Christian religion and the proliferation of scientism.

Among aphorisms, allusions to the texts of the great religions and allegories, Nietzsche transits from his initial philological work of study and interpretation of classical Greek antiquity to a genealogical work that seeks to unveil the roots of Western thought and its consequences in the nineteenth century.

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.

― Friedrich Nietzsche

Life of Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born in Röcken, Prussia, on October 15, 1844. Son of a Protestant pastor, he was orphaned at a young age. He was educated under the tutelage of his mother and sister. Consequently, the controversy over religion, as well as his relationship with women will mark his work for life.

He developed his university education in Classical Philology between the Universities of Bonn and Leipzig. The brilliance of the young Nietzsche gave him the possibility to occupy the position of Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel, where he develops almost all his academic work. The University of Leipzig, for its part, awarded him the degree of Doctor for his publications.

Years later, his precarious health would take him to leave the academy and start an extended journey through southern Europe, a period in which most of his works appear. With the final breakdown of his health, he will spend the last ten years of life in nursing homes.

It is at this moment that his work, initially a focus of strong polemics and adverse reactions in the academic sphere, and little known beyond its walls, begins to be widely disseminated and famed even in the large non-specialized public. Nietzsche would only know about the success of his theories at the end of the 80s when his works were studied at the University of Copenhagen.

He died on August 25, 1900, in Weimar.

The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.

― Friedrich Nietzsche

Works by Friedrich Nietzsche

Some of his books are recognized today as classics. His extensive bibliography has been the object of several classifications according to the scope of his thought. In a synthetic way his interests move from a metaphysical call in which his works are marked by the influence of Schopenhauer and Wagner, going through a controversial approach to the enlightened scientific ideal, until leading to the consolidation of his theory, erected in neologisms that, without stopping taking from their previous speculations, express an original proposal.

Between its works we should emphasize The Birth of Tragedy (1872), Human, All Too Human (1878), The Joyous Science (1882), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-1892), On the Genealogy of Morals (1887) and the posthumous Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One is (1908).

The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche

In Nietzsche, philosophy ceases to be an intellectual acquisition and becomes a vision according to which man must live. Philosophy constructs our existence, which is, according to the German thinker, its original principle, a principle that we can recognize in the balance between life and logos.

In this sense, one can explain his remarkable theses, in particular, the enigmatic project of overcoming the nihilism, that is the Nietzschean superman.

The Overcoming of Nihilism and the Superman

According to his vision, modernity in the late nineteenth century has asserted its revolutionary project, but the man who assumes and lives it does not succeed. He has not evolved and remains a dependent being. The aspirations of rule the universe should take him to assume the responsibility of his existence, where life does not need external justification to it, where it is valuable per se. Nevertheless, man continues clinging to exogenous discourses.

Modern man, because of his cowardice, has decided to change his grip. As a prisoner of his fear he has changed the ecclesiastical institution for the scientific one, and the theological and metaphysical discourse for the scientific one. Nietzsche called that man the last man.

The last man is the “but” of everything and everyone as he seeks the meaning of existence in truth. He values himself, elevates himself. Its counterpart is the superman, a Nietzschean project of overcoming nihilism that designates a type of optimal constitution in contrast to modern men, one that assumes life as it is and it appreciates everything and in everything is recognized without refusing or repressing.

He is the one who overcomes the anguish of finitude, who takes possession of life with a Dionysian sense and transcends the principium individuationis, who claims transmutation and creates his own values from his life experience, but, above all, he is the man who assumes the eternal return.

What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal  

– Friedrich Nietzsche

The Eternal Return

The eternal return is far from reproducing the doctrine of the ancient thinkers. This controversial notion, sometimes understood from metaphysics, is projected more from an ethical dimension. It is better expressed as the assimilation of fundamental errors and passions, the immense importance of our knowledge, of our erring, of our habits and ways of living of everything to come.

That immanent sense of morality that demands to do what is desired, but accepting the consequences of our actions leads Max Scheler to affirm that Nietzsche’s atheism was the atheism of seriousness and responsibility.

What is essential in Nietzsche’s exposition is that with him we cannot find a God, metaphysics or science as a scapegoat for individual responsibility that ends up justifying and legitimizing our existence.