KNTV PHILOSOPHY

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

BACKGROUND

Before the onset of his madness, Nietzsche produced a string of influential books. It is hard to pin down an over-arching philosophical theory from these, but the same themes recur: rejection of Christianity and the church, the death of God, hatred of democracy, focus on the superman ('Übermensch') who could create his own laws, and the emphasis on developing power to the very best of the individual's abilities. Nietzsche's reputation was damaged when the Nazis adopted his ideas, even though he did not believe in racial supremacy. He is now seen as an extraordinary yet important influence on many branches of modern philosophy, including existentialism and psychoanalysis.

Influences

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

The German philosopher harboured a negative and pessimistic philosophy and was himself distrustful, misogynistic and argumentative throughout his unhappy life. For Schopenhauer, the will to live, or the driving force of humanity to survive and reproduce, was what steered people's existences even if they weren't aware of it. He thought that pleasure was merely the absence of pain.

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

Famous for his monumental four-opera Ring cycle, the German composer transformed the face of opera. His followers were devoted to him and in the early 1870s Nietzsche was part of his closest circle of friends. There was a rift when Nietzsche was dismissive of the way Wagner's operas were staged at Bayreuth. Wagner's music has tended to provoke extreme reactions of either delight or hostility. He was interested in the idea of a superior people, and it was this that attracted Adolf Hitler to his work, which fitted in with the German Führer's ideal of a supreme heroic race.

Timeline

1844 Friedrich Nietzsche is born on 15 October in a village in Prussia.

1849 His father dies, and Nietzsche and his sister are raised by their mother.

1858 Friedrich wins a scholarship to school.

1864 Nietzsche enters Bonn University, where he is a brilliant classical student.

1865 He transfers to Leipzig University, where he continues to shine.

1868 Nietzsche becomes friends with Richard Wagner.

1869 He receives his doctorate, and moves to Basel, Switzerland, as Professor of Philology. Nietzsche renounces Prussian citizenship.

1870 The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war. Nietzsche volunteers for the army but is invalided out. He sees the first performance of Wagner's Siegfried Idyll.

1872 He publishes The Birth of Tragedy.

1873/4 More publications follow. He falls out with Wagner.

1875/6 Nietzsche has extended leave from university due to ill health.

1877 He returns to teaching.

1879 He retires from teaching with a pension.

1883 Nietzsche publishes Thus Spake Zarathustra, his best known book.

1886-1888 More publications follow.

1889 He collapses in Turin and is hospitalised.

1890 onwards Nietzsche is cared for first by his mother, then by his sister Elisabeth. He never regains his sanity.

1900 Friedrich Nietzsche dies on 25 August. His sister, whose husband was anti-semitic, publishes some of Neitzsche's works after his death, but she is thought to have forged some parts and suppressed others to fit her own ideas.