Product Description

Represents a selection from Nietzche's notebooks to find out what he wrote on nihilism, art, morality, religion, and the theory of knowledge, among others.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33489 in Books
• Published on: 1968-08-12
• Released on: 1968-08-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

Language Notes
Text: English, German (translation)

From the Inside Flap
Represents a selection from Nietzche's notebooks to find out what he wrote on nihilism, art, morality, religion, and the theory of knowledge, among others.

Customer Reviews

A Philosopher of the Past or of the Future?
Commanding the earth and Ruling Religion: Nietzsche's Dionysian Apocalypse of Man

Nietzsche's classic work, unfinished and unpublished when he collapsed into insanity, is the most controversial of his works. Some avoid using it as the basis of their Nietzsche studies because they cannot be sure if these thoughts are genuinely Niietzsch's, a question that is largely a question of the way Nietzsche's legacy was handled by his sister. However, some who have interpreted Nietzsche, most notably Heidegger, tend to emphasize this work above his other works, especially with respect to clarifying the question of Nietzsche's thought and its relationship to metaphysics. I sympathize with this approach to Nietzsche, for Heidegger was a philosopher interpreting a philosopher, and his judgement can, perhaps, be considered valuable for that reason, but not for that reason alone: I think Heidegger reads Nietzsche in a way that allows him to best see how the various parts of Nietzsche's philosophy can be conjoined so as to facilitate its proper interpretation: the will-to-power has a central relationship, Heidegger asserts, to all of the other parts of Nietzsche's thought, so he tends to read Nietszsche to some degree as a systematic thinker, which in another sense, cannot be further from the truth: Heidegger and Nietzsche both seek to do justice to the complexities or oversimplicities of modernity, but they also seek to found a discourse that is faithful to the almost infinite perspectives that are existentially possible.

Caveat--The Will To Power: incomplete goldmine
HAH, Mixed Opinions and Maxims
137. The worst readers.- The worst readers are those who proceed like plundering soldiers: they pick up a few things they can use, soil and confuse the rest, and blaspheme the whole.

157. Sharpest criticism.-- One criticizes a person, a book most sharply when one picture their ideal.

Here I'll say there's an enormous difference between a sword and a pen. Too many reviews here say nothing, and if they do, it is with a sword inveighing against straw men. So, to clear the air, I quote from the Gay Science:

130. Incense.-- Buddha said: "Do not flatter your benefactor." This saying should be repeated in every Christian Church--right away it clears the air of everything Christian.

273. Whom do you call bad?-- Those who always want to put to shame.
274. What do you consider human?-- To spare someone shame.


Again, this should not be your introduction to Nietzsche. It is a tedious and poorly constructed compilation of unpublished notes from the Nachlass. Nonetheless it's some of the only material from it that is available in English with extensive notes. That said, the best introduction to the man's thought is found in The Gay Science and Daybreak.

[aside-Snob: ORIGIN late 18th cent.(originally dialect in the sense [cobbler] ): of unknown origin; early senses conveyed a notion of `lower status or rank,' later denoting a person seeking to imitate those of superior social standing or wealth. Folk etymology connects the word with Latin sine nobilitate `WITHOUT NOBILITY' but the earliest recorded sense has no connection with this.]

Nietzsche's philosophy centers on the ideas of nobility, dignity, integrity, achieving the means to future goals and expanding one's horizons to its furthest limit in order to find what is sought and claim what is one's own. If you are fanatic about 'equality' and 'justice' or are compelled to things via independence of thought by association ("I am not your crutch" TSZ) you had best stay away from this man, whose model is the "Roman Caesar with Christ's soul" and "Dionysos against the Crucified." Five stars for content, -1 for Form.

The Greatest Book Of One Of The Greatest Minds
This is the literary equivelent to a posthumous release of demos from a great musician. Nietzsche will always be a source of inspiration to the people who reserve the right to form their own opinions. I think what endears him to people such as myself is his ability to trim the fat off the obvious and serve up only the best and most essential for our intellectual consumption. The first time I read this book I had felt a great deal of relief that the general essence and inspiration found in many of Nietzsche's books could be crystalized in so perfect a tome of mental clarity as well as personal strength. This is a book made to make men stronger and should be read for pleasure as well as self improvement.