Nietzsche 18441900

1
Nietzsche (1844-1900)

• I Life
• II Gay Science
• III Evaluation

2
Life

• 1864 Bonn University
• 1869 professor in Basle
• 1872 Birth of Tragedy
• 1879 resigns position
• 1882 Lou Salomé
• 1882-88 itinerant writer (Sils Maria / Genova)

Whether I kissed Nietzsche on the Monte Sacro -
I dont know any more.
3
WORKS 1882-88

• 1882 Gay Science
• 1883-85 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
• 1886 Beyond Good and Evil
• 1887 Genealogy of Morals
• 1888
• The Anti-Christ
• Ecce Homo
• Twilight of the Idols
• The Case of Wagner
• Nietzsche contra Wagner
• The Will to Power

4
Stefan Zweig on Nietzsche

• "... the small, narrow, modest, coldly furnished
  chambre garnie, where innumerable notes, pages,
  writings, and proofs are piled up on the table...
  Back in a corner, a heavy and graceless wooden
  trunk, his only possession, with the two shirts
  and the other worn suit... on a tray innumerable
  bottles and jars and potions against the
  migraines, which often render him all but
  senseless for hours, against his stomach cramps,
  against spasmodic vomiting, against the slothful
  intestines, and above all the dreadful sedatives
  against his insomnia, chloral hydrate and
  Veronal. A frightful arsenal of poisons and
  drugs, yet the only helpers in the empty silence
  of this strange room in which he never rests
  except in brief and artificially conquered sleep.
  Wrapped in his overcoat and a woolen scarf (for
  the wretched stove smokes only and does not give
  warmth), his fingers freezing, his double glasses
  pressed close to the paper, his hurried hand
  writes for hours -- words the dim eyes can hardly
  decipher. For hours he sits like this and writes
  until his eyes burn."

5
1889-1900 a certain cheerfulness leads to
fatality

• January 1889 collapse
• On the pedestal in Weimar
• Works edited by sister
• Nazi-philosopher?
• Critical scholarship only after 1945
• Postmodern icon

some were born posthumously
Nazi-philosopher Ernst Krieck All things told
Nietzsche was opposed to socialism, he was
opposed to nationalism, and he was opposed to
the idea of race. Other than that, he might have
made for an excellent Nazi.
6
The Gay Science Philosophy

• (4) the strongest and most evil spirits have so
  far done the most to advance humanity
• (109) in all eternity chaos
• (125) god is dead
• (283) live dangerously
• (341) eternal recurrence
• (344) truth and deception

7
The Gay Science Politics

• (40) socialism
• (42) if only it pays well
• (116) herd instinct
• (174) parliamentarism
• (377) not by any means liberal

8
III Critical Evaluation

• chaos uncertainty
• masters and slaves
• void of social analysis

logic is unbearable like wasps
If you want slaves, then it is stupid to train
them to be masters
workers are doing far too well