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84-427: Callicles and Thrasymachus are two characters of Plato 's dialogues, Gorgias and Republic , respectively, who challenge conventional morality. Aristotle saw many vices as excesses or deficits in relation to some virtue, as cowardice and rashness relate to courage. Some attitudes and actions – such as envy , murder , and theft  – he saw as wrong in themselves, with no question of

168-461: A genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and a related theory of master–slave morality ; the aesthetic affirmation of life in response to both the " death of God " and the profound crisis of nihilism ; the notion of Apollonian and Dionysian forces; and a characterisation of the human subject as the expression of competing wills , collectively understood as the will to power . He also developed influential concepts such as

252-626: A "Germanic" colony. Through correspondence, Nietzsche's relationship with Elisabeth continued through cycles of conflict and reconciliation, but they met again only after his collapse. He continued to have frequent and painful attacks of illness, which made prolonged work impossible. In 1887, Nietzsche wrote the polemic On the Genealogy of Morality . During the same year, he encountered the work of Fyodor Dostoyevsky , to whom he felt an immediate kinship. He also exchanged letters with Hippolyte Taine and Georg Brandes . Brandes, who had started to teach

336-651: A 2a in Greek and Latin; a 2b in French, History, and Physics; and a "lackluster" 3   in Hebrew and Mathematics. Nietzsche was an amateur composer. He composed several works for voice, piano, and violin beginning in 1858 at the Schulpforta in Naumburg when he started to work on musical compositions. Richard Wagner was dismissive of Nietzsche's music, allegedly mocking a birthday gift of

420-596: A book each year until 1888, his last year of writing; that year, he completed five. In 1882, Nietzsche published the first part of The Gay Science . That year he also met Lou Andreas-Salomé , through Malwida von Meysenbug and Paul Rée . Salomé's mother took her to Rome when Salomé was 21. At a literary salon in the city, Salomé became acquainted with Paul Rée . Rée proposed marriage to her, but she, instead, proposed that they should live and study together as "brother and sister", along with another man for company, where they would establish an academic commune. Rée accepted

504-522: A boys' school and then a private school, where he became friends with Gustav Krug and Wilhelm Pinder, all three of whom came from highly respected families. Academic records from one of the schools attended by Nietzsche noted that he excelled in Christian theology . In 1854, he began to attend the Domgymnasium in Naumburg. Because his father had worked for the state (as a pastor) the now-fatherless Nietzsche

588-450: A brain disease in 1849, after a year of excruciating agony, when the boy was only four years old; Ludwig Joseph died six months later at age two. The family then moved to Naumburg , where they lived with Nietzsche's maternal grandmother and his father's two unmarried sisters. After the death of Nietzsche's grandmother in 1856, the family moved into their own house, now Nietzsche-Haus , a museum and Nietzsche study centre. Nietzsche attended

672-505: A chaperone. Salomé reports that he asked her to marry him on three separate occasions and that she refused, though the reliability of her reports of events is questionable. Arriving in Leipzig (Germany) in October, Salomé and Rée separated from Nietzsche after a falling-out between Nietzsche and Salomé, in which Salomé believed that Nietzsche was desperately in love with her. While the three spent

756-413: A character created by Plato for the dialogue. In this vein, it has also been proposed that Callicles may have been devised by Plato as he imagined what kind of intellectual he might have become had he not met with Socrates and undergone his formative philosophical life under the latter's tutelage. He is the antithesis to Socrates . Callicles is depicted as a young student of the sophist Gorgias . In

840-488: A collected edition under the title Untimely Meditations . The essays shared the orientation of a cultural critique, challenging the developing German culture suggested by Schopenhauer and Wagner. During this time in the circle of the Wagners, he met Malwida von Meysenbug and Hans von Bülow . He also began a friendship with Paul Rée who, in 1876, influenced him into dismissing the pessimism in his early writings. However, he

924-465: A deficit/excess in relation to the mean . In Islam, Judaism and Christianity, sin is a central concept in understanding immorality. Immorality is often closely linked with both religion and sexuality . Max Weber saw rational articulated religions as engaged in a long-term struggle with more physical forms of religious experience linked to dance, intoxication and sexual activity. Durkheim pointed out how many primitive rites culminated in abandoning

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1008-517: A devotee of truth, then inquire.... Nietzsche subsequently concentrated on studying philology under Professor Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl , whom he followed to the University of Leipzig in 1865. There he became close friends with his fellow student Erwin Rohde . Nietzsche's first philological publications appeared soon after. In 1865, Nietzsche thoroughly studied the works of Arthur Schopenhauer . He owed

1092-449: A diagnosis of " manic-depressive illness with periodic psychosis followed by vascular dementia " was put forward by Cybulska prior to Schain's study. Leonard Sax suggested the slow growth of a right-sided retro-orbital meningioma as an explanation of Nietzsche's dementia; Orth and Trimble postulated frontotemporal dementia while other researchers have proposed a hereditary stroke disorder called CADASIL . Poisoning by mercury ,

1176-518: A higher estimation of his own status and "fate". He overestimated the increasing response to his writings, however, especially to the recent polemic, The Case of Wagner . On his 44th birthday, after completing Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist , he decided to write the autobiography Ecce Homo . In its preface—which suggests Nietzsche was well aware of the interpretive difficulties his work would generate—he declares, "Hear me! For I am such and such

1260-405: A lecturing post at the University of Leipzig . According to a letter he wrote to Peter Gast, this was due to his "attitude towards Christianity and the concept of God". In 1886, Nietzsche broke with his publisher Ernst Schmeitzner, disgusted by his antisemitic opinions. Nietzsche saw his own writings as "completely buried and in this anti-Semitic dump" of Schmeitzner—associating the publisher with

1344-511: A more coherent perspective. Thereafter, he saw his work as completed for a time and hoped that soon a readership would develop. In fact, interest in Nietzsche's thought did increase at this time, if rather slowly and imperceptibly to him. During these years Nietzsche met Meta von Salis , Carl Spitteler , and Gottfried Keller . In 1886, his sister Elisabeth married the antisemite Bernhard Förster and travelled to Paraguay to found Nueva Germania ,

1428-401: A movement that should be "utterly rejected with cold contempt by every sensible mind". He then printed Beyond Good and Evil at his own expense. He also acquired the publication rights for his earlier works and over the next year issued second editions of The Birth of Tragedy , Human, All Too Human , Daybreak , and of The Gay Science with new prefaces placing the body of his work in

1512-515: A music and literature club, during his summers in Naumburg. At Schulpforta, Nietzsche received an important grounding in languages— Greek , Latin , Hebrew , and French—so as to be able to read important primary sources ; he also experienced for the first time being away from his family life in a small-town conservative environment. His end-of-semester exams in March 1864 showed a 1 in Religion and German;

1596-510: A number of weeks together in Leipzig in October 1882, the following month Rée and Salomé left Nietzsche, leaving for Stibbe (today Zdbowo in Poland) without any plans to meet again. Nietzsche soon fell into a period of mental anguish, although he continued to write to Rée, stating "We shall see one another from time to time, won't we?" In later recriminations, Nietzsche would blame on separate occasions

1680-401: A person. Above all, do not mistake me for someone else." In December, Nietzsche began a correspondence with August Strindberg and thought that, short of an international breakthrough, he would attempt to buy back his older writings from the publisher and have them translated into other European languages. Moreover, he planned the publication of the compilation Nietzsche contra Wagner and of

1764-522: A piano composition sent by Nietzsche in 1871 to Wagner's wife Cosima . German conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow also described another of Nietzsche's pieces as "the most undelightful and the most anti-musical draft on musical paper that I have faced in a long time". While at Schulpforta, Nietzsche pursued subjects that were considered unbecoming. He became acquainted with the work of the then almost-unknown poet Friedrich Hölderlin , calling him "my favorite poet" and writing an essay in which he said that

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1848-718: A position in philosophy at Basel. In 1873, Nietzsche began to accumulate notes that would be posthumously published as Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks . Between 1873 and 1876, he published four separate long essays: " David Strauss : the Confessor and the Writer", " On the Use and Abuse of History for Life ", "Schopenhauer as Educator", and "Richard Wagner in Bayreuth". These four later appeared in

1932-462: A positive account of ‘justice according to nature’, (3) a theory of the virtues, and (4) a hedonistic conception of the good.” For the first aspect of the argument, Callicles supports the ruling of strong individuals and criticizes the weak for trying to undermine them. He views democracy as “the tyranny of the many over the exceptional individual,” and stresses that citizens should allow themselves to be ruled by these strong individuals. This ties into

2016-502: A profound effect on the young man. In addition, Ludwig Feuerbach 's The Essence of Christianity influenced young Nietzsche with its argument that people created God, and not the other way around. In June 1865, at the age of 20, Nietzsche wrote to his sister Elisabeth, who was deeply religious, a letter regarding his loss of faith. This letter contains the following statement: Hence the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be

2100-422: A superior human should live his life. Despite the scant surviving sources for his thought, he can be viewed as a precursor to modern political philosophers, notably including Niccolò Machiavelli and Friedrich Nietzsche (although the latter does not explicitly cite him anywhere in his works ). Callicles poses an immoralist argument that consists of four parts: “(1) a critique of conventional justice, (2)

2184-609: A time when he was considering giving up philology for science, he accepted. To this day, Nietzsche is still among the youngest of the tenured Classics professors on record. Nietzsche's 1870 projected doctoral thesis , "Contribution toward the Study and the Critique of the Sources of Diogenes Laertius" (" Beiträge zur Quellenkunde und Kritik des Laertius Diogenes "), examined the origins of the ideas of Diogenes Laërtius . Though never submitted, it

2268-498: A treatment for syphilis at the time of Nietzsche's death, has also been suggested. In 1898 and 1899, Nietzsche suffered at least two strokes. They partially paralysed him, leaving him unable to speak or walk. He likely suffered from clinical hemiparesis /hemiplegia on the left side of his body by 1899. After contracting pneumonia in mid-August 1900, he had another stroke during the night of 24–25 August and died at about noon on 25 August. Elisabeth had him buried beside his father at

2352-547: A tutor to help her to understand her brother's philosophy. Steiner abandoned the attempt after only a few months, declaring that it was impossible to teach her anything about philosophy. Nietzsche's insanity was originally diagnosed as tertiary syphilis , in accordance with a prevailing medical paradigm of the time. Although most commentators regard his breakdown as unrelated to his philosophy, Georges Bataille wrote poetically of his condition ("'Man incarnate' must also go mad") and René Girard 's postmortem psychoanalysis posits

2436-659: A worshipful rivalry with Richard Wagner . Girard suggests that Nietzsche signed his final letters as both Dionysus and the Crucified One because he was demonstrating that by being a god (Dionysus), one is also a victim (Crucified One) since a god still suffers by overcoming the law. Nietzsche had previously written, "All superior men who were irresistibly drawn to throw off the yoke of any kind of morality and to frame new laws had, if they were not actually mad, no alternative but to make themselves or pretend to be mad." (Daybreak, 14) The diagnosis of syphilis has since been challenged and

2520-641: Is difficult as many different religions, cultures and societies have held contradictory views about sexuality. But there is an almost universal disdain for two sexual practices throughout history. These two behaviors include infidelity within a monogamous , romantic relationship and incest between immediate family members. Other than these two things, some cultures throughout history have permitted sexual behaviors considered obscene by many cultures today, such as marriage between cousins, polygyny , underage sex , rape during war or forced assimilation , and even zoophilia . Michel Foucault considered that

2604-461: Is that the superior people deserve more of over the inferior. Nevertheless, he definitely believes that they should be held in higher regard. Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German classical scholar , philosopher , and critic of culture , who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became

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2688-554: Is thought to have been an ancient Athenian political philosopher . He figures prominently in Plato ’s dialogue Gorgias , where he "presents himself as a no-holds-barred, bare-knuckled, clear-headed advocate of Realpolitik ". In terms of dramatic action, his function in the dialogue is to provide a counter-argument to Plato's philosophical ideas. The absence of contemporaneous sources external to this single text attesting to his existence has suggested to some that he may be no more than

2772-650: The Übermensch and his doctrine of eternal return . In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art , philology , history , music , religion , tragedy , culture , and science , and drew inspiration from Greek tragedy as well as figures such as Zoroaster , Arthur Schopenhauer , Ralph Waldo Emerson , Richard Wagner , Fyodor Dostoevsky , and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . After his death, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became

2856-536: The University of Bonn in the hope of becoming a minister . For a short time, he and Deussen became members of the Burschenschaft Frankonia . After one semester (and to the anger of his mother), he stopped his theological studies and lost his faith. As early as his 1862 essay "Fate and History", Nietzsche had argued that historical research had discredited the central teachings of Christianity, but David Strauss 's Life of Jesus also seems to have had

2940-421: The 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy—especially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism , postmodernism , and post-structuralism —as well as art, literature, music, poetry, politics, and popular culture. Born on 15 October 1844, Nietzsche grew up in the town of Röcken (now part of Lützen ), near Leipzig , in

3024-602: The Italian cities of Genoa , Rapallo , and Turin and the French city of Nice . In 1881, when France occupied Tunisia , he planned to travel to Tunis to view Europe from the outside but later abandoned that idea, probably for health reasons. Nietzsche occasionally returned to Naumburg to visit his family, and, especially during this time, he and his sister Elisabeth had repeated periods of conflict and reconciliation. While in Genoa , Nietzsche's failing eyesight prompted him to explore

3108-479: The Prussian Province of Saxony . He was named after King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia , who turned 49 on the day of Nietzsche's birth (Nietzsche later dropped his middle name Wilhelm). Nietzsche's great-grandfather, Gotthelf Engelbert Nietzsche  [ ja ] (1714–1804), was an inspector and a philosopher. Nietzsche's grandfather, Friedrich August Ludwig Nietzsche  [ de ] (1756–1826),

3192-430: The affairs of the city, and courage.” He states that they do not need to have the virtues of justice or moderation, as they are not important like the aforementioned values. Finally, for the last part of Callicles’ argument, Socrates presses him to state of what it is that these “superior” people deserve more. Callicles rejects Socrates' ideas of more eating and drinking, but it appears that he does not really know what it

3276-534: The art of running after women!" Nietzsche enjoyed the attention he gave to the beginning of the Bayreuth Festival . In 1870, he gave Cosima Wagner the manuscript of "The Genesis of the Tragic Idea" as a birthday gift. In 1872, Nietzsche published his first book, The Birth of Tragedy . However, his colleagues within his field, including Ritschl, expressed little enthusiasm for the work in which Nietzsche eschewed

3360-483: The awakening of his philosophical interest to reading Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation and later admitted that Schopenhauer was one of the few thinkers whom he respected, dedicating the essay " Schopenhauer as Educator " in the Untimely Meditations to him. In 1866, he read Friedrich Albert Lange 's History of Materialism . Lange's descriptions of Kant 's anti-materialistic philosophy,

3444-440: The care of his mother until her death in 1897, and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche . Nietzsche died in 1900, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes . Nietzsche's work spans philosophical polemics , poetry, cultural criticism , and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony . Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth in favour of perspectivism ;

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3528-473: The church in Röcken near Lützen . His friend and secretary Gast gave his funeral oration, proclaiming: "Holy be your name to all future generations!" Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche compiled The Will to Power from Nietzsche's unpublished notebooks and published it posthumously in 1901. Because his sister arranged the book based on her own conflation of several of Nietzsche's early outlines and took liberties with

3612-526: The classical philologic method in favour of a more speculative approach. In his polemic Philology of the Future , Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff damped the book's reception and increased its notoriety. In response, Rohde (then a professor in Kiel ) and Wagner came to Nietzsche's defence. Nietzsche remarked freely about the isolation he felt within the philological community and attempted unsuccessfully to transfer to

3696-695: The clinic and, in May 1890, brought him to her home in Naumburg. During this process Overbeck and Gast contemplated what to do with Nietzsche's unpublished works. In February, they ordered a fifty-copy private edition of Nietzsche contra Wagner , but the publisher C. G. Naumann secretly printed one hundred. Overbeck and Gast decided to withhold publishing The Antichrist and Ecce Homo because of their more radical content. Nietzsche's reception and recognition enjoyed their first surge. In 1893, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth returned from Nueva Germania in Paraguay following

3780-606: The curator and editor of his manuscripts. She edited his unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism . Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism . 20th-century scholars such as Walter Kaufmann , R. J. Hollingdale , and Georges Bataille defended Nietzsche against this interpretation, and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in

3864-506: The dialogue named for his teacher, Callicles argues the position of an oligarchic amoralist , stating that it is natural and just for the strong to dominate the weak and that it is unfair for the weak to resist such oppression by establishing laws to limit the power of the strong. He asserts that the institutions and moral code of his time were not established by gods but instead by humans who naturally were looking after their own interests. He also shows hedonistic views with respect to how

3948-516: The direction of Otto Binswanger . In January 1889, they proceeded with the planned release of Twilight of the Idols , by that time already printed and bound. From November 1889 to February 1890, the art historian Julius Langbehn attempted to cure Nietzsche, claiming that the methods of the medical doctors were ineffective in treating Nietzsche's condition. Langbehn assumed progressively greater control of Nietzsche until his secretiveness discredited him. In March 1890, Franziska removed Nietzsche from

4032-538: The distinction between licit and immoral behavior. Freud 's dour conclusion was that "In every age immorality has found no less support in religion than morality has". Coding of sexual behavior has historically been a feature of all human societies; as too has been the policing of breaches of its mores  – sexual immorality – by means of formal and informal social control . Interdictions and taboos among primitive societies were arguably no less severe than in traditional agrarian societies. In

4116-414: The end of On the Genealogy of Morality a new work with the title The Will to Power : Attempt at a Revaluation of All Values , he seems to have abandoned this idea and, instead, used some of the draft passages to compose Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist in 1888. His health improved and he spent the summer in high spirits. In the autumn of 1888, his writings and letters began to reveal

4200-446: The failure in his attempts to woo Salomé on Salomé, Rée, and on the intrigues of his sister (who had written letters to the families of Salomé and Rée to disrupt the plans for the commune). Nietzsche wrote of the affair in 1883, that he now felt "genuine hatred for my sister". Amidst renewed bouts of illness, living in near-isolation after a falling out with his mother and sister regarding Salomé, Nietzsche fled to Rapallo, where he wrote

4284-495: The first part of Also Sprach Zarathustra in only ten days. By 1882, Nietzsche was taking huge doses of opium and continued to have trouble sleeping. In 1883, while staying in Nice, he was writing out his own prescriptions for the sedative chloral hydrate , signing them "Dr. Nietzsche". He turned away from the influence of Schopenhauer , and after he severed his social ties with Wagner, Nietzsche had few remaining friends. Now, with

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4368-507: The first time later that year. In 1869, with Ritschl's support, Nietzsche received an offer to become a professor of classical philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. He was only 24 years old and had neither completed his doctorate nor received a teaching certificate (" habilitation "). He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Leipzig University in March 1869, again with Ritschl's support. Despite his offer coming at

4452-478: The galleys for almost all of Nietzsche's work. On at least one occasion, on 23 February 1880, the usually poor Gast received 200 marks from their mutual friend, Paul Rée. Gast was one of the very few friends Nietzsche allowed to criticise him. In responding most enthusiastically to Also Sprach Zarathustra ("Thus Spoke Zarathustra"), Gast did feel it necessary to point out that what were described as "superfluous" people were in fact quite necessary. He went on to list

4536-582: The horse, threw his arms around its neck to protect it, then collapsed to the ground. In the following few days, Nietzsche sent short writings—known as the Wahnzettel or Wahnbriefe (literally "Delusion notes" or "letters")—to a number of friends including Cosima Wagner and Jacob Burckhardt . Most of them were signed " Dionysus ", though some were also signed "der Gekreuzigte" meaning "the crucified one". To his former colleague Burckhardt, Nietzsche wrote: I have had Caiaphas put in fetters . Also, last year I

4620-786: The idea and suggested that they be joined by his friend Nietzsche. The two met Nietzsche in Rome in April 1882, and Nietzsche is believed to have instantly fallen in love with Salomé, as Rée had done. Nietzsche asked Rée to propose marriage to Salomé, which she rejected. She had been interested in Nietzsche as a friend, but not as a husband. Nietzsche nonetheless was content to join with Rée and Salomé touring through Switzerland and Italy together, planning their commune. The three travelled with Salomé's mother through Italy and considered where they would set up their "Winterplan" commune. They intended to set up their commune in an abandoned monastery, but no suitable location

4704-409: The latter, the degree of control might vary from time to time and region to region, being least in urban settlements; however, only the last three centuries of intense urbanisation, commercialisation and modernisation have broken with the restrictions of the pre-modern world, in favor of a successor society of fractured and competing sexual codes and subcultures, where sexual expression is integrated into

4788-512: The letter he had received from Nietzsche to Overbeck. The following day, Overbeck received a similar letter and decided that Nietzsche's friends had to bring him back to Basel. Overbeck travelled to Turin and brought Nietzsche to a psychiatric clinic in Basel. By that time Nietzsche appeared fully in the grip of a serious mental illness, and his mother Franziska decided to transfer him to a clinic in Jena under

4872-465: The material, the scholarly consensus has been that it does not reflect Nietzsche's intent. (For example, Elisabeth removed aphorism 35 of The Antichrist , where Nietzsche rewrote a passage of the Bible.) Indeed, Mazzino Montinari , the editor of Nietzsche's Nachlass , called it a forgery. Yet, the endeavour to rescue Nietzsche's reputation by discrediting The Will to Power often leads to scepticism about

4956-404: The modern world was unable to put forward a coherent morality  – an inability underpinned philosophically by emotivism . Nevertheless, modernism has often been accompanied by a cult of immorality, as for example when John Ciardi acclaimed Naked Lunch as "a monumentally moral descent into the hell of narcotic addiction". Psychoanalysis received much early criticism for being

5040-460: The new style of Zarathustra , his work became even more alienating, and the market received it only to the degree required by politeness. Nietzsche recognised this and maintained his solitude, though he often complained. His books remained largely unsold. In 1885, he printed only 40 copies of the fourth part of Zarathustra and distributed a fraction of them among close friends, including Helene von Druskowitz . In 1883, he tried and failed to obtain

5124-548: The number of people Epicurus , for example, had to rely on to supply his simple diet of goat cheese. To the end of his life, Gast and Overbeck remained consistently faithful friends. Malwida von Meysenbug remained like a motherly patron even outside the Wagner circle. Soon Nietzsche made contact with the music-critic Carl Fuchs. Nietzsche stood at the beginning of his most productive period. Beginning with Human, All Too Human in 1878, Nietzsche published one book or major section of

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5208-491: The philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard in the 1870s, wrote to Nietzsche asking him to read Kierkegaard , to which Nietzsche replied that he would come to Copenhagen and read Kierkegaard with him. However, before fulfilling this promise, Nietzsche slipped too far into illness. At the beginning of 1888, Brandes delivered in Copenhagen one of the first lectures on Nietzsche's philosophy. Although Nietzsche had previously announced at

5292-481: The poems that made up his collection Dionysian-Dithyrambs . On 3 January 1889, Nietzsche suffered a mental breakdown . Two policemen approached him after he caused a public disturbance in the streets of Turin . What happened remains unknown, but an often-repeated tale from shortly after his death states that Nietzsche witnessed the flogging of a horse at the other end of the Piazza Carlo Alberto, ran to

5376-400: The poet raised consciousness to "the most sublime ideality". The teacher who corrected the essay gave it a good mark but commented that Nietzsche should concern himself in the future with healthier, more lucid, and more "German" writers. Additionally, he became acquainted with Ernst Ortlepp , an eccentric, blasphemous , and often drunken poet who was found dead in a ditch weeks after meeting

5460-468: The publication in 1878 of Human, All Too Human (a book of aphorisms ranging from metaphysics to morality to religion), a new style of Nietzsche's work became clear, highly influenced by Afrikan Spir 's Thought and Reality and reacting against the pessimistic philosophy of Wagner and Schopenhauer. Nietzsche's friendship with Deussen and Rohde cooled as well. In 1879, after a significant decline in health, Nietzsche had to resign his position at Basel and

5544-490: The rise of European Materialism , Europe's increased concern with science, Charles Darwin 's theory of evolution , and the general rebellion against tradition and authority intrigued Nietzsche greatly. Nietzsche would ultimately argue the impossibility of an evolutionary explanation of the human aesthetic sense. In 1867, Nietzsche signed up for one year of voluntary service with the Prussian artillery division in Naumburg. He

5628-451: The second part of his argument; Callicles cites nature, saying “[nature] shows that this is what justice has been decided to be: that the superior rule the inferior and have a greater share than they.” This relationship leads Socrates to push Callicles to define what makes certain individuals “superior” to others, the third part of Callicles' argument. Callicles states that these superior figures must possess “intelligence, particularly about

5712-548: The suicide of her husband. She studied Nietzsche's works and, piece by piece, took control of their publication. Overbeck was dismissed and Gast finally co-operated. After the death of Franziska in 1897, Nietzsche lived in Weimar , where Elisabeth cared for him and allowed visitors, including Rudolf Steiner (who in 1895 had written Friedrich Nietzsche: A Fighter Against His Time , one of the first books praising Nietzsche), to meet her uncommunicative brother. Elisabeth employed Steiner as

5796-500: The traumatic effects of battle. He also contracted diphtheria and dysentery . Walter Kaufmann speculates that he also contracted syphilis at a brothel along with his other infections at this time. On returning to Basel in 1870, Nietzsche observed the establishment of the German Empire and Otto von Bismarck 's subsequent policies as an outsider and with a degree of scepticism regarding their genuineness. His inaugural lecture at

5880-875: The university was " Homer and Classical Philology ". Nietzsche also met Franz Overbeck , a professor of theology who remained his friend throughout his life. Afrikan Spir , a little-known Russian philosopher responsible for the 1873 Thought and Reality and Nietzsche's colleague, the historian Jacob Burckhardt , whose lectures Nietzsche frequently attended, began to exercise significant influence on him. Nietzsche had already met Richard Wagner in Leipzig in 1868 and later Wagner's wife, Cosima. Nietzsche admired both greatly and during his time at Basel frequently visited Wagner's house in Tribschen in Lucerne . The Wagners brought Nietzsche into their most intimate circle—which included Franz Liszt , of whom Nietzsche colloquially described: "Liszt or

5964-539: The unsavory product of an immoral town – Vienna; psychoanalysts for being both unscrupulous and dirty-minded. Freud himself however was of the opinion that "anyone who has succeeded in educating himself to truth about himself is permanently defended against the danger of immorality, even though his standard of morality may differ". Nietzsche referred to his ethical philosophy as Immoralism. Callicles Callicles ( / ˈ k æ l ɪ k l iː z / ; Greek : Καλλικλῆς ; c. 484 – late 5th century BC)

6048-473: The use of typewriters as a means of continuing to write. He is known to have tried using the Hansen Writing Ball , a contemporary typewriter device. In the end, a past student of his, Peter Gast , became a private secretary to Nietzsche. In 1876, Gast transcribed the crabbed, nearly illegible handwriting of Nietzsche's first time with Richard Wagner in Bayreuth. He subsequently transcribed and proofread

6132-420: The value of his late notes, even of his whole Nachlass . However, his Nachlass and The Will to Power are distinct. General commentators and Nietzsche scholars, whether emphasising his cultural background or his language, overwhelmingly label Nietzsche as a "German philosopher." Others do not assign him a national category. While Germany had not yet been unified into a single sovereign state, Nietzsche

6216-513: The workings of the commercial world. Nevertheless, while the meaning of sexual immorality has been drastically redefined in recent times , arguably the boundaries of what is acceptable remain publicly policed and as highly charged as ever, as the decades-long debates in the US over reproductive rights after Roe v. Wade , or 21st-century controversy over child images on Misplaced Pages and Amazon would tend to suggest. Defining sexual immorality across history

6300-475: The young Nietzsche but who may have introduced Nietzsche to the music and writing of Richard Wagner . Perhaps under Ortlepp's influence, he and a student named Richter returned to school drunk and encountered a teacher, resulting in Nietzsche's demotion from first in his class and the end of his status as a prefect . After graduation in September 1864, Nietzsche began studying theology and classical philology at

6384-502: The youngest person to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland in 1869, at the age of 24, but resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia . He lived his remaining years in

6468-408: Was a theologian. Nietzsche's parents, Carl Ludwig Nietzsche (1813–1849), a Lutheran pastor and former teacher; and Franziska Nietzsche  [ de ] ( née Oehler) (1826–1897), married in 1843, the year before their son's birth. They had two other children: a daughter, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche , born in 1846; and a second son, Ludwig Joseph, born in 1848. Nietzsche's father died from

6552-557: Was crucified by the German doctors in a very drawn-out manner. Wilhelm , Bismarck , and all anti-Semites abolished. Additionally, he commanded the German emperor to go to Rome to be shot and summoned the European powers to take military action against Germany, writing also that the pope should be put in jail and that he, Nietzsche, created the world and was in the process of having all anti-Semites shot dead. On 6 January 1889, Burckhardt showed

6636-406: Was deeply disappointed by the Bayreuth Festival of 1876, where the banality of the shows and baseness of the public repelled him. He was also alienated by Wagner's championing of "German culture", which Nietzsche felt a contradiction in terms, as well as by Wagner's celebration of his fame among the German public. All this contributed to his subsequent decision to distance himself from Wagner. With

6720-620: Was found. On 13 May, in Lucerne, when Nietzsche was alone with Salomé, he earnestly proposed marriage to her again, which she rejected. He nonetheless was happy to continue with the plans for an academic commune. After discovering the relationship, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became determined to get Nietzsche away from the "immoral woman". Nietzsche and Salomé spent the summer together in Tautenburg in Thuringia, often with Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth as

6804-582: Was later published as a Gratulationsschrift ('congratulatory publication') in Basel . Before moving to Basel, Nietzsche renounced his Prussian citizenship: for the rest of his life he remained officially stateless . Nevertheless, Nietzsche served in the Prussian forces during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) as a medical orderly . In his short time in the military, he experienced much and witnessed

6888-455: Was offered a scholarship to study at the internationally recognised Schulpforta . The claim that Nietzsche was admitted on the strength of his academic competence has been debunked: his grades were not near the top of the class. He studied there from 1858 to 1864, becoming friends with Paul Deussen and Carl von Gersdorff (1844–1904), who later became a jurist. He also found time to work on poems and musical compositions. Nietzsche led "Germania",

6972-796: Was pensioned. Since his childhood, various disruptive illnesses had plagued him, including moments of shortsightedness that left him nearly blind, migraine headaches, and violent indigestion. The 1868 riding accident and diseases in 1870 may have aggravated these persistent conditions, which continued to affect him through his years at Basel, forcing him to take longer and longer holidays until regular work became impractical. Living on his pension from Basel along with aid from friends, Nietzsche travelled frequently to find climates more conducive to his health. He lived until 1889 as an independent author in different cities. He spent many summers in Sils Maria near St. Moritz in Switzerland, and many of his winters in

7056-483: Was regarded as one of the finest riders among his fellow recruits, and his officers predicted that he would soon reach the rank of captain . However, in March 1868, while jumping into the saddle of his horse, Nietzsche struck his chest against the pommel and tore two muscles in his left side, leaving him exhausted and unable to walk for months. Consequently, he turned his attention to his studies again, completing them in 1868. Nietzsche also met Richard Wagner for

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