Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ˈ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >n</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >iː</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >tʃ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ə</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche#cite_note-2" >[2]</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ˈ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >n</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >iː</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >tʃ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >i</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a>;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche#cite_note-3" >[3]</a> German: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_German" title="Help:IPA for German" >[ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈniːt͡sʃə]</a>; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germans" title="Germans" >German</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_philology" title="Classical philology" class="mw-redirect" >philologist</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy" title="Philosophy" >philosopher</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_critic" title="Cultural critic" >cultural critic</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry" title="Poetry" >poet</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composer" title="Composer" >composer</a>. He wrote several critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, displaying a fondness for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor" title="Metaphor" >metaphor</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony" title="Irony" >irony</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphorism" title="Aphorism" >aphorism</a>.

Nietzsche's key ideas include the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonian_and_Dionysian" title="Apollonian and Dionysian" >Apollonian/Dionysian</a> dichotomy, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspectivism" title="Perspectivism" >perspectivism</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_to_Power" title="Will to Power" class="mw-redirect" >Will to Power</a>, the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_God" title="Death of God" class="mw-redirect" >death of God</a>", the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cbermensch" title="Übermensch" >Übermensch</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_recurrence" title="Eternal recurrence" class="mw-redirect" >eternal recurrence</a>. One of the key tenets of his philosophy is the concept of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nietzschean_affirmation" title="Nietzschean affirmation" >"life-affirmation,"</a> which embraces the realities of the world in which we live over the idea of a world beyond. It further champions the creative powers of the individual to strive beyond social, cultural, and moral contexts.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche#cite_note-4" >[4]</a> Nietzsche's attitude towards religion and morality was marked with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism" title="Atheism" >atheism</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologism" title="Psychologism" >psychologism</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historism" title="Historism" >historism</a>; he considered them to be human creations loaded with the error of confusing cause and effect.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche#cite_note-5" >[5]</a> His radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth has been the focus of extensive commentary, and his influence remains substantial, particularly in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_philosophy" title="Continental philosophy" >continental</a> philosophical schools of<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism" title="Existentialism" >existentialism</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism" title="Postmodernism" >postmodernism</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-structuralism" title="Post-structuralism" >post-structuralism</a>. His ideas of individual overcoming and transcendence beyond structure and context have had a profound impact on late-twentieth and early-twenty-first century thinkers, who have used these concepts as points of departure in the development of their philosophies.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche#cite_note-6" >[6]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche#cite_note-7" >[7]</a> Most recently, Nietzsche's reflections have been received in various philosophical approaches which move beyond <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism" title="Humanism" >humanism</a>, e.g. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism" title="Transhumanism" >transhumanism</a>.

Nietzsche began his career as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_philology" title="Classical philology" class="mw-redirect" >classical philologist</a>—a scholar of Greek and Roman textual criticism—before turning to philosophy. In 1869, at age twenty-four, he was appointed to the Chair of Classical Philology at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Basel" title="University of Basel" >University of Basel</a>, the youngest individual to have held this position. He resigned in the summer of 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche#cite_note-8" >[8]</a> In 1889, at age forty-four, he suffered a collapse and a complete loss of his mental faculties. The breakdown was later ascribed to atypical general <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paresis" title="Paresis" >paresis</a> due to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertiary_syphilis" title="Tertiary syphilis" class="mw-redirect" >tertiary syphilis</a>, but this diagnosis has come into question.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche#cite_note-9" >[9]</a> Re-examination of Nietzsche's medical evaluation papers show that he almost certainly died of brain cancer.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche#cite_note-10" >[10]</a> Nietzsche lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897, after which he fell under the care of his sister <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_F%C3%B6rster-Nietzsche" title="Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche" >Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche</a> until his death in 1900.

As his caretaker, his sister assumed the roles of curator and editor of Nietzsche's manuscripts. Förster-Nietzsche was married to a prominent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_nationalism#1871_to_World_War_I.2C_1914.E2.80.931918" title="German nationalism" >German nationalist</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism" title="Antisemitism" >antisemite</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_F%C3%B6rster" title="Bernhard Förster" >Bernhard Förster</a>, and reworked Nietzsche's unpublished writings to fit her own ideology, often in ways contrary to Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were strongly and explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_Friedrich_Nietzsche#Nietzsche.27s_criticism_of_anti-Semitism_and_nationalism" title="Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche" >Nietzsche's criticism of antisemitism and nationalism</a>). Through Förster-Nietzsche's editions, Nietzsche's name became associated with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_militarism" title="Prussian militarism" class="mw-redirect" >German militarism</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism" title="Nazism" >Nazism</a>, although later twentieth-century scholars have counteracted this conception of his ideas.

Friedrich Nietzsche

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