Friedrich Nietzsche

The philosopher who led humanity beyond good and evil

Who is he?

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher who wanted man to achieve the best version of himself and become an overman.

Why is he an overman?

Although Friedrich thinks that the overman is not yet achieved, he actually is one. Primarily, this is because of his love for man and the contradictions within him. He praises the victorious, bold and conquering nature of the individual but mocks the herd mentality which accepts as good only that which consists of weakness and obedience. Fridrich has the bravery to challenge almost all premises of traditional morality and to lead the human beyond good and evil, to the center of the world.

Friedrich believes that the goal should be the overman – for people to overcome the weakness in them and evolve to meet their full potential of strength and greatness. The overman is free – not only from the dogmas of society but also of his own fears and insecurities. The overman loves, and in particular he loves what challenges him and what can push him beyond his limits. The overman is one with nature, finding in his soul the fury of the snowstorms and the blazing heat of the midday sun.

Quotes:

I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and the impossible.

That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.

I too speak of a “return to nature,” although it is really not a going back but a going up–an ascent to the high, free, even terrible nature and naturalness where great tasks are something one plays with, one may play with.

In that ye have despaired, there is much to honour. For ye have not learned to submit yourselves, ye have not learned petty policy.

I spare you not, I love you from my very heart, my brethren in war!

Short biography:

15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900

Friedrich Nietzsche was born in the village of Röcken in Prussia. He was the son of Carl Ludwig Nietzsche, a Lutheran pastor, and Franziska Nietzsche. His father died when he was just five years old and Friedrich was raised in a household of women. He received a rigorous classical education in a prestigious boarding school.

In 1864, Friedrich began studying theology and classical philology at the University of Bonn but soon dropped theology to focus entirely on philology. He transferred to the University of Leipzig a year later. At just 24 years old and without having completed a doctorate, Friedrich was appointed professor of classical philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland.

One of the people with greatest influence of Friedrich was Richard Wagner, with whom he developed a close and intellectually intense friendship. However, their relationship began to deteriorate in the mid-1870s. Friedrich grew increasingly disillusioned with Wagner’s turn toward nationalism, Christianity, and Germanic mythology, theme he saw as regressive and life-denying.

Friedrich served briefly in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870–1871, during which he contracted dysentery and diphtheria, illnesses that exacerbated his lifelong health issues. Plagued by chronic migraines, visual disturbances, and digestive problems, he resigned from his university post in 1879 and spent the next decade living in various locations across Europe.

In January 1889, while in Turin, Friedrich suffered a mental collapse—famously, though perhaps apocryphally, triggered by witnessing a horse being whipped. He spent the remaining 11 years of his life in a state of mental incapacity. Initially cared for by his mother, and after her death by his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, he died in Weimar at the age of 55.

Notable work:

Thus spoke Zarathustra

Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer

Beyond Good and Evil