Nietzche

At approximately ten o’clock a.m. on October 15, 1844, not only a human being was born, but also a foundation was laid for future revolutions in the ways of philosophy and interpretation of human thought. Nietzsche was a German philosopher of the late 19th century who challenged the foundations of traditional morality and Christianity. He believed in life, creativity, health, and the realities of the world we live in, rather than those situated in a world beyond. Central to Nietzsche’s philosophy is the idea of “life-affirmation”, which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life’s energies, however socially prevalent those views might be. Often referred to as one of the first existentialist philosophers, Nietzsche has inspired leading figures in all walks of life.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born to Lutheran pastor Karl Ludwig Nietzsche in the small town of Rocken, Prussia. Nietzsche’s grandfathers were also Lutheran ministers, and ““his paternal grandfather was further distinguished as a Protestant scholar, one of whose books (1796) affirmed the “everlasting survival of Christianity”” (Wicks, 1997). His father died when he was just five years old and the death of

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“Anything which is a living and not a dying body…will have to be an incarnate will to power, it will strive to grow, spread, seize, become predominant – not from any morality or immorality but because it is living and because life simply is will to power…’Exploitation’…belongs to the essence of what lives, as a basic organic function; it is a consequence of the will to power, which is after all the will to life” (Nietzsche, 1888). He agreed with Darwin that life is the struggle and further agreed with Schopenhauer that there only exists a sense of the meaningless and futility of all the pain and suffering caused by the struggle. “In this way, Nietzsche expresses his hope that Dionysus, the god of life’s exuberance, would replace Jesus, the god of the heavenly other world, as the premier cultural standard for future millennia.

Many other books tackled the subjects of Christianity. I for one from studying Nietzsche feel more in tune to my thoughts. His adoption of existentialism, or even more so, his partaking in the creation of the philosophy has helped shape history. This work, like his later ones, shows the strong influence of the German philosopher Schopenhauer, as well as Nietzsche’s affinity for the music of then close friend Robert Wagner.

In his book The Anti-Christ, Curse on Christianity Nietzsche tackles a socially pertinent topic from his atheistic viewpoint, Christianity.

After resigning from his teaching position Nietzsche began to write extensively. Nietzsche said in Human all too Human “Christianity came into existence in order to lighten the heart; but now it has first to burden the heart so as afterwards to be able to lighten it. “My idea is that every specific body strives to become master over all space and to extend its force (its will to power) and to thrust back all that resists its extension. He views Christianity as a mask that people wear to hide behind instead of facing what life is really about. If they do hurt others, they do so incidentally in the process of using their power creatively; they hurt others without thinking of it. Only the weak man wishes to hurt and see the signs of suffering (Nietzsche, 1885). He inspired dancers, poets, novelists, painters, psychologists, philosophers, sociologists, and social revolutionaries.

Approximate Word count = 2560
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)

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