Friedrich Nietzsche: Difference between revisions

 

'''Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|n|iː|tʃ|ə|,_|-|tʃ|i}};<ref>[[John C. Wells|Wells, John C.]] 1990. "Nietzsche." ''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. Harlow, UK: [[Longman]]. {{ISBN|978-0-582-05383-0}}. p. 478.</ref> {{IPA-de|ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈniːtʃə|lang|De-Friedrich Nietzsche.ogg}} <small>or</small> {{IPA-de|ˈniːtsʃə|}};<ref>''[[Duden]] – Das Aussprachewörterbuch'' 7. Berlin: [[Bibliographisches Institut]]. 2015. {{ISBN|978-3-411-04067-4}}. p.&nbsp;633.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Krech|first1=Eva-Maria|last2=Stock|first2=Eberhard|last3=Hirschfeld|first3=Ursula|last4=Anders|first4=Lutz Christian|title=Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch|url=https://archive.org/details/deutschesausspra00krec|url-access=limited|trans-title=German Pronunciation Dictionary |language=de |year=2009|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|location=Berlin|isbn=978-3-11-018202-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/deutschesausspra00krec/page/n531 520], 777}}</ref> 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German<!-- The question of whether to call Nietzsche "German" or not has been extensively debated over several years and the consensus is to call him German. Records of this are in the archived talk pages no. 10, 11, 12, 15. Please do not change this without gaining consensus on the talk page. --> [[philosopher]], [[cultural critic]] and [[Philology|philologist]] whose work has exerted a profound influence on [[contemporary philosophy|modern intellectual history]]. He began his career as a [[classical philology|classical philologist]] before turning to [[philosophy]]. He became the youngest person ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the [[University of Basel]] in 1869 at the age of 24. Nietzsche 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 45, 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 the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister [[Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche]]. Nietzsche died in 1900, after many [[stroke]]s and [[pneumonia]].

Nietzsche's writing spans [[Philosophy|philosophical]] [[polemic]]s, [[poetry]], [[cultural critic]]ism, and [[fiction]] while displaying a fondness for [[aphorism]] and [[irony]]. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of [[truth]] in favor of [[perspectivism]]; a [[genealogy (philosophy)|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 "[[God is dead|death of God]]" and the profound crisis of [[nihilism]]; the notion of [[Apollonian and Dionysian]] forces; and a characterization of the human [[subject (philosophy)|subject]] as the expression of competing [[will (philosophy)|wills]], collectively understood as the [[will to power]]. He also developed influential concepts such as the ''{{lang|de|[[Übermensch]]}}'' and his doctrine of [[eternal return#Friedrich Nietzsche|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 [[transvaluation of values|new values]] and aesthetic health. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including [[Philosophy of Art|art]], [[philology]], [[Philosophy of history|history]], [[Philosophy of music|music]], [[Philosophy of religion|religion]], [[tragedy]], [[Philosophy of culture|culture]], and [[Philosophy of science|science]], and drew inspiration from [[Greek tragedy]] as well as figures such as [[Zoroaster]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], [[Richard Wagner]] and [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]].