Friedrich Nietzsche
1844 — 1900
Biography
Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the most influential and controversial thinkers. He began as a philologist, then rejected an academic career for philosophy.
'God is dead' — a statement of the collapse of traditional values. Nietzsche called for a 'revaluation of all values' and the creation of a new morality — the morality of the Übermensch, who overcomes himself.
Will to power is not political domination but creative self-realization. His aphoristic style and depth of thought make him one of the most widely read philosophers.
Key Ideas
- God is dead
- Übermensch (Superman)
- Will to power
- Eternal recurrence
- Revaluation of all values
Works
-
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
(1885)
Philosophical poem about the Übermensch
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Beyond Good and Evil
(1886)
Critique of morality
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On the Genealogy of Morals
(1887)
History of the origin of morality