Nietzsche’s writings fall into three well-defined periods. The early works, The Birth of Tragedy and the four Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen (1873; Untimely Meditations), are dominated by a Romantic perspective influenced by Schopenhauer and Wagner. The middle period, from Human, All-Too-Human up to The Gay Science, reflects the tradition of French aphorists. It extols reason and science, experiments with literary genres, and expresses Nietzsche’s emancipation from his earlier Romanticism and from Schopenhauer and Wagner. Nietzsche’s mature philosophy emerged after The Gay Science.

Hegel's student Richard Rothe, in his 1837 theological text Die Anfänge der christlichen Kirche und ihrer Verfassung, appears to be one of the first philosophers to associate the idea of a death of God with the sociological theory of secularization. [11] Stirner [ edit ] The will to live would become the will to dominate; pessimism founded on reflection would become optimism founded on courage; the suspense of the will in contemplation would yield to a more biological account of intelligence and taste; finally in the place of pity and asceticism (Schopenhauer's two principles of morals) Nietzsche would set up the duty of asserting the will at all costs and being cruelly but beautifully strong.Other philosophers had previously discussed the concept, including Philipp Mainländer and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. The phrase is also discussed in the Death of God theology. Nietzsche recognized the crisis that this "Death of God" represented for existing moral assumptions in Europe as they existed within the context of traditional Christian belief. "When one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls the right to Christian morality out from under one's feet. This morality is by no means self-evident [...] By breaking one main concept out of Christianity, the faith in God, one breaks the whole: nothing necessary remains in one's hands." [21] Interpretation [ edit ] Losurdo, D. (2002) Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel: Intellectual Biography and Critical Balance-Sheet. Brill, 2020. p. 392-396 John D. Caputo and Gianni Vattimo, After the Death of God, ed. Jeffrey W. Robbins. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.

Holub, R. C. (2018) Nietzsche in the Nineteenth Century: Social Questions and Philosophical Interventions. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. p. 121, 227Dombowsky, D. (2014) Nietzsche and Napoleon: The Dionysian Conspiracy. University of Wales Press 2014. p. 94 One of the biggest lessons that Nietzsche had bestow to us is the will to power (the will to live). Losurdo, D. (2002) Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel: Intellectual Biography and Critical Balance-Sheet. Brill, 2020. p. 1010

Holub, R. C. (2018) Nietzsche in the Nineteenth Century: Social Questions and Philosophical Interventions. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. p. 236 a b Dombowsky, D., Cameron, F. (2008) Political Writings of Friedrich Nietzsche: An Edited Anthology. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. p. 11 Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part I, Section XXII, 3, tr. Thomas Common Explanations [ edit ] Nietzsche knew little of the 19th-century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. [170] [171] Georg Brandes, a Danish philosopher, wrote to Nietzsche in 1888 asking him to study the works of Kierkegaard, to which Nietzsche replied that he would. [172] [nb 1] The above two passages, which occur in close succession in The Gay Science, reflect the fact that Nietzsche went as far as to question the value of truth-seeking as an activity. Man manages to live only because of immense self-deception, Nietzsche thought, so the act of seeking the capital-T truth might ultimately be another covert form of life-denial.

Losurdo, D. (2002) Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel: Intellectual Biography and Critical Balance-Sheet. Brill, 2020. p. 641-642 Dombowsky, D., Cameron, F. (2008) Political Writings of Friedrich Nietzsche: An Edited Antholo According to Santayana, Nietzsche considered his philosophy to be a correction of Schopenhauer's philosophy. In his Egotism in German Philosophy, [159] Santayana listed Nietzsche's antithetical reactions to Schopenhauer:

Dombowsky, D. (2014) Nietzsche and Napoleon: The Dionysian Conspiracy. University of Wales Press 2014. p. 111 In this chapter, I examine three recent accounts of Nietzschean nihilism: those of Van Tongeren ( Friedrich Nietzsche and European Nihilism. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018), Reginster ( The Affirmation of Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), and Huddleston ( Philosopher’s Imprint 19 (11): 1–19, 2019). Though each of these accounts serves as a crucial addition to the scholarship on Nietzschean nihilism, I argue below that none of them, taken alone, offers a wholly satisfying account of that in which Nietzschean nihilism consists. While Reginster and Van Tongeren each offer an account illuminating a particular form of Nietzschean nihilism, thus construing the problem of nihilism too narrowly, Huddleston’s account is overly broad. By aiming to offer “a unifying thread linking together the main forms of nihilism [Nietzsche] targets,” Huddleston succeeds at presenting an accurate and somewhat illuminating answer, but fails to offer a sufficiently robust account. Thus, his interpretation requires supplementing. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche posits the Übermensch (often translated as "overman" or "superman") as a goal that humanity can set for itself. While interpretations of Nietzsche's overman vary wildly, here are a few of his quotes from Thus Spoke Zarathustra: [ citation needed]

Influence and relevance

He opposed the "rule of mandarins", solving conflicts by arbitration instead of war, [152] and encouraged the military development of Europe. [153] He proposed conscription, polytechnic military education and the idea that all men of higher classes should be reserve officers in addition to their civilian jobs. [154] In The Will to Power he wrote: