The essence of Nietzsche's philosophy. Philosophy in accessible language: the philosophy of Nietzsche

Introduction

The political and legal aspect of the philosophical teachings of F. Nietzsche is one of the most complex and controversial in modern science. The relevance of this issue lies in the increased popularity of the philosopher. In the work “Thus Spake Zarathustra” he described himself as a philosopher of the day after tomorrow. Indeed, Nietzsche was ahead of his time, and it seems that only now his views and conclusions are beginning to be understood. The biggest fear of researchers today is that Nietzsche's philosophy is corrupting the minds of young people, who have always been greatly impressed. Increased radicalism and ultra-right sentiments in society draw the main theses of their charters from his teachings.
The purpose of my work was to highlight the main provisions of Nietzsche’s teachings, dwelling in detail on the political and legal aspect, and to show the influence of this teaching on society. I also tried to consider Nietzsche as a philosopher of vitalism, whose main value is life, i.e. immediately comes into conflict with Nietzsche’s radicalism, contrived by the masses. Most of the works I have revised are criticism of foreign authors of his teaching. On the contrary, the Soviet author Oduev made a negative impression, and his book showed itself to be propaganda, in which Nietzsche was unfairly called a fascist.

The main provisions of Nietzsche's teachings.

Nihilism.

What is nihilism? - That the highest values ​​lose their value.
Morality is the highest delusion and untruth. Morality is based on faith, being is a more objective and stable category, but in many ways different from morality. Nietzsche, at the beginning of “The Will to Power,” writes that a period of nihilism in history is inevitable, that soon humanity, akin to Faust, will despair of searching for meaning behind empty evaluative categories that carry no meaning and will realize the futility of climbing the ladder of morality, which, being the goal, gives nothing in the end. The loss of faith in the system, the Absolute, and involvement in the whole also gives rise to nihilism. Its very last stage is a person’s rejection of neither the real nor the worlds created by him - the gap and confusion of objective reality and the evaluative categories of man generated by his own understanding of reality.
Moralism without religion is a direct path to nihilism, it is based on blind faith in the Absolute Creator, without it morality will tell everyone that each of us is, in fact, the Creator. Moralism combined with religion is an even greater leviathan. Since the source of European morality was Christianity, Nietzsche in his works identifies European morality with Christian morality.
Morality is protection and armor for an “undergrown” person, while a “grown” person has the ability to attack.
Nietzsche is not a nihilist, he does not deny values. He fears the coming of nihilism and sees the only way out in a revaluation of values. He views its beginning as a harbinger of the coming decline of society. "If he ever considered himself a prophet of nihilism, he proclaimed its advent not as something to be celebrated, but in the sense in which Jeremiah was the prophet of the destruction of Jerusalem."
The clash between the wills of the “masters” and the wills of the “slaves” gives rise to nihilism and misunderstanding between them.
The reason for nihilism is the absence of a higher type of man (like Napoleon or Caesar), the fall of the world, because... it begins to be controlled by the herd, the mass, the society.
Nietzsche despises truth and considers it ugly. He is not a nihilist, but simply turns away from many things that surround him: religion, morality, morals, politics...

Christianity.

Nietzsche laughs at Christians and condemns them for their blindness. According to him, they have created a cult of goodness, a “good man,” who continues to wage the same war as the “bad man.” There is no absolute evil and absolute good; by refusing evil, a person denies life. Human nature is such that love and hatred, kindness and anger are inextricably linked with each other. From this Nietzsche concludes that morality is unnatural to human nature. “I declared war on the feeble Christian ideal, not with the intention of destroying it, but only to put an end to its tyranny and make room for new ideals, for healthier and stronger ideals...” The work “Antichrist” by F. Nietzsche was written by him in order to expose Christianity and its morality. It is necessary to perceive his anti-Christian ideas in the context of that time. The qualities that he cultivates in the reader: contempt, pride, self-respect - are needed to get rid of musty ideals, which are only an unnecessary stagnating factor for the further development of society. He understood that without sufficient contempt, a person of the late 19th century would not be able to refuse such tempting idols that give hope for a bright future, which, in his opinion, will not happen unless a revaluation of values ​​occurs. Christianity has outlived its usefulness; it must rightfully give way to the superman. It cultivates weakness and compassion, which are not characteristic of strong people.
It is often mistaken that Nietzsche is an atheist, but this is not true. His phrase “God is dead” is far from atheistic, it only says that the idol has died, that society is ready to accept a new one. He sees the consequences of the death of God and is horrified that this idol will one day finally fall, that it will be impossible to control the masses. For Nietzsche, it doesn’t matter whether God exists or not, what matters to him is whether we believe in him or not. He himself realized that God was dead to him, thereby getting ahead of society and predicting the death of Christian morality. Europe now perceives Christianity no longer as a connecting link in society, but as a historical and cultural heritage that is increasingly becoming an atavism.

The will to power.

The nature of power is also dualistic, like the nature of man. Power not only brings benefits, but also harms. Like any will, it strives to maximize. Strong-willed people must both command and obey. Obedience is not a renunciation of one’s own power, it contains opposition, it is the same as commanding, a form of struggle.
Power is seizure, appropriation, increasing one's potential at the expense of another, increasing strength. The will to power appears when it finds resistance. Nietzsche praised war: “Love peace as a means to new wars. And, moreover, a short peace is greater than a long one... Are you saying that a good goal illuminates war? I tell you that the good of war illuminates every goal.” War is valuable because it reveals the hidden virtues of a person and the most important ones - courage and nobility; war makes people closer to their nature. The will to power is the will to live. Nietzsche is a representative of vitalism; he measures everything not in accordance with good and evil, but with what is natural to life. Life is the highest human value; it can only be realized through the will to power.

The idea of ​​a superman.

The idea of ​​a superman or a “blond beast” occupies the core of Nietzschean teaching. Nietzsche's Zarathustra is often confused with his Superman. Zarathustra only speaks of the future blond beast, he is his forerunner and prophet, he came to prepare the way for a new race of people. In total, there are three main ideas about the Superman in “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”: the first is to remain faithful to the earth, not to believe those who talk about supermundane hopes, the second is the idea of ​​​​eternal return, the superman is not a new stage in evolution, although it has similar with a person external signs, and the third - about the Will to Power, about Being and the essence of life. The Superman accepts the philosophy of "Eternal Return". This is the idea of ​​a world whose eternity is due to endless repetition.
Nietzsche's superman is on the other side of good and evil, he has different values ​​and attitudes, unlike the representative of Christian culture, he denies morality as a restraining factor in the manifestation of his will. The superman himself generates values. This is a race of the strong (in the cultural, not anthropological sense of the word "race"). In this case, the principle of heredity is absent. The greatest temptation - compassion - is not characteristic of him. “...individualism or, in other words, egoism, immoralism remain the property of the chosen one: “Egoism is inherent only in a being who has a noble soul, i.e. one who is unshakably convinced that beings like him, others must obey and sacrifice themselves. In relation to lower beings, everything is permitted and, in any case, falls outside the category of good and evil.”

State and law in the teachings of Nietzsche.

The role of law and the state for Nietzsche is secondary to the idea itself; these are only means, instruments of culture in which wills collide, and the stronger one wins. All history is a clash of two types of wills: the will of masters and the will of slaves.

State.

Nietzsche admires the legal institutions of Ancient Greece, the legislation of Manu, the law of caste, and more precisely, two eras - classical antiquity and the pagan Renaissance. Dividing the types of statehood into two main ones: democratic and aristocratic, he glorifies the latter. If "aristocracy embodies faith in an elite humanity and a higher caste, democracy embodies disbelief in great men and an elite class: "Everyone is equal to everyone." “In essence, we are all collectively self-seeking brutes and rabble.” Democracy or “domination of the crowd” leads to decadence, degeneration of culture; power should belong to the aristocracy, the elite, the minority. Democracy, on a par with socialism, only supports the ideals of Christian morality - humility, submission, sympathy, passivity, which is hostile to the volitional potential of man. Only then will the state be “healthy” and will reveal the potential of a person when it is subordinated to a rigid hierarchy.
Slavery, according to Nietzsche, is necessary. His role is great - a resource is needed to support the small aristocracy. At the same time, Nietzsche does not want slaves to have no rights; for example, he gives them the right to revolt. "Rebellion is the valor of a slave." Only a rebellion, he believes, can reveal flaws in the state, and if it occurs, it is necessary not to punish the rebels, but rather to benefit them.
Nietzsche was not a supporter of any particular theory of the emergence of state and law; his views can be characterized as a mixture of natural law theory and the theory of violence. The state arose through the violent struggle of the strong and the weak. Nietzsche, as a former Darwinist, believes that the progress of society is promoted more by the struggle for primacy than by the struggle for existence. He exalts the role of the individual in history and grants him the right to sacrifice the masses to create a new species of man.
J. Bourdo assesses the political and legal idea of ​​F. Nietzsche: “The state is the enemy of civilization. It is beneficial only when it is headed by a tyrant, “illiberal to the point of cruelty.” The only suitable position in the state for a superior person is that of a dictator.” “Thanks to democratic morality, i.e. thanks to philanthropy and hygiene, the weak, sickly survive, multiply and spoil the race (this is Spencer's opinion). Before people can be improved through education, they must be regenerated through selection. We can only be saved by a new aristocracy, a class of masters approaching the type of superman. Europe must be entirely ruled by these people, the masses must be sacrificed to them, and this will lead humanity to progress.”
Nietzsche was not an anarchist either. Anarchism, as he writes in “The Will to Power,” is only a propaganda tool for socialism, which is not characteristic of life. “Life itself does not want to recognize any solidarity, any equal rights between living and degenerating parts of the organism: the latter must be cut out - otherwise the entire organism will perish.” Equality of rights is contrary to nature, we are all initially unequal, therefore socialism, anarchism and democracy are the deepest injustice and unnaturalness.

Nietzsche wrote in his works that law does not exist from the point of view of the will to power. When wills collide, the one whose will is stronger ultimately wins. The strong win the right.
A great man is allowed to commit crimes. His will is the will of nature, the will of the “strong” from birth, which is won and therefore justified. Nietzsche does not advocate punishment, but repression. "Crime is a rebellion against social order." It indicates problems in society. If this rebellion is massive, then the rebels should be rewarded. However, a “single” riot requires partial or complete imprisonment. A criminal is a courageous person, because... he risked everything: life, honor, freedom. Nietzsche says that morals are changing: previously, punishment purified a person, now it dooms him to isolation, the criminal appears before society as an enemy, which Nietzsche considers wrong.
The right to criminal punishment is essentially a misunderstanding. The right must be acquired by contract; rights and obligations can be claimed only in connection with its violation. Self-defense and self-defense, i.e. Criminal punishment, according to Nietzsche, is the right of the weak, because the weak are not able to defend themselves, and this requires additional support from the state. In general, a society that denies war and force is decadent. Peace is just a break and rest between wars.
Nietzsche considered the philosophy of law to be an insufficiently developed legal science. He condemned many theorists for insufficient argumentation and the idea taken as a basis. He himself believed that it was necessary to take into account the cultural and historical aspect, in which he was close to the civilizational approach.

Nietzsche's influence on society.

Ordinary people and government and public figures were greatly impressed by the works of Nietzsche; many supporters and opponents arose, which indicates the difficulty in understanding his teachings. Very often his words about the Superman, about the opposition of wills, are misinterpreted. This has a detrimental effect on individuals, for example: one young man killed his bride to show that he was strong in his will. He believed that this was what Nietzsche's teaching was telling him. As a consequence, it can be assumed that people with low will see in his words only violence and suppression, the disclosure of animal instincts towards destructiveness. Nietzsche writes about the will of masters and the will of slaves; he only states a fact, but does not strive for everyone to show or increase their “master’s will.” Thoughts and ideas do not always need to be put into practice; the transition from “eidos” to practice can even shift the original idea to one extreme or another; proportionality is very important here. Georges Bataille is the only person who put Nietzsche's teachings into practice; moreover, he devoted his entire life to him. He earned worldwide recognition as the man who “understood” Nietzsche. He wrote about Nietzsche: “No one can reliably read Nietzsche without “becoming” Nietzsche.”
Nietzsche had an effect not only on ordinary people, but also on entire parties and movements: socialists, despite Nietzsche’s ardent anti-socialist protests, recognized him as one of their own. His teachings were accepted by the entire society and were entrenched in history through A. Hitler, B. Mussolini and their supporters.
But were his words correctly interpreted by the fascist and Nazi movements of the early 20th century? Hitler read Nietzsche, many historians confirm this fact. Nietzsche's sister contributed in every possible way to the recognition of Nietzsche as an ideologist of National Socialism. Mussolini also recognized and placed him above all philosophers. Despite their differences, similarities with Nietzscheanism can be found in their ideologies. The National Socialists borrowed much from his teachings: the idea of ​​a superman, a rigid hierarchy, the idea of ​​the inequality of people, futurism, building a new society, replacing God with racial chosenness, replacing the cross in churches with a swastika, anti-socialism, “revaluation of values,” individualism. Although Hitler’s party was called National Socialist, only the name remained of socialism; it was a party of “burghers”, capitalists. If we compare the movements of Mussolini and Hitler, the latter’s party was closest to the Nietzschean ideal. In addition, war as a means of peace is one of the main motives of Hitler's doctrine.

Conclusion
The political and legal aspect of the teachings of F. Nietzsche is considered from the point of view of the main theses; his judgments about politics and law are affected to a greater extent. The concept of opposition of wills, Nietzsche's ideal state is considered (although he did not consider himself a utopian, his ideas are still difficult to implement today). Nietzsche is unique; there is not a single philosopher even resembling him. All his books are a rebellion against the existing order. He oozes style. Many critics argue that behind the style he forgets about the idea, but this is not so. His philosophy is different in that it does not have a clear structure and forms, as is customary in the classical German school of philosophy, but his ideas make the reader think, and everyone finds their own understanding in them. My goal was not so much to illuminate my understanding of Nietzsche, but to understand and convey what he really is - without ideology and propaganda.

Reviews

It is wonderful that you set out to try to understand the philosopher as he is, that is, in isolation from the labels hung on him both by individual authors and by masses. The only bad thing is that it didn’t work out very well for you. You write:

"...The greatest temptation - compassion - is not characteristic of him [the superman]. "...individualism or, in other words, egoism, immoralism remain the property of the chosen one: “Egoism is inherent only in a being who has a noble soul, i.e. one who is unshakably convinced that others like him must obey and sacrifice themselves in relation to lower beings, everything is permissible and in any case falls outside the category of good and evil."

This alone is already fascism. At least, starting from the accepted truth of this position, one can deduce and “justify” the entire fascist ideology, which boils down to the unlimited dictate of the “higher” over the “lower”.

You also wrote at the beginning that Nietzsche’s radicalism is only a myth generated by the consciousness of the masses, and then below we read: “Nietzsche, as a former Darwinist, believes that the progress of society is more promoted by the struggle for primacy than the struggle for existence. He exalts the role of the individual in history and grants it the right to sacrifice the masses to create a new species of man." And this is not radicalism?

The daily audience of the portal Stikhi.ru is about 200 thousand visitors, who in total view more than two million pages according to the traffic counter, which is located to the right of this text. Each column contains two numbers: the number of views and the number of visitors.

Nietzsche's Philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the most complex philosophers of the 19th century. His ideas are accepted in completely different ways, the only thing that can be said is that there are no people indifferent to his ideas. Friedrich Nietzsche is a man about whom history has had an ambivalent impression. A person who is impossible to read without experiencing any emotions. You can either accept or hate this thinker. Nietzsche's philosophy has long been associated with Nazism and fascism, in particular with the ideology of the superior Aryan race.

To this day, Nietzsche is accused of being the founder of the fascist view of the world and it is he who is to blame for the fact that Hitler promoted and began to use the idea of ​​​​the famous “blond beast”. Nietzsche himself said that his philosophy would be accepted and understood only 200 years after his death.

Philosophy of Nietzsche. Life and art.

Years of life of Friedrich Nietzsche 1844 - 1900. It is interesting that his whole life was accompanied by terrible headaches, which eventually led him to madness. The fate of the philosopher is quite unique. Initially, Nietzsche in no way connects his life path and work with philosophy. He was born into a fairly religious family and had a good upbringing. His mother instilled in him a love of music and in the future, he will be very good at playing musical instruments. Nietzsche's interest in philosophy manifested itself in his student years, when he was training as a future philologist. Nietzsche was not an ardent admirer of philology. It is known that for some time he was even seriously interested in the natural sciences, and in particular chemistry. However, without a doctorate, without a candidate's thesis, already at 24 years old, he becomes the youngest professor in the field of philology.

In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War begins and Nietzsche asks to volunteer as a soldier or orderly. The government gives him permission to go to the front as a medical orderly. Having become a nurse, he sees all the pain and dirt on the battlefield of this war. During the war, he himself had to be on the brink of death more than once. Returning home, he again engaged in university affairs, but over time he announced his retirement from philology, saying that he felt stuffy and could not do his favorite thing, creativity, namely composing and writing books.

At the age of 35, Nietzsche left philology. He lives on a fairly modest pension and writes a lot. Just two years later, Germany will start talking about him not as a philologist, but as a very talented philosopher.

Basic philosophical ideas

His new philosophical ideas became very popular because they were unusual and original. The views he promoted were impossible to ignore. The Anti-Christian Philosophy of Nietzsche: A Work entitled "The Anti-Christian". In this work, Nietzsche calls on humanity to make a total reassessment of the values ​​of the previous culture, first of all, Christian culture. Christian culture and morality literally infuriated the author; he hated it with all his being.

What irritated Nietzsche so much about Christianity? Nietzsche says that in fact, if we try to answer for ourselves the question: “can there be equality between people?” (namely, this is one of the ideas of the Christian religion), then we will inevitably answer “NO.” There cannot be any equality, because initially, someone can, knows and can do more than others.

Nietzsche distinguishes two classes of people, people with a strong will to power, and people with a weak will to power. Those who have a weak will to power outnumber the former many times over. Nietzsche says that Christianity glorifies and places on a pedestal the majority (that is, people with a weak will to power). This majority is not fighters by nature. They are the weak link of humanity. They do not have the spirit of confrontation, they are not a catalyst for the progress of humanity. Another idea of ​​Christianity, to which Nietzsche was extremely categorical, is the biblical commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Nietzsche says, “How is it possible to love a neighbor who may be lazy, who behaves terribly. A neighbor who smells bad, or is infinitely stupid.” He asks the question “Why should I love such a person?” Nietzsche's philosophy on this issue is; If I am destined to love someone in this world, then only “my distant one.” For the simple reason, because the less I know about a person, the further he is from me, the less I risk being disappointed in him.

Christian charity also came under fire from Friedrich Nietzsche. In his opinion; By helping the poor, the sick, the weak and all those in need, Christianity puts on a mask of hypocrisy. Nietzsche seems to accuse Christianity of protecting and promoting weak and unviable elements. If they are exposed to these elements (that is, people), they will die because they are not able to fight for their existence. The main principle of this idea, according to Nietzsche, is that by helping and being compassionate, a person himself becomes weak over time, thereby becoming an unviable element. By helping and becoming merciful, a person contradicts nature itself, which destroys the weak.

Nietzsche's philosophy: Interaction of conscious and subconscious elements, or “Will to Power” This idea is that the entire content of our consciousness, which we are so proud of, is determined by deep, life aspirations (unconscious mechanisms). What are these mechanisms? Nietzsche introduces the term “Will to Power” to denote them. This term denotes a blind, unconscious instinctive movement. This is the most powerful impulse that controls this world. “Will” in his understanding, Nietzsche divides into four parts the will to live, the internal will, the unconscious will and the will to power. All living beings have the will to power.

The will to power is defined by Nietzsche as the ultimate principle. We find the action of this principle everywhere, at any stage of existence, either to a greater or lesser extent. Nietzsche's philosophy: “Thus spoke Zarathustra,” or the idea of ​​the superman. Who is superman, according to Nietzsche? Of course, this is a person with enormous will. This is a person who controls not only his own destiny, but also the destinies of others. The superman is the bearer of new values, norms, and moral guidelines.

The superman must be deprived; generally accepted moral standards, mercy, he has his own, new view of the world. A superman can only be called someone who is deprived of conscience, because it is she who controls the inner world of man. Conscience has no statute of limitations; it can drive you crazy and lead to suicide. The superman must be free from its shackles.

The philosophy of Nietzsche, his superman and Nietzsche himself appears before us, not in a very attractive form, but here I would like to explain that Nietzsche endowed the superman with creative, spiritual qualities, complete concentration on power, and absolute self-control. Nietzsche says that a superman should be characterized by super individualism (for example, in contrast to modernity, where a person’s personality is completely leveled). The superman has a strong individuality and strives for self-improvement. In his work, the philosopher clearly says that the dominance of the superman can only be in the spiritual sphere, that is, not in the sphere of politics, economics, or Law, “only the dominance of the spirit.” Therefore, it would be wrong to consider Nietzsche the founder of fascism.

Nietzsche's philosophy: slave morality and master morality. Nietzsche says that master morality is a high degree of self-respect. This is the feeling of being a person, a person with a capital P, when a person can say about himself, I am the master of the spirit. The morality of slaves is the morality of usefulness, cowardice and pettiness. When a person humbly accepts humiliation for his own benefit.

Friedrich Nietzsche is a great German philosopher and writer. His outer life is very uneventful, but his inner life is an amazing emotional drama, told with touching lyricism. Nietzsche's entire rich literary heritage can be considered as artistic autobiography. However, great critical caution is required here. Individual paradoxes of Friedrich Nietzsche, snatched from the general context of his worldview and divorced from the lyrical-psychological soil that nurtured them, served as a considerable source of temptation and embarrassment for unprepared people. The true meaning of Nietzsche's philosophy will become clear only to those who patiently follow all the stages of his bizarre and painful spiritual growth.

Friedrich Nietzsche. Photo taken in Basel ca. 1875

Friedrich Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844 in the poor village of Röcken on the border of Prussia and Saxony and was the son of a Lutheran pastor. His father died at a young age from a serious mental illness, when Nietzsche was a child. In his adolescence and early youth, Nietzsche willingly prepared for the pastorate. He received his secondary education at the famous Naumburg Pforte school, where he was enrolled at the age of 14. Nietzsche was a good student and did not experience any philosophical anxieties or doubts on the gymnasium bench. He had a tender affection for his family and always looked forward to the possibility of vacation with extreme impatience. In 1862, Friedrich entered the University of Bonn and immediately specialized in classical philology. As a freshman, he made an unsuccessful attempt to preach to the students the improvement and purification of traditional corporate life, and after that he always kept aloof from the comrade masses. A little later, Nietzsche moved to the University of Leipzig, where he soon began to feel more comfortable.

In Leipzig, among diligent, but far from inspired studies of ancient languages, he accidentally read Schopenhauer’s book “The World as Will and Idea,” and this accident for a long time predetermined the main direction of his mental interests. Schopenhauer became Nietzsche's first philosophical love, who was delighted with his constant readiness to go against all official trends and fearlessly tell his contemporaries the most bitter truth. Nietzsche began to highly value Schopenhauer's penetrating understanding of world-historical tragedy and the unshakable heroism of questioning thought.

The philological works of Nietzsche's student attracted the attention of foreign scientists, and in 1868, before receiving a university diploma, the University of Basel offered him a professorship in the department of Greek literature. At the insistence of his teacher, the famous scientist Ritschl, Nietzsche accepted this invitation. After this, the doctoral exam was just a pleasant formality for him. Having settled in Basel, Nietzsche soon, to his great joy, met and became close to the famous composer Richard Wagner, and this friendship marked a very important step in the spiritual evolution of Friedrich Nietzsche. “In everything that exists, Wagner noticed a single world life - with him everything speaks and nothing is silent,” - this is how Nietzsche characterizes the philosophical merit of his new inspirer.

Friedrich Nietzsche. Drawing by H. Olde, 1899

Nietzsche, who spent the last 10 years of his life suffering from paralytic dementia, died on August 25, 1900 in Weimar. His sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche established a rich and interesting “Friedrich Nietzsche Museum” in this city.

The name of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most famous in the world. His main ideas are imbued with the spirit of nihilism and harsh, sobering criticism of the current situation in science and worldview. Nietzsche's brief philosophy includes several basic points. We should start by mentioning the sources of the thinker’s views, namely, Schopenhauer’s metaphysics and Darwin’s law of the struggle for existence. Although these theories influenced Nietzsche's ideas, he subjected them to serious criticism in his works. Nevertheless, the idea of ​​​​the struggle of the strongest and weakest for existence in a given world led to the fact that he was imbued with the desire to create a certain ideal of man - the so-called “superman”. Nietzsche's philosophy of life, briefly speaking, includes the principles that are described below. Philosophy of life From the point of view of a philosopher, life is given to the knowing subject in the form of the only reality that exists for a certain person. If we highlight the main idea, Nietzsche's brief philosophy denies the identification of mind and life. The well-known statement “I think, therefore I am” is subject to severe criticism. Life is generally understood primarily as a constant struggle of opposing forces. Here the concept of will, namely the will to it, comes to the fore.

Will to power

In fact, Nietzsche’s entire mature philosophy comes down to a description of this phenomenon. A brief summary of this idea can be summarized as follows. The will to power is not a banal desire for dominance, for command. This is the essence of life. This is the creative, active, active nature of the forces that make up existence. Nietzsche asserted will as the basis of the world. Since the entire universe is chaos, a series of accidents and disorder, it is she (and not the mind) that is the cause of everything. In connection with ideas about the will to power, the “superman” appears in Nietzsche’s writings.

Superman

He appears as a kind of ideal, a starting point around which Nietzsche’s brief philosophy is centered. Since all norms, ideals and rules are nothing more than a fiction created by Christianity (which inculcates slave morality and the idealization of weakness and suffering), the superman crushes them on his path. From this point of view, the idea of ​​God as the product of the cowardly and weak is rejected. In general, Nietzsche’s brief philosophy considers the idea of ​​Christianity as the implantation of a slave worldview with the goal of making the strong weak and elevating the weak to an ideal. The superman, personifying the will to power, is called upon to destroy all this lies and pain in the world. Christian ideas are seen as hostile to life, as denying it.

True Being

Friedrich Nietzsche fiercely criticized the opposition of a certain “true” to the empirical. Supposedly there must be some better world, opposite to the one in which a person lives. According to Nietzsche, the denial of the correctness of reality leads to the denial of life, to decadence. This should also include the concept of absolute being. It does not exist, there is only the eternal cycle of life, countless repetitions of everything that has already taken place.

Name: Friedrich Nietzsche

Age: 55 years

Height: 173

Activity: thinker, philologist, composer, poet

Family status: wasn't married

Friedrich Nietzsche: biography

Friedrich Nietzsche is a German philosopher, thinker, poet and even composer. His non-academic teachings became widespread not only in the scientific and philosophical community, but also far beyond its borders. Nietzsche questioned the key principles of the norms of culture and morality, social and political relations generally accepted in the 19th-20th centuries. The philosopher’s concept still causes a lot of controversy and disagreement to this day.

Childhood and youth

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844 in the village of Röcken, located near Leipzig. His father, Carl Ludwig Nietzsche, as well as both of his grandfathers, were Lutheran ministers. A few years later, the boy had a sister, Elisabeth, and a couple of years later, a brother, Ludwig Joseph. Friedrich's younger brother died in 1849, and his sister lived a long life and passed away in 1935.

Soon after the birth of his youngest son, Carl Ludwig Nietzsche died. His mother took full responsibility for raising Friedrich. This continued until 1858, when the matured young man went to get an education at the prestigious Pforta gymnasium. The time he studied at the gymnasium became fateful for Nietzsche: there he first began to write, became interested in reading ancient texts, and even experienced an irresistible desire to devote himself to music. There, Friedrich became acquainted with the works of Byron, Schiller, Hölderlin, and the works of Wagner.

In 1862, Nietzsche began his studies at the University of Bonn, choosing philology and theology. The young student soon became bored with student life; In addition to this, he did not have good relationships with his classmates, to whom he tried to instill a progressive worldview. Therefore, Friedrich soon transferred to the University of Leipzig. One day, while walking around the city, he accidentally wandered into an old bookshop and purchased the work “The World as Will and Representation.” The book greatly impressed Nietzsche and influenced his development as a philosopher.

Friedrich's studies at the Faculty of Philology at the University of Leipzig went brilliantly: already at the age of 24, the guy was invited to teach classical philology as a professor at the University of Basel. This was the first time in the European higher education system that such a young scientist was allowed to receive the status of professor. However, Nietzsche himself did not take much pleasure in his studies, although he did not refuse to build a professorial career.

However, the philosopher did not work for long as a teacher. Upon taking up this post, he decided to renounce his Prussian citizenship (the University of Basel is located in Switzerland). Therefore, Nietzsche could not participate in the Franco-Prussian War, which took place in 1870. Switzerland took a neutral position in this confrontation and therefore allowed the professor only to work as an orderly.

Friedrich Nietzsche was not in good health since childhood. So, at the age of eighteen he suffered from insomnia and migraines, at the age of thirty, in addition to this, he became practically blind and began to experience stomach problems. He completed his work in Basel in 1879, after which he began to receive a pension and began to work closely on writing books, without ceasing to fight the disease.

Philosophy

Friedrich Nietzsche's first book was published in 1872 and was entitled The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music. Before this, the philosopher had submitted a number of scientific articles for publication, but had not yet published full-fledged books. His first serious work consists of 25 chapters.

In the first 15, Nietzsche tries to establish what Greek tragedy is, and in the last 10, he talks and discusses Wagner, with whom he met and was friends for some time (until the composer converted to Christianity).

"Thus spoke Zarathustra"

No other work by a philosopher can claim the level of popularity of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Friedrich Nietzsche received the main ideas for his famous work thanks to a trip to Rome at the end of the 19th century. There he met the writer, therapist and philosopher Lou Salome. Nietzsche found her a pleasant listener and was fascinated by the flexibility of her mind. He even tried to propose to her, but Lou Salome chose friendship over marriage.

Soon Nietzsche and Salome quarreled and never communicated again. After this, Frederick wrote the first part of the work “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” in which modern researchers unmistakably guess the influence of the philosopher’s soulmate and ideas about their “ideal friendship.” The second and third parts of the work were published in 1884, and the fourth appeared in print in 1885. Nietzsche published 40 of them at his own expense.

The style of this work changes as the narrative progresses: it turns out to be poetic, comic, and again close to poetry. In the book, Frederick first introduced the term superman, and also began to develop the theory of the will to power. At that time, these ideas were poorly developed, and he subsequently developed his concept in the works “Beyond Good and Evil” and “Towards the Genealogy of Morality.” The fourth book of the work is dedicated to the story of how Zarathustra ridiculed the hated admirers of his own teaching.

Will to power

Almost all of the philosopher’s works run through the morality of the will to power as the basic concept of his theory. According to Nietzsche, dominion represents the primary nature, the fundamental principle of existence, as well as a way of existence. In this regard, Frederick contrasted the will to power with goal setting. He said that choosing a goal and moving towards it can already be called a full-fledged act of power.

Death of God

Friedrich Nietzsche was actively interested in issues of religion and death. “God is dead” is one of his famous postulates. The philosopher explained this statement as an increase in nihilism, which was a consequence of the devaluation of the supersensible foundations of life directions.

The scientist also criticized Christianity for the fact that this religion prefers being in the afterlife to life in the real world. The author dedicated the book “Antichrist” to this topic. A curse on Christianity." Friedrich Nietzsche first expressed his nihilistic position in the book “Human is All Too Human,” which was published in 1876.

Personal life

Friedrich Nietzsche repeatedly changed his views on the female sex, so the popularity of his quote “Women are the source of all stupidity and unreason in the world” does not fully reflect his views. Thus, the philosopher managed to be a misogynist, a feminist, and an antifeminist. At the same time, his only love was probably Lou Salome. There is no information about the philosopher’s relationships with other women.

For many years, the biography of the philosopher was closely connected with the life path of his sister Elizabeth, who took care of her brother and helped him. However, gradually discord began in these relations. Elisabeth Nietzsche's husband was Bernard Foerster, one of the ideologists of the anti-Semitic movement. She even went with her husband to Paraguay, where supporters of this movement intended to create a German colony. Due to financial difficulties, Förster soon committed suicide, and the widow returned to her native country.

Nietzsche did not share his sister's anti-Semitic views and criticized her for such a position. Relations between brother and sister improved only towards the end of the latter’s life, when he, weakened by illness, needed help and care. As a result, Elizabeth gained the opportunity to dispose of her brother's literary works. She sent Nietzsche's works for publication only after making her own edits, as a result of which some provisions of the philosopher's teaching were distorted.

In 1930, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche supported the Nazi regime and invited her to become an honored guest of the Nietzsche Museum-Archive, which she created. The leader of the fascist movement was pleased with the visits and awarded the philosopher’s sister a lifelong pension. This was partly the reason that Nietzsche is often associated in the minds of ordinary people with fascist ideology.

Death

The philosopher often found himself misunderstood both by his close people and by the general public. His ideology began to gain popularity only in the late 1880s, and at the beginning of the 20th century his works were translated into many languages ​​of the world. In 1889, Friedrich Nietzsche's creative work ceased due to clouding of his mind.

There is an opinion that the philosopher was shocked by the scene of the horse being beaten. This seizure became the cause of a progressive mental illness. The writer spent the last months of his life in a Basel mental hospital. After some time, his elderly mother took him to his parents' house, but she soon died, which is why the philosopher received an apoplexy.

Bibliography

• "The Birth of Tragedy, or Hellenism and Pessimism"
• "Untimely Thoughts"
• “Human, all too human. A book for free minds"
• "Morning dawn, or thoughts about moral prejudices"
• "Fun Science"
• “Thus spoke Zarathustra. A book for everyone and no one"
• “Beyond good and evil. Prelude to the philosophy of the future"
• “Toward the genealogy of morality. Polemical essay"
• "Case Wagner"
• "Twilight of the Idols, or how one philosophizes with a hammer"
• "Antichrist. A curse on Christianity"
• “Ecce Homo. How to become yourself"
• "The Will to Power"