Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher, philologist, and cultural critic whose work has had a lasting influence on modern thought. Born in Röcken, Prussia, he studied classical philology at Bonn and Leipzig and spent much of his early career as a professor at Basel. Ill health led to a reduced teaching role and a prolific, turbulent period of writing from the 1870s onward. He suffered a mental collapse in 1889 and spent the remaining years of his life in the care of family; he died in 1900 in Weimar.

Nietzsche challenged traditional moral and religious authorities and argued that long-standing metaphysical claims should be questioned. He proclaimed that God is dead, signaling a crisis of modernity, and analyzed how morality had arisen to serve particular social interests, notably in the contrast between master and slave morality. His method emphasized perspectivism—the view that knowledge reflects different perspectives rather than absolute truths—and the will to power as a fundamental, life-affirming drive. He also developed the idea of the eternal recurrence as a thought experiment about living with radical consequence.

Major works include The Birth of Tragedy (1872), which contrasted Apollonian and Dionysian forces; Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–85), introducing the concept of the Übermensch; Beyond Good and Evil (1886); On the Genealogy of Morality (1887); The Antichrist (1895); Twilight of the Idols (1889); and The Gay Science (1882), which contains the famous proclamation about God’s death. Nietzsche’s style is often aphoristic and provocative.

Nietzsche’s ideas influenced existentialism, post-structuralism, and contemporary philosophy, while also attracting diverse interpretations and misuse. His critique of inherited values and emphasis on self-overcoming continue to shape debates about meaning, culture, and power.