Friedrich Nietzsche

(1844 – 1900)

German philosopher and philologist. His works had a profound influence on modern intellectual history, especially schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism, post-structuralism and cultural criticism.

His philosophy has always been highly controversial and has been prone to misinterpretation and various different readings. He produced a large body of eccentric works that contain a scattered and oftentimes unsystematic collection of philosophical thoughts and ideas, impressions, opinions and poems. His style is evocative and poetic, full of aphorisms, and always with a sense for irony and humour.

Nietzsche’s philosophy can generally be described as perspectivism and he particularly preoccupied himself with morality. In one his most brilliant and coherent later works, the Genealogy of Morals (1887), he traces the evolution of moral concepts and shows how what was once considered universally morally good within a society, can transform into something considered morally bad.

On the example of the pre-Judeo-Christian world, he hows how good used to denote what is noble, life-affirming, individual and powerful.
With the rise of Christianity, the very opposite values began to be considered morally good; conformity, piety, self-denial and asceticism.
Nietzsche does not preoccupy himself with saying what is morally good, or what a philosophical standard for that would entail, but he wants to show that the content of language and concepts changes. According to him, there is no universal morality that would stay the same forever, rather, as he shows, ideas of what is good and moral change throughout time.
He states that it is up to the individual to create his own moral compass and values and stand behind them (since there is no universal standard to appeal to).

Nietzsche is often described as a nihilist, a philosophical view which generally refers to the rejection of the idea of objective truth, knowledge, morality and meaning. While it is true that his ideas fall into this category, it is important to note that Nietzsche articulated nihilism as a critique of his contemporary age. His philosophy was meant to provide a solution out of the nihilism, rather than affirm it.

In his time, he saw the decline of Christianity and its values (encapsulated in his much quoted and misinterpreted statement “God is dead”), the rise of hedonism and decadence as instruments of nihilism that are emptying the world and human experience of meaning, purpose, truth and value.
His philosophy is meant to pave way out of the nihilist condition. He advocated for the affirmation of life and the necessity of the individual to create his own values and meaning
Similar to Schopenhauer, he saw the human will as a creative force that has the ability to create and craft values and meaning in a process of self-determination (that is, actualising one’s will onto the self and the external world).

Nietzsche was striving to pave way for the individual self-actualisation of people, in contrast to conformity and herd mentality. In this, he articulated two fundamental ideas towards this goal:

Eternal return (also referred to as eternal recurrence) – one of the central concepts in Nietzsche’s philosophy that appears in many of his works.

The idea is originally posed as a question: “What would you do if a demon came and told you that you have to repeat your life over and over again into infinity? Would you despair or see it as a most divine news?”

The question is meant to force a reflection on how one lives their life. If reality is in a state of eternal recurrence, you have to live your life fully and true to yourself, making the most of any moment, as you will have to do it all over again forever – so you should live your life as authentically and true to yourself as you can.

The Übermensch (Superman) – a concept most vividly articular in his fictional work Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). In the work, Nietzsche presents the character of Zarathustra as a modern day prophet, who after spending ten years living in solitude on a mountain, has decided to return to people and share his wisdom.

Zarathustra present the Übermensch as creator of new values, who does not follow the herd morality, but rises above the notions of good and evil.
The Übermensch is thus a goal on the journey of spiritual evolution, self-awareness and the overcoming of traditional views on morality and justice that stem from beliefs and notions rooted in Christianity.