Nietzsche's Historical Philosophizing

1. In Human, All Too Human, Friedrich Nietzsche offers a new method for investigating philosophy by holding that what he calls "historical philosophizing" is a scientific method that will challenge traditional metaphysics. In this work, Nietzsche presents his ideas in terms of aphorisms of varying lengths, a method of writing that allows the philosopher to identify and explain separate ideas while at the same time linking those ideas into a larger whole. Nietzsche offers himself as an example of the "free spirit" who can utilize his own history as a source of his philosophy. This emphasis on subjectivity is one of the things that links Nietzsche with the existentialists, as does his rejection of the superiority of any philosophical system. Nietzsche's method may be subjective, but he is also determined to avoid the mistakes he sees in others who write from a similar perspective. He writes, "Most thinkers write badly because they tell us not only their thoughts but also the thinking of the thoughts." Nietzsche writes from a high level of abstraction and maintains his focus, keeping his thoughts to the point in a very powerful way. The personal becomes the general not because Nietzsche softens the specifically subjective nature of his thought but because of the power and unity with which he expresses each idea as drawn from his own direct observation and thought.

2. Existentialism is the term used to refer to a number of related philosophical points of view which be

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