Nietzsche's Thinking and Discourse

Nietzsche as a young man viewed the purpose of the philosopher in much the same light as did Plato--he saw the philosopher as the physician of a culture, identifying and curing its ills. Nietzsche's mode of discourse was lofty and ennobling but also difficult for many to understand, and some see his works as evidence of the moribund nature of late romanticism in the nineteenth century. Most readers tend to place Nietzsche within the terms of traditional thought, finding that he is fully bound by the tradition he attacks, meaning "by what has now come to be called the language and thought of onto-theology, what Nietzsche himself simply called God."

Critics have addressed different aspects of Nietzsche's thinking. In pursuing his view, Nietzsche made a very critical analysis of the German culture of his time in several of his works, beginning with his assessment of history and culture in The Birth of Tragedy and modified in later works as he rethought his position and changed some of his views. Nietzsche makes a comparison between historical knowledge about past cultures and culture itself. He sees true culture as a unity of the forces of life with the love of form and beauty. Nietzsche considers life as terrible and tragic, but he also views it as transmuted through art, the work of creative genius. Nietzsche discovers the proper role of art in his study of the Greeks, who also knew that life was tragic and terrible but who never gave in to the pessimism that this m

Related Essays

Nietzsche and Latin American Literature .... of the past, the archaeology that is the starting point for an exercise in critical thinking about social .... DF Bouchard and S. Simon. .... vii-x. Nietzsche, Friedrich .... (3325 13 )

Influence of Nietzsche on Latin American Literature .... of the past, the archaeology that is the starting point for an exercise in critical thinking about social .... DF Bouchard and S. Simon. .... vii-x. Nietzsche, Friedrich .... (3325 13 )

Nietzsche's Critical Aesthetics .... and his writing, however, can be traced and can be related to changes in Nietzsche's thinking. .... Stauth, George and Bryan S. Turner, Nietzsche's Dance. .... (2615 10 )

Nietzsche's Attack on Wagner .... or contemporaneously with that break and thus as one of the reasons for the shift in his thinking. .... Stauth, George and Bryan S. Turner, Nietzsche's Dance. .... (2711 11 )

Metaphors and Their Function .... lends dignity to diction and "raise[s it] above .... and is more general than thinking, fancying, or .... issue assumes special importance for Nietzsche, who acknowledges .... (3475 14 )

Modern Occultism & New Age Thought .... elaborated by such diverse thinkers as Nietzsche, Sartre, and .... signs or signifiers) of subculture(s) within the .... rocket off their cradles just by thinking at them .... (5828 23 )

Category: Philosophy - N