Most Popular Books by Friedrich Nietzsche

One of the most remarkable and influential books of the nineteenth century—Nietzsche's attempt to sum up his philosophy. In nine parts the book is designed to give the reader a comprehensive idea of Nietzsche's thought and style: they span "The Prejudices of Philsophers," "The Free Spirit," religion, morals, scholarship, "Our Virtues," "Peoples and Fatherlands," and "What Is Noble," as well as epigrams and a concluding poem. This translation by Walter Kaufmann has become the standard one, for accuracy and fidelity to the eccentricities and grace of the style of the original. The translation is based on the only edition Nietzsche himself published, and all variant reading in later editions. This volume offers an inclusive index of subjects and persons, as well as a running footnote commentary on the text.

'God is dead ... but given the ways of men, perhaps for millennia to come there will be caves in which his shadow will be shown' Friedrich Nietzsche described The Joyous Science as a book of 'exuberance, restlessness, contrariety and April showers'. A deeply personal and affirmative work, it straddles his middle and late periods and contains some of the most important ideas he would ever express in writing. Moving from a critique of conventional morality, the arts and modernity to an exhilarating doctrine of self-emancipation, this playful combination of aphorisms, poetry and prose is a treasure trove of philosophical insights, brought to new life in R. Kevin Hill's clear, graceful translation. Translated and edited with an introduction and notes by R. Kevin Hill

Human, All Too Human Friedrich Nietzsche - Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits (German: Menschliches, Allzumenschliches: Ein Buch für freie Geister) is a book by 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, originally published in 1878. A second part, Assorted Opinions and Maxims (Vermischte Meinungen und Sprüche), was published in 1879, and a third part, The Wanderer and his Shadow (Der Wanderer und sein Schatten), followed in 1880.The book is Nietzsche's first in the aphoristic style that would come to dominate his writings, discussing a variety of concepts in short paragraphs or sayings. Reflecting an admiration of Voltaire as a free thinker, but also a break in his friendship with composer Richard Wagner two years earlier, Nietzsche dedicated the original 1878 edition of Human, All Too Human to the memory of Voltaire on the celebration of the anniversary of his death, May 30, 1778. Instead of a preface, the first part originally included a quotation from Descartes's Discourse on the Method. Nietzsche later republished all three parts as a two-volume edition in 1886, adding a preface to each volume, and removing the Descartes quote as well as the dedication to Voltaire.This book represents the beginning of Nietzsche's "middle period", with a break from German Romanticism and from Wagner and with a definite positivist slant. Reluctant to construct a systematic philosophy, this book comprises more a collection of debunkings of unwarranted assumptions than an interpretation and "contains the seeds of concepts crucial to Nietzsche's later philosophy, such as the need to transcend conventional Christian morality";:back page he uses his perspectivism and the idea of the will to power as explanatory devices, though the latter remains less developed than in his later thought.

The book Nietzsche called "the most personal of all my books." It was here that he first proclaimed the death of God—to which a large part of the book is devoted—and his doctrine of the eternal recurrence. Walter Kaufmann's commentary, with its many quotations from previously untranslated letters, brings to life Nietzsche as a human being and illuminates his philosophy. The book contains some of Nietzsche's most sustained discussions of art and morality, knowledge and truth, the intellectual conscience and the origin of logic. Most of the book was written just before Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the last part five years later, after Beyond Good and Evil. We encounter Zarathustra in these pages as well as many of Nietzsche's most interesting philosophical ideas and the largest collection of his own poetry that he himself ever published. Walter Kaufmann's English versions of Nietzsche represent one of the major translation enterprises of our time. He is the first philosopher to have translated Nietzsche's major works, and never before has a single translator given us so much of Nietzsche.

Originally published: Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969.

'I am not a man, I am dynamite.' Ecce Homo is an autobiography like no other. Deliberately provocative, Nietzsche subverts the conventions of the genre and pushes his philosophical positions to combative extremes, constructing a genius-hero whose life is a chronicle of incessant self-overcoming. Written in 1888, a few weeks before his descent into madness, the book sub-titled 'How To Become What You Are' passes under review all Nietzsche's previous works so that we, his 'posthumous' readers, can finally understand him aright, on his own terms. He reaches final reckonings with his many enemies - Richard Wagner, German nationalism, 'modern men' in general - and above all Christianity, proclaiming himself the Antichrist. Ecce Homo is the summation of an extraordinary philosophical career, a last great testament to Nietzsche's will.

The Genealogy of Morals Friedrich Nietzsche - Nietzsche claimed that the purpose of The Genealogy of Morals was to call attention to his previous writings. But in fact the book does much more than that, elucidating and expanding on the cryptic aphorisms of Beyond Good and Evil and signalling a return to the essay form. In these three essays, Nietzsche considers the development of ideas of 'good' and 'evil'; explores notions of guilt and bad consience; and discusses ascetic ideals and the purpose of the philosopher. Together, they form a coherent and complex discussion of morality in a work that is more accessible than some of Nietzsche's previous writings.Friedrich Nietzsche was born near Leipzig in 1844. When he was only twenty-four he was appointed to the chair of classical philology at Basel University. From 1880, however, he divorced himself from everyday life and lived mainly abroad. Works published in the 1880s include The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals, Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist. In January 1889, Nietzsche collapsed on a street in Turin and was subsequently institutionalized, spending the rest of his life in a condition of mental and physical paralysis. Works published after his death in 1900 include Will to Power, based on his notebooks, and Ecce Homo, his autobiography.Michael A. Scarpitti is an independent scholar of philosophy whose principal interests include English and German thought of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as exegesis and translation theory.Robert C. Holub is currently Ohio Eminent Scholar and Professor of German at the Ohio State University. Among his published works are monographs on Heinrich Heine, German realism, Friedrich Nietzsche, literary and aesthetic theory, and Jürgen Habermas.

"While life needs the services of history, it must just as clearly be comprehended that an excess measure of history will do harm to the living," declares Friedrich Nietzsche in this cautionary polemic. The iconoclastic philosopher warns us about the dangers of an uncritical devotion to the study of the past, which leads to destructive and limiting results — particularly in cases where long-ago events are exploited for nationalistic purposes. Nietzsche proposes three approaches to times gone by: the monumental, focusing on examples of human greatness; the antiquarian, involving immersion in a bygone period; and the critical, rejecting the old in favor of the new. He examines the pros and cons of each concept, favoring how the ancient Greeks looked at things, which balanced a consciousness of yesteryear with contemporary intellectual, cultural, and political sensibilities. Nietzsche’s emphasis on history as a dynamic, living culture rather than the subject of detached scholarship is certain to resonate with modern readers.

"Twilight of the Idols means that the old truth is on its last legs," declared Friedrich Nietzsche in this 1889 polemic. Forceful in his language and profound in his message, the philosopher delivered the nineteenth century's most devastating attack on Christianity. Intended by Nietzsche as a general introduction to his philosophy, it assails the "idols" of Western philosophy and culture, including the concepts of Socratic rationality and Christian morality. Written while Nietzsche was at the peak of his powers, less than a year before the onset of the insanity that gripped him until his death in 1900, this work's proximity to the end of the author's career renders it a distinctive portrait from his later period. The source of the famous dictum, "Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger," it blazes with provocative, inflammatory rhetoric that challenges readers to reexamine what they worship and why.

Collected here in this omnibus edition are three of Nietzsche's three most important books: The Anti-Christ, Beyond Good and Evil, and Thus Spake Zarathustra, as well as The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche by Henry Louis Mencken. A perfect book for new readers of Nietzsche or anyone hoping to understand his writing and philosophy more thoroughly. The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche by Henry Louis Mencken was the first, and many believe the best book on the subject. Mencken was known for his attention to detail. This book is a must read for anyone who wishes to understand Nietzche and his underlying philosophy. Thus Spake Zarathustra is a masterpiece of philosophical literature, and it is here that Nietzsche uttered the famous phrase "God is dead!" This powerful book spells out Nietzsche's belief in the will to power, and serves as an introduction to his doctrine of eternal return. One of the most influential books of philosophy ever written. Nietzsche writes with style, power, and conviction. In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche attacks past philosophers for their alleged lack of critical sense and their blind acceptance of the Christian premises in their consideration of morality. The work attempts to moves "beyond good and evil" in the sense of leaving behind the traditional morality which Nietzsche subjects to a destructive critique in favor of what he regards as an affirmative approach that fearlessly confronts the perspectival nature of knowledge and the perilous condition of the modern individual. Here is Friedrich Nietzsche's great masterpiece The Anti-Christ, wherein Nietzsche attacks Christianity as a blight on humanity. This classic is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand Nietzsche and his place within the history of philosophy.

Supposing that Truth is a woman—what then? Is there not ground for suspecting that all philosophers, in so far as they have been dogmatists, have failed to understand women—that the terrible seriousness and clumsy importunity with which they have usually paid their addresses to Truth, have been unskilled and unseemly methods for winning a woman? Certainly she has never allowed herself to be won; and at present every kind of dogma stands with sad and discouraged mien—If, indeed, it stands at all! For there are scoffers who maintain that it has fallen, that all dogma lies on the ground—nay more, that it is at its last gasp. But to speak seriously, there are good grounds for hoping that all dogmatizing in philosophy, whatever solemn, whatever conclusive and decided airs it has assumed, may have been only a noble puerilism and tyronism; and probably the time is at hand when it will be once and again understood what has actually sufficed for the basis of such imposing and absolute philosophical edifices as the dogmatists have hitherto reared: perhaps some popular superstition of immemorial time (such as the soul-superstition, which, in the form of subject- and ego-superstition, has not yet ceased doing mischief): perhaps some play upon words, a deception on the part of grammar

A captivating collection of Friedrich Nietzsche’s seminal works, from his provocative musings on truth and morality to his profound exploration of human existence “In this volume, one may very conveniently have a rich review of one of the most sensitive, passionate, and misunderstood writers in Western, or any, literature.”—Newsweek “Few writers in any age were so full of ideas.”—Walter Kaufmann, from the Introduction The works of Friedrich Nietzsche have fascinated readers around the world ever since the publication of his first book more than a hundred years ago, yet few writers have been so consistently misinterpreted. The Portable Nietzsche includes Walter Kaufmann’s definitive translations of the complete and unabridged texts of Nietzsche’s four major works: Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, Nietzsche Contra Wagner, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In addition, Kaufmann brings together selections from his other books, notes, and letters, to give a full picture of Nietzsche’s development, versatility, and inexhaustibility. Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

'This world is the will to power - and nothing besides!' One of the great minds of modernity, Friedrich Nietzsche smashed through the beliefs of his age. These writings, which did much to establish his reputation as a philosopher, offer some of his most powerful and troubling thoughts: on how the values of a new, aggressive elite will save a nihilistic, mediocre Europe, and, most famously, on the 'will to power' - ideas that were seized upon and twisted by later readers. Taken from Nietzsche's unpublished notebooks and assembled by his sister after his death, The Will to Power now appears with previous errors corrected. Translated by R. Kevin Hill and Michael A. Scarpitti with an Introduction and Notes by R. Kevin Hill

"Genealogy of Morality" or "Genealogy of Morals" was published in 1887 by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The work criticizes the prevailing morality by studying the origin of moral principles that have governed the West since Socrates. Nietzsche is against all kinds of logical and scientific reasoning applied to morality, and therefore carries out a fierce critique of speculative reason and all Western culture in all its manifestations: religion, morality, philosophy, science, and art, among others. Originally written as a "complement and clarification of Beyond Good and Evil," as stated in the introduction of the first edition, "Genealogy of Morals" became one of Nietzsche's most influential and controversial books, and Nietzsche himself is considered one of the most influential and important modern thinkers.

"In truth there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross," declares Friedrich Nietzsche in this famous attack on Christianity and organized religion. A deep exploration and repudiation of Christian symbolism and morality, The Antichrist was the last of Nietzsche's works save for his autobiography, Ecco Homo. As such, it may be regarded as a final statement of some of his most important ideas. This polemic is also one of the philosopher's most conventionally formatted books, consisting of a connected argument with few digressions and a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end. Indeed, it ranks among philosophy's most accessible and easily understood works, consisting of 62 brief chapters. Each chapter features an aphorism that advances the author's arguments against Christian tenets. Fast-paced, concise, and brimming with conviction, Nietzsche's landmark work is essential to a grasp of his complete oeuvre.