View source for Friedrich Nietzsche

{{Short description|German philosopher (1844–1900)}}
{{Redirect|Nietzsche}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| region = [[Western philosophy]]
| era = [[19th-century philosophy]]
| image = Nietzsche187a.jpg
| caption = Nietzsche in Basel, Switzerland, {{circa}} 1875
| birth_name = {{nowrap|Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1844|10|15}}
| birth_place = [[Röcken]], Prussia<!-- DO NOT LINK, see [[MOS:GEOLINK]] for further guidance -->
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1900|08|25|1844|10|15}}
| death_place = [[Weimar]], Germany<!-- DO NOT LINK, see [[MOS:GEOLINK]] for further guidance -->
| resting_place = Röcken Churchyard
| alma_mater = {{Plainlist}}
* [[University of Bonn]]
* [[Leipzig University]]
{{Endplainlist}}
| institutions = [[University of Basel]]
| school_tradition = {{Plainlist|
* [[Atheism]]
* [[Continental philosophy]]
* [[Nietzscheanism]]
| style = padding-bottom: 4px;
}}
{{Collapsible list|title={{nobold|'''Other schools'''}}
| [[Anti-foundationalism]]
| [[Nihilism#Nietzsche|Anti-nihilism / nihilism]] {{small|(disputed){{efn|See, for example: {{bulleted list|"Some interpreters of Nietzsche believe he embraced nihilism, rejected philosophical reasoning, and promoted a literary exploration of the human condition, while not being concerned with gaining truth and knowledge in the traditional sense of those terms. However, other interpreters of Nietzsche say that in attempting to counteract the predicted rise of nihilism, he was engaged in a positive program to reaffirm life, and so he called for a radical, naturalistic rethinking of the nature of human existence, knowledge, and morality."<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |encyclopedia=[[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |url=https://www.iep.utm.edu/nietzsch/ |last=Wilkerson |first=Dale |issn=2161-0002}}.</ref>|"Nietzsche's increasing determination, however, in his later writings, to avoid philosophical nihilisms of every variety, leads him to wonder whether it might not be possible to achieve an understanding of what fuels the foregoing dialectic of a sort that would allow one to head in an altogether different philosophical direction."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Conant |first=James F. |author-link=James F. Conant |year=2005 |title=The Dialectic of Perspectivism, I |journal=[[Sats: Nordic Journal of Philosophy]] |publisher=Philosophia Press |volume=6 |number=2 |pages=5–50 |url=http://philosophy.uchicago.edu/faculty/files/conant/The%20Dialectic%20of%20Perspectivism,%20I%20final%20version.pdf |archive-date=20 August 2018 |access-date=15 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180820194003/http://philosophy.uchicago.edu/faculty/files/conant/The%20Dialectic%20of%20Perspectivism,%20I%20final%20version.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}}}}}
| [[Dionysus#Modern literature and philosophy|Dionysianism]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brennan |first=Katie |year=2018 |title=The Wisdom of Silenus: Suffering in The Birth of Tragedy |journal=[[Journal of Nietzsche Studies]] |volume=49 |pages=174–193 |doi=10.5325/jnietstud.49.2.0174 |issn=0968-8005 |jstor=10.5325/jnietstud.49.2.0174 |s2cid=171652169 |number=2}}</ref>
| [[Philosophical pessimism|Dionysian pessimism]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dienstag |first=Joshua F. |year=2001 |title=Nietzsche's Dionysian Pessimism |journal=[[American Political Science Review]] |volume=95 |issue=4 |pages=923–937 |jstor=3117722}}</ref>
| [[Existentialism]]
| [[German Romanticism]] {{small|(disputed)<ref name="Perez2015">{{Cite journal |last=Perez |first=Rolando |year=2015 |title=Nietzsche's Reading of Cervantes' "Cruel" Humor in Don Quijote |url=https://www.ehumanista.ucsb.edu/sites/secure.lsit.ucsb.edu.span.d7_eh/files/sitefiles/ehumanista/volume30/11%20ehum30.perez.pdf |journal=[[EHumanista]] |volume=30 |pages=168–175 |issn=1540-5877}}.</ref>}}
| [[Immoralism]]<ref>Nietzsche self-describes his philosophy as immoralism, see also: {{Cite journal |last=Laing |first=Bertram M. |year=1915 |title=The Metaphysics of Nietzsche's Immoralism |journal=[[The Philosophical Review]] |volume=24 |pages=386–418 |doi=10.2307/2178746 |jstor=2178746 |number=4}}</ref>
| [[Naturalism (philosophy)|Naturalism]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schacht |first=Richard |year=2012 |title=Nietzsche's Naturalism |journal=Journal of Nietzsche Studies |publisher=[[Penn State University Press]] |volume=43 |pages=185–212 |doi=10.5325/jnietstud.43.2.0185 |s2cid=169130060 |number=2}}</ref>
| [[Perspectivism]]
| [[Philosophical realism]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Conway |first=Daniel |title=Nietzsche, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science |publisher=Springer |year=1999 |isbn=978-9048152346 |editor-last=Babich |editor-first=Babette E. |editor-link=Babette Babich |series=Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science |volume=204 |location=Dordrecht |pages=109–122 |chapter=Beyond Truth and Appearance: Nietzsche's Emergent Realism |doi=10.1007/978-94-017-2428-9_9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Doyle |first=Tsarina |title=Nietzsche on Epistemology and Metaphysics: The World in View |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0748628070 |pages=81–103 |chapter=Nietzsche's Emerging Internal Realism |doi=10.3366/edinburgh/9780748628070.003.0003}}</ref>
| [[Political realism]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kirkland |first=Paul E. |year=2010 |title=Nietzsche's Tragic Realism |journal=The Review of Politics |volume=72 |pages=55–78 |doi=10.1017/S0034670509990969 |jstor=25655890 |s2cid=154098512 |number=1}}</ref>
}}
| main_interests = {{cslist
| [[Atheism]]
| [[Philosophy]]
| [[Psychology]]
| [[Aesthetics]]
| [[philology]]
| [[ethics]]
| [[literature]]
| [[ontology]]
| [[philosophy of history]]
| [[poetry]]
| [[music]]
| [[tragedy]]
| [[truth theory]]
| [[value theory]]
}}
| notable_ideas = {{collapsible list|title={{nothing}}
| [[Atheism]]
| {{lang|la|[[Amor fati]]}}
| [[Apollonian and Dionysian]]
| [[Eternal return]]
| [[Fact–value distinction]]
| [[Genealogy (philosophy)|Genealogy]]
| [[God is dead]]
| [[Herd behavior#Human behavior|Herd instinct]]
| [[Last man]]
| [[Master–slave morality]]
| [[Nietzschean affirmation]]
| [[Nihilism]]
| [[Perspectivism]]
| ''[[Ressentiment]]''
| [[Transvaluation of values]]
| {{lang|de|[[Tschandala]]}}
| {{lang|de|[[Übermensch]]}}
| [[Will to power]]
}}
| signature = Friedrich Nietzsche Signature.svg
}}

'''Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|ˈ|n|iː|tʃ|ə|,_|ˈ|n|iː|tʃ|i}} {{respell|NEE|chə|,_|NEE|chee}};<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Nietzsche |encyclopedia=Longman Pronunciation Dictionary |publisher=[[Longman]] |location=Harlow, UK |last=Wells |first=John C. |date=1990 |author-link=John C. Wells |page=478 |isbn=978-0582053830}}</ref> {{IPA|de|ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈniːtʃə|lang|De-Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche.oga}} <small>or</small> {{IPA|de|ˈniːtsʃə|}};<ref>''[[Duden]] – Das Aussprachewörterbuch'' 7. Berlin: [[Bibliographisches Institut]]. 2015. {{ISBN|978-3411040674}}. p.&nbsp;633.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Krech |first1=Eva-Maria |url=https://archive.org/details/deutschesausspra00krec |title=Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch |last2=Stock |first2=Eberhard |last3=Hirschfeld |first3=Ursula |last4=Anders |first4=Lutz Christian |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-3110182026 |location=Berlin |pages=[https://archive.org/details/deutschesausspra00krec/page/n531 520], 777 |language=de |trans-title=German Pronunciation Dictionary |url-access=limited}}</ref>}} (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a [[German philosophy|German philosopher]].<!-- The question of whether to call Nietzsche "German" or not has been extensively debated over several years and the consensus is to call him German. Records of this are in the archived talk pages no. 10, 11, 12, 15. Please do not change this without gaining consensus on the talk page. --> He began his career as a [[Classical philology|classical philologist]], turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche became the youngest professor to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the [[University of Basel]]. Plagued by health problems for most of his life, he resigned from the university in 1879, and in the following decade he completed much of his [[Friedrich Nietzsche bibliography#Works by Nietzsche|core writing]]. In 1889, aged 44, he suffered a collapse and thereafter a complete loss of his mental faculties, with [[paralysis]] and [[vascular dementia]],{{efn|Following a mental breakdown in January 1889, and two strokes in the following year, Nietzsche was initially diagnosed with [[tertiary syphilis]], in accordance with a prevailing medical paradigm of the time. During the first two years of his 11 battling [[paralysis]] and [[vascular dementia]], Nietzsche, albeit suffering from [[Delusions of grandeur|expansive delusion]], was still able to write letters, often signing as [[Dionysus]].}} living his remaining 11 years under the care of his family until his death. [[Friedrich Nietzsche bibliography|His works]] and [[Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche|his philosophy]] have fostered not only extensive scholarship but also much popular interest.

Nietzsche's work encompasses philosophical [[polemic]]s, poetry, [[cultural critic]]ism and [[fiction]], while displaying a fondness for [[aphorisms]] and [[irony]]. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of [[truth]] in favour of [[perspectivism]]; a [[genealogy (philosophy)|genealogical]] [[critique of religion]] and [[Christian morality]] and a related theory of [[master–slave morality]]; the [[Aesthetics|aesthetic]] [[affirmation of life]] in response to both the "[[God is dead|death of God]]" and the profound crisis of [[nihilism]]; the notion of [[Apollonian and Dionysian]] forces; and a characterisation of the human [[subject (philosophy)|subject]] as the expression of competing [[will (philosophy)|wills]], collectively understood as the [[will to power]]. He also developed influential concepts such as the ''{{lang|de|[[Übermensch]]}}'' and his doctrine of [[eternal return#Friedrich Nietzsche|eternal return]]. In his later work he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in pursuit of [[transvaluation of values|new values]] and aesthetic health. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including [[Philosophy of Art|art]], [[philology]], [[Philosophy of history|history]], [[Philosophy of music|music]], [[Philosophy of religion|religion]], [[tragedy]], [[Philosophy of culture|culture]] and [[Philosophy of science|science]], and drew inspiration from [[Hebrew literature]], [[Indian literature]] and [[Greek tragedy]], as well as figures such as [[Zoroaster]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], [[Richard Wagner]], [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] and [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]].

After Nietzsche's death, his sister, [[Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche]], became the curator and editor of his manuscripts. She edited his unpublished writings to fit her [[German nationalism#From 1871 to World War I, 1914–1918|German ultranationalist]] ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which [[Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche#Jews, nationalism and European identity|were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism]]. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with [[fascism]] and [[Nazism]]. Twentieth-century scholars such as [[Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)|Walter Kaufmann]], [[R. J. Hollingdale]] and [[Georges Bataille]] defended Nietzsche against this interpretation, and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and 21st-century thinkers across philosophy—especially in schools of [[continental philosophy]] such as [[existentialism]], [[postmodernism]] and [[post-structuralism]]—as well as art, literature, music, poetry, politics and [[popular culture]].

== Life ==

=== Youth (1844–1868) ===
{{anchor|youth}}
Born on 15 October 1844, Nietzsche<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Life Of Friedrich Nietzsche – YTread |url=https://youtuberead.com/the-life-of-friedrich-nietzsche |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924033446/https://youtuberead.com/the-life-of-friedrich-nietzsche |archive-date=24 September 2023 |access-date=27 March 2023 |website=youtuberead.com |language=en}}</ref> grew up in the town of [[Röcken]] (now part of [[Lützen]]), near [[Leipzig]], in the Prussian [[Province of Saxony]]. He was named after King [[Frederick William IV of Prussia|Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia]], who turned 49 on the day of Nietzsche's birth (Nietzsche later dropped his middle name, Wilhelm). Nietzsche's great-grandfather, {{ill|Gotthelf Engelbert Nietzsche|ja|ゴットヘルフ・エンゲルベルト・ニーチェ}} (1714–1804), was an inspector and a philosopher. Nietzsche's grandfather, {{ill|Friedrich August Ludwig Nietzsche|de}} (1756–1826), was a theologian.{{Sfn |Kaufmann |1974 |p=22}} Nietzsche's parents, [[Carl Ludwig Nietzsche]] (1813–1849), a [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] pastor<ref name=EB1911/> and former teacher; and {{ill|Franziska Nietzsche|de}} (''née'' Oehler) (1826–1897), married in 1843, the year before Friedrich's birth. They had two other children: a daughter, [[Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche]], born in 1846; and a second son, Ludwig Joseph, born in 1848. Nietzsche's father died of a brain disease in 1849, after a year of excruciating agony, when the boy was only four years old; Ludwig Joseph died six months later at age two.<ref name="Wicks">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2014 |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Archive |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/nietzsche/ |last=Wicks |first=Robert |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |edition=Winter 2014}}</ref> The family then moved to [[Naumburg]], where they lived with Nietzsche's maternal grandmother and his father's two unmarried sisters. After the death of Nietzsche's grandmother in 1856, the family moved into their own house, now [[Nietzsche-Haus, Naumburg|Nietzsche-Haus]], a museum, and Nietzsche study centre.
[[File:Nietzsche1861.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Young Nietzsche, 1861]]

Nietzsche attended a boys' school and then a private school, where he became friends with Gustav Krug and Wilhelm Pinder, both of whom came from highly respected families. Academic records from one of the schools attended by Nietzsche noted that he excelled in [[Christian theology]].<ref name="Human, All Too Human, BBC Documentary, 1999">{{Cite web |year=1999 |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/core/content/human-all-too-human-bbc-documentary-1999 |access-date=16 October 2019 |website=Human, All Too Human |publisher=[[BBC]] Documentary |via=[[Columbia College (New York)|Columbia College]]}}</ref>

In 1854 he began to attend the Domgymnasium in Naumburg. Because his father had worked for the state (as a pastor), the now-fatherless Nietzsche was offered a scholarship to study at the internationally recognised [[Pforta|Schulpforta]]. The claim that Nietzsche was admitted on the strength of his academic competence has been debunked: his grades were not near the top of the class.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brobjer |first=Thomas H. |date=2001 |title=Why Did Nietzsche Receive a Scholarship to Study at Schulpforta? |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/BROWDN |journal=[[Nietzsche Studien]] |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=322–328 |doi=10.1515/9783110172409.322 |s2cid=151393894|url-access=subscription }}</ref> He studied there from 1858 to 1864, becoming friends with [[Paul Deussen]] and Carl von Gersdorff (1844–1904), who later became a jurist. He also found time to work on poems and musical compositions. Nietzsche led "Germania", a music and literature club, during his summers in Naumburg.<ref name="Wicks" /> At Schulpforta, Nietzsche received an important grounding in languages—[[Greek language|Greek]], [[Latin]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], and French—to be able to read important [[primary source]]s;<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Krell |first1=David Farrell |title=The Good European: Nietzsche's work sites in word and image |last2=Bates |first2=Donald L. |date=1997 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]}}</ref> he also experienced for the first time being away from his family life in a small-town conservative environment. His end-of-semester exams in March 1864 [[Academic grading in Germany|showed a 1]] in Religion and German; a 2a in Greek and Latin; a 2b in French, History, and Physics; and a "lackluster" 3{{nbsp}}in Hebrew and Mathematics.{{sfn|Cate|2005|p=37}}

Nietzsche was an amateur composer.<ref name="Grove">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2001 |title=Nietzsche, Friedrich |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000019943 |last=Hollingdale |first=R.J. |author-link=R. J. Hollingdale |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.19943 |isbn=978-1561592630 |url-access=subscription}} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref> He composed several works for voice, piano, and violin beginning in 1858 at the Schulpforta in Naumburg when he started to work on musical compositions. [[Richard Wagner]] was dismissive of Nietzsche's music, allegedly mocking a birthday gift of a piano composition sent by Nietzsche in 1871 to Wagner's wife [[Cosima Wagner|Cosima]]. German conductor and pianist [[Hans von Bülow]] also described another of Nietzsche's pieces as "the most undelightful and the most anti-musical draft on musical paper that I have faced in a long time".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Who knew? Friedrich Nietzsche was also a pretty decent classical composer |url=https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/friedrich-nietzsche-composer/ |website=[[WCNY-FM|Classic FM]]}}</ref>

While at Schulpforta Nietzsche pursued subjects that were considered unbecoming. He became acquainted with the work of the then-almost-unknown poet [[Friedrich Hölderlin]], calling him "my favourite poet" and writing an essay in which he said that the poet raised consciousness to "the most sublime ideality".{{sfn|Hayman|1980|p=42}} The teacher who corrected the essay gave it a good mark but commented that Nietzsche should concern himself in the future with healthier, more lucid, and more "German" writers. Additionally, he became acquainted with [[Ernst Ortlepp]], an eccentric, [[blasphemous]], and often [[drunken]] poet who was found dead in a ditch weeks after meeting the young Nietzsche but who may have introduced Nietzsche to the music and writing of [[Richard Wagner]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kohler |first=Joachim |title=Nietzsche & Wagner: A Lesson in Subjugation |date=1998 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |page=17}}</ref> Perhaps under Ortlepp's influence, he and a student named Richter returned to school drunk and encountered a teacher, resulting in Nietzsche's demotion from first in his class and the end of his status as a [[School prefect|prefect]].{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=21}}
[[File:Nietzsche-21.jpg|thumb|upright|Young Nietzsche|left]]

After graduation in September 1864,<ref>His "valedictorian paper" ({{lang|de|Valediktionsarbeit}}, graduation thesis for Pforta students) was titled "On [[Theognis of Megara]]" ("''De Theognide Megarensi''"); see {{harvnb|Jensen|Heit|2014|p=4}}</ref> Nietzsche began studying theology and classical philology at the [[University of Bonn]] in the hope of becoming a [[Minister (Christianity)|minister]]. For a short time, he and Deussen became members of the [[Burschenschaft]] ''[[Franconia|Frankonia]]''. After one semester (and to the anger of his mother), he stopped his theological studies and lost his faith.<ref name="Schaberg">{{Cite book |last=Schaberg |first=William |title=The Nietzsche Canon |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1996 |page=32}}</ref> As early as his 1862 essay "Fate and History", Nietzsche argued that historical research had discredited the central teachings of Christianity,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Salaquarda |first=Jörg |title=The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1996 |page=99 |chapter=Nietzsche and the Judaeo-Christian tradition}}</ref> but [[David Strauss]]'s ''[[David Strauss#Das Leben Jesu|Life of Jesus]]'' also seems to have had a profound effect on the young man.<ref name="Schaberg" /> In addition, [[Ludwig Feuerbach]]'s ''[[The Essence of Christianity]]'' influenced young Nietzsche with its argument that people created God and not the other way around.{{sfn|Solomon|Higgins|2000|p=86}} In June 1865, at the age of 20, Nietzsche wrote to his sister Elisabeth, who was deeply religious, a letter regarding his loss of faith. This letter contains the following statement:
<blockquote>Hence the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire....<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://babbledom.com/2011/02/17/intermission/ |title=Nietzsche, Letter to His Sister (1865) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121124011911/http://babbledom.com/2011/02/17/intermission/ |archive-date=24 November 2012 |url-status=usurped |df=dmy-all}}</ref></blockquote>
[[File:Arthur Schopenhauer by J Schäfer, 1859b.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Arthur Schopenhauer]] strongly influenced Nietzsche's philosophical thought.]]
Nietzsche subsequently concentrated on studying philology under Professor [[Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl]], whom he followed to the [[University of Leipzig]] in 1865.{{sfn|Magnus|1999}} There, he became close friends with his fellow-student [[Erwin Rohde]]. Nietzsche's first philological publications appeared soon after.

In 1865 Nietzsche thoroughly studied the works of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]]. He owed the awakening of his philosophical interest to reading Schopenhauer's ''[[The World as Will and Representation]],'' later admitting that Schopenhauer was one of the few thinkers whom he respected, dedicating the essay "[[s: Schopenhauer as Educator|Schopenhauer as Educator]]" in the ''[[Untimely Meditations]]'' to him.

In 1866 he read [[Friedrich Albert Lange]]'s ''[[History of Materialism and Critique of its Present Importance|History of Materialism]]''. Lange's descriptions of [[Immanuel Kant]]'s anti-materialistic philosophy, the rise of European [[Materialism]], Europe's increased concern with science, [[Charles Darwin]]'s theory of [[evolution]] and the general rebellion against tradition and authority intrigued Nietzsche greatly. Nietzsche would ultimately argue the impossibility of an evolutionary explanation of the human aesthetic sense.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pence |first=Charles H. |year=2011 |title=Nietzsche's aesthetic critique of Darwin |url=https://www.academia.edu/759427 |journal=[[History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences]] |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=165–190 |pmid=22288334}}{{Dead link|date=June 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}{{dead link|date=November 2022}}</ref>

In 1867 Nietzsche signed up for one year of [[Enlistment|voluntary service]] with the [[Prussian Army|Prussian artillery division]] in Naumburg. He was regarded as one of the finest [[Horses in warfare|riders]] among his fellow-recruits, and his officers predicted that he would soon reach the rank of [[Captain (Army)|captain]]. In March 1868, while mounting his horse, Nietzsche struck his chest against the [[Pommel (saddle)|pommel]] and [[Muscle tear|tore two muscles]] in his left side, leaving him exhausted and unable to walk for months.{{sfn|Hayman|1980|p=93}}<ref>Nietzsche, Friedrich. [June 1868] 1921. "[[s: Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche#To Freiherr boy Karl Von Gersdorff – June, 1868|Letter to Karl Von Gersdorff]]." ''Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche'', translated by [[Anthony Ludovici|A. M. Ludovici]].</ref> Consequently, he turned his attention to his studies again, completing them in 1868. Nietzsche also met [[Richard Wagner]] for the first time later that year.<ref>Nietzsche, Friedrich. [November 1868] 1921. "[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Selected_Letters_of_Friedrich_Nietzsche#To_Rohde_-_October.2C_1868 Letter to Rohde]." ''Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche'', translated by [[Anthony Ludovici|A. M. Ludovici]].</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Nietzsche |first1=Friedrich |author-link=Friedrich Nietzsche |url=https://archive.org/details/nietzschewagnerc00nietiala/page/n7/mode/2up |title=The Nietzsche-Wagner Correspondence |last2=Wagner |first2=Richard |author-link2=Richard Wagner |publisher=[[Boni & Liveright]] |others=[[H.L. Mencken|Introduction by Mencken, H.L.]] |editor-last=Foerster-Nietzsche |editor-first=Elizabeth |editor-link=Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche |publication-place=New York |publication-date=1921 |translator-last=Kerr |translator-first=Caroline V. |asin=B000HFOAGI |translator-link=Caroline V. Kerr}}</ref>

=== Professor at Basel (1869–1879) ===
{{anchor|Professor at Basel|Basel}}
[[File:Rohde Gersdorff Nietzsche.JPG|thumb|upright|Left to right: [[Erwin Rohde]], Karl von Gersdorff and Nietzsche, October 1871]]
In 1869, with Ritschl's support, Nietzsche received an offer to become a professor of [[classical philology]] at the [[University of Basel]] in Switzerland. He was only 24 years old and had neither completed his doctorate nor received a teaching certificate ("''[[habilitation]]''"). He was awarded an [[honorary doctorate]] by [[Leipzig University]] in March 1869, again with Ritschl's support.{{sfn|Jensen|Heit|2014|p=129}}

Despite his offer coming at a time when he was considering giving up philology for science, he accepted.{{Sfn |Kaufmann |1974 |p=25}} To this day, Nietzsche is still among the youngest of the tenured Classics professors on record.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bishop |first=Paul |title=Nietzsche and Antiquity |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |year=2004 |isbn=978-1571136480 |page=117}}</ref>

Nietzsche's 1870 projected [[doctoral thesis]], "Contribution toward the Study and the Critique of the Sources of Diogenes Laertius" ("''Beiträge zur Quellenkunde und Kritik des Laertius Diogenes''"), examined the origins of the ideas of [[Diogenes Laërtius]].{{sfn|Jensen|Heit|2014|p=115}} Though never submitted, it was later published as a {{Langx|de|text=Gratulationsschrift|label=none}} ('congratulatory publication') in [[Basel]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=McCarthy |first=George E. |title=Dialectics and Decadence |url=http://personal.kenyon.edu/mccarthy/Book1.htm}}</ref>{{efn|Between 1868 and 1870, he published two other studies on Diogenes Laertius: ''On the Sources of Diogenes Laertius'' (''De Fontibus Diogenis Laertii'') Part I (1868) & Part II (1869); and ''Analecta Laertiana'' (1870). See {{harvnb|Jensen|Heit|2014|p=115}}}}

Before moving to Basel, Nietzsche renounced his Prussian citizenship: for the rest of his life he remained officially [[Statelessness|stateless]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hecker |first=Hellmuth |year=1987 |title=Nietzsches Staatsangehörigkeit als Rechtsfrage. |trans-title=Nietzsche's nationality as a legal question |journal=[[Neue Juristische Wochenschrift]] |language=de |volume=40 |pages=1388–1391 |number=23}}</ref><ref>His, Eduard. 1941. "Friedrich Nietzsches Heimatlosigkeit." ''Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde'' 40:159–186.

Note that some authors (incl. Deussen and [[Mazzino Montinari|Montinari]]) mistakenly claim that Nietzsche became a Swiss citizen to become a university professor.</ref>

Nevertheless, Nietzsche served in the Prussian forces during the [[Franco-Prussian War]] (1870–1871) as a medical [[orderly]]. In his short time in the military, he experienced much and witnessed the traumatic effects of battle. He also contracted [[diphtheria]] and [[dysentery]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Deussen |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Deussen |title=Erinnerungen a Friedrich Nietzsche |date=1901 |publisher=[[F. A. Brockhaus AG|F.A. Brockhaus]] |location=Leipzig |language=de |trans-title=Memoirs of Friedrich Nietzsche}}</ref> [[Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)|Walter Kaufmann]] speculates that he also contracted [[syphilis]] at a brothel along with his other infections at this time.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sax |first=Leonard |year=2003 |title=What was the cause of Nietzsche's dementia? |journal=[[Journal of Medical Biography]] |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=47–54 |doi=10.1177/096777200301100113 |pmid=12522502 |s2cid=6929185}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schain |first=Richard |title=The Legend of Nietzsche's Syphilis |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2001 |location=Westwood}}{{full citation needed|date=November 2012}}</ref> On returning to Basel in 1870, Nietzsche observed the establishment of the [[German Empire]] and [[Otto von Bismarck]]'s subsequent policies as an outsider and with a degree of scepticism regarding their genuineness. His inaugural lecture at the university was "[[s: Homer and Classical Philology|Homer and Classical Philology]]". Nietzsche also met [[Franz Overbeck]], a professor of theology who remained his friend throughout his life. [[Afrikan Spir]], a little-known Russian philosopher responsible for the 1873 ''Thought and Reality'' and Nietzsche's colleague, the historian [[Jacob Burckhardt]], whose lectures Nietzsche frequently attended, began to exercise significant influence on him.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Green |first=M. S. |title=Nietzsche and the Transcendental Tradition |date=2002 |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]}}{{full citation needed|date=November 2012}}</ref>

Nietzsche had already met Richard Wagner in Leipzig in 1868 and later Wagner's wife, Cosima. Nietzsche admired both greatly and during his time at Basel frequently visited Wagner's house in [[Tribschen]] in [[Canton of Lucerne|Lucerne]]. The Wagners brought Nietzsche into their most intimate circle—which included [[Franz Liszt]], of whom Nietzsche colloquially described: "Liszt or the art of running after women!"<ref>[[Rupert Hughes|Hughes, Rupert]]. [1903] 2004. "[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11419/11419-h/11419-h.htm#img2 Franz Liszt]." Ch. 1 in [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11419/11419-h/11419-h.htm#img2 ''The Love Affairs of Great Musicians'' 2]. [[Project Gutenberg]]. Also available via [http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/11419/1.html#gsc.tab=0 Book Rags].</ref> Nietzsche enjoyed the attention he gave to the beginning of the [[Bayreuth Festspielhaus|Bayreuth Festival]]. In 1870 he gave Cosima Wagner the manuscript of "The Genesis of the Tragic Idea" as a birthday gift. In 1872 Nietzsche published his first book, ''[[The Birth of Tragedy]]''. His colleagues within his field, including Ritschl, expressed little enthusiasm for the work in which Nietzsche eschewed the classical philologic method in favour of a more speculative approach. In his [[polemic]] ''Philology of the Future'', [[Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff]] damped the book's reception and increased its notoriety. In response, Rohde (then a professor in [[Kiel]]) and Wagner came to Nietzsche's defence. Nietzsche remarked freely about the isolation he felt within the philological community and attempted unsuccessfully to transfer to a position in philosophy at Basel.
[[File:Friedrich Nietzsche-1872.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Nietzsche, c. 1872]]

In 1873 Nietzsche began to accumulate notes that would be posthumously published as ''[[Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks]]''. Between 1873 and 1876, he published four separate long essays: "[[David Strauss]]: the Confessor and the Writer", "[[On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life|On the Use and Abuse of History for Life]]", "Schopenhauer as Educator", and "Richard Wagner in Bayreuth". These four later appeared in a collected edition under the title ''[[Untimely Meditations]]''. The essays shared the orientation of a cultural critique, challenging the developing German culture suggested by Schopenhauer and Wagner. During this time in the circle of the Wagners, he met [[Malwida von Meysenbug]] and [[Hans von Bülow]]. He also began a friendship with [[Paul Rée]] who, in 1876, influenced him into dismissing the [[Philosophical pessimism|pessimism]] in his early writings. He was deeply disappointed by the [[Bayreuth Festival]] of 1876, where the banality of the shows and baseness of the public repelled him. He was also alienated by Wagner's championing of "German culture", which Nietzsche felt a contradiction in terms, as well as by Wagner's celebration of his fame among the German public. All this contributed to his subsequent decision to distance himself from Wagner.

With the publication in 1878 of ''[[Human, All Too Human]]'' (a book of [[aphorism]]s ranging from metaphysics to morality to religion), a new style of Nietzsche's work became clear, highly influenced by [[Afrikan Spir]]'s ''Thought and Reality''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Safranski |first=Rüdiger |author-link=Rüdiger Safranski |title=[[Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography]] |date=2003 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |page=161 |translator-last=Frisch |translator-first=Shelley |quote=This work had long been consigned to oblivion, but it had a lasting impact on Nietzsche. Section 18 of ''Human, All Too Human'' cited Spir, not by name, but by presenting a 'proposition by an outstanding logician' (2,38; HH I §&nbsp;18). |translator-link=Shelley Frisch}}</ref> and reacting against the pessimistic philosophy of Wagner and Schopenhauer. Nietzsche's friendship with Deussen and Rohde cooled as well. In 1879, after a significant decline in health, Nietzsche had to resign his position at Basel and was pensioned.<ref name=EB1911/> Since his childhood, various disruptive illnesses had plagued him, including moments of shortsightedness that left him nearly blind, [[migraine]] headaches, and violent indigestion. The 1868 riding accident and diseases in 1870 may have aggravated these persistent conditions, which continued to affect him through his years at Basel, forcing him to take longer and longer holidays until regular work became impractical.

=== Independent philosopher (1879–1888) ===
{{anchor|independent philosopher|philosopher}}
[[File:Nietzsche paul-ree lou-von-salome188.jpg|thumb|[[Lou Andreas-Salomé|Lou Salomé]], [[Paul Rée]] and Nietzsche posing for a studio photo during their trip through Italy in 1882, planning to establish an educational commune together, but the friendship disintegrated in late 1882 due to complications from Rée's and Nietzsche's mutual romantic interest in Salomé.]]

Living on his pension from Basel along with aid from friends, Nietzsche travelled frequently to find climates more conducive to his health. He lived until 1889 as an independent author in different cities. He spent many summers in [[Sils Maria]] near [[St. Moritz]] in Switzerland, and many of his winters in the Italian cities of [[Genoa]], [[Rapallo]], and [[Turin]], and the French city of [[Nice]]. In 1881, when [[French conquest of Tunisia|France occupied Tunisia]], he planned to travel to [[Tunis]] to view Europe from the outside but later abandoned that idea, probably for health reasons.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Güntzel |first=Stephan |date=2003 |title=Nietzsche's Geophilosophy |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/45353/pdf |format=PDF |journal=[[The Journal of Nietzsche Studies|Journal of Nietzsche Studies]] |volume=25 |pages=78–91 (85) |doi=10.1353/nie.2003.0010 |s2cid=201784626 |via=[[Project MUSE]]|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Nietzsche occasionally returned to Naumburg to visit his family, and, especially during this time, he and his sister, Elisabeth, had repeated periods of conflict and reconciliation.

While in [[Genoa]], Nietzsche's failing eyesight prompted him to explore the use of [[typewriter]]s as a means of continuing to write. He is known to have tried using the [[Hansen Writing Ball#Sale and popular use|Hansen Writing Ball]], a contemporary typewriter device. In the end, a past pupil of his, [[Heinrich Köselitz|Peter Gast]], became a private secretary to Nietzsche. In 1876, Gast transcribed the crabbed, nearly illegible handwriting of Nietzsche's {{cl-span|first time with|date=August 2025}} Richard Wagner in Bayreuth.{{Sfn |Cate |2005 |p=221}} He subsequently transcribed and proofread the galleys for almost all of Nietzsche's work. On at least one occasion, on 23 February 1880, the usually poor Gast received 200 marks from their mutual friend, Paul Rée.{{Sfn |Cate |2005 |p=297}} Gast was one of the very few friends Nietzsche allowed to criticise him. In responding most enthusiastically to ''[[Thus Spoke Zarathustra|Also Sprach Zarathustra]]'' ("Thus Spoke Zarathustra"), Gast did feel it necessary to point out that what were described as "superfluous" people were in fact quite necessary. He went on to list the number of people [[Epicurus]], for example, had to rely on to supply his simple diet of goat cheese.{{Sfn |Cate |2005 |p=415}}

To the end of his life, Gast and Overbeck remained consistently faithful friends. [[Malwida von Meysenbug]] remained like a motherly patron even outside the Wagner circle. Soon Nietzsche made contact with the music-critic Carl Fuchs. Nietzsche stood at the beginning of his most productive period. Beginning with ''[[Human, All Too Human]]'' in 1878, Nietzsche published one book or major section of a book each year until 1888, his last year of writing; that year, he completed five.

In 1882 Nietzsche published the first part of ''[[The Gay Science]]''. That year he also met [[Lou Andreas-Salomé]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lou von Salomé |url=http://www.f-nietzsche.de/lou_e.htm |website=f-nietzsche.de}}</ref> through Malwida von Meysenbug and [[Paul Rée]].

Salomé's mother took her to Rome when Salomé was 21. At a literary salon in the city, Salomé became acquainted with [[Paul Rée]]. Rée proposed marriage to her, but she, instead, proposed that they should live and study together as "brother and sister", along with another man for company, where they would establish an academic commune.{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=149}} Rée accepted the idea and suggested that they be joined by his friend Nietzsche. The two met Nietzsche in Rome in April 1882, and Nietzsche is believed to have instantly fallen in love with Salomé, as Rée had done. Nietzsche asked Rée to propose marriage to Salomé, which she rejected. She had been interested in Nietzsche as a friend, but not as a husband.{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=149}} Nietzsche nonetheless was content to join with Rée and Salomé touring through Switzerland and Italy together, planning their commune. The three travelled with Salomé's mother through Italy and considered where they would set up their "Winterplan" commune. They intended to set up their commune in an abandoned monastery, but no suitable location was found. On 13 May, in Lucerne, when Nietzsche was alone with Salomé, he earnestly proposed marriage to her again, which she rejected. He nonetheless was happy to continue with the plans for an academic commune.{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=149}} After discovering the relationship, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became determined to get Nietzsche away from the "immoral woman".{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=151}} Nietzsche and Salomé spent the summer together in [[Tautenburg]] in Thuringia, often with Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth as a chaperone. Salomé reports that he asked her to marry him on three separate occasions and that she refused, though the reliability of her reports of events is questionable.{{Sfn |Kaufmann |1974 |p=49}} Arriving in [[Leipzig]] (Germany) in October, Salomé and Rée separated from Nietzsche after a falling-out between Nietzsche and Salomé, in which Salomé believed that Nietzsche was desperately in love with her.

While the three spent a number of weeks together in Leipzig in October 1882, the following month Rée and Salomé left Nietzsche, leaving for Stibbe (modern-day [[Zdbowo]] in Poland)<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Killy |first1=Walther |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JkoK_108xJkC&q=Stibbe+Zdbowo+Nietzsche&pg=PT223 |title=Plett – Schmidseder |last2=Vierhaus |first2=Rudolf |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |year=2011 |isbn=978-3110966305 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> without any plans to meet again. Nietzsche soon fell into a period of mental anguish, although he continued to write to Rée, stating "We shall see one another from time to time, won't we?"{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=152}} In later recriminations, Nietzsche would blame on separate occasions the failure in his attempts to woo Salomé on Salomé, Rée, and on the intrigues of his sister (who had written letters to the families of Salomé and Rée to disrupt the plans for the commune). Nietzsche wrote of the affair in 1883, that he now felt "genuine hatred for my sister".{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=152}}

Amidst renewed bouts of illness, living in near-isolation after a falling out with his mother and sister regarding Salomé, Nietzsche fled to Rapallo, where he wrote the first part of ''Also Sprach Zarathustra'' in only ten days.
[[File:Nietzsche1882.jpg|thumb|Photo of Nietzsche by [[Gustav-Adolf Schultze]], 1882]]

By 1882 Nietzsche was taking huge doses of [[opium]] and continued to have trouble sleeping.{{Sfn |Cate |2005 |p=389}} In 1883, while staying in Nice, he was writing out his own prescriptions for the sedative [[chloral hydrate]], signing them "Dr. Nietzsche".{{Sfn |Cate |2005 |p=453}}

He turned away from the influence of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], and after he severed his social ties with Wagner, Nietzsche had few remaining friends. Now, with the new style of ''Zarathustra'', his work became even more alienating, and the market received it only to the degree required by politeness. Nietzsche recognised this and maintained his solitude, though he often complained. His books remained largely unsold. In 1885, he printed only 40 copies of the fourth part of ''Zarathustra'' and distributed a fraction of them among close friends, including [[Helene von Druskowitz]].

In 1883 he tried and failed to obtain a lecturing post at the [[University of Leipzig]]. According to a letter he wrote to Peter Gast, this was due to his "attitude towards Christianity and the concept of God".<ref>Nietzsche, Friedrich. [26 August 1883] 1921. "[[s: Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche#Nietzsche To Peter Gast – August 1883 2|Letter to Peter Gast]]." ''Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche'', translated by [[Anthony Ludovici|A. M. Ludovici]].</ref>

In 1886 Nietzsche broke with his publisher Ernst Schmeitzner, disgusted by his antisemitic opinions. Nietzsche saw his own writings as "completely buried and in this anti-Semitic dump" of Schmeitzner—associating the publisher with a movement that should be "utterly rejected with cold contempt by every sensible mind".<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 February 2000 |title=Ernst Schmeitzner (1851–1895). 115 letters 1874–1886 {{!}} Correspondences |url=http://www.thenietzschechannel.com/correspondence/corresp.htm#schmei |access-date=27 November 2013 |website=The Nietzsche Channel}}</ref> He then printed ''[[Beyond Good and Evil]]'' at his own expense. He also acquired the publication rights for his earlier works and over the next year issued second editions of ''The Birth of Tragedy'', ''[[Human, All Too Human]]'', ''[[The Dawn of Day|Daybreak]]'', and of ''[[The Gay Science]]'' with new prefaces placing the body of his work in a more coherent perspective. Thereafter, he saw his work as completed for a time and hoped that soon a readership would develop. In fact, interest in Nietzsche's thought did increase at this time, if rather slowly and imperceptibly to him. During these years Nietzsche met [[Meta von Salis]], [[Carl Spitteler]] and [[Gottfried Keller]].

In 1886 his sister, Elisabeth, married the antisemite [[Bernhard Förster]] and travelled to Paraguay to found [[Nueva Germania]], a "Germanic" colony.<ref>"[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elisabeth-Forster-Nietzsche Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche]." ''[[Britannica.com]]''. [1998] 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2020.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=van Eerten |first=Jurriaan |date=27 February 2016 |title=The lost 'Aryan utopia' of Nueva Germania |url=https://ticotimes.net/2016/02/27/the-lost-aryan-utopia-of-nueva-germania |access-date=29 September 2019 |website=The Tico Times |location=Costa Rica}}</ref> Through correspondence, Nietzsche's relationship with Elisabeth continued through cycles of conflict and reconciliation, but they met again only after his collapse. He continued to have frequent and painful attacks of illness, which made prolonged work impossible.

In 1887 Nietzsche wrote the polemic ''[[On the Genealogy of Morality]]''. During the same year, he encountered the work of [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]], to whom he felt an immediate kinship.<ref>Nietzsche, Friedrich. [March 1887] 1921. "[[s: Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche#Nietzsche To Peter Gast – March, 1887|Letter to Peter Gast]]." ''Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche'', translated by [[Anthony Ludovici|A. M. Ludovici]].</ref> He also exchanged letters with [[Hippolyte Taine]] and [[Georg Brandes]]. Brandes, who had started to teach the philosophy of [[Søren Kierkegaard]] in the 1870s, wrote to Nietzsche asking him to [[Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche|read Kierkegaard]], to which Nietzsche replied that he would come to [[Copenhagen]] and read Kierkegaard with him. Before fulfilling this promise, Nietzsche slipped too far into illness. At the beginning of 1888, Brandes delivered in Copenhagen one of the first lectures on Nietzsche's philosophy.

Although Nietzsche had previously announced at the end of ''[[On the Genealogy of Morality]]'' a new work with the title ''[[The Will to Power (manuscript)|The Will to Power]]: Attempt at a [[transvaluation of values|Revaluation of All Values]]'', he seems to have abandoned this idea and, instead, used some of the draft passages to compose ''[[Twilight of the Idols]]'' and ''[[The Antichrist (book)|The Antichrist]]'' in 1888.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Montinari |first=Mazzino |title=Friedrich Nietzsche. Eine Einführung |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter|De Gruyter]] |year=1974 |language=de}} translated as {{cite book |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |language=fr |year=1991 |location=Paris |publisher=[[Presses Universitaires de France|PUF]]}}</ref>

His health improved and he spent the summer in high spirits. In the autumn of 1888, his writings and letters began to reveal a higher estimation of his own status and "fate". He overestimated the increasing response to his writings, especially to the recent polemic, ''[[The Case of Wagner]]''. On his 44th birthday, after completing ''Twilight of the Idols'' and ''The Antichrist'', he decided to write the autobiography ''[[Ecce Homo (book)|Ecce Homo]]''. In its preface—which suggests Nietzsche was well aware of the interpretive difficulties his work would generate—he declares, "Hear me! For I am such and such a person. Above all, do not mistake me for someone else."{{Sfn |Nietzsche |1888d |loc=Preface, section 1}} In December, Nietzsche began a correspondence with [[August Strindberg]] and thought that, short of an international breakthrough, he would attempt to buy back his older writings from the publisher and have them translated into other European languages. Moreover, he planned the publication of the compilation ''[[Nietzsche contra Wagner]]'' and of the poems that made up his collection ''[[Dionysian-Dithyrambs]]''.

=== Mental illness and death (1889–1900) ===
{{anchor|mental breakdown and death|breakdown|death}}[[File:Friedrich Nietzsche drawn by Hans Olde.jpg|thumb|Drawing by [[Hans Olde]] from the photographic series ''The Ill Nietzsche'', late 1899|251x251px]]On 3 January 1889, Nietzsche suffered a [[mental breakdown]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xeb80itrlRIC |title=The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche |date=1996 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0521367677 |editor-last=Magnus |editor-first=Bernd |pages=79–81 |language=en |editor-last2=Higgins |editor-first2=Kathleen Marie}}</ref> Two policemen approached him after he caused a public disturbance in the streets of [[Turin]]. What happened remains unknown, but an often-repeated tale from shortly after his death states that Nietzsche witnessed the flogging of a horse at the other end of the Piazza Carlo Alberto, ran to the horse, threw his arms around its neck to protect it and then collapsed to the ground.{{Sfn |Kaufmann |1974 |p=67}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Verrecchia |first=Anacleto |title=Nietzsche in Italy |date=1988 |publisher=ANMA Libri, [[Stanford University]] |editor-last=Harrison |editor-first=T. |location=Stanford |pages=105–112 |chapter=Nietzsche's Breakdown in Turin}}</ref> In the following few days Nietzsche sent short writings—known as the ''Wahnzettel'' or ''Wahnbriefe'' (literally "Delusion notes" or "letters")—to a number of friends including [[Cosima Wagner]] and [[Jacob Burckhardt]]. Most of them were signed "[[Dionysus]]", though some were also signed "der Gekreuzigte" meaning "the crucified one". To his former colleague Burckhardt, Nietzsche wrote:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simon |first=Gerald |date=January 1889 |title=Nietzsches Briefe. Ausgewählte Korrespondenz. Wahnbriefe. |trans-title=Nietzsche's letters. Selected Correspondence. delusional letters. |url=http://www.thenietzschechannel.com/correspondence/ger/nilettersg.htm |access-date=24 August 2013 |publisher=The Nietzsche Channel |language=de |quote=Ich habe Kaiphas in Ketten legen lassen; auch bin ich voriges Jahr von den deutschen Ärzten auf eine sehr langwierige Weise gekreuzigt worden. Wilhelm, Bismarck und alle Antisemiten abgeschafft. |trans-quote=I put Caiaphas in chains; I was also crucified last year by the German doctors in a very lengthy manner. Wilhelm, Bismarck and all anti-Semites abolished.}}</ref><blockquote>I have had [[Caiaphas]] put in [[fetters]]. Also, last year I was crucified by the German doctors in a very drawn-out manner. [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm]], [[Otto von Bismarck|Bismarck]], and all anti-Semites abolished.</blockquote>Additionally, he commanded the German emperor to go to Rome to be shot and summoned the European powers to take military action against Germany,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zweig |first=Stefan |author-link=Stefan Zweig |title=The Struggle with the Daimon: Hölderlin, Kleist and Nietzsche |date=1939 |publisher=[[Viking Press]] |series=Master Builders of the Spirit |volume=2 |page=524}}</ref> writing also that the pope should be put in jail and that he, Nietzsche, created the world and was in the process of having all antisemites shot dead.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nietzsches Briefe, Ausgewählte Korrespondenz, Wahnzettel 1889 |trans-title=Nietzsche's Letters, Selected Correspondence, Wahnzettel 1889 |url=http://www.thenietzschechannel.com/correspondence/ger/nlett1889g.htm |website=The Nietzsche Channel |language=de}}</ref>

[[File:Nietzsche Olde 05.JPG|left|thumb|Nietzsche in the care of his sister, 1899]]
On 6 January 1889 Burckhardt showed the letter he had received from Nietzsche to Overbeck. The following day, Overbeck received a similar letter and decided that Nietzsche's friends had to bring him back to Basel. Overbeck travelled to Turin and brought Nietzsche to a psychiatric clinic in Basel. By that time Nietzsche appeared fully in the grip of a serious mental illness,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Malcolm |year=2011 |title=1889 |url=https://www.dartmouth.edu/~fnchron/1889.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208181453/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~fnchron/1889.html |archive-date=8 February 2012 |access-date=28 September 2019 |website=Nietzsche Chronicle |publisher=[[Dartmouth College]]}}</ref> and his mother Franziska decided to transfer him to a clinic in [[Jena]] under the direction of [[Otto Binswanger]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Safranski |first=Rüdiger |url=https://archive.org/details/nietzschephiloso00safr_0/page/371 |title=Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography |publisher=[[W.W. Norton & Company]] |year=2003 |isbn=0393050084 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/nietzschephiloso00safr_0/page/371 371]}}</ref> In January 1889, they proceeded with the planned release of ''[[Twilight of the Idols]]'', by that time already printed and bound. From November 1889 to February 1890, the art historian [[Julius Langbehn]] attempted to cure Nietzsche, claiming that the methods of the medical doctors were ineffective in treating Nietzsche's condition.<ref>{{Cite web |editor-last=Sorensen |editor-first=Lee |title=Langbehn, Julius |url=http://arthistorians.info/langbehnj |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608170651/http://arthistorians.info/langbehnj |archive-date=8 June 2019 |access-date=29 September 2019 |website=Dictionary of Art Historians}}</ref> Langbehn assumed progressively greater control of Nietzsche until his secretiveness discredited him. In March 1890, Franziska removed Nietzsche from the clinic and, in May 1890, brought him to her home in Naumburg.<ref name=":1" /> During this process Overbeck and Gast contemplated what to do with Nietzsche's unpublished works. In February they ordered a fifty-copy private edition of ''[[Nietzsche contra Wagner]]'', but the publisher C. G. Naumann secretly printed one hundred. Overbeck and Gast decided to withhold publishing ''[[The Antichrist (book)|The Antichrist]]'' and ''[[Ecce Homo (book)|Ecce Homo]]'' because of their more radical content.<ref name=":1" /> Nietzsche's reception and recognition enjoyed their first surge.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Safranski |first=Rüdiger |url=https://archive.org/details/nietzschephiloso00safr_0/page/317 |title=Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography |publisher=[[W.W. Norton & Company]] |year=2003 |isbn=0393050084 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/nietzschephiloso00safr_0/page/317 317–350]}}</ref>

In 1893, Nietzsche's sister, Elisabeth, returned from [[Nueva Germania]] in Paraguay following the suicide of her husband. She studied Nietzsche's works and, piece by piece, took control of their publication. Overbeck was dismissed and Gast finally co-operated. After the death of Franziska in 1897, Nietzsche lived in [[Weimar]], where Elisabeth cared for him and allowed visitors, including [[Rudolf Steiner]] (who in 1895 had written ''Friedrich Nietzsche: A Fighter Against His Time'', one of the first books praising Nietzsche),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steiner |first=Rudolf |title=Friedrich Nietzsche, in Kämpfer seine Zeit |year=1895 |location=Weimar |language=de |trans-title=Friedrich Nietzsche, in Fighters of His Time}}</ref> to meet her uncommunicative brother. Elisabeth employed Steiner as a tutor to help her to understand her brother's philosophy. Steiner abandoned the attempt after only a few months, declaring that it was impossible to teach her anything about philosophy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bailey |first=Andrew |title=First Philosophy: Fundamental Problems and Readings in Philosophy |publisher=[[Broadview Press]] |year=2002 |page=704}}</ref>
[[File:Eh-dm-27.JPG|thumb|upright|After the breakdown, [[Heinrich Köselitz|Peter Gast]] "corrected" Nietzsche's writings without his approval.|alt=|left|350x350px]]

Nietzsche's insanity was originally diagnosed as [[tertiary syphilis]], in accordance with a prevailing medical paradigm of the time. Although most commentators{{who|date=May 2021}} regard his breakdown as unrelated to his philosophy, [[Georges Bataille]] wrote poetically of his condition ("'Man incarnate' must also go mad")<ref name="Bataille">{{Cite journal |last1=Bataille |first1=Georges |last2=Michelson |first2=Annette |date=Spring 1986 |title=Nietzsche's Madness |journal=[[October (journal)|October]] |volume=36 |pages=42–45 |doi=10.2307/778548 |jstor=778548}}</ref> and [[René Girard]]'s postmortem psychoanalysis posits a worshipful rivalry with [[Richard Wagner]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Girard |first=René |author-link=René Girard |year=1976 |title=Superman in the Underground: Strategies of Madness – Nietzsche, Wagner, and Dostoevsky. |journal=[[Modern Language Notes]] |volume=91 |pages=1161–1185 |doi=10.2307/2907130 |jstor=2907130 |s2cid=163754306 |number=6}}</ref> Girard suggests that Nietzsche signed his final letters as both Dionysus and the Crucified One because he was demonstrating that by being a god (Dionysus), one is also a victim (Crucified One) since a god still suffers by overcoming the law. Nietzsche had previously written, "All superior men who were irresistibly drawn to throw off the yoke of any kind of morality and to frame new laws had, if they were not actually mad, no alternative but to make themselves or pretend to be mad."  (Daybreak, 14) The diagnosis of syphilis has since been challenged and a diagnosis of "[[bipolar disorder|manic-depressive illness]] with periodic [[psychosis]] followed by [[vascular dementia]]" was put forward by Cybulska prior to Schain's study.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cybulska |first=E. M. |year=2000 |title=The madness of Nietzsche: a misdiagnosis of the millennium? |journal=Hospital Medicine |volume=61 |issue=8 |pages=571–575 |doi=10.12968/hosp.2000.61.8.1403 |pmid=11045229}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schain |first=Richard |title=The Legend of Nietzsche's Syphilis |publisher=[[Greenwood Press]] |year=2001 |isbn=978-0313319402 |location=Westport}}{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref> [[Leonard Sax]] suggested the slow growth of a right-sided retro-orbital [[meningioma]] as an explanation of Nietzsche's dementia;<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sax |first=Leonard |year=2003 |title=What was the cause of Nietzsche's dementia? |journal=Journal of Medical Biography |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=47–54 |doi=10.1177/096777200301100113 |pmid=12522502 |s2cid=6929185}}</ref> Orth and Trimble postulated [[frontotemporal dementia]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Orth |first1=M. |last2=Trimble |first2=M. R. |year=2006 |title=Friedrich Nietzsche's mental illness – general paralysis of the insane vs. frontotemporal dementia |journal=Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica |volume=114 |issue=6 |pages=439–444; discussion 445 |doi=10.1111/j.1600-0447.2006.00827.x |pmid=17087793 |s2cid=25453044}}</ref> while other researchers have proposed a hereditary stroke disorder called [[CADASIL]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hemelsoet |first1=D. |last2=Hemelsoet |first2=K. |last3=Devreese |first3=D. |date=March 2008 |title=The neurological illness of Friedrich Nietzsche |journal=Acta Neurologica Belgica |volume=108 |issue=1 |pages=9–16 |pmid=18575181}}</ref> Poisoning by [[mercury (element)|mercury]], a treatment for syphilis at the time of Nietzsche's death,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dayan |first1=L. |last2=Ooi |first2=C. |date=October 2005 |title=Syphilis treatment: old and new |journal=Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy |volume=6 |issue=13 |pages=2271–2280 |doi=10.1517/14656566.6.13.2271 |pmid=16218887 |s2cid=6868863}}</ref> has also been suggested.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hammond |first=David |title=Mercury Poisoning: The Undiagnosed Epidemic |date=2013 |page=11}}</ref>

In 1898 and 1899 Nietzsche suffered at least two strokes. They partially paralysed him, leaving him unable to speak or walk. He likely suffered from clinical [[hemiparesis]]/hemiplegia on the left side of his body by 1899. After contracting [[pneumonia]] in mid-August 1900, he suffered another stroke during the night of 24–25 August and died at about noon on 25 August.<ref>Concurring reports in Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche's biography (1904) and a letter by Mathilde Schenk-Nietzsche to [[Meta von Salis]], 30 August 1900, quoted in Janz (1981) p. 221. Cf. Volz (1990), p. 251.</ref> Elisabeth had him buried beside his father at the church in [[Röcken]] near [[Lützen]]. His friend and secretary Gast gave his funeral oration, proclaiming: "Holy be your name to all future generations!"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schain |first=Richard |title=Nietzsche's Visionary Values – Genius or Dementia? |url=http://www.philosophos.com/philosophy_article_31.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060513011228/http://www.philosophos.com/philosophy_article_31.html |archive-date=13 May 2006 |publisher=Philosophos}}</ref>

[[File:Röcken (Lützen), the grave of Friedrich Nietzsche.jpg|thumb|Nietzsche's grave at [[Röcken]] in Germany]]
[[Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche]] compiled ''[[The Will to Power (manuscript)|The Will to Power]]'' from Nietzsche's unpublished notebooks and published it posthumously in 1901. Because his sister arranged the book based on her own conflation of several of Nietzsche's early outlines and took liberties with the material, the scholarly consensus has been that it does not reflect Nietzsche's intent. (For example, Elisabeth removed aphorism 35 of ''The Antichrist'', where Nietzsche rewrote a passage of the Bible.) [[Mazzino Montinari]], the editor of Nietzsche's ''[[Nachlass]]'', called it a forgery.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Montinari |first=Mazzino |author-link=Mazzino Montinari |title=The 'Will to Power' Does Not Exist}}</ref>{{Incomplete short citation|date=September 2024}} Yet, the endeavour to rescue Nietzsche's reputation by discrediting ''The Will to Power'' often leads to scepticism about the value of his late notes, even of his whole ''Nachlass''. His ''Nachlass'' and ''The Will to Power'' are distinct.<ref name=":3" />

=== Citizenship, nationality and ethnicity ===
General commentators and Nietzsche scholars, whether emphasising his cultural background or his language, overwhelmingly label Nietzsche as a "German philosopher."<ref name="SEP">{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=R. Lanier |date=17 March 2017 |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/ |website=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, [[Stanford University]]}}</ref>{{sfn|Tanner|2000}}{{sfn|Magnus|1999}}<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Magnus |first1=Bernd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xeb80itrlRIC&q=%22German+philosopher%22+Nietzsche&pg=PA1 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche |last2=Higgins |first2=Kathleen Marie |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1996 |isbn=978-0521367677 |page=1 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Others do not assign him a national category.<ref>{{Cite book |title=[[Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy|The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |date=2005 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |editor-last=Craid |editor-first=Edward |location=Abingdon |pages=726–741}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Blackburn |first=Simon |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy |date=2005 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |pages=252–253}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/conciseencyclope00rejo_674 |title=The Concise encyclopedia of western philosophy |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0415329248 |editor-last=Rée |editor-first=Jonathan |edition=3rd |location=London |pages=[https://archive.org/details/conciseencyclope00rejo_674/page/n275 267]–270 |orig-date=1960 |editor-last2=Urmson |editor-first2=J.O. |url-access=limited}}</ref> While Germany had not yet been unified into a single sovereign state, Nietzsche was born a citizen of [[Prussia]], which was mostly part of the [[German Confederation]].<ref name="Mencken2008">{{Cite book |last=Mencken |first=Henry Louis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dyOwIOqoopkC&pg=PA11 |title=The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche |publisher=Wilder Publications |year=2008 |isbn=978-1604593310 |pages=11– |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112014543/http://books.google.com/books?id=dyOwIOqoopkC&pg=PA11 |archive-date=12 November 2012 |url-status=dead |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> His birthplace, [[Röcken]], is in the modern German state of [[Saxony-Anhalt]]. When he accepted his post at Basel, Nietzsche applied for annulment of his Prussian citizenship.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Janz |first=Curt Paul |title=Friedrich Nietzsche: Biographie |date=1978 |publisher=[[Carl Hanser Verlag]] |volume=1 |location=Munich |page=263 |language=de |trans-title=Friedrich Nietzsche: Biography |quote=Er beantragte also bei der preussischen Behörde seine Expatriierung. |trans-quote=He accordingly applied to the Prussian authorities for expatrification.}}</ref> The official revocation of his citizenship came in a document dated 17 April 1869,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Colli |first1=Giorgio |author-link=Giorgio Colli |title=Nietzsche Briefwechsel |last2=Montinari |first2=Mazzino |author-link2=Mazzino Montinari |date=1993 |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |isbn=978-3110122770 |series=Kritische Gesamtausgabe |volume=4 |location=Berlin |page=566 |language=de |trans-title=Nietzsche Correspondence |chapter=Entlassungsurkunde für den Professor Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche aus Naumburg |trans-chapter=Dismissal certificate for Professor Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche from Naumburg}}</ref> and for the rest of his life he remained officially [[Statelessness|stateless]].

[[File:Portrait Bust of Friedrich Nietzsche (SM sgp1).png|thumb|upright|Bust of Nietzsche, by [[Max Klinger]], 1903–1904, at the [[Städel]], Frankfurt]]
At least towards the end of his life, Nietzsche believed his ancestors were [[Polish people|Polish]].<ref name="Mencken1913">{{Cite book |last=Mencken |first=Henry Louis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_r71AzHvf64C&q=poland+polish&pg=PA6 |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=1913 |isbn=978-1560006497 |page=6 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> He wore a [[signet ring]] bearing the [[Radwan coat of arms]], traceable back to [[Szlachta|Polish nobility]] of medieval times<ref name="nietzsche-radwan-ring">{{Cite web |last=Warberg |first=Ulla-Karin |title=Nietzsche's ring |url=http://auktionsverket.com/news/nietzsches-ring/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170624204834/http://auktionsverket.com/news/nietzsches-ring/ |archive-date=24 June 2017 |access-date=16 August 2018 |website=auktionsverket.com |publisher=[[Stockholms Auktionsverk]] |quote=''Nietzsche's ring{{nbsp}}... it was worn by Friedrich Nietzsche and it represents the ancient Radwan coat of arms, which can be traced back to the Polish nobility of medieval times.'' |location=Östermalm, Stockholm}}</ref> and the surname "Nicki" of the Polish noble ([[szlachta]]) family bearing that coat of arms.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Niesiecki |first1=Kasper |author-link=Kasper Niesiecki |title=Herbarz Polski Kaspra Niesieckiego S.J., powiększony dodatkami z poźniejszych autorów, rękopismów, dowodów urzędowych i wydany przez Jana Nep. Bobrowicza. |last2=Bobrowicz |first2=Jan Nepomucen |author-link2=Jan Nepomucen Bobrowicz |publisher=[[Breitkopf & Härtel]] |year=1841 |volume=VIII |location=Leipzig, Germany |page=28 |language=pl |trans-title=Polish armorial of Kasper Niesiecki S.J., enlarged by additions from other authors, manuscripts, official proofs and published by Jan Nep. Bobrowicz. |chapter=Radwan Herb |trans-chapter=Radwan Coat of Arms |type=[[Szlachta|Noble/szlachta]] genealogical and heraldic reference |quote=Herbowni ... Nicki, ... (Heraldic Family ... Nicki, ...) |orig-date=1728 |chapter-url=http://ebuw.uw.edu.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=165 |chapter-format=Online book}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Niesiecki |first1=Kasper |author-link=Kasper Niesiecki |last2=Bobrowicz |first2=Jan Nepomucen |author-link2=Jan Nepomucen Bobrowicz |year=1845 |orig-date=1728 |title=Kasper Niesiecki, Herbarz Polski, wyd. J.N. Bobrowicz, Lipsk 1839–1845: herb Radwan (t. 8 s. 27–29) |url=http://wielcy.pl/niesiecki/herb/radwan/5066.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180817062826/http://wielcy.pl/niesiecki/herb/radwan/5066.php |archive-date=17 August 2018 |access-date=17 August 2018 |website=wielcy.pl |publisher=Dr Minakowski Publikacje Elektroniczne |language=pl |type=[[Szlachta|Noble/szlachta]] genealogical and heraldic reference |format=website |quote=Herbowni ... Nicki, ... (Heraldic Family ... Nicki, ...) |location=Kraków, Poland}}</ref> Gotard Nietzsche, a member of the Nicki family, left Poland for [[Prussia]]. His descendants later settled in the [[Electorate of Saxony]] circa the year 1700.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Warberg |first=Ulla-Karin |title=Nietzsche's ring |url=http://auktionsverket.com/news/nietzsches-ring/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170624204834/http://auktionsverket.com/news/nietzsches-ring/ |archive-date=24 June 2017 |access-date=16 August 2018 |website=auktionsverket.com |publisher=[[Stockholms Auktionsverk]] |quote=''In 1905, the Polish writer Bernhard Scharlitt in the spirit of Polish patriotism wrote an article about the Nietzsche family. In Herbarz Polski, a genealogy of Polish nobility, he had come across a note about a family named 'Nicki,' who could be traced back to Radwan. A member of this family named Gotard Nietzsche had left Poland for Prussia, and his descendants had eventually settled in Saxony around the year 1700.'' |location=Östermalm, Stockholm}}</ref> Nietzsche wrote in 1888, "My ancestors were Polish noblemen (Nietzky); the type seems to have been well preserved despite three generations of German mothers."{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=6}} At one point, Nietzsche became even more adamant about his Polish identity. "I am a pure-blooded Polish nobleman, without a single drop of bad blood, certainly not German blood."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Appel |first=Fredrick |title=Nietzsche Contra Democracy |date=1998 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |page=114}}</ref> On yet another occasion, Nietzsche stated, "Germany is a great nation only because its people have so much Polish blood in their veins.... I am proud of my Polish descent."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mencken |first=Henry Louis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nnEOAAAAIAAJ&q=Nietzsche+Polish&pg=PA6 |title=The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche |publisher=[[University of Michigan]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0722220511 |page=6 |orig-date=1908 |via=[[Google Books]]}} [https://archive.org/details/philosophyoffrie00menc/page/6/mode/2up Alt URL]</ref> Nietzsche believed his name might have been [[Germanisation|Germanised]], in one letter claiming, "I was taught to ascribe the origin of my blood and name to Polish noblemen who were called Niëtzky and left their home and nobleness about a hundred years ago, finally yielding to unbearable suppression: they were [[Protestantism|Protestants]]."<ref>"Letter to Heinrich von Stein, December 1882." ''KGB'' III 1, Nr. 342, p. 287; ''KGW'' V 2, p. 579; ''KSA'' 9 p. 681</ref>

Most scholars dispute Nietzsche's account of his family's origins. Hans von Müller debunked the genealogy put forward by Nietzsche's sister in favour of Polish noble heritage.<ref>von Müller, Hans. 2002. "Nietzsche's Vorfahren" (reprint). ''Nietzsche-Studien'' 31:253–275. {{doi|10.1515/9783110170740.253}}</ref> [[Max Oehler]], Nietzsche's cousin and curator of the [[Nietzsche Archive]] at [[Weimar]], argued that all of Nietzsche's ancestors bore German names, including the wives' families.{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=6}} Oehler claims that Nietzsche came from a long line of German [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] clergymen on both sides of his family, and modern scholars regard the claim of Nietzsche's Polish ancestry as "pure invention."<ref name="mencken">{{Cite book |last=Mencken |first=Henry Louis |title=The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche |publisher=See Sharp Press |others=introd. & comm. Charles Q. Bufe |year=2003 |page=2}}</ref> Colli and Montinari, the editors of Nietzsche's assembled letters, gloss Nietzsche's claims as a "mistaken belief" and "without foundation."<ref>"Letter to Heinrich von Stein, December 1882," ''KGB'' III 7.1, p. 313.</ref><ref>"Letter to Georg Brandes, 10 April 1888," ''KGB'' III 7.3/1, p. 293.</ref> The name ''Nietzsche'' itself is not a Polish name, but an exceptionally common one throughout central Germany, in this and cognate forms (such as ''Nitsche'' and ''Nitzke''). The name derives from the forename ''Nikolaus,'' abbreviated to ''Nick''; assimilated with the Slavic ''Nitz''; it first became ''Nitsche'' and then ''Nietzsche''.{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=6}}

It is not known why Nietzsche wanted to be thought of as Polish nobility. According to the biographer [[R. J. Hollingdale]], Nietzsche's propagation of the Polish ancestry myth may have been part of his "campaign against Germany."{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=6}} Nicholas D. More states that Nietzsche's claims of having an illustrious lineage were a parody on autobiographical conventions, and suspects ''Ecce Homo'', with its self-laudatory titles, such as "''Why I Am So Wise''", as being a work of satire.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=More |first=Nicholas D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JVAHAwAAQBAJ&q=nietzsche+polish+aristocracy+satire&pg=PA69 |title=Nietzsche's Last Laugh: Ecce Homo as Satire |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-1107050815 |page=69 |language=en |access-date=31 August 2021 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> He concludes that Nietzsche's supposed Polish genealogy was a joke—not a delusion.<ref name=":4" />

=== Relationships and sexuality ===
Nietzsche was never married. He proposed to [[Lou Andreas-Salomé|Lou Salomé]] three times and each time was rejected.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Leventhal |first=Robert S. |year=2001 |title=Nietzsche and Lou Andreas-Salomé: Chronicle of a Relationship 1882 |url=https://rsleve.people.wm.edu/FNLAS_1882.html |website=rsleve.people.wm.edu}}</ref> One theory blames Salomé's view on sexuality as one of the reasons for her alienation from Nietzsche. As articulated in her 1898 novella ''Fenitschka'', Salomé viewed the idea of sexual intercourse as prohibitive and marriage as a violation, with some suggesting that they indicated [[sexual repression]] and [[neurosis]]<!-- "while others suggesting her homosexuality" – page number required -->.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Diethe |first=Carol |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2RAhAAAAQBAJ |title=Nietzsche's Women: Beyond the Whip |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |year=1996 |isbn=978-3110148190 |location=Berlin |page=56 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

Deussen cited the episode of [[Cologne]]'s brothel in February 1865 as instrumental to understanding the philosopher's way of thinking, mostly about women. Nietzsche was surreptitiously accompanied to a "call house" from which he clumsily escaped upon seeing "a half dozen apparitions dressed in sequins and veils." According to Deussen, Nietzsche "never decided to remain unmarried all his life. For him, women had to sacrifice themselves to the care and benefit of men."<ref name=":2" /> Nietzsche scholar {{interlanguage link|Joachim Köhler|de|Joachim Köhler (Philosoph)}} has attempted to explain Nietzsche's life history and philosophy by claiming that he was homosexual. Köhler argues that Nietzsche's supposed syphilis, which is "usually considered to be the product of his encounter with a prostitute in a brothel in [[Cologne]] or [[Leipzig]], is equally likely. Some maintain that Nietzsche contracted it in a male brothel in [[Genoa]]."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Köhler |first=Joachim |title=Zarathustra's secret: the interior life of Friedrich Nietzsche |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0300092783 |location=New Haven, Conn. |page=xv}}</ref> The acquisition of the infection from a homosexual brothel was the theory believed by [[Sigmund Freud]], who cited [[Otto Binswanger]] as his source.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Golomb |first=Jacob |url=https://archive.org/details/nietzschejewishc00golo_034 |title=Nietzsche and Jewish Culture |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2001 |isbn=978-0415095129 |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/nietzschejewishc00golo_034/page/n214 202] |url-access=limited}}</ref> Köhler also suggests that Nietzsche had a romantic relationship, as well as a friendship, with [[Paul Rée]].<ref name="Megill" /> It has been claimed that Nietzsche's homosexuality was widely known in the [[Vienna Psychoanalytic Society]], with Nietzsche's friend [[Paul Deussen]] claiming that "he was a man who had never touched a woman."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pletsch |first=Carl |url=https://archive.org/details/youngnietzschebe00plet |title=Young Nietzsche: Becoming a Genius |publisher=The Free Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0029250426 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/youngnietzschebe00plet/page/n74 67] |url-access=limited}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Small |first=Robin |title=Nietzsche and Rée: A Star Friendship |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0199278077 |location=Oxford |page=207}}</ref>

Köhler's views have not found wide acceptance among Nietzsche scholars and commentators. Allan Megill argues that, while Köhler's claim that Nietzsche was conflicted about his homosexual desire cannot simply be dismissed, "the evidence is very weak," and Köhler may be projecting twentieth-century understandings of sexuality on nineteenth-century notions of friendship.<ref name="Megill">{{Cite journal |last=Megill |first=Allan |date=1 March 1996 |title=Historicizing Nietzsche? Paradoxes and Lessons of a Hard Case |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/245288 |journal=The Journal of Modern History |volume=68 |issue=1 |pages=114–152 |doi=10.1086/245288 |issn=0022-2801 |s2cid=147507428|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It is also rumoured that Nietzsche frequented [[Heterosexuality|heterosexual]] brothels.<ref name=":0" /> [[Nigel Rodgers]] and [[Mel Thompson (writer)|Mel Thompson]] have argued that continuous sickness and headaches hindered Nietzsche from engaging much with women. Yet they offer examples of Nietzsche's expressing affection to women, including Wagner's wife [[Cosima Wagner]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Rogers |first1=N. |title=[[Philosophers Behaving Badly]] |last2=Thompson |first2=M. |date=2004 |publisher=[[Peter Owen (publisher)|Peter Owen]] |location=London}}</ref> On Cosima's birthday, on December 19, 1876, Nietzsche, hoping "to gain a confidant," sent her "a trusting letter."<ref>{{cite book |last=Mandel |first=Siegfried |title=Nietzsche & the Jews: Exaltation & Denigration|location=Amherst, New York |publisher=[[Prometheus Books]], pp. 109-110 |year=1998 |isbn=1-57392-223-4}}</ref>

Scholars have argued that Köhler's sexuality-based interpretation is not helpful in understanding Nietzsche's philosophy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Grenke |first=Michael W. |year=2003 |title=How Boring... |journal=The Review of Politics |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=152–154 |doi=10.1017/s0034670500036640 |jstor=1408799 |s2cid=145631903}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Risse |first=Mathias |date=13 January 2003 |title=Zarathustra's Secret. The Interior Life of Friedrich Nietzsche |url=http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/23249-zarathustra-s-secret-the-interior-life-of-friedrich-nietzsche/ |journal=Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews}}</ref> Some stress that, if Nietzsche preferred men—with this preference constituting his [[Psychosexual development|psychosexual]] make-up—but could not admit his desires to himself, it meant he acted in conflict with his philosophy.{{sfn|Clark|2015|p=154}}

== Philosophy ==
{{Main|Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche}}

Because of Nietzsche's evocative style and provocative ideas, his philosophy generates passionate reactions. His works remain controversial, due to varying interpretations and misinterpretations. In Western philosophy, Nietzsche's writings have been described as a case of free revolutionary thought, that is, revolutionary in its structure and problems, although not tied to any revolutionary project.<ref name="Bennett2001">{{Cite book |last=Benjamin Bennett |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AVYbszVKUO4C&pg=PA184 |title=Goethe As Woman: The Undoing of Literature |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0814329481 |page=184 |access-date=3 January 2013}}</ref> His writings have also been described as a revolutionary project in which his philosophy serves as the foundation of a European cultural rebirth.{{sfn|Young|2010}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bowman |first=William |title=Friedrich Nietzsche: Herald of a New Era |publisher=Hazar Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0997570304}}</ref>

=== Apollonian and Dionysian ===
{{Main|Apollonian and Dionysian}}

The ''Apollonian and Dionysian'' is a two-fold philosophical concept based on two figures in ancient Greek mythology, [[Apollo]] and [[Dionysus]]. This relationship takes the form of a [[dialectic]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schrift |first=Alan D. |title=Deleuze Becoming Nietzsche Becoming Spinoza Becoming Deleuze |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/philtoday200650supplement23 |journal=[[Philosophy Today]] |volume=50 |year=2006 |pages=187–194 |doi=10.5840/philtoday200650supplement23 |issn=0031-8256|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Even though the concept is related to ''[[The Birth of Tragedy]]'', the poet [[Friedrich Hölderlin]] had already spoken of it, and [[Johann Joachim Winckelmann]] had talked of [[Dionysus|Bacchus]].

Nietzsche found in classical Athenian tragedy an art form that [[Transcendence (philosophy)|transcended]] the pessimism found in the so-called [[Silenus#Wisdom|wisdom of Silenus]]. The Greek spectators, by looking into the abyss of human suffering depicted by characters on stage, passionately and joyously affirmed life, finding it worth living. The main theme in ''[[The Birth of Tragedy]]'' is that the fusion of Dionysian and Apollonian ''Kunsttriebe'' ("artistic impulses") forms dramatic arts or tragedies. He argued that this fusion has not been achieved since the ancient Greek [[tragedians]]. Apollo represents harmony, progress, clarity, logic and the [[principle of individuation]], whereas Dionysus represents disorder, intoxication, emotion, ecstasy and unity (hence the omission of the principle of individuation).

Nietzsche strongly distinguishes his Dionysus from the Dionysus of the Orphic tradition, which he considers a later corruption of the original Dionysian force. To him in the pre-Homeric world, Dionysian civilisations were marked by barbarism, cruelty, and ecstatic sexual excess, unrestrained by rational or moral principles. Nietzsche associates this period with unmediated life-affirmation, where violence and eroticism intertwined as expressions of raw vitality.<ref name="auto1">Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. ''Kritische Studienausgabe'' [KSA], vol. 1, p. 785.</ref> The Orphics, overwhelmed by anxiety toward this unmitigated savagery, reacted by turning away from the physical world and abstracting their gods into metaphysical ideas. In doing so, they transformed Dionysus from a figure of visceral power into a god of suffering and redemption and, in parallel, converted man from a being of flesh and instincts into a soul burdened with guilt and the need for purification.<ref>Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. ''Kritische Studienausgabe'' [KSA], vol. 1, p. 874.</ref>

Nietzsche criticises this Orphic reinterpretation as an early decline in Greek spiritual health, arguing that it marked the beginning of an anti-life tendency that would later manifest in Platonism and Christianity.<ref name="auto1"/> He further argues that Socrates and Euripides continued the Orphic trajectory, replacing instinct, myth, and artistic frenzy with rationalism, dialectic, and moral didacticism. By doing so, they undermined the ecstatic and violent balance of Apollonian and Dionysian forces, ultimately leading to the decline of Greek tragedy.<ref>Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. ''Kritische Gesamtausgabe Werke'' [KGW], II, 4, p. 252.</ref>

Nietzsche used these two forces because, for him, the world of mind and order on one side, and passion and chaos on the other, formed principles that were fundamental to the [[Culture of Greece|Greek culture]]:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nietzsche, Dionysus and Apollo |url=http://www.historyguide.org/europe/dio_apollo.html |website=www.historyguide.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Desmond |first=Kathleen K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iP4sA3kwcFsC&q=Jim+Morrison+Apollonian+and+Dionysian&pg=PA69 |title=Ideas About Art |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2011 |isbn=978-1444396003 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> the Apollonian a dreaming state, full of illusions; and Dionysian a state of intoxication, representing the liberation of instincts and dissolution of boundaries. In this mould, a man appears as the [[satyr]]. He is the horror of the annihilation of the principle of [[individuation|individuality]] and at the same time someone who delights in its destruction.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nietzsche's Apollonianism and Dionysiansism: Meaning and Interpretation |url=https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/creationofknowledge/apollonianism-dyonysianisism.html |website=bachelorandmaster.com}}</ref>

Apollonian and Dionysian juxtapositions appear in the interplay of tragedy: the tragic hero of the drama, the main protagonist, struggles to make (Apollonian) order of his unjust and chaotic (Dionysian) fate, though he dies unfulfilled. Elaborating on the conception of [[Hamlet]] as an intellectual who cannot make up his mind, and is a living [[antithesis]] to the man of action, Nietzsche argues that a Dionysian figure possesses the knowledge that his actions cannot change the eternal balance of things, and it disgusts him enough not to act at all. Hamlet falls under this category—he glimpsed the supernatural reality through the Ghost; he has gained true knowledge and knows that no action of his has the power to change this. For the audience of such drama, this tragedy allows them to sense what Nietzsche called the ''Primordial Unity'', which revives Dionysian nature. He describes primordial unity as the increase of strength, the experience of fullness and plenitude bestowed by [[wikt:frenzy#Noun|frenzy]]. Frenzy acts as intoxication and is crucial for the [[Physiology|physiological]] condition that enables the creation of any art.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}} Stimulated by this state, a person's artistic will is enhanced:

<blockquote>In this state one enriches everything out of one's own fullness: whatever one sees, whatever wills is seen swelled, taut, strong, overloaded with strength. A man in this state transforms things until they mirror his power—until they are reflections of his perfection. This having to transform into perfection is—art.</blockquote>

Nietzsche is adamant that the works of [[Aeschylus]] and [[Sophocles]] represent the apex of artistic creation, the true realisation of tragedy; it is with [[Euripides]], that tragedy begins its ''Untergang'' (literally 'going under' or 'downward-way;' meaning decline, deterioration, downfall, death, etc.). Nietzsche objects to Euripides' use of [[Socratic method|Socratic rationalism]] and [[morality]] in his tragedies, claiming that the infusion of ethics and [[reason]] robs tragedy of its foundation, namely the fragile balance of the Dionysian and Apollonian. [[Socrates]] emphasised reason to such a degree that he diffused the value of myth and suffering to human knowledge. [[Plato]] continued along this path in his dialogues, and the modern world eventually inherited reason at the expense of artistic impulses found in the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy. He notes that without the Apollonian, the Dionysian lacks the form and structure to make a coherent piece of art, and without the Dionysian, the Apollonian lacks the necessary vitality and passion. Only the fertile interplay of these two forces brought together as an art represented the best of Greek tragedy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=SparkNotes: Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900): The Birth of Tragedy |url=https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/nietzsche/section1/ |website=sparknotes.com}}</ref>

An example of the impact of this idea can be seen in the book ''Patterns of Culture'', where the anthropologist [[Ruth Benedict]] acknowledges Nietzschean opposites of "Apollonian" and "Dionysian" as the stimulus for her thoughts about [[Native American culture]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Benedict |first=Ruth |author-link=Ruth Benedict |url=http://classes.yale.edu/03-04/anth500b/projects/project_sites/02_alexy/ruthpatterns.html |title=Patterns of Culture |access-date=17 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414224516/http://classes.yale.edu/03-04/anth500b/projects/project_sites/02_Alexy/ruthpatterns.html |archive-date=14 April 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Carl Jung]] has written extensively on the dichotomy in ''[[Psychological Types]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jung |first=Carl |title=Psychological Types |chapter=The Apollonian and the Dionysian}}</ref> [[Michel Foucault]] commented that his own book ''[[Madness and Civilization]]'' should be read "under the sun of the great Nietzschean inquiry". Here Foucault referenced Nietzsche's description of the birth and death of tragedy and his explanation that the subsequent tragedy of the Western world was the refusal of the tragic and, with that, refusal of the sacred.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mahon |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4aNoFpNfYeMC&q=foucault+genealogy&pg=PA1 |title=Foucault's Nietzschean Genealogy |publisher=SUNY Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0791411490}}</ref> The painter [[Mark Rothko]] was influenced by Nietzsche's view of tragedy presented in ''The Birth of Tragedy.''

=== Perspectivism ===
{{Main|Perspectivism}}

Nietzsche claimed the [[death of God]] would eventually lead to the realisation that there can never be a universal perspective on things and that the traditional idea of [[objective truth]] is incoherent.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yockey |first=Francis |title=Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics |publisher=The Palingenesis Project (Wermod and Wermod Publishing Group) |year=2013 |isbn=978-0956183576}}</ref>{{sfn|Lampert|1986|pp=17–18}}{{Sfn |Heidegger}}{{Incomplete short citation|date=September 2024}} Nietzsche rejected the idea of objective reality, arguing that knowledge is [[Contingency (philosophy)|contingent]] and conditional, relative to various fluid perspectives or interests.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cox |first=Christoph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TxlMccAak4wC&q=Objective |title=Nietzsche: Naturalism and Interpretation |publisher=University of California Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0520921603 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> This leads to constant reassessment of rules (i.e., those of philosophy, the scientific method, etc.) according to the circumstances of individual perspectives.{{sfn|Schacht|1983|p=61}} This view has acquired the name ''[[perspectivism]]''.

In ''[[Thus Spoke Zarathustra]]'' Nietzsche proclaimed that a table of values hangs above every great person. He pointed out that what is common among different peoples is the act of esteeming, of creating values, even if the values are different from one person to the next. Nietzsche asserted that what made people great was not the content of their beliefs, but the act of valuing. Thus the values a community strives to articulate are not as important as the collective will to see those values come to pass. The willingness is more essential than the merit of the goal itself, according to Nietzsche. "A thousand goals have there been so far", says Zarathustra, "for there are a thousand peoples. Only the yoke for the thousand necks is still lacking: the one goal is lacking. Humanity still has no goal." Hence, the title of the aphorism, "On The Thousand And One Goal". The idea that one value-system is no more worthy than the next, although it may not be directly ascribed to Nietzsche, has become a common premise in modern social science. [[Max Weber]] and [[Martin Heidegger]] absorbed it and made it their own. It shaped their philosophical and cultural endeavours, as well as their political understanding. Weber, for example, relied on Nietzsche's perspectivism by maintaining that objectivity is still possible—but only after a particular perspective, value, or end has been established.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steve |first=Hoenisch |url=http://www.criticism.com/md/weber1.html |title=Max Weber's View of Objectivity in Social Science}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nobre |first=Renarde Freire |year=2006 |title=Culture and perspectivism in Nietzsche's and Weber's view |journal=Teoria & Sociedade |volume=2 |issue=SE |page=0 |doi=10.1590/S1518-44712006000200006 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Among his critique of traditional philosophy of [[Immanuel Kant]], [[René Descartes]] and [[Plato]] in ''[[Beyond Good and Evil]]'', Nietzsche attacked the ''[[thing in itself]]'' and ''[[cogito ergo sum]]'' ("I think, therefore I am") as [[Falsifiability|unfalsifiable]] beliefs based on naive acceptance of previous notions and [[fallacy|fallacies]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.monomorphic.org/wordpress/objective-and-subjective-reality-perspectivism/ |title=Objective and subjective reality; perspectivism |year=2011 |access-date=23 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524061713/http://www.monomorphic.org/wordpress/objective-and-subjective-reality-perspectivism/ |archive-date=24 May 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The philosopher [[Alasdair MacIntyre]] put Nietzsche in a high place in the history of philosophy. While criticising nihilism and Nietzsche together as a sign of general decay,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Solomon |first=Robert C. |author-link=Robert C. Solomon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3JA3vyj4slsC&q=Alasdair+MacIntyre+Nietzsche+Kant&pg=PA108 |title=From Hegel to Existentialism |publisher=Oup USA |year=1989 |isbn=978-0195061826 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> he still commended him for recognising psychological motives behind Kant and [[David Hume]]'s moral philosophy:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Murphy |first=Mark C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TN7sop-yILMC&q=Alasdair+MacIntyre+Nietzsche+Kant&pg=PA136 |title=Alasdair MacIntyre |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0521793810 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

<blockquote>For it was Nietzsche's historic achievement to understand more clearly than any other philosopher ... not only that what purported to be appeals of [[Objectivity (philosophy)|objectivity]] were in fact expressions of subjective will, but also the nature of the problems that this posed for philosophy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lutz |first=Christopher Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z9RaG9ccs44C&q=Alasdair+MacIntyre+Nietzsche+Kant&pg=PA37 |title=Tradition in the ethics of Alasdair MacIntyre |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2009 |isbn=978-0739141489 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref></blockquote>

=== Slave revolt in morals ===
{{Main|Master–slave morality}}

In ''[[Beyond Good and Evil]]'' and ''[[On the Genealogy of Morality]]'' Nietzsche's [[Genealogy (philosophy)|genealogical]] account of the development of modern moral systems occupies a central place. For Nietzsche a fundamental shift took place during the human history from thinking in terms of "good and bad" toward "good and evil".

The initial form of morality was set by a warrior [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocracy]] and other ruling castes of ancient civilisations. Aristocratic values of good and bad coincided with and reflected their relationship to lower [[caste]]s such as slaves. Nietzsche presented this "master morality" as the original system of morality—perhaps best associated with [[Homer]]ic Greece.<ref name="LacewingSlave">{{Cite web |last1=Nietzsche |first1=Friedrich |last2=Lacewing |first2=Michael |title=Nietzsche on master and slave morality |url=http://documents.routledge-interactive.s3.amazonaws.com/9781138793934/A2/Nietzsche/NietzscheMasterSlave.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510060210/http://documents.routledge-interactive.s3.amazonaws.com/9781138793934/A2/Nietzsche/NietzscheMasterSlave.pdf |archive-date=10 May 2016 |access-date=29 September 2019 |website=Amazon Online Web Services |publisher=[[Routledge]], Taylor & Francis Group}}</ref> To be "good" was to be happy and to have the things related to happiness: wealth, strength, health, power, etc. To be "bad" was to be like the slaves over whom the aristocracy ruled: poor, weak, sick, pathetic—objects of pity or disgust rather than hatred.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nietzsche, "Master and Slave Morality" |url=https://philosophy.lander.edu/ethics/notes-nietzsche.html#1. |access-date=28 September 2019 |website=philosophy.lander.edu}}</ref>

"Slave morality" developed as a reaction to master morality. Value emerges from the contrast between good and evil: good being associated with other-worldliness, charity, piety, restraint, meekness, and submission; while evil is worldly, cruel, selfish, wealthy, and aggressive. Nietzsche saw slave morality as pessimistic and fearful, its values emerging to improve the self-perception of slaves. He associated slave morality with the Jewish and Christian traditions, as it is born out of the ''[[ressentiment]]'' of slaves. Nietzsche argued that the idea of equality allowed slaves to overcome their own conditions without despising themselves. By denying the inherent inequality of people—in success, strength, beauty, and intelligence—slaves acquired a method of escape, namely by generating new values on the basis of rejecting master morality. It was used as an attempt to overcome the slave's sense of inferiority before their (better-off) masters. It does so by depicting slave weakness, for example, as a matter of choice, by relabelling it as "meekness". The "good man" of master morality is precisely the "evil man" of slave morality, while the "bad man" is recast as the "good man". Slave morality, however, leads to seeing the present state of the world as unjust, and creates the need for a belief in an afterlife, where the "evil man" (the master) will be punished, while the "good man" (the slave) will be rewarded.<ref name="LacewingSlave" />

Nietzsche saw slave morality as a source of the nihilism that has overtaken Europe: it had led to view earthly life as inherently unfair, only justified as a prelude to the world to come; as such, the ever-increasing loss of belief in religion and Heaven had led to utter despair and pessimism. Furthermore, modern Europe and Christianity exist in a hypocritical state due to a tension between master and slave morality, both contradictory values determining, to varying degrees, the values of most Europeans (who are "[[motley]]"). Nietzsche called for exceptional people not to be ashamed in the face of a supposed morality-for-all, which he deems to be harmful to the flourishing of exceptional people. He cautioned that morality, per se, is not bad; it is good for the masses and should be left to them. Exceptional people, in contrast, should follow their own "inner law".<ref name="LacewingSlave" /> A favourite motto of Nietzsche, taken from [[Pindar]], reads: "Become what you are."<ref name="KYLook">{{Cite web |last=Look |first=Brandon |title='Becoming Who One Is' in Spinoza and Nietzsche |url=http://www.uky.edu/~look/essays/Spinoza&Nietzsche.pdf |access-date=28 September 2019 |website=uky.edu |publisher=[[University of Kentucky]]}}</ref>

A long-standing assumption about Nietzsche is that he preferred master over slave morality. The eminent Nietzsche scholar [[Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)|Walter Kaufmann]] rejected this interpretation, writing that Nietzsche's analyses of these two types of morality were used only in a [[descriptive ethics|descriptive]] and historic sense; they were not meant for any kind of acceptance or glorification.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kaufmann |first=Walter Arnold |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wvKRUSdUsnkC&q=Master+slave+morality&pg=PA213 |title=From Shakespeare to existentialism |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1980 |isbn=978-0691013671 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> On the other hand, Nietzsche called master morality "a higher order of values, the noble ones, those that say Yes to life, those that guarantee the future".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich |title=Ecce Homo |year=1908 |page=Chapter on The Case of Wagner, section 2}}</ref> Just as "there is an order of rank between man and man", there is also an order of rank "between morality and morality".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich |title=Beyond Good and Evil |year=1886 |page=Section 228}}</ref> Nietzsche waged a philosophic war against the slave morality of Christianity in his "revaluation of all values" to bring about the victory of a new master morality that he called the "philosophy of the future" (''Beyond Good and Evil'' is subtitled ''Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future'').<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bowman |first=William |title=Friedrich Nietzsche: Herald of a New Era |publisher=Hazar Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0997570304 |pages=31–38, 60–106}}</ref>

In ''[[The Dawn (book)|Daybreak]]'' Nietzsche began his "Campaign against Morality".{{sfn|Kaufmann|1974|p=187}}{{sfn|Nietzsche|1888d|loc=M I}} He called himself an "immoralist" and harshly criticised the prominent moral philosophies of his day: Christianity, [[Kantianism]] and [[utilitarianism]]. Nietzsche's concept "[[God is dead]]" applies to the doctrines of [[Christendom]], though not to all other faiths: he claimed that [[Buddhism]] is a successful religion that he complimented for fostering critical thought.{{sfn|Sedgwick|2009|p=26}} Still, Nietzsche saw his philosophy as a counter-movement to nihilism through appreciation of art:

{{blockquote|text=Art as the single superior counterforce against all will to negation of life, art as the anti-Christian, anti-Buddhist, anti-Nihilist par excellence.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |title=Art in Nietzsche's philosophy |url=http://jorbon.tripod.com/niet01.html |website=jorbon.tripod.com}}</ref>|sign=|source=}}

Nietzsche claimed that the Christian faith as practised was not a proper representation of Jesus' teachings, as it forced people merely to believe in the way of Jesus but not to act as Jesus did; in particular, his example of refusing to judge people, something that Christians constantly did.{{Sfn |Sedgwick |2009 |p=26}} He condemned institutionalised Christianity for emphasising a morality of [[pity]] (''Mitleid''), which assumes an inherent illness in society:{{sfn|Sedgwick|2009|p=27}}
{{blockquote|text=Christianity is called the religion of ''pity''. Pity stands opposed to the tonic emotions which heighten our vitality: it has a depressing effect. We are deprived of strength when we feel pity. That loss of strength in which suffering as such inflicts on life is still further increased and multiplied by pity. Pity makes suffering contagious.<ref>''The Antichrist'', section 7. transl. Walter Kaufmann, in ''The Portable Nietzsche'', 1977, pp. 572–573.</ref>}}

In ''[[Ecce Homo (book)|Ecce Homo]]'' Nietzsche called the establishment of moral systems based on a dichotomy of [[good and evil]] a "calamitous error",{{Sfn |Nietzsche |1888d |loc=Why I Am a Destiny, §&nbsp;3}} and wished to initiate a [[transvaluation of values|re-evaluation]] of the [[Value (ethics)|values]] of the Christian world.{{sfn|Nietzsche|1888c|pp=4, 8, 18, 29, 37, 40, 51, 57, 59}} He indicated his desire to bring about a new, more naturalistic source of value in the vital impulses of life itself.

While Nietzsche attacked the principles of Judaism, he was not [[antisemitic]]: in his work ''[[On the Genealogy of Morality]]'', he explicitly condemned antisemitism and pointed out that his attack on Judaism was not an attack on contemporary Jewish people but specifically an attack upon the ancient Jewish priesthood who he claimed [[antisemitic Christians]] paradoxically based their views upon.{{sfn|Sedgwick|2009|p=69}} An Israeli historian who performed a statistical analysis of everything Nietzsche wrote about Jews claims that cross-references and context make clear that 85% of the negative comments are attacks on Christian doctrine or, sarcastically, on Richard Wagner.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

Nietzsche felt that modern antisemitism was "despicable" and contrary to European ideals.{{sfn|Sedgwick|2009|p=68}} Its cause, in his opinion, was the growth in European nationalism and the endemic "jealousy and hatred" of Jewish success.{{sfn|Sedgwick|2009|p=68}} He wrote that Jews should be thanked for helping uphold a respect for the philosophies of ancient Greece,{{sfn|Sedgwick|2009|p=68}} and for giving rise to "the noblest human being (Christ), the purest philosopher ([[Baruch Spinoza]]), the mightiest book, and the most effective moral code in the world".<ref name="Nebraska">{{Cite book |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich |title=[[Human, All Too Human]]: A Book for Free Spirits |date=1986 |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |page=231 |orig-date=1878}}</ref>

=== Death of God and nihilism ===
{{Main|God is dead|Nihilism}}

The statement "God is dead," occurring in several of Nietzsche's works (notably in ''[[The Gay Science]]''), has become one of his best-known remarks. On the basis of it, many commentators<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morgan |first=George Allen |title=What Nietzsche Means |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |year=1941 |isbn=978-0837174044 |location=Cambridge, MA |page=36}}</ref> regard Nietzsche as an [[atheism|atheist]]; others (such as Kaufmann) suggest that this statement might reflect a more subtle understanding of divinity. Nietzsche thought that scientific developments and the increasing [[secularisation]] of Europe had effectively 'killed' the [[Abrahamic]] God, who had served as the basis for meaning and value in the West for more than a thousand years. The death of God may lead beyond bare perspectivism to outright [[nihilism]], the belief that nothing has any inherent importance and that life lacks purpose. While Nietzsche rejected the traditional Christian morality and theology, he also rejected the nihilism which many thought was the only alternative to it.

Nietzsche believed that Christian moral doctrine was originally constructed to counteract nihilism. It provides people with traditional beliefs about the [[moral value]]s of good and evil, belief in God (whose existence one might appeal to in [[Theodicy|justifying]] the evil in the world), and a framework with which one might claim to have [[objectivity (philosophy)|objective knowledge]]. In constructing a world where objective knowledge is supposed to be possible, Christianity is an antidote to a primal form of nihilism—the despair of meaninglessness. As [[Martin Heidegger]] put the problem, "If God as the supra sensory ground and goal of all reality is dead if the supra sensory world of the ideas has suffered the loss of its obligatory and above it its vitalising and upbuilding power, then nothing more remains to which man can cling and by which he can orient himself."{{sfn|Heidegger|p=61}}{{Incomplete short citation|date=September 2024}}

One such reaction to the loss of meaning is what Nietzsche called ''passive nihilism'', which he recognised in the [[pessimism|pessimistic]] philosophy of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]]. Schopenhauer's doctrine—which Nietzsche also referred to as [[Buddhism in the West#Philosophical interest|Western Buddhism]]—advocates separating oneself from will and desires to reduce suffering. Nietzsche characterised this [[Asceticism|ascetic]] attitude as a "will to nothingness". Life turns away from itself as there is nothing of value to be found in the world. This moving away of all value in the world is characteristic of the nihilist, although, in this, the nihilist appears to be inconsistent; this "will to nothingness" is still a (disavowed) form of willing.<ref>F. Nietzsche, ''[[On the Genealogy of Morals]]'', III:7.</ref>

{{blockquote|A nihilist is a man who judges that the real world ought ''not'' to be and that the world as it ought to do not exist. According to this view, our existence (action, [[suffering]], willing, feeling) has no meaning: this 'in vain' is the nihilists' pathos—an inconsistency on the part of the nihilists.|Friedrich Nietzsche, KSA 12:9 [60]|taken from ''The Will to Power'', section 585, translated by [[Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)|Walter Kaufmann]]}}

Nietzsche approached the problem of nihilism as a deeply personal one, stating that this problem of the modern world had "become conscious" in him.<ref>Nietzsche, ''KSA'' 12:7 [8]</ref> Furthermore, he emphasised the danger of nihilism and the possibilities it offers, as seen in his statement that "I praise, I do not reproach, [nihilism's] arrival. I believe it is one of the greatest crises, a moment of the deepest self-reflection of humanity. Whether man recovers from it, whether he becomes a master of this crisis, is a question of his strength!"<ref>Friedrich Nietzsche, Complete Works Vol. 13.</ref> According to Nietzsche, it is only when nihilism is ''overcome'' that a culture can have a true foundation on which to thrive. He wished to hasten its coming only so that he could also hasten its ultimate departure. Heidegger interpreted the death of God with what he explained as the death of [[metaphysics]]. He concluded that metaphysics has reached its potential and that the ultimate fate and downfall of metaphysics was proclaimed with the statement "God is dead."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hankey |first=Wayne J. |author-link=Wayne Hankey |year=2004 |title=Why Heidegger's 'History' of Metaphysics is Dead |url=https://www.academia.edu/11651293 |journal=American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly |volume=78 |issue=3 |pages=425–443 |doi=10.5840/acpq200478325 |issn=1051-3558}}</ref>

Scholars such as [[Keiji Nishitani]] and [[Graham Parkes]] have aligned Nietzsche's religious thought with [[Buddhist]] thinkers, particularly those of the [[Mahayana]] tradition.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nishitani |first=Keiji |author-link=Keiji Nishitani |title=The self-overcoming of nihilism |date=1990 |publisher=[[State University of New York Press]] |isbn=0585057397 |location=Albany |oclc=43475134}}</ref> Occasionally, Nietzsche has also been considered in relation to Catholic mystics such as [[Meister Eckhart]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stambaugh |first=Joan |author-link=Joan Stambaugh |title=The other Nietzsche |date=1994 |publisher=[[State University of New York Press]] |isbn=0791416992 |location=Albany |oclc=27684700}}</ref> Milne has argued against such interpretations on the grounds that such thinkers from Western and Eastern religious traditions strongly emphasise the divestment of will and the loss of ego, while Nietzsche offers a robust defence of egoism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Milne |first=Andrew |title=Nietzsche as egoist and mystic |date=2021 |isbn=978-3030750077 |location=Cham |oclc=1264715169}}</ref> Milne argues that Nietzsche's religious thought is better understood in relation to his self-professed ancestors: "[[Heraclitus]], [[Empedocles]], [[Spinoza]], [[Goethe]]".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich |title=Nachlass Fragments, 1884 |url=http://www.nietzschesource.org/#eKGWB/NF-1884,25[454}}</ref> Milne plays particularly close attention to Nietzsche's relationship to Goethe, who has typically been neglected in research by academic philosophers. Milne shows that Goethe's views on the one and the many allow a reciprocal determinism between part and whole, meaning that a claimed identity between part and whole does not give the part value solely in terms of belonging to the whole. In essence, this allows for a unitive sense of the individual's relationship to the universe, while also fostering a sense of "self-esteem" which Nietzsche found lacking in mystics such as Eckhart.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich |title=Nachlass Fragments, 1884 |url=http://www.nietzschesource.org/eKGWB/NF-1884,26%5B442}}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>

With regard to Nietzsche's development of thought, it has been noted in research that although he dealt with "nihilistic" themes ("pessimism, with nirvana and with nothingness and non-being"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elisabeth Kuhn |title=Nietzsches Philosophie des europäischen Nihilismus |year=1992 |location=Berlin & New York |pages=10–11, 14–15}}</ref>) from 1869 onwards, a conceptual use of nihilism first took place in handwritten notes in mid-1880. This period saw the publication of a then popular work that reconstructed so-called "Russian nihilism" on the basis of Russian newspaper reports (N. Karlowitsch: The Development of Nihilism. Berlin 1880), which is significant for Nietzsche's terminology .<ref>{{Cite book |last=Martin Walter, Jörg Hüttner |title=Nachweis aus Nicolai Karlowitsch, Die Entwickelung des Nihilismus (1880) und aus Das Ausland (1880). In: Nietzsche-Studien, Vol. 51, 2022, p. 330–333.}}</ref>

=== Will to power ===
{{Main|Will to power}}

A basic element in Nietzsche's philosophical outlook is the "will to power" ({{lang|de|der Wille zur Macht}}), which he maintained provides a basis for understanding human behaviour—more so than competing explanations, such as the ones based on pressure for adaptation or survival.{{sfn|Nietzsche|1886|p=13}}<!-- undefined here{{sfn|Nietzsche|1882|p=349}}-->{{sfn|Nietzsche|1887|p=II:12}} As such, according to Nietzsche, the drive for conservation appears as the major motivator of human or animal behaviour only in exceptions, as the general condition of life is not one of a 'struggle for existence.'{{sfn|Nietzsche|1888b|loc=Skirmishes of an untimely man, §&nbsp;14}} More often than not, self-conservation is a consequence of a creature's will to exert its strength on the outside world.

In presenting his theory of human behaviour, Nietzsche also addressed and attacked concepts from philosophies then popularly embraced, such as Schopenhauer's notion of an aimless will or that of [[utilitarianism]]. Utilitarians claim that what moves people is the desire to be happy and accumulate pleasure in their lives. But such a conception of happiness Nietzsche rejected as something limited to, and characteristic of, the bourgeois lifestyle of the English society,<ref>[[Brian Leiter]], ''Routledge guide to Nietzsche on morality'', p. 121</ref> and instead put forth the idea that happiness is not an aim ''per se''. It is a consequence of overcoming hurdles to one's actions and the fulfilment of the will.{{sfn|Nietzsche|1888c|loc=§&nbsp;2}}

Related to his theory of the will to power is his speculation, which he did not deem final,{{sfn|Nietzsche|1886|loc=I, §&nbsp;36}} regarding the reality of the physical world, including inorganic matter—that, like man's affections and impulses, the material world is also set by the dynamics of a form of the will to power. At the core of his theory is a rejection of [[atomism]]—the idea that matter is composed of stable, indivisible units (atoms). Instead, he seemed to have accepted the conclusions of [[Ruđer Bošković]], who explained the qualities of matter as a result of an interplay of forces.{{efn|Nietzsche comments in many notes about the matter being a hypothesis drawn from the metaphysics of substance. {{Cite journal |last=Whitlock |first=G. |date=1996 |title=Roger Boscovich, Benedict de Spinoza and Friedrich Nietzsche: The Untold Story |journal=[[Nietzsche-Studien]] |volume=25 |page=207 |doi=10.1515/9783110244441.200 |s2cid=171148597}}}}{{sfn|Nietzsche|1886|loc=I, §&nbsp;12}} One study of Nietzsche defines his fully developed concept of the will to power as "the element from which derive both the quantitative difference of related forces and the quality that devolves into each force in this relation" revealing the will to power as "the principle of the synthesis of forces".{{sfn|Deleuze|2006|p=46}} Of such forces Nietzsche said they could perhaps be viewed as a primitive form of the will. Likewise, he rejected the view that the movement of bodies is ruled by inexorable laws of nature, positing instead that movement was governed by the power relations between bodies and forces.{{sfn|Nietzsche|1886|loc=I, §&nbsp;22}}

Other scholars disagree that Nietzsche considered the material world to be a form of the will to power: Nietzsche thoroughly criticised metaphysics, and by including the will to power in the material world, he would simply be setting up a new metaphysics. Other than Aphorism 36 in ''Beyond Good and Evil'', where he raised a question regarding will to power as being in the material world, they argue, it was only in his notes (unpublished by himself), where he wrote about a metaphysical will to power. And they also claim that Nietzsche directed his landlord to burn those notes in 1888 when he left Sils Maria.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Leddy |first=Thomas |date=14 June 2006 |title=Nietzsche's Mirror: The World as Will to Power (review) |journal=Journal of Nietzsche Studies |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=66–68 |doi=10.1353/nie.2006.0006 |s2cid=170737246}}</ref> According to these scholars, the "burning" story supports their thesis that Nietzsche rejected his project on the will to power at the end of his lucid life. A study (Huang 2019) shows that although it is true that in 1888 Nietzsche wanted some of his notes burned, this indicates little about his project on the will to power, not only because only 11 "aphorisms" saved from the flames were ultimately incorporated into ''The Will to Power'' (this book contains 1067 "aphorisms"), but also because these abandoned notes mainly focus on topics such as the critique of morality while touching upon the "feeling of power" only once.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Huang |first=Jing |date=19 March 2019 |title=Did Nietzsche want his notes burned? Some reflections on the ''Nachlass'' problem |journal=British Journal for the History of Philosophy |volume=27 |issue=6 |pages=1194–1214 |doi=10.1080/09608788.2019.1570078 |s2cid=171864314}}</ref>

=== Eternal return ===
{{Main|Eternal return}}

"Eternal return" (also known as "eternal recurrence") is a hypothetical concept that posits that the universe has been recurring, and will continue to recur, for an infinite number of times across infinite time or space. It is a purely [[physics|physical]] concept, involving no supernatural [[reincarnation]], but the return of beings in the same bodies. Nietzsche first proposed the idea of eternal return in a parable in Section 341 of ''[[The Gay Science]]'', and also in the chapter "Of the Vision and the Riddle" in ''[[Thus Spoke Zarathustra]]'', among other places.{{Sfn |Nietzsche |1961 |pp=176–180}} Nietzsche considered it as potentially "horrifying and paralyzing", and said that its burden is the "heaviest weight" imaginable ("'' das schwerste Gewicht''").<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kundera |first=Milan |title=The Unbearable Lightness of Being |year=1999 |page=5}}</ref> The wish for the eternal return of all events would mark the ultimate affirmation of life, a reaction to [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauer]]'s praise of denying the will-to-live. To comprehend eternal recurrence, and to not only come to peace with it but to embrace it, requires ''[[amor fati]]'', "love of fate".<ref name="dudl">{{Cite book |last=Dudley |first=Will |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4dLeWFK6qp0C&pg=PA201 |title=Hegel, Nietzsche, and Philosophy: Thinking Freedom |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0521812504 |page=201 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> As [[Martin Heidegger]] noted in his lectures on Nietzsche, Nietzsche's first mention of eternal recurrence presents this concept as a [[Thought experiment|hypothetical ''question'']] rather than stating it as fact. According to Heidegger, it is the burden imposed by the ''question'' of eternal recurrence – the mere possibility of it, and the reality of speculating on that possibility – which is so significant in modern thought: "The way Nietzsche here patterns the first communication of the thought of the 'greatest burden' [of eternal recurrence] makes it clear that this 'thought of thoughts' is at the same time 'the most burdensome thought.'"<ref>See Heidegger, ''Nietzsche. Volume II: The Eternal Recurrence of the Same'' trans. [[David Farrell Krell]]. New York: [[Harper and Row]], 1984. 25.</ref>

[[Alexander Nehamas]] writes in ''Nietzsche: Life as Literature'' of three ways of seeing the eternal recurrence:

# "My life will recur in exactly identical fashion:" this expresses a totally [[Fatalism|fatalistic]] approach to the idea;
# "My life may recur in exactly identical fashion:" This second view conditionally asserts [[cosmology]], but fails to capture what Nietzsche refers to in ''The Gay Science'', p.&nbsp;341; and finally,
# "If my life were to recur, then it could recur only in identical fashion." Nehamas shows that this interpretation exists totally independently of physics and does not presuppose the truth of cosmology.

Nehamas concluded that, if individuals constitute themselves through their actions, they can only maintain themselves in their current state by living in a recurrence of past actions.{{sfn|Nehamas|1985|p=153}} Nietzsche's thought is the negation of the idea of a history of salvation.<ref name="Tongeren2000">{{Cite book |last=Van Tongeren |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TqxrlA9Qxg0C&pg=PA295 |title=Reinterpreting Modern Culture: An Introduction to Friedrich Nietzsche's Philosophy |publisher=Purdue University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-1557531575 |page=295 |access-date=18 April 2013}}</ref>

=== Übermensch ===
{{Main|Übermensch}}

Another concept important to understanding Nietzsche is the ''Übermensch'' (Superman).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich |title=The Portable Nietzsche |publisher=Penguin |year=1954 |location=New York |translator-last=Walter Kaufmann}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich |title=Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zarathustra |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0521602617 |editor-last=Adrian Del Caro |location=Cambridge |editor-last2=Robert Pippin}}</ref>{{Sfn |Lampert |1986}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rosen |first=Stanley |author-link=Stanley Rosen |title=The Mask of Enlightenment |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1995 |location=Cambridge}}</ref> Writing about nihilism in ''[[Thus Spoke Zarathustra|Also Sprach Zarathustra]]'', Nietzsche introduced an ''Übermensch''. According to [[Laurence Lampert]], "the death of God must be followed by a long twilight of piety and nihilism (II. 19; III. 8). Zarathustra's gift of the overman is given to mankind not aware of the problem to which the overman is the solution."{{Sfn |Lampert |1986 |p=18}} Zarathustra presents the ''Übermensch'' as the creator of new values, and he appears as a solution to the problem of the death of God and nihilism. The ''Übermensch'' does not follow the morality of common people since that favours mediocrity but rises above the notion of [[good and evil]] and above the "[[Herd behavior|herd]]".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nietzsche, "Master and Slave Morality" |url=https://philosophy.lander.edu/ethics/notes-nietzsche.html |website=philosophy.lander.edu}}</ref> In this way Zarathustra proclaims his ultimate goal as the journey towards the state of the ''Übermensch''. He wants a kind of spiritual evolution of self-awareness and overcoming of traditional views on morality and justice that stem from the [[superstition|superstitious]] beliefs still deeply rooted or related to the notion of God and Christianity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=van der Braak |first=Andre |date=31 March 2015 |title=Zen and Zarathustra: Self-Overcoming without a Self |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274738809 |journal=Journal of Nietzsche Studies |volume=46 |pages=2–11 |doi=10.5325/jnietstud.46.1.0002 |hdl-access=free |hdl=1871.1/201e9876-d07c-4d6a-89f7-951ae8adf1e9}}</ref>

From ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' (Zarathustra's Prologue; pp.&nbsp;9–11):<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Clancy |title=Thus Spoke Zarathustra |last2=Higgins |first2=Kathleen M. |last3=Solomon |first3=Robert C. |last4=Stade |first4=George |date=2005 |publisher=Barnes & Noble Books |isbn=978-1593083847 |location=New York |pages=9–11}}</ref>

{{blockquote|text=''I teach you the Übermensch''. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? All beings so far have created something beyond themselves: and you want to be the ebb of that great tide, and would rather go back to the beast than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment. And just the same shall man be to the Übermensch: a laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment. You have made your way from worm to man, and much within you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even yet man is more of an ape than any ape. Even the wisest among you is only a conflict and hybrid of plant and ghost. But do I bid you become ghosts or plants? Behold, I teach you the Übermensch! The Übermensch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: The Übermensch ''shall be'' the meaning of the earth... Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Übermensch—a rope over an abyss... What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal: what is lovable in man is that he is an ''over-going'' and a ''going under''.}}

Zarathustra contrasts the ''Übermensch'' with the [[last man]] of egalitarian modernity (the most obvious example being democracy), an alternative goal humanity might set for itself. The last man is possible only by mankind's having bred an [[Apathy|apathetic]] creature who has no great passion or commitment, who is unable to dream, who merely earns his living and keeps warm. This concept appears only in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', and is presented as a condition that would render the creation of the ''Übermensch'' impossible.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.nietzschespirit.com/files/The_Most_Despicable_Man_is_Coming...the_Last_Man.html |title=Nietzsche and Heidegger |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120607060856/http://www.nietzschespirit.com/files/The_Most_Despicable_Man_is_Coming...the_Last_Man.html |archive-date=7 June 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=September 2024}}

Some<ref>{{Cite book |last=Deleuze, Gilles |title=Nietzsche and philosophy |date=1983 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=0231056680 |location=New York |oclc=8763853}}</ref> have suggested that the eternal return is related to the {{lang|de|Übermensch}}, since willing the eternal return of the same is a necessary step if the {{lang|de|Übermensch}} is to create new values untainted by the spirit of gravity or [[asceticism]]. Values involve a rank-ordering of things, and so are inseparable from approval and disapproval, yet it was dissatisfaction that prompted men to seek refuge in other-worldliness and embrace other-worldly values. It could seem that the {{lang|de|Übermensch}}, in being devoted to any values at all, would necessarily fail to create values that did not share some bit of asceticism. Willing the eternal recurrence is presented as accepting the existence of the low while still recognising it as the low, and thus as overcoming the spirit of gravity or asceticism. One must have the strength of the {{lang|de|Übermensch}} to will the eternal recurrence. Only the {{lang|de|Übermensch}} will have the strength to fully accept all of his past life, including his failures and misdeeds, and to truly will their eternal return. This action nearly kills Zarathustra, for example, and most human beings cannot avoid other-worldliness because they really are sick, not because of any choice they made.

The Nazis attempted to incorporate the concept into their ideology by means of taking Nietzsche's figurative form of speech and creating a literal superiority over other ethnicities. After Nietzsche's death his sister, [[Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche]], became the curator and editor of his manuscripts. She reworked Nietzsche's unpublished writings to fit her own [[German nationalism#1871 to World War I, 1914–1918|German nationalist]] ideology while often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly [[philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche#Nietzsche's criticism of anti-Semitism and nationalism|opposed to antisemitism and nationalism]]. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with [[fascism]] and [[Nazism]];<ref name="Golomb 2002">{{Cite book |title=Nietzsche, Godfather of Fascism?: On the Uses and Abuses of a Philosophy |date=2002 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |editor-last=Golomb |editor-first=Jacob |editor-link=Jacob Golomb |location=Princeton, NJ |editor-last2=Wistrich |editor-first2=Robert S. |editor-link2=Robert S. Wistrich}}</ref> 20th-century scholars contested this interpretation of his work and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available.

Although Nietzsche has been misrepresented as a predecessor to Nazism, he criticised antisemitism, [[pan-Germanism]] and, to a lesser extent, [[nationalism]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ansell-Pearson |first=Keith |title=An Introduction to Nietzsche as Political Thinker: The Perfect Nihilist |date=1994 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=33–34}}</ref> Thus, he broke with his editor in 1886 because of his opposition to his editor's antisemitic stances, and his rupture with [[Richard Wagner]], expressed in ''[[The Case of Wagner]]'' and ''[[Nietzsche contra Wagner]]'', both of which he wrote in 1888, had much to do with Wagner's endorsement of pan-Germanism and antisemitism—and also of his rallying to Christianity. In a 29 March 1887 letter to [[Theodor Fritsch]], Nietzsche mocked antisemites, Fritsch, [[Eugen Dühring]], Wagner, Ebrard<!-- is it [[Johannes Heinrich August Ebrard]]? -->, [[Adolf Wahrmund]], and the leading advocate of pan-Germanism, [[Paul de Lagarde]], who would become, along with Wagner and [[Houston Chamberlain]], the main official influences of [[Nazism]].<ref name="Bataille" /> This 1887 letter to Fritsch ended by: "And finally, how do you think I feel when the name Zarathustra is mouthed by anti-Semites?"{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} In contrast to these examples, Nietzsche's close friend [[Franz Overbeck]] recalled in his memoirs, "When he speaks frankly, the opinions he expresses about Jews go, in their severity, beyond any anti-Semitism. The foundation of his anti-Christianity is essentially anti-Semitic."<ref>Franz Overbeck (1906) "Erinnerungen an Friedrich Nietzsche". ''Die neue Rundschau''. 1:209–231, 320–330; quoted in Domenico Losurdo (2020) ''Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel''. Leiden: Brill, p. 572.</ref>

=== Critique of mass culture ===
Friedrich Nietzsche held a pessimistic view of modern society and culture. He believed that the press and mass culture led to conformity and brought about mediocrity, and that the lack of intellectual progress was leading to the decline of the human species. In his opinion, some people would be able to become superior individuals through the use of willpower. By rising above mass culture, those persons would produce higher, brighter, and healthier human beings.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kellner |first=Douglas |year=1999 |title=Nietzsche's Critique of Mass Culture |url=http://www.pdcnet.org/PDC/bvdb.nsf/purchase?openform&fp=intstudphil&id=intstudphil_1999_0031_0003_0077_0089&onlyautologin=true |journal=[[International Studies in Philosophy]] |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=77–89 |doi=10.5840/intstudphil199931353|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Reading and influence ==
{{see also|Library of Friedrich Nietzsche}}

[[File:Villa Silberblick.jpg|thumb|upright|The residence of Nietzsche's last three years along with archive in [[Weimar]], Germany, which holds many of Nietzsche's papers]]
A trained philologist, Nietzsche had a thorough knowledge of [[Greek philosophy]]. He read [[Immanuel Kant]], [[Plato]], [[John Stuart Mill]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer]] and [[Afrikan Spir]],<ref>Brobjer, Thomas. "Nietzsche's Reading and Private Library, 1885–1889". ''Journal of History of Ideas.''</ref> who became the main opponents in his philosophy, and later engaged, via the work of [[Kuno Fischer]] in particular, with the thought of [[Baruch Spinoza]], whom he saw as his "precursor" in many respects<ref>"Letter to Franz Overbeck, 30 July 1881"</ref><ref>Jason Maurice Yonover: "Nietzsche, Spinoza, and Philosophical Etiology (On the Example of Free Will)", in: ''European Journal of Philosophy'' (forthcoming).</ref> but as a personification of the "ascetic ideal" in others. Nietzsche referred to Kant as a "moral fanatic", Plato as "boring", Mill as a "blockhead", and of Spinoza, he asked: "How much of personal timidity and vulnerability does this masquerade of a sickly recluse betray?"{{Sfn|Russell|2004|pp=693–697}} He likewise expressed contempt for the English novelist [[George Eliot]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Joudrey |first=Thomas J. |year=2017 |title=The Defects of Perfectionism: Nietzsche, Eliot, and the Irrevocability of Wrong |journal=[[Philological Quarterly]] |volume=96 |issue=1 |pages=77–104}}</ref>

Nietzsche's philosophy, while innovative and revolutionary, was indebted to many predecessors. While at Basel, Nietzsche lectured on pre-Platonic philosophers for several years, and the text of this lecture series has been characterised as a "lost link" in the development of his thought. "In it, concepts such as the will to power, the eternal return of the same, the overman, gay science, self-overcoming and so on receive rough, unnamed formulations and are linked to specific pre-Platonic, especially Heraclitus, who emerges as a pre-Platonic Nietzsche."{{Sfn|Nietzsche|2001|p=xxxvii}} The [[pre-Socratic]] philosopher [[Heraclitus]] was known for rejecting the concept of [[being]] as a constant and eternal principle of the universe and embracing "flux" and incessant change. His symbolism of the world as "child play" marked by amoral spontaneity and lack of definite rules was appreciated by Nietzsche.{{Sfn|Roochnik|2004|pp=37–39}} Due to his Heraclitean sympathies, Nietzsche was also a vociferous critic of [[Parmenides]], who, in contrast to Heraclitus, viewed the world as a single, unchanging Being.{{Sfn|Roochnik|2004|p=48}}

In his ''Egotism in German Philosophy'' the philosopher [[George Santayana]] claimed that Nietzsche's whole philosophy was a reaction to Schopenhauer. Santayana wrote that Nietzsche's work was "an emendation of that of Schopenhauer. The will to live would become the will to dominate; pessimism founded on reflection would become optimism founded on courage; the suspense of the will in contemplation would yield to a more biological account of intelligence and taste; finally in the place of pity and asceticism (Schopenhauer's two principles of morals) Nietzsche would set up the duty of asserting the will at all costs and being cruelly but beautifully strong. These points of difference from Schopenhauer cover the whole philosophy of Nietzsche."{{Sfn|Santayana|1916|p=114}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wagner |first=Albert Malte |year=1939 |title=Goethe, Carlyle, Nietzsche and the German Middle Class (Concluded)  |journal=Monatshefte für Deutschen Unterricht |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |volume=31 |issue=5 |pages=235–242 |jstor=30169571  }}</ref>

The superficial similarity of Nietzsche's ''Übermensch'' to [[Thomas Carlyle]]'s Hero as well as both authors' rhetorical prose style has led to speculation concerning the degree to which Nietzsche might have been influenced by his reading of Carlyle.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wagner |first=Albert Malte |year=1939 |title=Goethe, Carlyle, Nietzsche and the German Middle Class |journal=Monatshefte für Deutschen Unterricht |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=161–174 |jstor=30169550 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bentley |first=Eric |url=https://archive.org/details/centuryofherowor0000bent/mode/2up |title=A Century of Hero-Worship: A study of the idea of heroism in Carlyle and Nietzsche, with notes on Wagner, Spengler, Stefan George, and D. H. Lawrence |publisher=Beacon Press |year=1957 |edition=2nd, revised and reset |location=Boston |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=LaValley |first=Albert J. |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300006766/mode/2up |title=Carlyle and the Idea of the Modern: Studies in Carlyle's Prophetic Literature and Its Relation to Blake, Nietzsche, Marx, and Others |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1968 |isbn=978-0300006766 |location=New Haven |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Meakins |first=William |year=2014 |title=Nietzsche, Carlyle, and Perfectionism  |journal=[[Journal of Nietzsche Studies]] |publisher=Penn State University Press |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=258–278 |doi=10.5325/jnietstud.45.3.0258 |jstor=10.5325/jnietstud.45.3.0258 |s2cid=170182808 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jnietstud.45.3.0258 |url-access=registration}}</ref> [[G. K. Chesterton]] believed that "Out of [Carlyle] flows most of the philosophy of Nietzsche", qualifying his statement by adding that they were "profoundly different" in character.<ref>Chesterton, G. K. (1902). "Thomas Carlyle". ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12491/12491-h/12491-h.htm Twelve Types]''. London: Arthur L. Humphries.</ref> [[Ruth apRoberts]] has shown that Carlyle anticipated Nietzsche in asserting the importance of metaphor (with Nietzsche's metaphor-fiction theory "appear[ing] to owe something to Carlyle"), announcing the death of God, and recognising both Goethe's ''Entsagen'' (renunciation) and [[Novalis]]'s ''Selbsttödtung'' (self-annihilation) as prerequisites for engaging in philosophy. apRoberts writes that "Nietzsche and Carlyle had the same German sources, but Nietzsche may owe more to Carlyle than he cares to admit", noting that "[Nietzsche] takes the trouble to repudiate Carlyle with malicious emphasis."<ref>{{Cite book |last=apRoberts |first=Ruth |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientdialectth00apro/mode/2up |title=The Ancient Dialect: Thomas Carlyle and Comparative Religion |publisher=University of California Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-0520061163 |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |page=68 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Ralph Jessop, [[senior lecturer]] at the [[University of Glasgow]], argues a reassessment of Carlyle's influence on Nietzsche is "long-overdue".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jessop |first=Ralph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SHCoMxt2hCAC |title=Thomas Carlyle Resartus: Reappraising Carlyle's Contribution to the Philosophy of History, Political Theory, and Cultural Criticism |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0838642238 |editor-last=Kerry |editor-first=Paul E. |location=Madison and Teaneck, NJ |page=67 |chapter=Shooting the Enlightenment: A Brave New Era for Carlyle? |editor-last2=Hill |editor-first2=Marylu |url-access=limited}}</ref>

Nietzsche expressed admiration for 17th-century French moralists such as [[François de La Rochefoucauld (writer)|François de La Rochefoucauld]], [[Jean de La Bruyère]] and [[Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues]],<ref>Brendan Donnellan, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/404869 "Nietzsche and La Rochefoucauld"] in ''[[The German Quarterly]]'', Vol. 52, No. 3 (May 1979), pp. 303–318</ref> as well as for [[Stendhal]].{{Sfn|Nietzsche|1888d|loc="Why I am So Clever", §&nbsp;3}} The [[organicism]] of [[Paul Bourget]] influenced Nietzsche,<ref>Le Rider, Jacques. 1999. ''Nietzsche en France. De la fin du XIXe siècle au temps présent''. Paris: PUF. pp. 8–9, as cited in Grzelczyk, Johan. 2005. "[http://www.hypernietzsche.org/navigate.php?sigle=jgrzelczyk-4 Féré et Nietzsche: au sujet de la décadence]" {{in lang|fr}}. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061116213847/http://www.hypernietzsche.org/navigate.php?sigle=jgrzelczyk-4|date=16 November 2006}}. via ''HyperNietzsche.''</ref> as did that of [[Rudolf Virchow]] and [[Alfred Espinas]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wahrig-Schmidt |first=B. |date=1988 |title=Irgendwie, jedenfalls physiologisch. Friedrich Nietzsche, Alexandre Herzen (fils) und Charles Féré 1888. |language=de |trans-title=Somehow, at least physiologically. Friedrich Nietzsche, Alexandre Herzen (fils) and Charles Féré 1888. |journal=[[Nietzsche Studien]] |volume=17 |location=Berlin |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |page=439}}, as cited in {{Cite web |last=Grzelczyk |first=Johan |date=2005 |title=Féré et Nietzsche: au sujet de la décadence |trans-title=Féré and Nietzsche: about decadence |url=http://www.hypernietzsche.org/navigate.php?sigle=jgrzelczyk-4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061116213847/http://www.hypernietzsche.org/navigate.php?sigle=jgrzelczyk-4 |archive-date=16 November 2006 |language=fr |via=HyperNietzsche}}</ref> In 1867 Nietzsche wrote in a letter that he was trying to improve his German style of writing with the help of [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing]], [[Georg Christoph Lichtenberg]] and Schopenhauer. It was probably Lichtenberg (along with [[Paul Rée]]) whose aphoristic style of writing contributed to Nietzsche's own use of [[aphorism]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Brobjer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4DDxmM0T9EC&q=Nietzsche+neo-Kantians&pg=PA58 |title=Nietzsche's Philosophical Context: An Intellectual Biography |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0252090622 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Nietzsche early learned of [[Darwinism]] through [[Friedrich Albert Lange]].<ref name="Fouillee">[http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Note_sur_Nietzsche_et_Lange_:_%C2%AB_le_retour_%C3%A9ternel_%C2%BB Note sur Nietzsche et Lange: "Le retour éternel"], [[Albert Fouillée]], ''Revue philosophique de la France et de l'étranger''. An. 34. Paris 1909. T. 67, S. 519–525 (on French Wikisource)</ref> The essays of [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] had a profound influence on Nietzsche, who "loved Emerson from first to last",<ref>Walter Kaufmann, intr. p. 11 of his transl. of 'The Gay Science'</ref> wrote "Never have I felt so much at home in a book", and called him "[the] author who has been richest in ideas in this century so far".<ref>Notebooks, cf. ''The Gay Science'', Walter Kaufmann transl, p. 12</ref> [[Hippolyte Taine]] influenced Nietzsche's view on [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] and [[Napoleon]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Weaver |first=Santaniello |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BSQJgIKTJ7QC&q=Nietzsche+Hippolyte+Taine&pg=PA194 |title=Nietzsche, God, and the Jews: His Critique of Judeo-Christianity in Relation to the Nazi Myth |publisher=State University of New York Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0791421369 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Notably, he also read some of the posthumous works of [[Charles Baudelaire]],<ref name="Mazzino Montinari 1996">{{Cite book |last=Montinari |first=Mazzino |author-link=Mazzino Montinari |title=La Volonté de puissance' n'existe pas |date=1996 |publisher=Éditions de l'Éclat |page=13 |language=fr |trans-title=The Will to Power does not exist}}</ref> [[Leo Tolstoy]]'s ''[[My Religion (Tolstoy book)|My Religion]]'', [[Ernest Renan]]'s ''Life of Jesus'', and [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]]'s ''[[Demons (Dostoevsky novel)|Demons]]''.<ref name="Mazzino Montinari 1996" />{{Sfn|Kaufmann|1974|pp=306–340}} Nietzsche called Dostoevsky "the only psychologist from whom I have anything to learn".{{Sfn|Nietzsche|1888b|loc=§&nbsp;45}} While Nietzsche never mentions [[Max Stirner]], the similarities in their ideas have prompted a minority of interpreters to suggest [[Relationship between Friedrich Nietzsche and Max Stirner|a relationship between the two]].{{sfn|Löwith|1964|p=187}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=S. |title=Left Wing Nietzscheans: The Politics of German Expressionism 1910–1920 |date=1990 |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |location=Berlin/New York |page=144}}</ref>{{sfn|Deleuze|2006|pp=153–154}}<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Solomon |first1=R. C. |title=The Age of German Idealism |last2=Higgins |first2=K. M. |date=1993 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |page=300}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Samek |first=R. A. |title=The Meta Phenomenon |date=1981 |location=New York |page=70}}</ref><ref>Goyens, T. 2007. ''[[Beer and Revolution]]: The German Anarchist Movement in New York City''. Illinois. p. 197.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Laska |first=Bernd A. |title=Nietzsche's initial crisis |url=http://www.lsr-projekt.de/poly/ennietzsche.html |journal=Germanic Notes and Reviews |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=109–133}}</ref>

In 1861 Nietzsche wrote an enthusiastic essay on his "favourite poet," [[Friedrich Hölderlin]], mostly forgotten at that time.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Liukkonen |first=Petri |title=Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843) |url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/holderli.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141226203214/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/holderli.htm |archive-date=26 December 2014 |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland}}</ref> He also expressed deep appreciation for [[Adalbert Stifter]]'s ''[[Der Nachsommer|Indian Summer]]'',<ref name="Meyer-Sickendiek, Burkhard 2004. p. 323">Meyer-Sickendiek, Burkhard. 2004. "Nietzsche's Aesthetic Solution to the Problem of Epigonism in the Nineteenth Century." In ''Nietzsche and Antiquity: His Reaction and Response to the Classical Tradition'', edited by P. Bishop. Woodbridge, UK: [[Boydell & Brewer]]. p. 323.</ref> [[Lord Byron]]'s ''[[Manfred (drama)|Manfred]]'' and [[Mark Twain]]'s ''[[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer|Tom Sawyer]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rebekah |first=Peery |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Eh4YJfNeO7QC&q=Nietzsche+Adventures+of+Tom+Sawyer&pg=PA19 |title=Nietzsche, Philosopher of the Perilous Perhaps |publisher=Algora |year=2008 |isbn=978-0875866444 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

A translation by [[Louis Jacolliot]] of the Calcutta version of the ancient [[Hindu texts|Hindu text]] the ''[[Manusmriti]]'' was reviewed by Nietzsche. He commented on it both favourably and unfavourably:
* He deemed it "an incomparably spiritual and superior work" to the Christian Bible, observed that "the sun shines on the whole book" and attributed its ethical perspective to "the noble classes, the philosophers and warriors, [who] stand above the mass".<ref>Friedrich Nietzsche, ''The Antichrist'' (1888), 56–57.</ref> Nietzsche does not advocate a caste system, states [[David Conway (philosopher)|David Conway]], but endorses the political exclusion conveyed in the Manu text.<ref>Daniel Conway (1997), ''Nietzsche and the Political'', Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0415100694}}, p. 36</ref> Nietzsche considered Manu's social order as far from perfect, but considers the general idea of a caste system to be natural and right, and stated that "caste-order, order of rank is just a formula for the supreme law of life itself", a "natural order, lawfulness par excellence".{{sfn|Young|2010|p=515}}<ref name="ReferenceB">Aaron Ridley, ''Nietzsche: The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols: And Other Writings'', Cambridge University Press, p. 58</ref> According to Nietzsche, states Julian Young, "Nature, not Manu, separates from each other: predominantly spiritual people, people characterized by muscular and temperamental strength, and a third group of people who are not distinguished in either way, the average".{{sfn|Young|2010|p=515}} He wrote that "To prepare a book of law in the style of Manu means to give a people the right to become master one day, to become perfect, – to aspire to the highest art of life."<ref name="ReferenceB" />
* The Law of Manu was also criticised by Nietzsche. Nietzsche writes, "these regulations teach us enough, in them we find for once Aryan humanity, quite pure, quite primordial, we learn that the concept of pure blood is the opposite of a harmless concept."<ref>Walter Kaufmann (1980), ''From Shakespeare to Existentialism'', Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|978-0691013671}}, p. 215</ref>

== Reception and legacy ==
{{Main|Influence and reception of Friedrich Nietzsche}}
[[File:Edvard Munch Friedrich Nietzsche Thielska 292.tif|thumb|Portrait of Nietzsche by [[Edvard Munch]], 1906, at the [[Thiel Gallery]], Stockholm]]
[[File:Munch - Friedrich Nietzsche, MM.G.00263-02.jpg|thumb|Another sketch by Edvard Munch]]
Nietzsche's works did not reach a wide readership during his active writing career. In 1888 the influential Danish critic [[Georg Brandes]] aroused considerable excitement about Nietzsche through a series of lectures he gave at the [[University of Copenhagen]]. In the years after Nietzsche's death in 1900, his works became better known, and readers have responded to them in complex and sometimes controversial ways.<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm |volume=19 |last=Schiller |first=Ferdinand Canning Scott |author-link=Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller |page=672}}</ref> Many Germans eventually discovered his appeals for greater [[individualism]] and personality development in ''[[Thus Spoke Zarathustra]]'', but responded to them divergently. He had some following among left-wing Germans in the 1890s; in 1894–1895 German conservatives wanted to ban his work as [[subversive]]. During the late 19th century Nietzsche's ideas were commonly associated with anarchist movements and appear to have had influence within them, particularly in France, Germany,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Miething |first=Dominique F. |url=http://www.nomos-elibrary.de/index.php?doi=10.5771/9783845280127 |title=Anarchistische Deutungen der Philosophie Friedrich Nietzsches: Deutschland, Großbritannien, USA (1890–1947) |date=2016 |publisher=Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG |isbn=978-3845280127 |doi=10.5771/9783845280127}}</ref> Britain and the United States.<ref>Ewald, O. 1908. "German Philosophy in 1907." ''[[The Philosophical Review]]'' 17(4):400–426.</ref><ref>Riley, T. A. 1947. "Anti-Statism in German Literature, as Exemplified by the Work of John Henry Mackay." ''[[Modern Language Association|PMLA]]'' 62(3):828–843.</ref><ref>Forth, C. E. 1993. "Nietzsche, Decadence, and Regeneration in France, 1891–1895." ''[[Journal of the History of Ideas]]'' 54(1):97–117.</ref> [[Gustav Landauer]] is credited with the most in-depth appreciation and critique of Nietzsche's ideas from an anarchist perspective.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Miething |first=Dominique |date=2016-04-02 |title=Overcoming the preachers of death: Gustav Landauer's reading of Friedrich Nietzsche |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17496977.2016.1140404 |journal=Intellectual History Review |language=en |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=285–304 |doi=10.1080/17496977.2016.1140404 |issn=1749-6977 |s2cid=170389740|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[H.L. Mencken]] produced the first book on Nietzsche in English in 1907, ''[[The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche]]'', and in 1910 a book of translated paragraphs from Nietzsche, increasing knowledge of his philosophy in the United States.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mencken |first=H. L. |url=https://archive.org/details/gistnietzsche00mencgoog |title=The Gist of Nietzsche |publisher=J.W. Luce |year=1910 |location=Boston}}</ref> Nietzsche is known today as a precursor to [[existentialism]], [[post-structuralism]] and [[Postmodern philosophy|postmodernism]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Postmodernism |encyclopedia=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/#1 |last=Aylesworth |first=Gary |date=2015 |orig-date=2005}}. §Precursors.</ref>

[[W. B. Yeats]] and [[Arthur Symons]] described Nietzsche as the intellectual heir to [[William Blake]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Coste |first=Bénédicte |date=15 December 2016 |title=The Romantics of 1909: Arthur Symons, Pierre Lasserre and T.E. Hulme |journal=E-rea |volume=14 |issue=1 |doi=10.4000/erea.5609 |issn=1638-1718 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Symons went on to compare the ideas of the two thinkers in ''[[The Symbolist Movement in Literature]]'', while Yeats tried to raise awareness of Nietzsche in Ireland.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Everdell |first=William |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780226224817/page/508 |title=The First Moderns |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0226224817 |location=Chicago |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780226224817/page/508 508]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.fathom.com/feature/61007/ |title=Joyce and Nietzsche |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612202020/http://www.fathom.com/feature/61007/ |archive-date=12 June 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pasley |first=Malcolm |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N9H1vjyOMswC&q=Arthur+Symons+Nietzsche&pg=PA231 |title=Nietzsche:Imagery and thoughts |publisher=University of California Press |year=1978 |isbn=978-0520035775 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> A similar notion was espoused by [[W. H. Auden]] who wrote of Nietzsche in his ''New Year Letter'' (released in 1941 in ''[[The Double Man (book)|The Double Man]]''): "O masterly [[debunker]] of our liberal fallacies ... all your life you stormed, like your English forerunner Blake."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Forrester |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/dispatchesfromfr00forr |title=Dispatches from the Freud Wars |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |year=1997 |isbn=978-0674539600 |page=[https://archive.org/details/dispatchesfromfr00forr/page/39 39] |quote=masterly debunker of our liberal fallacies. |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Argyle |first=Gisela |url=https://archive.org/details/germanyasmodelmo0000argy |title=Germany as model and monster: Allusions in English fiction |publisher=[[McGill-Queen's University Press]] – MQUP |year=2002 |isbn=978-0773523517 |page=[https://archive.org/details/germanyasmodelmo0000argy/page/130 130] |quote=W.H. Auden Nietzsche. |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Auden |first=Wystan Hugh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WokrAAAAYAAJ |title=The Double Man |year= 1979 |publisher=[[Greenwood Press]] |isbn=978-0313210730 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Nietzsche made an impact on composers during the 1890s. The writer [[Donald Mitchell (writer)|Donald Mitchell]] noted that [[Gustav Mahler]] was "attracted to the poetic fire of Zarathustra, but repelled by the intellectual core of its writings". He also quoted Mahler himself, and adds that he was influenced by Nietzsche's conception and affirmative approach to nature, which Mahler presented in his [[Symphony No. 3 (Mahler)|Third Symphony]] using [[Zarathustra's roundelay]]. [[Frederick Delius]] produced a piece of choral music, ''[[A Mass of Life]]'', based on a text of ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', while [[Richard Strauss]] (who also based his [[Also sprach Zarathustra (Strauss)|''Also sprach Zarathustra'']] on the same book), was only interested in finishing "another chapter of symphonic autobiography".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Donald |first=Mitchell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yKCq909vSpwC&q=Mahler+Nietzsche+influence&pg=PA99 |title=Gustav Mahler: The Early Years |publisher=University of California Press |year=1980 |isbn=978-0520041417 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Writers and poets influenced by Nietzsche include [[André Gide]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Holdheim |first=William W. |year=1957 |title=The Young Gide's Reaction to Nietzsche |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/young-gides-reaction-to-nietzsche/FFE35D5DC1DF62BF689A575434934BC1 |journal=PMLA |language=en |volume=72 |issue=3 |pages=534–544 |doi=10.2307/460474 |issn=0030-8129 |jstor=460474 |s2cid=163634107|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[August Strindberg]],<ref>{{Citation |last=Dahlkvist |first=Tobias |title=By the Open Sea – A Decadent Novel? |work=The International Strindberg |pages=195–214 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv47w3xd.13 |access-date=28 May 2021 |publisher=[[Northwestern University Press]] |doi=10.2307/j.ctv47w3xd.13 |isbn=978-0810166295|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Robinson Jeffers]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Carpenter |first=Frederic I. |year=1977 |title=Robinson Jeffers Today: Beyond Good and Beneath Evil  |journal=American Literature |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=86–96 |doi=10.2307/2925556 |issn=0002-9831 |jstor=2925556}}</ref> [[Pío Baroja]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Murphy |first=Katharine |date=27 May 2020 |title=Spanish Modernism in Context: Failed Heroism and Cross-Cultural Encounters in Pío Baroja and Joseph Conrad |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/14753820.2020.1726630 |journal=Bulletin of Spanish Studies |volume=97 |issue=5 |pages=807–829 |doi=10.1080/14753820.2020.1726630 |issn=1475-3820 |s2cid=214389935 |hdl-access=free |hdl=10871/39620}}</ref> [[D.&nbsp;H. Lawrence]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Colin |first=Milton |title=Lawrence and Nietzsche : a study in influence |date=1987 |publisher=[[Aberdeen University Press]] |isbn=0080350674 |oclc=797149190}}</ref> [[Edith Södergran]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mier-Cruz |first=Benjamin |date=5 February 2021 |title=Edith Södergran's Genderqueer Modernism |journal=[[Humanities (journal)|Humanities]] |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=28 |doi=10.3390/h10010028 |issn=2076-0787 |doi-access=free}}</ref> and [[Yukio Mishima]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wagenaar |first1=Dick |last2=Iwamoto |first2=Yoshio |year=1975 |title=Yukio Mishima: Dialectics of Mind and Body |journal=Contemporary Literature |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=41–60 |doi=10.2307/1207783 |issn=0010-7484 |jstor=1207783}}</ref>

Nietzsche was an early influence on the poetry of [[Rainer Maria Rilke]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Paine |first=Jeffery M. |year=1986 |title=Rainer Maria Rilke: The Evolution of a Poet  |journal=The Wilson Quarterly |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=148–162 |issn=0363-3276 |jstor=40257012}}</ref> [[Knut Hamsun]] counted Nietzsche, along with [[August Strindberg|Strindberg]] and Dostoyevsky, as his primary influences.<ref>{{Cite news |last=James |first=Wood |date=26 November 1998 |title=Addicted to Unpredictability |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v20/n23/james-wood/addicted-to-unpredictability |work=London Review of Books |pages=16–19}}</ref> The author [[Jack London]] wrote that he was more stimulated by Nietzsche than by any other writer.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reesman |first=Jeanne Campbell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fbrV_fwgcq4C&q=Nietzsche+Jack+London&pg=PA44 |title=Jack London's Racial Lives |publisher=University of Georgia Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0820339702 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Critics have suggested that the character of David Grief in ''[[A Son of the Sun (novel)|A Son of the Sun]]'' was based on Nietzsche.<ref>{{Cite book |last=London |first=Jack |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7q2AHsyTuo4C&q=Nietzsche+Jack+London&pg=PR19 |title=A Sun of the Son |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0806133621 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Nietzsche's influence on [[Muhammad Iqbal]] is most evidenced in ''[[The Secrets of the Self|Asrar-i Khudi]]'' (''The Secrets of the Self'').<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ray |first=Jackson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ftpGJy0DPbYC&q=Iqbal+Nietzsche&pg=PA57 |title=Nietzsche and Islam |publisher=Routledge |year=2007 |isbn=978-1134205004 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> [[Wallace Stevens]]<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/poets/stevens.php |title=Poets of Cambridge |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120429020746/http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/poets/stevens.php |archive-date=29 April 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> was another reader of Nietzsche, and elements of Nietzsche's philosophy were found throughout Stevens's poetry collection ''[[Harmonium (poetry collection)|Harmonium]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wallace Stevens' Harmonium – Collaborative Essays and Articles – Geneseo Wiki |url=https://wiki.geneseo.edu/display/essaysarticles/Wallace+Stevens%27+Harmonium#WallaceStevens%27Harmonium-TheInfluenceofNietzsche |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121211011940/https://wiki.geneseo.edu/display/essaysarticles/Wallace+Stevens%27+Harmonium#WallaceStevens%27Harmonium-TheInfluenceofNietzsche |archive-date=11 December 2012 |access-date=17 May 2012 |website=wiki.geneseo.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Serio |first=John N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3m7_U1UdeRgC&q=Wallace+Stevens+Nietzsche&pg=PA112 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Wallace Stevens |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-1139827546 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> [[Olaf Stapledon]] was influenced by the idea of the {{lang|de|Übermensch}} and it is a central theme in his books ''[[Odd John]]'' and ''[[Sirius (novel)|Sirius]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://olafstapledonarchive.webs.com/biography.html |title=Olaf Stapleton |access-date=22 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090717120543/http://olafstapledonarchive.webs.com/biography.html |archive-date=17 July 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In Russia, Nietzsche influenced [[Russian symbolism]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brad |first=Damare |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fo2QqyyFCR4C&q=Merezhovsky+Nietzsche&pg=PA12 |title=Music and Literature in Silver Age Russia: Mikhail Kuzmin and Alexander Scriabin |isbn=978-0549819103 |via=[[Google Books]]}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> and figures such as [[Dmitry Merezhkovsky]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bernice |first=Rosenthal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ppvr3LZ8o2wC&q=Merezhkovsky+Nietzsche&pg=PA35 |title=New Myth, New World: From Nietzsche to Stalinism |publisher=Penn State Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0271046587 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> [[Andrei Bely]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bernice |first=Rosenthal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f5cUEHHchNAC&q=Andrei+Bely+Nietzsche&pg=PA117 |title=Nietzsche and Soviet Culture: Ally and Adversary |date=1994 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521452816 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> [[Vyacheslav Ivanov (poet)|Vyacheslav Ivanov]] and [[Alexander Scriabin]] incorporated or discussed parts of Nietzsche philosophy in their works. [[Thomas Mann]]'s novel ''[[Death in Venice]]''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shookman |first=Ellis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hJZm5QWgxC4C&q=Thomas+Mann+Nietzsche |title=Thomas Mann's Death in Venice |publisher=Greenwood Publishing |year=2004 |isbn=978-0313311598 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> shows a use of Apollonian and Dionysian, and in ''[[Doctor Faustus (novel)|Doctor Faustus]]'' Nietzsche was a central source for the character of Adrian Leverkühn.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.nietzschecircle.com/essayArchive5.html |title=Nietzsche Circle |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123020205/http://nietzschecircle.com/essayArchive5.html |archive-date=23 January 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Doctor Faustus |url=http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/view/12474 |website=medhum.med.nyu.edu |access-date=19 April 2019 |archive-date=4 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404025636/https://medhum.med.nyu.edu/view/12474 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Hermann Hesse]], similarly, in his ''[[Narcissus and Goldmund]]'' presents two main characters as opposite yet intertwined Apollonian and Dionysian spirits. The painter [[Giovanni Segantini]] was fascinated by ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', and he drew an illustration for the first Italian translation of the book. The Russian painter [[Lena Hades]] created the oil painting cycle ''[[Also Sprach Zarathustra (painting)|Also Sprach Zarathustra]]'' dedicated to the book ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.<ref>{{Cite web |script-title=ru:Book: Ницше Фридрих Вильгельм. Так говорил Заратустра (с репродукциями картин Л. Хейдиз из цикла "Так говорил Заратустра") |url=https://books.academic.ru/book.nsf/58297551/ |website=Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias |language=ru}}</ref>

By the time of the [[First World War]] Nietzsche had acquired a reputation as an inspiration for right-wing German [[militarism]] and leftist politics. German soldiers received copies of ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' as gifts during World War I.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aschheim |first=Steven E. |title=The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, 1890–1990 |year=1992 |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |page=135 |quote="[a]bout 150,000 copies of a specially durable wartime ''Zarathustra'' were distributed to the troops"}}</ref>{{sfn|Kaufmann|1974|p=8}} The [[Dreyfus affair]] provided a contrasting example of his reception: the French antisemitic Right labelled the Jewish and leftist intellectuals who defended [[Alfred Dreyfus]] as "Nietzscheans".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schrift |first=A.D. |title=Nietzsche's French Legacy: A Genealogy of Poststructuralism |date=1995 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0415911478}}</ref> Nietzsche [[Nietzschean Zionism|had a distinct appeal]] for many [[Zionism|Zionist]] thinkers around the start of the 20th century, most notable being [[Ahad Ha'am]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jacob |first=Golomb |url=https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100486340 |title=Nietzsche and Zion |date=2004 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |isbn=978-0801437625}}</ref> [[Hillel Zeitlin]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jacob |first=Golomb |url=http://www.azure.org.il/article.php?id=188 |title=Nietzsche and Zion}}</ref> [[Micha Josef Berdyczewski]], [[A.D. Gordon]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ohana |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TOMrUcFiU0UC&q=A.+D.+Gordon+Nietzsche&pg=PA48 |title=The Origins of Israeli Mythology: Neither Canaanites nor Crusaders |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1139505208 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> and [[Martin Buber]], who went so far as to extol Nietzsche as a "creator" and "emissary of life".{{sfn|Golomb|1997|pp=234–235}} [[Chaim Weizmann]], the first [[president of Israel]], was a great admirer of Nietzsche; he sent Nietzsche's books to his wife, adding a comment in a letter that "This was the best and finest thing I can send to you."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walter |first=Kaufmann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9RHqWPIC0QQC&q=Andre+Malraux+Nietzsche&pg=PA419 |title=Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1400820160 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> [[Israel Eldad]], the ideological chief of the [[Stern Gang]] that fought the British in [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]] in the 1940s, wrote about Nietzsche in his underground newspaper and later translated most of Nietzsche's books into [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]].<ref>Zev Golan, ''God, Man and Nietzsche'', iUniverse, 2007, p. 169: "It would be most useful if our youth climbed, even if only briefly, to Zarathustra's heights{{nbsp}}..."</ref> [[Eugene O'Neill]] remarked that ''Zarathustra'' influenced him more than any other book he ever read. He also shared Nietzsche's view of [[tragedy]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Törnqvist |first=Egil |author-link=Egil Törnqvist |chapter=O'Neill's philosophical and literary paragons |title=The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O'Neill |editor-last=Manheim |editor-first=Michael |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0521556453 |url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00mich |page=19}}</ref> The plays ''[[The Great God Brown]]'' and ''[[Lazarus Laughed]]'' are examples of Nietzsche's influence on him.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Eugene O'Neill - eOneill.com: An Electronic Archive |url=http://eoneill.com/ |website=eoneill.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Diggins |first=John Patrick |author-link=John Patrick Diggins |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LnnSlZMp0oAC&q=Lazarus+Laughed+Nietzsche&pg=PA201 |title=Eugene O'Neill's America: Desire Under Democracy |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0226148823 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Törnqvist |first=Egil |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g1whggReJx4C&q=Nietzsche+Eugene+O%27Neill&pg=PA40 |title=Eugene O'Neill: A Playwright's theatre |publisher=McFarland |year=2004 |isbn=978-0786417131 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> The [[International Workingmen's Association|First International]] claimed Nietzsche as ideologically one of their own.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Prideaux |first=Sue |title=I am dynamite |publisher=[[Faber & Faber]] |pages=Chapter 6-page 9 |language=En}}</ref> From 1888 through the 1890s there were more publications of Nietzsche works in Russia than in any other country.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Prideaux |first=Sue |title=I am dynamite |publisher=[[Faber & Faber]] |pages=Chapter 20 pages 6–8 |language=en}}</ref> Nietzsche was influential among the Bolsheviks. Among the Nietzschean Bolsheviks were [[Vladimir Bazarov]],{{sfn|Čeika|2021|pp=181–182}} [[Anatoly Lunacharsky]]{{sfn|Čeika|2021|p=181}} and [[Aleksandr Bogdanov]].{{sfn|Čeika|2021|pp=178–179}} Nietzsche's influence on the works of the [[Frankfurt School]] philosophers [[Max Horkheimer]] and [[Theodor W. Adorno]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://iep.utm.edu/adorno/|title=Adorno, Theodor &#124; Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy}}</ref> can be seen in the ''[[Dialectic of Enlightenment]]''. Adorno encapsulated Nietzsche's philosophy as expressing the "humane in a world in which humanity has become a sham".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Herman |first=Arthur |author-link=Arthur L. Herman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A2NxFq1C7uIC&q=I+have+come+to+the+conclusion+that+Nietzsche+is+probably+a+greater+thinker+than+Marx&pg=PT351 |title=The Idea of Decline in Western History |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=2010 |isbn=978-1451603132 |via=[[Google Books]]}}{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Nietzsche's growing prominence suffered a severe setback when his works became closely associated with [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Nazi Germany]]. Many political leaders of the twentieth century were at least superficially familiar with Nietzsche's ideas, although it is not always possible to determine whether they actually read his work. It is debated among scholars whether Hitler read Nietzsche, although if he did, it may not have been extensively.{{efn|[[Hugh Trevor-Roper|Trevor-Roper, Hugh]]. [1972] 2008. "Introductory essay for 'Hitler's Table Talk 1941–1944 Secret Conversations'." In ''[[The Mind of Adolf Hitler]]''. Enigma Books. p. xxxvii:

"We know, from his [Hitler's] secretary, that he could quote Schopenhauer by the page, and the other German philosopher of willpower, Nietzsche, whose works he afterward presented to [[Mussolini]], was often on his lips."}}{{efn|{{Cite book |last=Kershaw |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Kershaw |title=Hitler: Hubris 1889–1936 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton]] |page=240 |quote='Landsberg,' Hitler told [[Hans Frank]], was his 'university paid for by the state.' He read, he said, everything he could get hold of: Nietzsche, [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]], [[Leopold von Ranke|Ranke]], [[Heinrich von Treitschke|Treitschke]], [[Karl Marx|Marx]], [[Otto von Bismarck|Bismarck]]'s Thoughts and Memories, and the war memoirs of German and allied generals and statesmen.... But Hitler's reading and reflection collection were anything but academic, doubtless, he did read much. However, as was noted in an earlier chapter, he made clear in [[Mein Kampf|My Struggle]] that reading for him had purely an instrumental purpose. He read not for knowledge or enlightenment, but for confirmation of his own preconceptions.}}}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Santaniello |first=Weaver |title=Nietzsche, God, and the Jews |date=1994 |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |page=41 |quote=Hitler probably never read a word of Nietzsche.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Lang |first=Berel |author-link=Berel Lang |title=Post-Holocaust: Interpretation, Misinterpretation, and the Claims of History |date=2005 |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |page=162 |quote=Arguably, Hitler himself never read a word of Nietzsche; certainly, if he did read him, it was not extensively.}}</ref> He was a frequent visitor to the Nietzsche museum in Weimar and used expressions of Nietzsche's, such as "lords of the earth" in {{lang|de|[[Mein Kampf]]}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shirer |first=William L. |author-link=William L. Shirer |title=[[The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich]]: A History of Nazi Germany |date=1959 |publisher=Touchstone |pages=100–101}}</ref> The Nazis made selective use of Nietzsche's philosophy. [[Alfred Baeumler]] was perhaps the most notable exponent of Nietzschean thought in Nazi Germany. Baeumler had published his book "Nietzsche, Philosopher and Politician" in 1931, before the Nazis' rise to power, and subsequently published several editions of Nietzsche's work during the Third Reich.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baeumler |first=Alfred |author-link=Alfred Baeumler |title=Nietzsche, der Philosoph und Politiker |date=1931 |publisher=Reclam |location=Leipzig |language=de |trans-title=Nietzsche, the philosophy and politics}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Whyte |first=Max |date=2008 |title=The Uses and Abuses of Nietzsche in the Third Reich: Alfred Baeumler's 'Heroic Realism' |journal=[[Journal of Contemporary History]] |volume=43 |pages=171–194 |doi=10.1177/0022009408089028 |s2cid=144479240 |number=2}}</ref> [[Benito Mussolini]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Falasca-Zamponi |first=Simonetta |title=Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini's Italy |date=2000 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |page=44 |quote=In 1908 he presented his conception of the superman's role in modern society in a writing on Nietzsche titled "The Philosophy of Force"}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Morgan |first=Philip |title=Fascism in Europe, 1919–1945 |date=2003 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |page=21 |quote=We know that Mussolini had read Nietzsche}}</ref> [[Charles de Gaulle]]<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gaddis |first1=J. L. |title=Cold War Statesmen Confront the Bomb |last2=Gordon |first2=P. H. |last3=May |first3=E. R. |last4=Rosenberg |first4=J. |date=1999 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=217 |quote=The son of a history teacher, de Gaulle read voraciously as a boy and young man—[[Jacques Bainville]], [[Henri Bergson]], Friederich {{sic}} Nietzsche, [[Maurice Barres]]—and was steeped in conservative French historical and philosophical traditions.}}</ref> and [[Huey P. Newton]]<ref>{{Cite book |first=Mumia |last=Abu-Jamal |author-link=Mumia Abu-Jamal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=caWPDd6PuaMC&q=Nietzsche |title=We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party |publisher=South End Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0896087187 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> read Nietzsche. [[Richard Nixon]], the 37th [[president of the United States]], read Nietzsche with "curious interest", and his book ''Beyond Peace'' might have taken its title from Nietzsche's book ''Beyond Good and Evil'', which Nixon read beforehand.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crowley |first=Monica |title=Nixon in Winter |publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]] |year=1998 |page=351 |quote=He read with curious interest the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche [...] Nixon asked to borrow my copy of ''Beyond Good and Evil'', a title that inspired the title of his final book, ''Beyond Peace''.}}</ref> [[Bertrand Russell]] wrote that Nietzsche had exerted great influence on philosophers and on people of literary and artistic culture, but warned that the attempt to put Nietzsche's philosophy of aristocracy into practice could only be done by an organisation similar to the Fascist or the Nazi Party.<ref name="Russell 1945 766 & 770">{{Cite book |last=Russell |first=Bertrand |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwestern00russ/ |title=A History of Western Philosophy |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |year=1945 |isbn=978-0671201586 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofwestern00russ/page/766 766, 770]}}</ref>

A decade after the Second World War there was a revival of Nietzsche's philosophical writings thanks to translations and analyses by [[Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)|Walter Kaufmann]] and [[R.J. Hollingdale]]. [[Georges Bataille]] was also influential in this revival, defending Nietzsche against appropriation by the Nazis with his notable 1937 essay "Nietzsche and Fascists".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bataille |first=Georges |author-link=Georges Bataille |date=January 1937 |title=Nietzsche and Fascists |url=http://i.a.m.free.fr/acephale/nietzsheetlesfascistes.html |journal=Acéphale}}</ref> Others, well known philosophers in their own right, wrote commentaries on Nietzsche's philosophy, including [[Martin Heidegger]], who produced a four-volume study, and [[Lev Shestov]], who wrote a book called ''Dostoyevski, Tolstoy and Nietzsche'', in which he portrays Nietzsche and Dostoevsky as the "thinkers of tragedy".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lev |first=Shestov |author-link=Lev Shestov |url=https://archive.org/details/dostoevskytolsto0000shes |title=Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Nietzsche |publisher=Ohio University Press |year=1969 |isbn=978-0821400531 |url-access=registration}}</ref> [[Georg Simmel]] compares Nietzsche's importance to ethics to that of [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] for [[cosmology]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Sorgner |first=Stefan |title=Nietzsche & Germany |journal=[[Philosophy Now]] |volume=29 |year=2000 |url=http://www.philosophynow.org/issues/29/Nietzsche_and_Germany}}</ref> The sociologist [[Ferdinand Tönnies]] read Nietzsche avidly from his early life, and later frequently discussed many of his concepts in his own works. Nietzsche has influenced philosophers such as [[Martin Heidegger]], [[Jean-Paul Sartre]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rickman |first=Hans Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6fM0jqDVFgC&q=Nietzsche+Sartre+influence&pg=PA142 |title=Philosophy in Literature |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0838636527 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> [[Oswald Spengler]],<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/Oswald_Spengler |title=Oswald Spengler |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520200025/http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/Oswald_Spengler |archive-date=20 May 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[George Grant (philosopher)|George Grant]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=George Grant |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/george-grant |access-date=31 August 2019 |website=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]]}}</ref> [[Emil Cioran]],<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Tat |first1=Alin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sJp6tGCgO-8C&q=Emil+Cioran+Nietzsche&pg=PA17 |title=Romanian Philosophical Culture, Globalization, and Education |last2=Popenici |first2=Stefan |year=2008 |isbn=978-1565182424}}</ref> [[Albert Camus]],<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2019 |title=Albert Camus (1913–1960) |encyclopedia=[[The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |url=https://www.iep.utm.edu/camus/ |last=Simpson |first=David |issn=2161-0002}}</ref> [[Ayn Rand]],<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Murray |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Murray (political scientist) |date=Spring 2010 |title=Who Is Ayn Rand? |url=https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/who-is-ayn-rand/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513121901/https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/who-is-ayn-rand/ |archive-date=May 13, 2021 |access-date=May 16, 2021 |magazine=[[Claremont Review of Books]] |volume=10 |issue=2}}</ref> [[Jacques Derrida]],<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Derrida |first1=J. |author-link=Jacques Derrida |title=Acts of Literature |last2=Attridge |first2=D. |year=2017 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0203873540 |pages=33–75 |chapter="This Strange Institution Called Literature": An Interview with Jacques Derrida |doi=10.4324/9780203873540-2 |access-date=28 May 2021 |orig-date=1992 |chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203873540-2}}</ref> [[Sarah Kofman]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kofman |first=Sarah |author-link=Sarah Kofman |title=Nietzsche and metaphor |publisher=[[A&C Black]] |year=1993}}</ref> [[Leo Strauss]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lampert |first=Laurence |title=Leo Strauss and Nietzsche |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |year=1996 |location=Chicago}}</ref> [[Max Scheler]], [[Michel Foucault]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Foucault |first=Michel |author-link=Michel Foucault |url=https://philarchive.org/rec/FOUNGH |title=Language, Counter-Memory, Practice |date=1980 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |isbn=978-1501741913 |pages=139–164 |language=en |chapter=Nietzsche, Genealogy, History |doi=10.1515/9781501741913-008 |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781501741913-008/html |s2cid=158684860}}</ref> [[Bernard Williams]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Bernard |title=Nietzsche, Genealogy, Morality |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0520914049 |pages=237–248 |language=en |chapter=13. Nietzsche's Minimalist Moral Psychology |date=1994 |doi=10.1525/9780520914049-017 |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1525/9780520914049-017/html}}</ref> and [[Nick Land]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Land |first=Nick |author-link=Nick Land |title=Fanged noumena collected writings 1987–2007 |date=2019 |publisher=Urbanomic/Sequence Press |others=Ray Brassier, Robin Mackay |isbn=978-0983216940 |location=[S.l.] |oclc=1176303181}}</ref>

Camus described Nietzsche as "the only artist to have derived the extreme consequences of an aesthetics of the [[Absurdism|absurd]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cornwell |first=Neil |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bmq7AAAAIAAJ&q=Kafka+Nietzsche&pg=PA186 |title=The Absurd in Literature |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0719074103 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> [[Paul Ricœur]] called Nietzsche one of the masters of the "school of suspicion", alongside [[Karl Marx]] and Sigmund Freud.<ref name="Ricœur">{{Cite book |last=Ricœur |first=Paul |url=https://archive.org/details/freudphilosophye00rico_826 |title=Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=1970 |isbn=978-0300021899 |location=New Haven and London |page=[https://archive.org/details/freudphilosophye00rico_826/page/n42 32] |url-access=limited}}</ref> [[Carl Jung]] was also influenced by Nietzsche.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6163.html |title=Jung's Seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra |date=1997 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0691017389 |editor-last=Jarrett |editor-first=J. L. |edition=abridged |access-date=22 August 2014}}</ref> In ''[[Memories, Dreams, Reflections]]'', a biography transcribed by his secretary, he cites Nietzsche as a large influence.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jung's Reception of Friedrich Nietzsche: A Roadmap for the Uninitiated by Dr. Ritske Rensma |url=http://www.depthinsights.com/Depth-Insights-scholarly-ezine/e-zine-issue-3-fall-2012/jungs-reception-of-friedrich-nietzsche-a-roadmap-for-the-uninitiated-by-dr-ritske-rensma/ |access-date=22 August 2014 |publisher=Depth Insights}}</ref> Aspects of Nietzsche's philosophy, especially his ideas of the self and his relation to society, run through much of late-twentieth and early twenty-first century thought.<ref name="Belliotti">{{Cite book |last=Belliotti |first=Raymond A. |title=Jesus or Nietzsche: How Should We Live Our Lives? |date=2013 |location=Amsterdam |publisher=[[Rodopi (publisher)|Rodopi]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kuipers |first=Ronald A. |author-link=Ronald A. Kuipers |date=2011 |title=Turning Memory into Prophecy: Roberto Unger and Paul Ricoeur on the Human Condition Between Past and Future |journal=[[The Heythrop Journal]] |pages=1–10}}</ref> Nietzsche's writings have also been influential to some advancers of [[Accelerationism|Accelerationist]] thought through his influence on [[Deleuze and Guattari]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Deleuze |first=Gilles |title=Anti-Oedipus : capitalism and schizophrenia |date=2009 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |others=Guattari, Félix; Foucault, Michel |isbn=978-0143105824 |location=New York |oclc=370411932}}</ref> His deepening of the romantic-heroic tradition of the nineteenth century, for example, as expressed in the ideal of the "grand striver" appears in the work of thinkers from [[Cornelius Castoriadis]] to [[Roberto Mangabeira Unger]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rorty |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Rorty |date=1988 |orig-date=1987 |title=Unger, Castoriadis, and the Romance of a National Future |journal=[[Northwestern University Law Review]] |volume=82 |page=39}}</ref> For Nietzsche, this grand striver overcomes obstacles, engages in epic struggles, pursues new goals, embraces recurrent novelty, and transcends existing structures and contexts.<ref name="Belliotti" />{{rp|195}}

== Works ==
{{Main|Friedrich Nietzsche bibliography}}
{{See also|List of works about Friedrich Nietzsche}}
[[File:Nietzsche-Stein 01.jpg|thumb|The ''Nietzsche Stone'', near [[Surlej]], the inspiration for ''[[Thus Spoke Zarathustra]]'']]
* ''[[The Birth of Tragedy]]'' (1872)
* ''[[On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense]]'' (1873)
* ''[[Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks]]'' (1873, unfinished; first published in 1923)
* ''[[Untimely Meditations]]'' (1873–1876)
* ''[[Human, All Too Human]]'' (1878–1880)
* ''[[The Dawn (book)|The Dawn]]'' (1881)
* ''[[The Gay Science]]'' (1882)
* ''[[Thus Spoke Zarathustra]]'' (1883–1885)
* ''[[Beyond Good and Evil]]'' (1886)
* ''[[On the Genealogy of Morality]]'' (1887)
* ''[[The Case of Wagner]]'' (1888)
* ''[[Twilight of the Idols]]'' (1888; first published in 1889)
* ''[[The Antichrist (book)|The Antichrist]]'' (1888; first published in 1895)
* ''[[Ecce Homo (book)|Ecce Homo]]'' (1888; first published in 1908)
* ''[[Nietzsche contra Wagner]]'' (1888; first published in 1889)
* ''[[The Will to Power (manuscript)|The Will to Power]]'' (various unpublished manuscripts edited by his sister [[Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche|Elisabeth]]; not recognised as a unified work after {{Circa|1960}})

== See also ==
{{Portal|Philosophy|Religion|Germany|Biography}}
{{cols|colwidth=21em}}
* [[Difference (poststructuralism)]]
* ''[[Dionysos (opera)|Dionysos]]''
* [[Existential nihilism]]
* [[Faith in the Earth]]
* [[Friedrich Nietzsche and free will]]
* [[Manusmriti]]
* [[Relationship between Friedrich Nietzsche and Max Stirner]]
* [[Rigveda]]
* ''[[When Nietzsche Wept]]'' – a film about his life
* [[World riddle]]
{{colend}}

== References ==

=== Notes ===
{{notelist|35em}}

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

===Works cited===
<!-- These are required by short form refs in the article and shouldn't be removed. See documentation for {{sfn}}/{{harv}} templates and [[:Category:Harv and Sfn no-target errors]] -->
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{Citation |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich Wilhelm |title=[[Thus Spoke Zarathustra]]: A Book for All and For None |year=1961 |others=trans. R.J. Hollingdale |place=New York |publisher=Penguin Classics |isbn=0140441182 |orig-date=1883–85}}.
* {{Citation |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich Wilhelm |title=[[On the Genealogy of Morality]] |year=1887}}.
* {{Citation |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich Wilhelm |title=[[Twilight of the Idols]] |year=1888b}}.
* {{Citation |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich Wilhelm |title=[[The Antichrist (book)|The Antichrist]] |year=2004 |place=Grand Rapids |publisher=Kessinger |ref={{harvid|Nietzsche|1888c}} |orig-year=1888c}}.
* {{Citation |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich Wilhelm |title=[[Ecce Homo (book)|Ecce Homo]] |volume=Basic Writings of Nietzsche |year=2000 |others=trans. Walter Kaufmann |publisher=Modern Library |isbn=0679783393 |ref={{harvid|Nietzsche|1888d}} |orig-year=1888d}}.
* {{Citation |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich Wilhelm |title=Kritische Studienausgabe |volume=1 |year=1980 |publisher=de Gruyter |editor-last=Colli |editor-first=Giorgio |editor-last2=Montinari |editor-first2=Mazzino |ref={{harvid|Nietzsche|1980}}}}.
* {{Citation |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich Wilhelm |title=Kritische Gesamtausgabe Werke |volume=II |year=1967 |publisher=de Gruyter |editor-last=Colli |editor-first=Giorgio |editor-last2=Montinari |editor-first2=Mazzino |ref={{harvid|Nietzsche|1967}}}}.
* {{Citation |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich Wilhelm |title=The Pre-Platonic Philosophers |year=2001 |others=trans. Greg Whitlock |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |isbn=0252025598}}.
{{refend}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cate |first=Curtis |url=https://archive.org/details/friedrichnietzsc00curt |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |publisher=[[The Overlook Press]] |year=2005 |location=Woodstock, N.Y. |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Čeika |first=Jonas |title=How to philosophise with a hammer and a sickle: Nietzsche and Marx for the twenty-first century |location=London |publisher=[[Repeater Books]] |year=2021 |isbn=978-1913462499}}
* {{Cite book |last=Clark |first=Maudemarie |title=Nietzsche on Ethics and Politics |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-0199371846}}
* {{Cite book |last=Deleuze |first=Gilles |author-link=Gilles Deleuze |title=Nietzsche and Philosophy |title-link=Nietzsche and Philosophy |publisher=Athlone Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0485112337 |translator-last=Tomlinson |translator-first=Hugh |orig-date=1983}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HBCsgS7k7lAC&q=Arnold+Zweig+Nietzsche&pg=PA185 |title=Nietzsche and Jewish culture |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=1997 |isbn=978-0415095129 |editor-last=Golomb |editor-first=Jacob |via=[[Google Books]]}}
* {{Cite book |last=Hayman |first=Ronald |author-link=Ronald Hayman |title=Nietzsche: A Critical Life |date=1980 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}
* {{Cite book |last=Hollingdale |first=R.J. |author-link=R. J. Hollingdale |url=https://archive.org/details/nietzschemanhisp00holl/page/215 |title=Nietzsche: The Man and His Philosophy |edition=2 |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0521640916}}
* {{Cite book |title=Nietzsche as a Scholar of Antiquity |date=2014 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |editor-last=Jensen |editor-first=Anthony K. |location=London |editor-last2=Heit |editor-first2=Helmut}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kaufmann |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Kaufmann (philosopher) |title=Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist |edition=4 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=1974 |isbn=978-0691019833 |url=https://archive.org/details/nietzschephiloso00kauf}}
* {{Cite book |last=Lampert |first=Laurence |author-link=Laurence Lampert |title=Nietzsche's Teaching: An Interpretation of 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=1986 |isbn=978-0300044300 |location=New Haven, Conn.}}
* {{Cite book |last=Löwith |first=Karl |author-link=Karl Löwith |title=From Hegel to Nietzsche: The Revolution in Nineteenth-Century Thought |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1964 |isbn=0231074999 |url=https://archive.org/details/fromhegeltonietz0000lowi}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/414670/Friedrich-Nietzsche |last=Magnus |first=Bernd |date=26 July 1999}}
* {{Cite book |last=Nehamas |first=Alexander |author-link=Alexander Nehamas |title=Nietzsche: Life as Literature |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1985 |isbn=978-0674624351}}
* {{Cite book |last=Roochnik |first=David |author-link=David Roochnik |title=Retrieving the Ancients: An Introduction to Greek Philosophy |edition=1 |location=Malden, MA |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell|Blackwell]] |year=2004}}
* {{Cite book |last=Russell |first=Bertrand |author-link=Bertrand Russell |title=A History of Western Philosophy |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2004}}
* {{Cite book |last=Santayana |first=George |author-link=George Santayana |title=Egotism in German Philosophy |publisher=JM Dent & Sons |year=1916 |location=London & Toronto |chapter=XI |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/egotismingerman00santuoft}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sedgwick |first=Peter R. |title=Nietzsche: the key concepts |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2009 |location=Routledge, Oxon, England}}
* {{Cite book |last=Schacht |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Schacht |title=Nietzsche |location=London |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=1983}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Solomon |first1=Robert C. |author-link=Robert C. Solomon |last2=Higgins |first2=Kathleen Marie |author-link2=Kathleen Higgins |title=What Nietzsche Really Said |location=New York |publisher=[[Schocken Books]] |year=2000 |isbn=0805210946}}
* {{Cite book |last=Tanner |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Tanner |title=Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0192854148}}
* {{cite book |last=Young |first=Julian |author-link=Julian Young |title=Friedrich Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0521871174}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{Cite book |last=Arena |first=Leonardo Vittorio |title=Nietzsche in China in the XXth Century |publisher=ebook |year=2012}}
* {{cite book |last=Assoun |first=Paul-Laurent |title=Freud and Nietzsche |author-link=Paul-Laurent Assoun |location=London |publisher=[[Continuum International Publishing Group|Continuum]] |year=2000 |isbn=0826463169}}
* [[Babette Babich|Babich, Babette E.]] (1994), ''Nietzsche's Philosophy of Science'', Albany: [[State University of New York Press]].
* {{citation |last=Badiou |first=Alain |author-link=Alain Badiou |title=Who is Nietzsche? |journal=Pli |volume=11 |year=2001 |pages=1–11 |url=http://www.plijournal.com/files/11_1_Badiou.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111190126/http://www.plijournal.com/files/11_1_Badiou.pdf |archive-date=11 November 2020 }}
* {{Cite book |last1=Baird |first1=Forrest E. |title=From Plato to Derrida |last2=Kaufmann |first2=Walter |author-link2=Walter Kaufmann (philosopher) |publisher=[[Pearson Prentice Hall]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0131585911 |location=Upper Saddle River, NJ |pages=1011–1138}}
* {{Cite book |last=Benson |first=Bruce Ellis |author-link=Bruce Ellis Benson |title=Pious Nietzsche: Decadence and Dionysian Faith |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |year=2007 |page=296}}
* {{cite book |last=Bishop |first=Paul C. |author-link=Paul C. Bishop |title=Nietzsche's "The Anti-Christ" |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2022 |doi=10.1515/9781474430753|isbn=978-1474430753 }}
* [[Markus Breitschmid|Breitschmid, Markus]], ''Der bauende Geist. Friedrich Nietzsche und die Architektur''. Lucerne: Quart Verlag, 2001, {{ISBN|3907631234}}
* [[Markus Breitschmid|Breitschmid, Markus]], ''Nietzsche's Denkraum''. Zurich: Edition Didacta, 2006, Hardcover Edition: {{ISBN|978-3033012066}}; Paperback Edition: {{ISBN|978-3033011489}}
* [[Crane Brinton|Brinton, Crane]], ''Nietzsche''. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1941; reprint with a new preface, epilogue, and bibliography, New York: Harper Torchbooks/The Academy Library, 1965.)
* Brunger, Jeremy. 2015. "[http://numerocinqmagazine.com/2015/08/13/public-opinions-private-laziness-the-epistemological-break-in-nietzsche-jeremy-brunger/ Public Opinions, Private Laziness: The Epistemological Break in Nietzsche]. ''Numero Cinq'' magazine (August).
* {{cite book |last=Bull |first=Malcolm |title=Anti-Nietzsche |location=London |publisher=Verso |year=2011 |isbn=978-1859845745}}
* {{cite book |last1=Burnham |first1=Douglas |last2=Jesinghausen |first2=Martin |title=Nietzsche's "The Birth of Tragedy": A Reader's Guide |location=London |publisher=Continuum |year=2010 |isbn=978-1847065841}}
* {{Cite book |last=Clark |first=Maudemarie |title=Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1990 |isbn=978-0521343688 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511624728}}
* Conway, Daniel (Ed.), ''[https://www.routledge.com/Nietzsche-and-the-Political/Conway/p/book/9780415100694 Nietzsche and the Political]'' (Routledge, 1997)
* Corriero, Emilio Carlo, ''Nietzsche oltre l'abisso. Declinazioni italiane della 'morte di Dio''', [[Marco Valerio Editore|Marco Valerio]], Torino, 2007
* Corriero, Emilio Carlo, "Nietzsche's Death of God and Italian Philosophy". Preface by Gianni Vattimo, Rowman & Littlefield, London & New York, 2016
* Dod, Elmar, "Der unheimlichste Gast. Die Philosophie des Nihilismus". Marburg: Tectum Verlag 2013. {{ISBN|978-3828831070}}. "Der unheimlichste Gast wird heimisch. Die Philosophie des Nihilismus – Evidenzen der Einbildungskraft". (Wissenschaftliche Beiträge Philosophie Bd. 32) Baden–Baden 2019 {{ISBN|978-3828841857}}
* {{Cite book |last=Eilon |first=Eli |title=Nietzsche's Principle of Abundance as Guiding Aesthetic Value |publisher=Nietzsche-Studien, December 2001 (30) |pages=200–221}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Foerster-Nietzsche |first=Elizabeth |author-link=Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche |title=Nietzsche, France, and England |url=https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3431&context=ocj |journal=[[Open Court Publishing Company#The Open Court|The Open Court]] |language=English |volume=1920 |issue=3 |translator-last1=Kerr |translator-first1=Caroline V. |translator-link1=Caroline V. Kerr |article-number=2}}
* [[Graeme Garrard|Garrard, Graeme]] (2008). "Nietzsche For and Against the Enlightenment," ''Review of Politics'', Vol. 70, No. 4, pp.&nbsp;595–608.
* {{Cite book |title=Nietzsche on Freedom and Autonomy |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2002 |editor-last=Gemes |editor-first=Ken |editor-link=Ken Gemes |editor-last2=May |editor-first2=Simon}}
* Golan, Zev. ''God, Man, and Nietzsche: A Startling Dialogue between Judaism and Modern Philosophers'' (iUniverse, 2007).
* {{cite book |last=Higgins |first=Kathleen Marie |author-link=Kathleen Higgins |title=Comic Relief: Nietzsche's 'Gay Science' |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=0195126912}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing|Sage]]; [[Cato Institute]]|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|doi= 10.4135/9781412965811.n217|isbn=978-1412965804|oclc=750831024|lccn=2008009151|pages=355–356|chapter=Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844–1900) |last=Hunt |first=Lester |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-first=Ronald |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC}}
* Huskinson, Lucy. ''Nietzsche and Jung: The whole self in the union of opposites'' (London and New York: Routledge, 2004)
* Kaplan, Erman. ''Cosmological Aesthetics through the Kantian Sublime and Nietzschean Dionysian''. Lanham: UPA, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014.
* {{cite book |last=Katsafanas |first=Paul |title=The Nietzschean Self: Moral Psychology, Agency, and the Unconscious |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0198737100 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198737100.001.0001}}
* [[Mario Kopić|Kopić, Mario]], ''S Nietzscheom o Europi'', Jesenski i Turk, Zagreb, 2001 {{ISBN|978-9532220162}}
* {{cite book |last=Leiter |first=Brian |author-link=Brian Leiter |title=Moral Psychology with Nietzsche |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-0199696505 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780199696505.001.0001}}
* {{citation |last=Leiter |first=Brian |author-link=Brian Leiter |chapter=The Hermeneutics of Suspicion: Recovering Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud |title=The Future for Philosophy |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=2004 |pages=74–105 |isbn=978-0199203925}}
* Leiter, Brian (2014). ''Nietzsche on Morality'', 2nd ed. London and New York: Routledge. {{isbn|978-0-415-85679-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Losurdo |first=Domenico |author-link=Domenico Losurdo |title=Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel: Intellectual Biography and Critical Balance-Sheet |location=Leiden |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |year=2019 |isbn=978-9004270947 |doi=10.1163/9789004270954}}
* {{Cite book |last=Luchte |first=James |title=Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Before Sunrise |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-1441116536 |location=London}}
* {{Cite book |last=Magnus |first=Bernd |title=Nietzsche's Existential Imperative |location=Bloomington, IN |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1978}}
* {{citation |last1=Magnus |first1=Bernd |last2=Higgins |first2=Kathleen Marie |author-link2=Kathleen Higgins |chapter=Nietzsche's works and their themes |title=The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche |editor-last=Magnus |editor-first=Bernd |editor-last2=Higgins |editor-first2=Kathleen Marie |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1996 |pages=21–58 |isbn=0521367670 |doi=10.1017/CCOL0521365864.002}}
* {{Cite book |last=Makarushka |first=Irena S. M. |title=Religious Imagination and Language in Emerson and Nietzsche |publisher=Macmillan |year=1994 |isbn=978-0333569764 |location=London}}
* {{cite book |last=Mandel |first=Siegfried |title=Nietzsche & the Jews: Exaltation & Denigration|location=Amherst, New York |publisher=[[Prometheus Books]] |year=1998 |isbn=1-57392-223-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Manschot |first=Henk |title=Nietzsche and the Earth: Biography, Ecology, Politics |location=London |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |year=2020 |isbn=978-1350134393}}
*[[Heinrich Meier|Meier, Heinrich]] (2024). ''Nietzsche's Legacy:'' Ecce Homo ''and'' The Antichrist'', Two Books on Nature and Politics''. University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|978-0226751979}}
* {{citation |last=Norris |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Norris (critic) |title=Between Marx and Nietzsche: The Prospect for Critical Theory |journal=Journal of Literary Semantics |volume=10 |issue=2 |year=2009 |pages=104–115 |doi=10.1515/jlse.1981.10.2.104}}
* O'Flaherty, James C., Sellner, Timothy F., Helm, Robert M., ''Studies in Nietzsche and the Classical Tradition'' ([[University of North Carolina Press]]) 1979 {{ISBN|080788085X}}
* O'Flaherty, James C., Sellner, Timothy F., Helm, Robert M., ''Studies in Nietzsche and the Judaeo-Christian Tradition'' (University of North Carolina Press) 1985 {{ISBN|080788104X}}
* Owen, David. ''Nietzsche, Politics & Modernity'' (London: Sage Publications, 1995).
* {{citation |editor-last=Payne |editor-first=Christine A. |editor-last2=Roberts |editor-first2=Michael James |title=Nietzsche and Critical Social Theory: Affirmation, Animosity, and Ambiguity |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill |year=2020 |isbn=978-9004337350 |doi=10.1163/9789004415577}}
* {{citation |last=Pérez |first=Rolando |title=Towards a Genealogy of the Gay Science: From Toulouse and Barcelona to Nietzsche and Beyond |journal=EHumanista/IVITRA |volume=5 |year=2014 |pages=546–703 |issn=1540-5877 |url=http://www.ehumanista.ucsb.edu/eHumanista%20IVITRA/Volume%205/Volum%20Regular/7_Perez.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924114053/http://www.ehumanista.ucsb.edu/eHumanista%20IVITRA/Volume%205/Volum%20Regular/7_Perez.pdf |archive-date=24 September 2014 }}
* {{cite book |last=Pippin |first=Robert B. |author-link=Robert B. Pippin |title=Nietzsche, Psychology, and First Philosophy |location=Chicago |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0226669755}}
* Porter, James I. ''Nietzsche and the Philology of the Future'' (Stanford University Press, 2000). {{ISBN|0804736987}}
* {{Cite book |last=Porter |first=James I. |title=The Invention of Dionysus: An Essay on The Birth of Tragedy |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0804737005}}
* [[Guy de Pourtalès|de Pourtalès, Guy]], ''Nietzsche in Italy'' (Pushkin Press, 2022). {{ISBN|978-1782277286}}. [https://www.wsj.com/articles/nietzsche-in-italy-book-review-a-wanderer-and-his-shadow-cfba5247 Review] Translation by Will Stone of ''Nietzsche en Italie'', Bernard Grasset, 1929.
* [[Sue Prideaux|Prideaux, Sue]], ''[[I Am Dynamite!]] A Life of Nietzsche'' ([[Faber & Faber]] (UK) and [[Tim Duggan Books]] (US), 2018)
* [[Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen|Ratner-Rosenhagen, Jennifer]] (2011), ''[[American Nietzsche: A History of an Icon and His Ideas]].'' Chicago: [[University of Chicago Press]].
* {{cite book |last=Richardson |first=John |author-link=John Richardson (philosopher) |title=Nietzsche's System |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |doi=10.1093/0195098463.001.0001|isbn=0195098463 }}
* {{cite book |last=Richardson |first=John |author-link=John Richardson (philosopher) |title=Nietzsche's New Darwinism |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/0195171039.001.0001|isbn=0195171039 }}
* {{cite book |last=Richardson |first=John |author-link=John Richardson (philosopher) |title=Nietzsche's Values |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0190098230 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780190098230.001.0001}}
*[[Ritchie Robertson|Robertson, Ritchie]] (2022). ''Nietzsche''. Reaktion Books. {{ISBN|978-1789146066}}
* {{Cite news |last=Ruehl |first=Martin |date=2 January 2018 |title=In defence of slavery: Nietzsche's Dangerous Thinking |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/nietzsche-ideas-superman-slavery-nihilism-adolf-hitler-nazi-racism-white-supremacy-fascism-a8138396.html |access-date=18 August 2018 |work=[[The Independent]]}}
* Schacht, Richard (2024). ''Nietzsche Pursued: Toward a Philosophy for the Future''. University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|978-0226834665}}
* {{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm |volume=19 |last=Schiller |first=Ferdinand Canning Scott |author-link=Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller |page=672 |short=1}}
* [[T. K. Seung|Seung, T.K.]] ''Nietzsche's Epic of the Soul: Thus Spoke Zarathustra''. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2005. {{ISBN|0739111302}}
* {{Cite book |last=Shapiro |first=Gary |title=Archaeologies of Vision: Foucault and Nietzsche on Seeing and Saying |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0226750477 |location=Chicago}}
* {{Cite book |last=Shapiro |first=Gary |title=Nietzsche's Earth: Great Events, Great Politics |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |year=2016 |isbn=978-0226394459 |location=Chicago}}
* {{Cite book |last=Shapiro |first=Gary |url=https://archive.org/details/alcyonenietzsche0000shap |title=Alcyone: Nietzsche on Gifts, Noise, and Women |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |year=1991 |isbn=978-0791407424 |location=Albany}}
* {{cite book |last=Sloterdijk |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Sloterdijk |title=Nietzsche Apostle |location=Los Angeles |publisher=[[Semiotext(e)]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-1584350996}}
* {{Cite book |last=Tanner |first=Michael |title=Nietzsche |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1994 |isbn=978-0192876805 |url=https://archive.org/details/nietzschepastmas00mich}}
* {{Cite book |last=Tutt |first=Daniel |title=How to Read Like a Parasite: Why the Left Got High on Nietzsche |location=London |publisher=[[Repeater Books]] |year=2024 |isbn=978-1914420627}}
* {{cite book |last=Vattimo |first=Gianni |author-link=Gianni Vattimo |title=The Adventure of Difference: Philosophy after Nietzsche and Heidegger |location=Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1993 |isbn=0801846439}}
* {{Cite book |last=von Vacano |first=Diego |title=The Art of Power: Machiavelli, Nietzsche and the Making of Aesthetic Political Theory |publisher=[[Lexington Books]] |year=2007 |location=Lanham, MD}}.
* {{cite book |last=Waite |first=Geoff |title=Nietzsche's Corps/e: Aesthetics, Prophecy, Politics, or, The Spectacular Technoculture of Everyday Life |location=Durham, NC |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1996 |url=https://monoskop.org/images/1/1d/Waite_Geoff_Nietzsches_Corps-e_Aesthetics_Politics_Prophecy.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111202045/https://monoskop.org/images/1/1d/Waite_Geoff_Nietzsches_Corps-e_Aesthetics_Politics_Prophecy.pdf |archive-date=11 November 2020 }}
* Wallis, Glenn. (2024), ''[https://warblerpress.com/nietzsche-now/ Nietzsche NOW!: The Great Immoralist on the Vital Issues of Our Time]'', New York City: Warbler Press.
* Weir, Simon & Hill Glen. (2021), "Making space for degenerate thinking: revaluing architecture with Friedrich Nietzsche." arq: architecture research quarterly 25:2. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135521000221 Making space for degenerate thinking: revaluing architecture with Friedrich Nietzsche]
* {{cite book |last=Welshon |first=Rex |title=Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morality: A Guide |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-0197611821 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197611814.001.0001}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2004/entries/nietzsche/ |last=Wicks |first=Robert |editor-last=Edward N. Zalta |edition=Fall 2004}}
* {{cite book |last=Zupančič |first=Alenka |author-link=Alenka Zupančič |title=The Shortest Shadow: Nietzsche's Philosophy of the Two |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |year=2003 |isbn=0262740265}}
*[[Stefan Zweig|Zweig Stefan]] (2021) [1925]. ''Nietzsche''. Pushkin Press. {{ISBN|978-1782276364}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links|wikt=no|s=Author:Friedrich Nietzsche|b=no|n=no|voy=no|v=Friedrich Nietzsche annotated bibliography|Friedrich Nietzsche}}
* [https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9108765/Friedrich-Nietzsche#387226.hook Entry on Nietzsche] at Britannica.com
* [http://www.philosopher.eu/others-writings/nietzsches-autobiography/ Nietzsche's brief autobiography]
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/friedrich-nietzsche}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=779}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Nietzsche}}
* {{Librivox author |id=411}}
* {{Helveticat}}
* {{cite IEP |url-id=nietzsch |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |last=Wilkerson |first=Dale|year=2009}}
** {{cite IEP |url-id=nietzsches-ethics |title=Nietzsche's Ethics |last=Kirwin |first=Claire}}
** {{cite IEP |url-id=niet-his |title=Nietzsche's Philosophy of History |last=Jensen |first=Anthony K.}}
* {{cite SEP |url-id=nietzsche |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |last=Wicks |first=Robert|date=14 November 2007}}
** {{cite SEP |url-id=nietzsche-moral-political |title=Nietzsche's Moral and Political Philosophy |last=Leiter |first=Brian |author-link=Brian Leiter |date=27 July 2007}}
* [http://www.nietzschesource.org/ Nietzsche Source: Digital version of the German critical edition of the complete works and Digital facsimile edition of the entire Nietzsche estate]
* [http://www.lexido.com/ Lexido: Searchable Database index of Public Domain editions of all Nietzsche's major works] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514094631/http://lexido.com/ |date=14 May 2021}}
* {{IMSLP|id=Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110421040017/http://www.weple.org/timeline.html#ids=14631,12007,12598,700,10671,9518,37304,95184,&title=8%20German%20Philosophers Timeline of German Philosophers]
* Walter Kaufmann 1960 [https://archive.org/details/NietzscheAndTheCrisisInPhilosophy Prof. Nietzsche and the Crisis in Philosophy] (audio)
* {{Cite journal |last=Kierans |first=Kenneth |year=2010 |title=On the Unity of Nietzsche's Philosophy |url=http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Articles/Volume%2014/9_Kierans.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=[[Animus (journal)|Animus]] |volume=14 |issn=1209-0689 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003192327/http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Articles/Volume%2014/9_Kierans.pdf |archive-date=3 October 2011 |access-date=17 August 2011}}
* Burkhart Brückner, Robin Pape: [http://biapsy.de/index.php/en/9-biographien-a-z/71-nietzsche-friedrich-wilhelm-e Biography of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche] in: [http://biapsy.de/index.php/en/ Biographical Archive of Psychiatry (BIAPSY)].
* {{PM20|FID=pe/012893}}
* [[Rick Roderick]] (1991) [http://rickroderick.org/200-guide-nietzsche-and-the-postmodern-condition-1991/ Nietzsche and the Postmodern Condition (1991)] Video Lectures
{{Nietzsche|expanded}}
{{Navboxes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nietzsche, Friedrich}}
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