Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future is a provocative book by Friedrich Nietzsche that challenges traditional morality and advocates for a new perspective of life beyond the simplistic notions of good and evil. In this book, Nietzsche critiques past philosophers for blindly accepting dogmatic beliefs in their consideration...More
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, and philologist whose work has exerted a profound influence on modern intellectual history. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24. Nietzsche resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897...More
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, and philologist whose work has exerted a profound influence on modern intellectual history. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24. Nietzsche resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900.
His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, religion, tragedy, culture, and science. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th and early-21st century thinkers across philosophy—especially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism and post-structuralism—as well as art, literature, psychology, politics, and popular culture. Nietzsche developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and the doctrine of eternal return.
Book Summary
Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future is a provocative book by Friedrich Nietzsche that challenges traditional morality and advocates for a new perspective of life beyond the simplistic notions of good and evil. In this book, Nietzsche critiques past philosophers for blindly accepting dogmatic beliefs in their consideration of morality and instead advocates for a more critical and affirmative approach that fearlessly confronts the perspectival nature of knowledge and the modern individual's perilous condition. He introduces the concept of the "will to power" as an explanation for all behavior and contests the key presuppositions of the old philosophic tradition. Throughout the book, Nietzsche re-evaluates deeply held humanistic beliefs, portraying even domination, appropriation, and injury to the weak as not universally objectionable.
Friedrich Nietzsche
