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Title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Walter Kaufmann, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche ISBN: 0-14-004748-4 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: March, 1978 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.7 (74 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: one of the best books ever written
Comment: this is nietzsche's best. Kind of hard to understand unless you haven't read any of his other works. In here he's an optimist. Looking for new values, questioning and creating. Nietzsche is contracictory and a paradox. He's influental and original. I think it's funny that he helped create a world he would have despised. One ruled by " the political elite of peddling to the masses" and postmodernism.
You can't understand his side though,,,,he's not congruent. He thinks trade is borgouise but hates socialism. He loves war but doesn't like the state. So all we have is a ruling king...or something. Nietzsche was sort of a fatalist and believed in "blood" or genetics in modern terms. But at other times says that "not were you're from from but were you're going is what matters" or something along those lines.Plus the camel,lion, and child story seems like slave, warrior, thinking conscious being to me...or free will.
I also see a very confused ...emotional man. He was influenced by people he shoots down, and he influenced many others. It seemed German philosophers (except Kant) didn't believe in free will(this could be because of the lutheran influence.) But nietzsche sometimes isn't even consistent here. Hegel and the "geist" and Marx and communism thought they "knew" where
society was going....marx with socialist,utilitarian, and possibly subconscious christian beliefs was going to create utopia. Nietzsche is right here too... atheistic individuals not examining past values( upholding altruism) and creating heaven on earth or "equility" is hell on earth.
Nietzsche new this would happen... "the state.... where the slow suicide of all is called life" I don't think think neitzsche was nearly as 'evil" as anyone thinks....some say to take him at his word. I judge people by their actions,and he was a peaceful man. And he hated anti-semites. I think he was just looking for new values... realizing the current ones where a joke. Way ahead of his time
Rating: 5
Summary: The ascension of the "overman"
Comment: What a wealth of ideas Nietzsche presents, from a man with a excessively intense mind. Philosophical, poetic, psychological, sociological, and social Darwinism all juxposized into a amazing free flowing work of fiction from a philosopher and self proclaimed psychologist. I would warn anyone with a weak heart and subtle ideas not to read this book beacuse it will change you. Nietzsche had a torn yet brilliant mind, who along with Arthur Schopenhauer predicted and wrote about theories that Sigmund Freud later popularized. In fact, Freud did not want to read Nietzsche because he wanted to keep his psychoanalytic findings as pure as possible.
I have read this book three times and I never read a book more then once. Nietzsche was so full of angst and passion that I have to read Zarathurstra in short bursts in order to come down from the high he creates in my head.. I highly recommend this book for the srong willed those with "the will to power."
Rating: 5
Summary: The "New" Repulic.
Comment: The only other western philosophical text as importnat as this book is Plato's "Republic." We have once again arrived at the cross-roads of Heraclitus v/s Paramendides. I wouldn't recommended jumping into it without a good knowledge of the Western philosophical traditon and religious traditions. (Zarathutra himself calls learning ALL this backround information "the spirit of the camel" or first taking on the burden of knowledge before going about anything else. To not take on this "burden of knowledge" is the main flaw of most Nietzsche critics and mis-understanders.) Also, Nietzsche was an anti-systemic philosopher so it demands to be viewed/critiqued in a different way than traditional philosophy. To begin to grasp Nietzsche's "Zarathustra" I would to recommend first reading his earlier works starting with a couple of short essays. The first one is "Truth and Lie in a Non-Moral Sense" which is about human language, logic and the all-too-human need for these "lies." The other essay is "Homer's Contest" which reveals his legacy as starting from the early Greek tradition.
Some important things to know about this book to avoid the common misinterpretation that Nietzsche is just a Atheist/Nihilist with a superiority complex:
-pay very close attention to his critque of mind/body dualsism and what he proposes otherwise.
-The "Overman" is a conception that only looks toward the future. Later in the book Zarathustra supercedes the "Overman" idea with the cyclical concept of "Eternal Recourence." Even Zarathustra himself has a hard time confronting this view of life and existence. Also, don't make the mistake that eternal reccourence is just a "telos," it is not. Zarathutra speaks in parables not absolutes.
-One of Nietzsche's most favorite authors was Emerson (who also used the name "Zarathutra" in his some of his writings) and their ideas/project have mainy similarities.
-The idea of the world/life not being worthy without a metaphysical world behind it is exactaly what Nietzsche was aimed at overcoming.
-Don't over-simplify will-to-Power as will-to-Overpower.
-Think hard about this being a "book for all and none," think very hard.
-Plato's "Sun" is replaced with "sun" of the Self. This "sun" is the "dancing star." For some odd reason, I see few people mention the signifcance of Self-love in "Zarathustra." This is KEY in understanding where Nietzsche is going/taking us.
-Nietzsche isn't worldly political like the Republic, instead he symbolically speaks of the battle of modern human soul in political terms.
As far as translations go, I prefer Kaufmann over Holingdale because he pays more attetntion to the nuances of Nitezsche's word play. But I would recommend reading more than one translation and getting the best out of all of them.
I also would recommend getting some familiarity with the symbols of alchemy and other mystery traditions. Just as Nietzsche turns Plato's "Theory of the Line" and "Allegory of the Cave" upside-down, he also turns these "mystery" symbols inside-out. No longer is it a connection with anything "beyond" the world that makes it valuable. Instead,It becomes conections with body and the world. "The mind is a herald of the body." For example, consider the "ouroboros" as a symbol of "Eternal Recurrence." In some sense, Zarathutra was very much a prophet of holism as opposed to strict dualism. Carl Jung's 1,500+ page incomplete study of "Zarathura" is a testement to the richness of Zarathustra's symbolism.
If you can catch a deep enough glance, this book will change your life. And if you keep re-reading it, it will keep on changing your life.
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Title: Beyond Good & Evil : Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future by Walter Kaufmann, Friedrich Nietzsche ISBN: 0679724656 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 17 December, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Will to Power by Friedrich Nietzsche ISBN: 0394704371 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 August, 1968 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Anti-Christ by H. L. Mencken, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche ISBN: 1884365205 Publisher: Independent Publishers Group Pub. Date: August, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche ISBN: 0486285154 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $2.00 |
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Title: Basic Writings of Nietzsche by Peter Gay, Walter Kaufmann, Friedrich Nietzsche, Peter Gay ISBN: 0679783393 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 28 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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