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Title: Nietzsche: Human, All Too Human : A Book for Free Spirits by Friedrich Nietzsche, R. J. Hollingdale, Richard Schacht ISBN: 0-521-56704-1 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 07 November, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.83 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Nietzsche's Free Spirits
Comment: Nietzsche is often said to have entered a new period with the publication of Human All Too Human and the book is considerably more positivistic than his earlier writings. It aims at debunking unwarranted assumptions more than at defending a grand interpretation of its own, and it marks the high point of Nietzsche's interest in, and applause for, natural science.
Nietzsche describes what he means by "free spirits" in the preface to the second edition of Human All Too Human. Free spirits contrast with the typical human being of his era, who was, as the title suggests, all too human. Free spirits in contrast, are ideal companions that do not yet exist but may appear in the future. They are those who have freed themselves from the chains of the dominant culture, even from the bonds of reverence for those things they once found most praiseworthy. The dangerous period of the free spirit is introduced by the desire to flee whatever has been one's previous spiritual world, a desire that leads to a reconsideration of matters that previously had been taken for granted. The ultimate aim of this liberation is independent self-mastery and supreme health in a life of continual experimentation and adventure.
Human All Too Human is the first published work in which Nietzsche defends his famed perspectivism, the view that truths are one and all interpretations are thus formulated from particular perspectives. This perspectivism figures importantly in his debunking critique of morality which is first presented in Human All Too Human. Nietzsche denies that morality is anything but perspectival. Contrary to the claims of moralists, morality is not inherent in or determined by reality. It is, in fact, the invention of human beings. Moreover, morality has not been the same in every culture and at every time. Nietzsche explicitly contrasts Christian and Greek moral thought, typically claiming that Greek thought had been vastly superior.
Nietzsche, himself, considered the book a breakthrough because it openly articulated his unconventional conclusions for the first time. It also sealed the break with Richard Wagner, who received the book in silence. Nietzsche also considered himself to have moved far beyond Schopenhauerian metaphysics at this point in his life.
Human All Too Human was also the first of Nietzsche's published aphoristic works, where prior publications had been in the form of essays or similarly structured works.
Rating: 4
Summary: Nietzsche: A Precursor to Existentialism
Comment: This is Nietzsche's first, and in some ways the best, philosophy book. Prior to Human All-Too Human, he penned The Birth of Tragedy and Untimely Meditations. But it is only in this book that Nietzsche comes into his own as a philosopher. The book was written soon after his retirement from teaching, due to ill health, and Nietzsche suffered a lot from physical pain, while writing the book, having to take hashish to relieve it. The book contains opinions on almost everything under the Sun. Although it is clearly broken down into distinct chapters, the thoughts within chapters are not arranged systematically. This is intentional and represents Nietzsche mistrust of grand theorizing and excessively systematic thinking. He retained this aphoristic writing style till the last days of his productive life. Thus in his approach, Nietzsche anticipates both existentialism and post-modernism. He views life personally, passionately, and with distrust to grand system(narrative) building. Thoughts slither through the labyrinth of human life, revealing strartling insights and forcing us to reconsider received opinions and conventional wisdoms.
By Nietzsche's standards, the perspectives presented in the book are fairly measured, and the author's voice is not nearly as shrill as it would become ten years later, in his last books. Because Nietzsche settles at a high level of generalization, some opinions do sound narrow-minded and prejudiced. In this, Nietzsche was also a victim of his time and culture: his comments on women and "the youthful Jew of the stock exchange" are not intellectuals gems, to put it very mildly. Some of his other opinions, on marriage, for example, also strike me as strange. Overall, this is a book by an all-too-human philosopher, yet it is a path-breaking work, a precursor to existentialism and post-modernism, written in a style that can appeal to the reader sheerly as good literature.
Rating: 5
Summary: Here's to Friedrich Nietzsche
Comment: "Human All too Human" is the zenith in Nietzsche's philosophy. It doesn't get any better than this, folks. Read this book from cover to cover and you will be amazed, and if you're like me, captivated, by the depth of Nietzsche's thinking. In "Human, All too Human", Nietzsche spills his musings on the State, "Man alone with himself", and the eternal splinter in his brain, religion.
When reading "Human, All too Human", you will recognize Nietzsche's shortcomings. His distrust of women is evident. His insecurity with the rapid advancement of technology and communications in his time clouded his thinking. But we should be forgiving of these errors. Judge not, lest you be judged. Nietzsche, like all of us, was human. He too, like so many of us do, embraced false symbols of power (religion, militarism) in his younger days. He was, after all, the son of a Lutheran clergyman and joined the army as an ambulance orderly during the Franco-Prussian War. Fortunately for posterity, Nietzsche possessed the intellectual fortitude to recognize these errors and bring them to light in his writings.
In "Human, All too Human", Nietzsche proves his remarkable ability to examine mankind like a crude specimen under a microscope. He stumbled along the way, but at least he mustered this courage. Isn't that all we can hope to be in this life? A little more human?
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Title: Nietzsche: Daybreak : Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality by Friedrich Nietzsche, Maudemarie Clark, Brian Leiter ISBN: 0521599636 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 13 November, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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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 Gay Science : With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs by Walter Kaufmann, Friedrich Nietzsche ISBN: 0394719859 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 January, 1974 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: Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche ISBN: 0486406636 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 16 June, 1999 List Price(USD): $3.50 |
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