Nietzsche's Philosophy

A. History: Childhood, Back-ground, education, circumstances, beliefs, tragedies

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Friedrich Nietzsche was a philosopher born on October 15, 1844, in Rocken bei Lutzen, Germany. His father, Karl Ludwig Nietzsche was a Lutheran preacher and died from brain ailment (July 30, 1849) when Nietzsche was four years old. Nietzsche had a younger sister, Elisabeth Alexandra and together were raised by their mother Franziska in Naumburg an der Saale, where they moved after his fathers death. They lived with his grandmother, Erdmuthe, and his father's two sisters, Auguste and Rosalie. Nietzsche attended a private preparatory school in Naumburg and later on joined Schulpforta school where he received classical education. He graduated in 1864 and attended the University of Bonn where he studied theology and philology for only two semesters, before transferring to the University of Leipzig to study philology, a combination of literature, history and linguistics.

He experienced a mental breakdown while living in Italy in 1889, which left him mentally incapacitated until his death on August 25, 1900 in Weimar, Germany.

Career: Nietzsche took a position as professor of classical philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland in 1869. He wrote The Birth of Tragedy (1872), Human, All Too Human (1878) and the Unfashionable Observations 1873-1876, In 1879, he resigned from his post at Basel after suffering from a nervous disorder.

Among his publications included:

Daybreak: Reflections on Moral Prejudices (Morgenrote. Gedanken uber die moralischen Vorurteile, 1881).

The Gay Science (Die frohliche Wissenschaft, 1882)

Beyond Good and Evil, Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (Jenseits von Gut und Bose. Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft, 1886).

The Antichrist, Curse on Christianity (Der Antichrist. Fluch auf das Christentum, September 1888 [published 1895])

Thus Spoke Zarathustra, published in four volumes between 1883 and 1885. The Genealogy of Morals(1887) and Twilight of the Idols (1889).

Research: In the 1880s, Nietzsche developed the central points of his philosophy, one of which was his famous statement that "God is dead," a rejection of Christianity as a meaningful force in contemporary life.

III Analysis Approach

A. Metaphysics

Elements: It is defined as a branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things or reality, including questions about being, substance, time and space, causation, change, and identity.

Beliefs He believes that people with resentment blame the world for their problems, consequently, they become angry with those who want to transform the world. He says this is rooted deeply in our moral standards and the ideologies in place advocate this resentfulness.

Practices: One of Nietzsche goals is to lead others into being life affirmers. That if one does not affirm life and his doctrine then something is wrong with him.

Impacts Nietzsche suggests the eternal occurrence should be the structure of peoples reality and if the past is understood as something that cannot be changed then there would be no need for resentment. Consequently, people have become complacent on the status quo.

B. Epistemology

Elements: Epistemology studies knowledges nature, beliefs rationality and justification. It centers on; criteria of knowledge and justification, various problems of skepticism, scope and sources of knowledge and justified belief and philosophical nature of truth with regards to truth, belief and justification.

Beliefs: Nietzsche is critical of the idea of truth that is objective. The notion that there is only one way of considering a matter shows inflexibility in thinking. Nietzsche believes that the very idea of truth is a lie and that truth is just a name given to the point of view of people who control the power to enforce their point of view.

Practices: A healthy mind should recognize that there are many ways of considering a truth and should be flexible. He points out that there is no single truth but rather many.

Impacts: Nietzsche doctrine has caused majority of the society to be flexible in their thinking and to actually question a matter before believing.

C. Ethics

Elements: Ethics is a philosophical term derived from the Greek word ethos which means character or custom. It involves thinking systematically about morals and conduct and the making of moral choices about what is right and wrong.

Beliefs: In Nietzsche's writings, particularly The Birth of Tragedy, ethics has an ethological basis He believes life and the world are only justified through aesthetic phenomena He also believes to exist a clear demarcation between morality and ethics in what manifests as a fundamental notion of philosophical thought.

Practices: Nietzsche rejected the notion of obedience-oriented philosophies in which individuals either obey or fail to obey Gods moral codes. He favored utilitarian approaches in which individuals independently evaluate the ethical implications of their actions towards other human beings.

Impacts: Due to his ideas, universal imperatives have been discredited and ethical rationalism has been exposed as the morality of the ruling class and men in particular, as the dominant gender prisoners in the midst of concepts such as equality and self-sacrifice.

IV Results

A. Christian Impact or worldview of theory and practices: According to Nietzsche, Christianity replaced a Master Morality with a Slave Morality which advocated on being caring and sensitive to all; placing others first, and helping the less fortunate. Slave Morality imposes the virtues of unselfishness on the strong without which they'd go to hell.

B) Master Morality of Nietzsche: According Nietzche, to be great, people must break away from the thinking preventing men from being great individuals. He argues that Christianity creates mediocrity shackling great men to the mundane and average.

VI Conclusions

Nietzsche gives radical new ideas; Perspectivism- all social truth being subjective He argues against the ideas of benevolence, brotherhood, charity. Most importantly, Nietzsche reminds us to seize the day as most of peoples lives are spent doing nothing; waking up, going to work, going to bed. He encourages people to follow their Will To Power and think outside the Social Box.

B. Major findings or implications of this paper

Nietzsche hates Christianity; He describes it as a social construct which the masses blindly follow it as if it were Truth It forces men to following the teachings of God, not their greater and more powerful instinct (the Will to Power). He hates Democracy, Socialism, and Communism; based on equality, even though we are not all equal. The masses of weak always win out while the few strong thinkers are forced to comply

References

http://www.biography.com/people/friedrich-nietzsche-9423452 Retrieved on17 April 2016

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Translated by Walter Kaufmann, in The Portable Nietzsche. New York: Viking Press, 1968.