Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900) was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science, using a distinctive German language style and displaying a fondness for metaphor and aphorism.
Nietzsche’s influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism and postmodernism. His style and radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth raise considerable problems of interpretation, generating an extensive secondary literature in both continental and analytic philosophy.
Nevertheless, some of his key ideas include interpreting tragedy as an affirmation of life, an eternal recurrence (which numerous commentators have re-interpreted), a rejection of Platonism, and a repudiation of both Christianity (especially 19th-century) and Egalitarianism (especially in the form of Democracy and Socialism).
Nietzsche began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. At the age of 24 he was appointed to the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel (the youngest individual ever to have held this position), but resigned in 1879 because of health problems, which would plague him for most of his life. In 1889 he exhibited symptoms of serious mental illness, living out his remaining years in the care of his mother and sister until his death in 1900.
The above painting done by Derren in 2000 is available as a print in the art shop.
"
I remember when I first read Thus Spake Zarathustra it was like a breath of fresh air. Some really powerful ideas about essentially doing what is right, but doing it because you want to snot because society says you should. Society is transient but individual endeavour is timeless.
Happy Death Day Nietzsche x
Nietzsche is one of the handful of people I’d most love to go back in time and chat to. Probably wouldn’t get very far being a girl. And, of course, not being a time lord. Wonderful picture though. I think this one might be my favourite of Derren’s.
You can’t help both loving and hating Nietzsche can you? Love him and his thinking- with all his flaws. Hate how his philosophy was misinterpretted and manipulated to bring about some horrific occurences.
A Great man …for who words are not available to describe.
The problem with those is that lots of people have and still will come up with the same words … preprogrammed brain stuff apparently. Unless you never focus from that point towards stuff.
The art of making it through the day babbling about stuff without any use .. (hmm .. does that sound familiar?)
Just in case anyone out there is into Pippi Longstocking: the scene where Pippi sees a man whip his horse (and subsequently breaks the whip, carries the horse to the stable and makes the man carry his cart-load himself) is taken straight out of Nietzsche’s biograhpy. Unfortunately, Nietzsche wasn’t as strong as Pippi (quite the opposite in fact), so all he did on seeing the man with his horse was faint. I still like the way the scene found its way into a childrens’ book. There are several illusions to other philosophers in it too.
*allusions, not illusions – too much time spent on a certain blog…
I remember last time we met derren the first thing he said when he saw we had bought the portraits book, Was About this painting, and in the book its misprint, of them believing this was charles darwin, Although it resembles very little to darwin, and is of course the very contervesial philosopher Nietzsche
I wonder if this is the true reason for this post, to clear that up for every one who bought the book
*controversial even
Great post idea, missed out with Stephen Fry’s birthday yesterday though!!
Love that painting, great choice by derren as always.