AP+TS+2013+Friedrich+Nietzsche



Aim - Sean

The aim of Friedrich Nietzche was to give his opinions and his own beliefs and redefine what one’s values should be. “ Nietzsche began to believe that it was up to the individual to create his own values and the society of people who could do this would have evolved to a “higher history.” A man who could create his own values would be the Ubermensch” (Robephiles). Nietzche wants people to find their own values independently, as nihilism and religion can lead people astray. To Nietzche, nihilists have the wrong view, as their lack of beliefs leads to poor values. Nietzche believed that individuals should find their own faith and values. He also criticizes Christianity and other religions for their “slave revolt” origins, in that their new morals are just the opposite of their masters. He believes that these morals believed by these religions are wrong for exactly this reason. Nietzche believes that morals are merely based on that of a single party and are objective. Morals should not be considered simply right or wrong, but should take into account the one who has the morals.

Audience - Elijah Nietzsche’s audience, based off the topics of his published and unpublished works as well as his philosophical beliefs, were mainly charitable individuals and conformists. However, during his lifetime, Nietzsche lacked a solid audience, so his philosophies went relatively unnoticed. Instead, after his mental breakdown and death, his sister created “a book called The Will to Power which presented Nietzsche’s philosophy completely out of context and was later embraced by the Nazi Party” (Hubpages). In actuality, his philosophy was completely against the Nazi ideals, for he hated things such as racism and nationalism. His sister, on the other hand, had beliefs similar to that of the Nazis. Other than the Nazi party, his audience was mainly other philosophers, however, “ the only philosopher to feel his influence while he could be aware of it was the Danish critic and philosopher Georg Brandes…” (WSU). After his death, many poets wrote poems based off of his ideas, and even multiple plays were based off of Nietzsche’s philosophies. For that reason, his audience grew relatively large after his death, however it was not the audience that he originally intended.

Cultural - Eduardo Quintana Palacios The works of Friedrich Nietzsche deeply influenced the thoughts of people in the 20th century and were used as a mold for the Nazi movement. Sadly Nietzsche was not a well read author and lacked real influence when he was alive (WSU). However his publisher and sister Elisabeth Forster-Nietzsche released a book called “The Will to Power” that was collection of his work (however it was fragmented). This book along side “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” were both popular with the german community and certain aspects of Nietzsche’s works were adopted Nazis and Italian Fascists. This popularity stemmed from Elizabeth's promotions of her brothers work and her support of the Nazi party. In fact, Hitler had the book “ Thus Spoke Zarathustra”  issued to every soldier in the German army. Nietzsche's ideas and works could easily be assembled to support the justification of war, aggression, and domination for the sake of nationalism. Thankfully Nietzsche’s ideas affected more than the Nazi Party and Italian Fascist, and ranged from psychology, fiction, and drama.(stanford)

Historical - Blake Nietzsche’s work was influenced and given context by his experiences throughout life. While he is mistaken for being a nihilist and believing in nothing this is contrasted by his childhood, “One of the things that often is missed about Nietzsche is that as a child he was very religious” (Hubpages). Nietzsche, while still religious and refusing to believe in nothing, later found multiple problems in Christianity especially on the subject of good and evil. He tried turning to other religions such as Buddhism however even then he found problems with their interpretation of right and wrong behavior. Nietzsche developed many of his more cynical ideas while his health deteriorated and his reputation dwindled (stanford). It was from these problems that he argued that selfish behavior would lead to a greater human being developed as opposed to helping each other.

Works Cited:

Curry, Bill. "Christianity." The Perspectives of Nietzsche. University of Pittsburgh, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. Robephiles. "Key Concepts of the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche." //HubPages//. Robephiles, 12 Dec. 2011. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. Wicks, Robert, Wicks,. "Friedrich Nietzsche." //Stanford University//. Stanford University, 30 May 1997. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. Johnson, Jacob. "Nietzche." //Washington State University.// Philosophy, 28 October. 2004. 12 Nov. 2013