Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was a German philosopher and poet. Nietzsche is consistently one of the most widely-read philosophers, even among laymen; yet his work is often elliptical, even cryptic, and demands an unusual discipline with respect to reading and thinking. This contradiction may give some sense of the complexity and profundity of Nietzsche's powerful writing and explosive style. Much of his work can be understood as critique of nihilism.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was a German philosopher and poet. Nietzsche is consistently one of the most widely-read philosophers, even among laymen; yet his work is often elliptical, even cryptic, and demands an unusual discipline with respect to reading and thinking. This contradiction may give some sense of the complexity and profundity of Nietzsche's powerful writing and explosive style.
Much of his work can be understood as critique of nihilism. The dialectic is subverted in favor of polemic, whether against certain organized religious activity or the falseness and hypocrisy beneath the most common notions of morality (good, justice, fairness.) His analysis is as thoroughgoing as it is radical; and always on behalf of joy over melancholy affects and ways of living and being. His work is often poetic at its most intense moments of theoretical development.
