Friedrich Nietzsche
The philologist-turned-prophet who diagnosed the death of old values and demanded we create our own — with a hammer and a poet's pen.
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
Core ideas
- God is dead — and we must come to terms with what that empties
- Become who you are
- He who has a why can bear almost any how
Historical context
Collapses, isolation and a late madness; his sister's distortion of his work shaped his reputation for decades — a warning about who gets to frame a legacy.
Key works
Thus Spoke Zarathustra · Beyond Good and Evil · Genealogy of Morals
Questions they speak to
Minds in conversation
- Søren KierkegaardCopenhagen
- Simone de BeauvoirParis
- Baruch SpinozaAmsterdam
Sources
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Nietzsche