Nietzsche For Beginners

Marc Sautet, Patrick Boussignac

• Publisher: For Beginners
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781934389058
• eBook ISBN: 9781939994172
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

Not only does Nietzsche For Beginners delve into the scandalous life and considerable works of Friedrich Nietzsche, it also give a clear picture of the puzzling time in which he lived. We meet the luminaries of the day – Richard Wagner, Bismarck, Freud, and Darwin – and see their influences on his work. We also receive introductions to some of the great minds that preceded and shaped his writing. Luther, Schopenhauer, Hegel, and Kant. Sautet clarifies the individual philosophers and their contributions, making the book an important introduction to philosophy. Nietzche’s famous ménage à trois, his theories of Superman, of the Antichrist of nihilism, and Zarathustra, and his posthumous and misinformed use by the Nazis make for a fascinating read.  

2 ^nd movement

Nietzsche was 27 years old when his first book appeared in 1872. In it he proposed a solution to an enigma that had long been puzzling philologists: the origins of Greek tragedy, of which Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripedes were the supreme exponents.

Winter Term 1870– 1871

• History of the Greek epic
• Greek metric
• Hesiod, Works and Days
• Quintilian, Book 1
• Cicero, Academica
• Plato, Phaedon

Winter Term 1871–1872

• Introduction to the study of Platonic dialogue
• Dialogus, De oratoribus
• Latin epigraphy
• Hesiod
• Principal forms of Greek poetry:
• • Plato, Phaedon
  • Demosthenes, Philippika 1 & 2

Summer Term 1871

• Introduction to the study of classical philology
• Quintilian, Book 1
• Sophocles, Oedipus rex
• Hesiod, Works and Days
• Principal forms of poetry, with examples:
• • epic poetry, Hesiod, Works
  • elegy, Tyrtaios, Solon, Simonides, Pindar
  • bucolic poetry, Theocritus
  • drama, Aeschylus, Prometheus

Other reading:

Heroditus Thucydides, Plato,
Demosthenes, Plutarch, Lucian,
Homer, Aeschylus,
Euripides, Aristophanes

WHERE IS THE ENIGMA?

After his nomination as a full Ordinary Professor, Fritz came up with an extraordinary solution!

According to Kant, Being is the very essence of things. It is reality independently of the way in which things appear to us:

Human reason . . . is burdened by questions which, as prescribed by the very nature of reason itself, it is not able to ignore, but which, as transcending all its powers, it is also not able to answer. (Critique of Pure Reason, 1781)

Schopenhauer radicalized Kant’s epistemological pessimism, and he had a good point: the rest of us, like all living beings, are on the side of appearances. . .

. . . which accounts for our sufferings. We are fugitives, doomed to sickness, nostalgia and death. Because we are only moments in a process which continues after our destruction . . .

^* Don’t panic: there’s a glossary at the end of this book!!!

Tragedy transforms the human condition:

–the songs and dances of the chorus reveal the cruelty of Being

–the spectators enjoy what takes place on the stage and therefore accept this revelation.

Any advance on this? Nietzsche goes on to tackle the counter-proof by answering a connected question: why did Greek tragedy disappear so quickly?

WE’VE GOT:
The imperialist threat.

The Birth of Tragedy establishes a parallel between:

–the victory of the Greeks over the Persians

–the victory of the Germans over the French.

And we’ve got: the revolu...

Table of contents

• Coverpage
• Titlepage
• Copyright
• 1st movement
• 2nd movement
• 3rd movement
• 4th movement
• 5th movement
• Appendix