Cinco prefácios para cinco livros não escritos

by Friedrich Nietzsche, Pedro Süssekind (Tradutor)

Estes textos do filósofo Nietzsche, escritos em 1872, deveriam preceder outros cinco livros, nunca terminados. Eles constituem projetos concentrados das obras que os sucederiam, e têm como temas a cultura, a Alemanha do século passado, a arte e a filosofia – tomando como base a cultura grega. “O ser humano, em suas mais elevadas e nobres capacidades, é totalmente natureza, carregando consigo seu inquietante duplo caráter. As capacidades terríveis do homem, consideradas desumanas, talvez constituam o solo frutífero de onde pode brotar toda a humanidade, em ímpetos e obras.”

Genres: Philosophy

84 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1872

About the author

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture, who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24, but resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes.
Nietzsche's work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth in favour of perspectivism; a genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and a related theory of master–slave morality; the aesthetic affirmation of life in response to both the "death of God" and the profound crisis of nihilism; the notion of Apollonian and Dionysian forces; and a characterisation of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power. He also developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and his doctrine of eternal return. In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, music, religion, tragedy, culture, and science, and drew inspiration from Greek tragedy as well as figures such as Zoroaster, Arthur Schopenhauer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Wagner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
After his death, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became the curator and editor of his manuscripts. She edited his unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism. 20th-century scholars such as Walter Kaufmann, R.J. Hollingdale, and Georges Bataille defended Nietzsche against this interpretation, and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy—especially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism, and post-structuralism—as well as art, literature, music, poetry, politics, and popular culture.

Reviews

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title to this text is a bit deceptive. It actually consists of five very short essays that made up a book Nietzsche gave to Cosima Wagner early in the 1870s, although each essay treats a theme Nietzsche had hoped to treat in a book-length work. But the essays read much more like very compact, carefully worded compositions than prefaces. In addition, these writings give a nice view into the early genesis of many of the ideas Nietzsche would formulate more precisely in the 1880s such as eternal return, strife, and will to power. I highly recommend this text for those interested in Nietzsche and who want to get a picture of his early thought and the origin of his more mature philosophy. Three of these essays also present powerful and stunningly beautiful accounts of ancient Greek culture which should not be missed for anyone who studies ancient Greek literature or philosophy.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two essays are excellent, one is interesting, and two I didn't care for.

The essay on the Greek State and the one on envy and competition among ancient Greeks are phenomenal. No point in trying to summarize them, but well worth reading. The one on the future of education is very short (~2 pages) and more of true preface than any of the others. There isn't much substance to it since it is mainly complementing people who view the world as he does.

I didn't get anything out of the essay on the pathos of truth or the essay on German culture. Not sure if they are dealing with issues that used to be much more salient or if they just flew over my head.