Unpublished Fragments from the Period of Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Kritische Studienausgabe in 7 Einzelbänden #4

by Friedrich Nietzsche, Alan D. Schrift (Editor), David F. Tinsley (Translation)

With this latest book in the series, Stanford continues its English-language publication of the famed Colli-Montinari edition of Nietzsche's complete works, which include the philosopher's notebooks and early unpublished writings. Scrupulously edited so as to establish a new standard for the field, each volume includes an Afterword that presents and contextualizes the material therein. This volume provides the first English translation of Nietzsche's unpublished notebooks from 1882–1884, the period in which he was composing the book that he considered his best and most important work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra . Crucial transitional documents in Nietzsche's intellectual development, the notebooks mark a shift into what is widely regarded as the philosopher's mature period. They reveal his long-term design of a fictional tetralogy charting the philosophical, pedagogical, and psychological journeys of his alter-ego, Zarathustra. Here, in nuce , appear Zarathustra's teaching about the death of God; his discovery that the secret of life is the will to power; and his most profound and most frightening thought―that his own life, human history, and the entire cosmos will eternally return. During this same period, Nietzsche was also composing preparatory notes for his next book, Beyond Good and Evil , and the notebooks are especially significant for the insight they provide into his evolving theory of drives, his critical ideas about the nature and history of morality, and his initial thoughts on one of his best-known concepts, the superhuman ( Übermensch ).

Genres: Philosophy

880 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1884

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

[Anthony Cordova · Rating 5 out of 5]

It contains A LOT of little maxims/epigrams, some more or less polished and others not so much. I imagine admirers of his 'aphoristic period' such as Human, All Too Human or The Dawn would enjoy this rather fat collection of notebooks best. The material is quite diverse, as I'm accustomed to with Nietzsche. There is also a good deal of elaboration on his typology and diagnosis of various sick moral and psychological conditions, such as we find explored in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the period from which these notebooks are from.

[diderot · Rating 5 out of 5]

initially ambivalent--but easily one of the best of this series so far

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is invaluable to witness the beginning of the final stage in Nietzsche's intellectual development in English for the first time. I am confident many of the unhelpful and fraudulent myths which persist about Nietzsche, perpetrated by many Anglophone and Francophone academics in the humanities, will be put to rest by the publication of his unpublished material in English.

In college, I was exposed to thoroughly depoliticized and abstracted Nietzsches, the Nietzsche of Bataille, Deleuze, Foucault, Kauffman, and Rorty. For all of them, as for most Anglophone and Francophone philosophy and lit professors, Nietzsche exists on some kind of transcendental plane outside of history, where he was in no way apart of the reactionary political trends of the nineteenth century. He exists in academia mainly as a literary figure who didn't have any kind of political motivations. I took them at their word when I was a young man. But now as an adult, returning to Nietzsche, I find this treatment of his work paternalistic, delusional, and lazy. Nietzsche always wanted to shout the quiet part out loud; he would have no trouble picking up on the insanely far right, reactionary discourse today that he helped seed:

"Equal rights for all — this is the most extraordinary injustice: for then, the most superior humans lose out." p561

"Women are becoming manly: there are too few men." p585

"Whoever can be bought I call a whore. And there are more whores than there are gold pieces." p514

"It is not enough to proclaim a doctrine: we must also change human beings by force so that they accept it!" p468

"The weak must obey." p472

"Morality is now the excuse for superfluous people, for worms weak in body and spirit who should not be alive — In this respect morality is mercy: for it says to everyone, 'you are really something very important,' which of course is a lie." p53

[Thomas - · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually I had read a more recent text collection, but this can apparently not be found by this website.