Simply Nietzsche

by Peter Kail

“This is the best introductory text on Nietzsche in English, German or French, and in three it is genuinely introductory without being superficial; it reflects good philosophical judgment; and it stakes out interesting and plausible hypotheses on some vexed questions of interpretation. The writing is also crisp and engaging throughout.”—Brian Leiter, Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence, Director of the Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values, The University of Chicago

Born and raised in a small town in Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) began his career in philology (the study of language), and served as a professor at the University of Basel. In 1879, he was forced to leave due to health issues, which afflicted him throughout his life. Supported by his university pension and aided by friends, he spent the next decade as an independent author, writing the books for which he would become famous, including Thus Spake Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, and On the Genealogy of Morals. In 1889, at the age of 44, Nietzsche had a mental breakdown from which he never recovered, dying in 1900. Yet in just ten years, he produced a body of work that would mark him as one of the most influential philosophers of all time.

In Simply Nietzsche, Professor Peter Kail traces the development of Nietzsche’s thought through the various phases of his life. Emphasizing the philosopher’s critique of modern morality and his revolutionary conception of the self, he also discusses key motifs of Nietzsche’s thought, such as the death of God, the will to power and the eternal recurrence.

Even those who have never read Nietzsche or are unsure of why he’s important have heard his name. With Prof. Kail as a guide, Simply Nietzsche provides an unparalleled and accessible introduction to the life and ideas of this most remarkable thinker.What's Included in Simply

Benefit from a comprehensive introduction to Nietzsche's life and ideasGain an emotional understanding of his revolutionary conception of the selfTransform your life with new knowledge of his critique of modern moralityExplore key motifs such as the death of God, the will to power, and the eternal recurrenceLearn from Professor Peter Kail's crisp and engaging writingBuy Simply Nietzsche now and unlock the secrets of one of the world's greatest thinkers before the price changes!

Genres: Philosophy

132 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 10, 2019

Reviews

[Unsympathizer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book, in theory, is a good primer on Nietzsche's philosophy. It discusses every important concept, from Apollonian and Dionysian to master-slave morality to ressentiment. But where I was disappointed was just how much Kail tries to sanitize Nietzsche's work, often expressing hedging sentiments as if to say "Yeah he said this, but I'm enlightened and would never think this myself."

I was going to give this three stars, because it's quite an average book, but then I had to take one more star off for that absolutely garish cover art. Cultural philistines...

[Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I've dabbled in some philosophy, but have never come around to reading Nietzsche. My only prior impression was that "Nietzsche is difficult"... So needing a little segue away from the consciousness/brain/evolutionary psychology trip I have recently been on, I figured I would take a detour with Simply Nietzsche, as this surely would be a good break from where I was at.

Funny how the mind seems to work.... the content I synced up with most with Nietzsche is pondering the relationship of much of his talk of morality, concepts of "drives", and how humans are in a struggle with these competing drives, with "lesser" types being overcome (suffering) by many competing, perhaps trivial, drives, and the "higher" type man, the "over-man" being one who has cultivated and mastered a single strong drive to live life with higher purpose and success (perhaps at odds with Buddhist thinking, that maybe the highest man would come to terms in acceptance of all of his passions, rather than a champion of one)... (yes paraphrased with my own hand-waving interpretation) - And what is interesting to me is how closely N's view is to what I have been reading wrt Buddhism and evolutionary psychology - (again, my own developing model) a model of mind where somewhere in the sub-conscious are "modular thought centers" proposing their aims, drives, interests, and somewhere else is some adjudicator/gatekeeper that weighs the many module presentations, considers the values and context, and determines which images and ideas and actions to present to our conscious awareness.

I am not sure when "Eastern philosophy" / Buddhism etc. began to trickle into mainstream western culture. I know transcendentalist writers were aware of eastern concepts, and surely even earlier, but no real influence on enlightenment thinkers.... so somewhere in between, and perhaps with growing interest with the mid 19th century transcendentalist movement....but I am wondering, how much some of these ideas influenced Nietzsche's thought? It is likely difficult to make much headway from my current use of likely fallible translations on Nietzsche. what did he really mean by "Drives"? I sense in this "Simply N" writing, that there may even be a couple variations in his meaning, sometimes sub-conscious drives, and at other times, conscious drives/interests/passions. At which point it becomes blurry on whether there is much synergy or not.

There are several other parallel tracts of thought between Nietzsche and Buddhism/evolutionary psychology.... concepts of self, how to become Self, ideas of nihilism/nothingness, essentialism etc... yes, word salad of mystery and intrigue! But it makes sense, Nietzsche, writing primarily in the 1880s would be right at the crux of eastern ideas being considered, likely had read and aware of Darwinian evolution and was a precursor to early 20th century psychology breakthroughs. It was probably an exciting time to wraps one's head around what in the world are we doing here... not so different than I feel today!

Personal impacts aside, I am glad I started with this as an introduction to N. It gives a good overview of his major works, the changing thinking over time as he works through his offered three phases of writing. It raises likely appropriate red flags in areas where people have gone wrong in interpreting his work and why, and also hopefully provides useful insight that will help overcome the complexity and difficulty that might present itself if I choose to read N more closely in the future.

[Jamie Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Intro to Nietzsche’s Writing

I have read a few books now in the Great Lives series, and I find them incredibly well written and fascinating. The others I have read have looked at the person’s life chronologically, discussing their personal as well as professional lives (including great works, if applicable). This book takes a slightly different approach. The author explores each of Nietzsche's works chronologically. The long preface is given over to exploring what his difficult and ultimately tragic life was like. In both high school and college, I read some of his books, but I didn't have this wealth of background information. I think it would have been wonderful to have had this book as a study guide as I read his books for school. They would have made more sense in and of themselves, and I would have appreciated the context better. If you have any interest in the works of Nietzsche, this book is the ideal companion to help you make sense of his philosophical underpinnings that have shaped, and continue to shape, aspects of our contemporary world.

I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.

My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com

[Doog · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely guide giving an overview of Nietzsche’s much misunderstood work.
Kail summarises many of Nietzsche’s ideas, wisely linking his mature writing with when he wrote the sections, for example, linking GS book 5 correctly with BGE and GM rather than simply placing the books in terms of their original publication dates.
Kail is also wise to raise concerns and therefore less emphasis on his final writings where Nietzsche may well have been struggling, despite the brilliance of the prose, with his mental well-being.
Kail, however, tries but struggles to offer a coherent overview of Nietzsche but as he rightly comments, at least now scholars are beginning to dismiss the prejudice of the nonsensical interpretations of Nietzsche in the past and are looking at his work with fresh eyes.

[Imlac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of the span of Nietzsche's works, providing brisk encapsulations of the major themes as they appear chronologically in the books. Through them Kail arrives at a plausible developmentally-sensitive overall interpretation.

Nevertheless, to say the obvious, there can be no substitute for direct engagement with the primary texts if one truly wants to possess a genuine (i.e. self-created) interpretation of this most provocative and inspiring thinker.

[Christopher So]

A very comprehensive and nicely organised introduction to Nietzsche's philosophy.
I have studied Martin Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy during my undergrad, which I have found that been under severe criticism in the academic circle.
Kail's book has been brought me some very new perspectives to understand Nietzsche's books.

[Monster]

I read a lot of books about reading Nietzsche this year, which is probably a good idea for people who want to read Nietzsche without mistaking his discussions of power as proto-fascism.
But at the risk of stating the obvious, reading Nietzsche is more entertaining than reading books about his books.

[Paul LaFontaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, to the point and informative overview of the development of Neitzsche's thought. Several of his major ideas are traced from their inception to their full development. One small nit is the author uses acronyms for the titles, which is ok, but it can get confounding when he is tying together multiple titles. Will read again to sink into the insights.

Recommend

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone will enjoy learning about this interesting character from history. Easy to read. Interesting facts and history about this individual. Good read.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

seems like half historical/biographical interpretive bullshit, half philosophy. But nice overview and seems well liked by experts. Read the book and listened to audiobook an embarrassing amount of times.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nitzsche is known to be a difficult read. I've never read anything by him. He's also notoriously difficult to understand the actual meaning of what he has written. This little book explains Nietzsche's thought, in the order he wrote his books, in a way which is understandable -- but challenging at times. It's a nuanced explanation which respects the context of Nietzsche's life and times. A must read if you are interested in Nietzsche's work.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

so I went to a lecture series of Kail's on GM, the man opened with "so the best introductory book to Nietzsche out there is mine, unfortunately" (absolutely iconic lecturer