Así habló Zaratustra

by Friedrich Nietzsche

La obra contiene las principales ideas de Nietzsche, expresadas de forma poé está compuesta por una serie de relatos y discursos que ponen en el centro de atención algunos hechos y reflexiones de un profeta llamado Zaratustra, personaje inspirado en Zoroastro, fundador del mazdeísmo o zoroastrismo. Compuesta principalmente por episodios más o menos independientes, sus historias pueden leerse en cualquier orden a excepción de la cuarta parte de la obra, pues son un cúmulo de ideas y relatos menores independientes que conforman un solo relato general.

Como un recurso literario, Nietzsche emplea una imaginaria versión de Zaratustra, que no representa al personaje histórico pero le sirve como portavoz y símbolo de las ideas principales sobre las que se asienta toda su obra y que son exhaustivamente tratadas a lo largo de este la muerte de Dios, el Übermensch, la voluntad de poder y (definido por primera vez, aunque no desarrollado explícitamente) el eterno retorno de la vida.

Se presenta como el profeta supremo, superior en sabiduría y conocimiento al resto de los humanos. Nietzsche lo emplea como contraposición a la doctrina de la Iglesia católica, a la que considera heredera de Sócrates en cuanto a la manera de entender la vida. Zaratustra fue escogido por el autor como ejemplo de la filosofía presocrática, para explicar su teoría del Übermensch (‘superhombre’ o ‘suprahombre’), vitalista y naturalista, y para reivindicar la aceptación de los aspectos negativos y positivos de la vida. En definitiva, para proponer una actitud de aceptación de la vida en su plenitud y negación del más allá, que en su opinión era la causa de la debilidad humana.

Zaratustra es un ermitaño que vive recluido en la montaña, donde a lo largo de su retiro reflexiona sobre la vida y la naturaleza del hombre. Una vez siente que es el momento adecuado, decide regresar al mundo para comunicarle el fruto de su conocimiento.

530 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2022

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

[R. A. Ortega · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro puede cambiar tu vida, para bien o para mal.