Writings from the Early Notebooks

by Friedrich Nietzsche, Raymond Geuss (Editor), Alexander Nehamas (Editor)

Nietzsche's unpublished notes are extraordinary in both volume and interest, and indispensable to a full understanding of his lifelong engagement with the fundamental questions of philosophy. This volume includes an extensive selection of the notes he kept during the early years of his career. They address the philosophy of Schopenhauer, the nature of tragedy, the relationship of language to music, the importance of Classical Greek culture for modern life, and the value of the unfettered pursuit of truth and knowledge which Nietzsche thought was a central feature of western culture since it was first introduced by Plato. They contain startling and original answers to the questions which were to occupy Nietzsche throughout his life and demonstrate the remarkable stability and consistency of his fundamental concerns. They are presented here in a new translation by Landislaus Lob, and an introduction by Alexander Nehamas sets them in their philosophical and historical contexts.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

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

[Nate Markham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book. I have been wanting to read this for so long and have finally finished it! Once again the Cambridge translation is crystal clear and meticulously notated. Learned as much from the footnotes as i did the text. Nietzsche uses words from other languages and cites ancient texts all throughout history, but assumes his reader is well versed in all of his citations. The Cambridge translations have taken this into account and notated everything painstakingly.

The book itself is made up of a selection of Nietzsche's private notes from age 24-30 (1868-1874). It shows his early development while reading his greatest influence, Schopenhauer. He develops his arguments against Schopenhauer and Wagner here. He notes a major change in a dramatic way near the end of the book using capital letters and exclamation points something like- from this point on I deny any metaphysic!

This book contains his proofs. Numbered logical equations running through all these simplified premises that he never published. His published work is like the most complicated version of these arguments he could develop. hah! You can tell that he is still learning a lot at this time and is uncovering big stuff and working it in to his already vast understanding of literature.

Can't wait to read this book again!

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reference material for Nietzsche buffs.