Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil
Philosophy from Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born on October 15th 1844 in a small town by the name of Röcken, near Leipzig in the Prussian province of Saxony.  He died on August 25th 1900.  Nietzsche was a nineteenth century German philosopher, whose writings included a number of critiques on religion, culture, science and morality.  In his writings, Nietzsche showed a fondness for aphorism, which he included in much of his writings as a part of his very unique style.

In his younger years, Nietzsche attended first a boy’s school followed by a private school.  In 1854 he attended the Domgymnasium in Naumburg, where he displayed talents for music and language.  These talents resulted in Nietzsche being moved to the internationally renowned Schulpforta.  He then continued his studies there from 1858 until 1864.  Whilst at the Schulpforta he wrote poetry and composed music.  Following his graduation, Nietzsche began studying theology and classical philology (literally a lover of words) at the University of Bonn.  He dropped out of his theological studies however after just one semester following the loss of his faith and focussed his mind on philology in the University of Leipzig.

Nietzsche then started his career as a philologist and by the age of 24 had become Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel.  His philologist routes reveal themselves throughout his writings.  He then moved away from that discipline into philosophy after resigning from his post at Basel in 1879 as a result of health problems.  Health problems that were to resurface throughout the life of Nietzsche.

Nietzsche began exhibiting severe symptoms of mental illness in 1889 and from that point onwards was cared for by his mother and sister until his death in 1900.

In modern times, the work of Nietzsche still remain quite profound.  In philosophy, existentialism and in postmodernism, the writings of Nietzsche are still quite influential.  His key ideas included the interpretation of tragedy into an affirmation of life.

Nietzsche.  Beyond Good and Evil

 Beyond good and evil was subtitled “Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future” and was first published in 1886.  The work expands on Nietzsche’s previous work “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.”  Unlike that work however, “Beyond good and evil” had a highly critical and rather dark feel.

Nietzsche uses the work as a vehicle for attacking past philosophers for their blind acceptance of Christian doctrine and their lack of critical sense.  He attempts to move “beyond good and evil,” by leaving behind traditional morality, which he first criticizes using a variety of strong arguments.  Nietzsche then puts forward a positive set of approaches that are designed to confront the perspective based nature of knowledge and the precarious condition of the modern human.

The book is extremely thought provoking and has inspired philosophy and sociology ever since.

I hope that you find the work enlightening.

Mark S D'Arcy