Genius: Nietzsche Becomes University Professor at 24 / Earthquake in 'The Will to Power' and the History of Thought / From the Promise of the 'Ubermensch' and Critique of Morality to Madness in Turin
Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the most influential and simultaneously most controversial philosophers of the 19th century. A thinker who raised fundamental questions about ethics, religion, truth, power, suffering, art, and the meaning of life, these questions are still debated more than a century after his death in philosophy, literature, psychology, and general culture.
According to ambassador Arjan Elaha Khosravi, in a report prepared with artificial intelligence, he writes: Nietzsche's name is often known with phrases such as "God is dead" or the concept of "superman", but his thought is much more complicated than a few famous sentences. Nietzsche was an academic philosopher who began his professional career as a young professor of classical philology, had a close and then hostile relationship with Richard Wagner, lived many years with illness and pain, and at the end of his life, after a severe mental breakdown, lost his former capacity for intellectual activity.
In this article, we review the life, education, academic records, important works, intellectual relationships and some facts to read about Friedrich Nietzsche.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844 in Ruken, a village near Lutsen and Leipzig. His father, Carl Ludwig Nietzsche, was a Lutheran priest, and the Nietzsche family had a long history among the Protestant clergy.
The death of his father in 1849, when Nietzsche was still a child, had a profound effect on his early years. A few months later, his younger brother also died. After his father's death, the family moved to Naumburg, where Nietzsche spent most of his childhood and adolescence.
He studied at the prestigious boarding school in Schultepefort; A strict school built on the site of a medieval monastery. In the same years, Nietzsche became interested in music, literature, classical languages and philosophy and showed his talent in studying Greek and Latin texts.
At the beginning of his university career, Nietzsche was not a student of philosophy in the modern sense. He entered the University of Bonn in 1864 and initially studied theology and philology, but soon turned his main focus to classical philology. Classical philology is the study of languages, literature and texts of ancient Greece and Rome. Nietzsche then continued his studies at the University of Leipzig under Friedrich Wilhelm Rieschel, an eminent professor of classical philology.
During this period, two important intellectual figures influenced his life: Arthur Schopenhauer and Richard Wagner. During his student days, Nietzsche got acquainted with Schopenhauer's works and was influenced by his philosophical pessimism and his analysis of suffering and will. A little later, he met Wagner; A relationship that started with strong admiration and close friendship, but later led to distance and serious criticism.
Nietzsche; One of the youngest university professors
One of the most important parts of Nietzsche's career is his appointment as professor of classical philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. He reached this position in 1869, when he was only 24 years old; A rare event for that period. Nietzsche was invited to teach in Basel even before he officially received his doctorate, because of his academic reputation and his professor's recommendation. The University of Leipzig later awarded him a doctorate based on his scientific works without conducting the usual examination.
He was initially interested in academic work, but long-term physical problems, including severe headaches, visual disturbances, and general weakness, made it difficult for him to continue teaching. Nietzsche resigned from his professorship in 1879 and since then devoted most of his life to writing, studying and thinking.
Nietzsche and Richard Wagner; A friend that led to a mental breakdown
The relationship between Nietzsche and Richard Wagner is one of the most famous intellectual relationships of the 19th century. In his youth, Nietzsche was fascinated by Wagner's music, personality and cultural project. He considered Wagner an artist who could transform European culture. The proximity of the city of Basel to Wagner's place of residence also made the two meet each other many times.
Nietzsche's first major book, The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music, was largely influenced by his interest in Wagner's music and ancient Greek culture. However, this friendship did not last. Nietzsche gradually distanced himself from nationalism, Christianity, and some of Wagner's artistic tendencies. Finally, their relationship broke up in the 1870s.
This separation was not just a personal difference; Rather, it was considered a part of Nietzsche's intellectual evolution. In his intellectual path, he distanced himself from many youthful beliefs and became a serious critic of contemporary culture, ethics and art.
Nietzsche wrote numerous works in the field of philosophy, culture, art, ethics and social psychology. Many of his writings are written in the form of short pieces, aphorisms or compact and literary sentences. Among the most important works of Nietzsche, we can mention these books:
Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music, published in 1872;
Human, Too Human, published in 1878;
Dawn, published in 1881;
Hekmat Shadan, published in 1882;
This is what Zoroaster said, between 1883 and 1885;
Beyond good and bad, published in 1886;
Genealogy of Morals, published in 1887;
The Sunset of the Idols, published in 1888;
Now Man, a philosophical autobiography in which Nietzsche wrote about his life and works.
The book Will to Power was also published after Nietzsche's death based on his remaining notes. For this reason, this work should not be considered simply as a final and completely edited book by Nietzsche himself.
One of Nietzsche's most famous phrases is: "God is dead." This statement should not be taken as a simple anti-religious slogan or a claim about the physical death of God. With this interpretation, Nietzsche mostly pointed to a deep cultural and philosophical crisis in modern Europe.
For him, Christian traditions were the main basis of many European moral and social values for centuries. But with the growth of science, rationalism and modernity, the traditional authority of these beliefs was weakened. At the same time, many people still adhered to values that were rooted in the same religious system. Therefore, Nietzsche's main question was:
If the old foundations of values are no longer sufficient for modern man, how should man define his values? As a result, the "death of God" in Nietzsche's thought is not only the negation of religion; Rather, it is a sign of a great value and responsibility crisis. After the collapse of traditional values, modern man must face the problem of meaning and creation of new values.
What is a superman or Übermensch?
The concept of superman or Übermensch is further discussed in the book "Thus Said Zarathustra". The superhuman can be seen as an image of a human being who goes beyond the existing situation, creates himself and is in the process of overcoming himself and creating new values instead of passively accepting ready-made values.
This concept does not mean "racially superior man" or justification of political domination. Racist and political conceptions of the superman are mostly the product of later interpretations and ideological uses of Nietzsche's works. Nietzsche was far from extreme nationalism and anti-Semitism. His sister, Elisabeth Forster-Nietzsche, later had nationalist and anti-Semitic tendencies and played an important role in publishing and introducing her brother's works; A topic that influenced the historical perception of Nietzsche's thought.
The concept of eternal return in Nietzsche's thought
Another famous idea of Nietzsche is the concept of eternal return or eternal return. This idea can be explained in a simple way with the following question:
If your life was to be repeated endlessly, with all the joys, pains, mistakes and choices, would you still be willing to accept this life? Eternal return is not just a cosmological theory. In the philosophical interpretation, this concept can be a test to measure the acceptance of life.
A person who can affirm his life with all its difficulties, sufferings and failures, approaches Nietzsche's important idea of saying yes to life. This view does not mean denying suffering; Rather, it means accepting life in its entirety.
Nietzsche and disease; A philosopher who lived with pain
Nietzsche's life was accompanied by long-term physical problems. Severe headaches, vision disorders, sensitivity to light and various physical ailments affected a significant part of his adult years. After withdrawing from the university, Nietzsche lived in various European cities to find a more suitable climate and conditions. He mostly resided in cities such as Sorrento, Nice, Genoa, Turin and Siles-Maria and found a rather itinerant life.
An important part of Nietzsche's philosophical works was written during a period when he was struggling with constant pain, loneliness and illness. This issue has led many researchers to establish a connection between his personal experience of suffering and his emphasis on overcoming oneself and affirming life.
However, Nietzsche's thought should not be reduced only to his physical ailments or mental state. His works have a complex and independent structure and should be examined based on their text and historical context.