Friedrich Nietzsche
08-27-2026
Who is Friedrich Nietzsche?
A german philosopher, perhaps the most influential of his time, Friedrich Nietzsche's teachings centered around criticisms of European morality and religion. However, to truly understand why he thought this way, it's imperative to understand the context of his life. Born in 1844 in a city near Leipzig, Nietzsche had a less than ideal start to lifeSimilar to many of his peers at the time. His father, a Lutheran minister, died just 5 years after Nietzsche was born. Immediately his family, consisting of his mother, grandmother, two aunts, and his younger sister, moved cities. The tragic death of his father did not lead Nietzsche astray, as its reported he had a brilliant school and university career.
At the young age of 24, Nietzsche was appointed as the chair of classical philosophy at Basel. He would stay there until his fragile health forced him to take leave in 1877 and fully remove himself from professorship in 1879. It was at this point that Nietzsche had the most time to write and develop his ideas. His most famous works, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, and many others came to fruition at this time. However, even as he published some of the most influential books about religion and morality at the time, Nietzsche's health never really improved. As a slow-growing tumor grew on his brain and his dementia developed, Nietzsche stumbled through that last years of his life until he passed away in 1900.
Nietzsche's Beliefs
Inspired by the notable Arthur Schopenhauer, Nietzsche had a great many ideas concerning deep topics like morality, religion, epistemology, and social criticism. Compared to other great philosophers, Nietzsche didn't compartmentalize his thoughts about the world into a system, opting more for a natural progression and practice of his teachings rather than a disciplined one. This tenet of his teachings causes his writing to appear a bit more disconnected, as he is constantly reevaluating and changing his mind on what he truly believes.
There are, however, common themes across all of this work. The modern favorite, of course, was Nietzsche's claim that "God is dead". In this same vein, he explores interesting ideas about free-will, social relationships, and what it truly means to be moral. He attacks Christianity and Christian morality, especially in his later works, as he wanted to rewrite and question values that have stood for centuries. The contemporary view of Nietzsche is that he is a [Fatalism|fatalist] and/or [Nihilism|nihilist].