Friedrich Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography
In this beautifully written account, Julian Young provides the most comprehensive biography available today of the life and philosophy of the nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Young deals with the many puzzles created by the conjunction of Nietzsche’s personal history and his work: why the son of a Lutheran pastor developed into the self-styled “Antichrist”; why this archetypical Prussian came to loathe Bismarck’s Prussia; and why this enemy of feminism preferred the...
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In this beautifully written account, Julian Young provides the most comprehensive biography available today of the life and philosophy of the nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Young deals with the many puzzles created by the conjunction of Nietzsche's personal history and his work: Why the son of a Lutheran pastor developed into the self-styled "Antichrist"; why this archetypical Prussian came to loath Bismarck's Prussia; and why this enemy of feminism preferred the company of feminist women. Setting Nietzsche's thought in the context of his times—the rise of Prussian militarism, anti-Semitism, Darwinian science, the "Youth" and emancipationist movements, as well as the "death of God"—Young emphasizes the decisive influence of Plato and of Richard Wagner on Nietzsche's attempted reform of Western culture. He also describes the devastating effect on Nietzsche's personality of his unhappy love for Lou Salomé and attempts to understand why, at the age of forty-four, he went mad. The New York Times - Francis Fukuyama One of the pitfalls of writing a biography of a great philosopher is the temptation to reduce important ideas to mere psychology, an outgrowth of some fluke in the philosopher's personal development. Julian Young…has for the most part avoided this trap by writing a "philosophical" biography of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) in which the life story provides context but ultimately not explanation for the ideas. In so doing he has provided a serious and readable, if not exactly ground-breaking, introduction to Nietzsche's "philosophy with a hammer."
Part I. Youth: 1. Da campo; 2. Pforta; 3. Bonn; 4. Leipzig; 5. Schopenhauer; Part II. The Reluctant Professor: 6. Basel; 7. Richard Wagner and the birth of The Birth of Tragedy; 8. War and aftermath; 9. Anal philology; 10. Untimely Meditations; 11. Aimez vous Brahms?; 12. Aufwiedersehen Bayreuth; 13. Sorrento; 14. Human, All-Too-Human; Part III. The Nomad: 15. The wanderer and his shadow; 16. Dawn; 17. The Gay Science; 18. The Salomé affair; 19. Zarathustra; 20. Nietzsche's circle of women; 21. Beyond Good and Evil; 22. Clearing the decks; 23. The Genealogy of Morals; 24. 1888; 25. Catastrophe; 26. The rise and fall of The Will to Power; 27. The end; Postscript: Nietzsche's madness.
\ Francis FukuyamaOne of the pitfalls of writing a biography of a great philosopher is the temptation to reduce important ideas to mere psychology, an outgrowth of some fluke in the philosopher's personal development. Julian Young…has for the most part avoided this trap by writing a "philosophical" biography of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) in which the life story provides context but ultimately not explanation for the ideas. In so doing he has provided a serious and readable, if not exactly ground-breaking, introduction to Nietzsche's "philosophy with a hammer."\ —The New York Times\ \
