A Philosopher for the Future: Part 1
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzche (1844-1900) was a German philosopher and became the youngest person ever to be a full-time professor and department head at a major university by the age of 24. He’s considered to be by many as the last real philosopher. The world of philosophy essentially has not expanded in any meaningful way
since he passed away in the year 1900. Nietzsche’s writings were not only applicable to his time, but also incredibly prescient to the 21st century. He pinpointed the early signs of the collapse of Western Civilization that we see around us today. Whether it was the Death of God, nihilism and the lack of meaning to life, or the decadence and moral decay that we are living with right now in the Western world. Nietzsche foresaw this in the late 1800s during the height of the Industrial Revolution.
I find it to be remarkable that in the greatest economic burst and explosion of the Industrial Revolution, Nietzsche was already noticing the early fractures and fissures that were already forming. Hence, Nietzsche’s contemporaries and book sales did not begin to pick up until he was already retired for several years and near his death.
He thankfully provided us with solutions on how to potentially survive and rebuild a new great civilization on the ashes of our deceased Western Civilization. This is where the idea of the Superman (or Ubermench in German) comes into the picture. The idea of the Superman is that we must evolve past humanity and overcome ourselves. Nietzsche estimated it would probably take several hundreds of years before we evolved to the point of becoming Supermen, if ever. That’s how far ahead he tried to extrapolate into the future. Nietzsche also discussed practical philosophy, such as how to handle doing mundane tasks at work. Nietzsche also analyzed economics, history, and how to dominate your world through will power. I gain much value from both the forward-thinking of Nietzsche’s Superman concept and his everyday philosophical approach to the world. Whereas other great philosophers, such as Socrates or Plato, placed much value on idealism; Nietzsche was more focused on improving our current reality. Afterall, our current reality is the only one that we are aware of and have a sense of. Plato focused on the world of Being; an ideal world that will hopefully, one day, exist. Whereas, Nietzsche focused on the world of Becoming. The world of Becoming is reality and the improvements that we can make in our lifetime.
NIETZSCHE’S INTELLECT
A quick search online shows estimates that Nietzsche had an IQ of around 190, which is about one out of a billion! This would rank Nietzsche at around one of the ten most intelligent people ever. The first books I read by Nietzsche a few years ago which was “Will to Power” were from the start quite challenging to read. The first two pages I read I had to look up multiple words as I did not know what they meant (transvaluate, quanta…to be exact). Mind you, I’m college-educated through Graduate School from Boston University, yet I felt as though I was quite unintelligent when reading Nietzsche at first.
To reference Dr. Jordan Peterson again, a Canadian psychologist and former professor, there is a video of him on YouTube giving 45-minute discussion of only one paragraph written by Nietzsche. To quote Nietzsche (1888), “it is my ambition to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a whole book,—what everyone else does not say in a whole book (Twilight of the Idols, aphorism 51).” In other words, this philosopher packs a lot of thought and ideas into a few paragraphs. Trying to read an entire book by him is quite the undertaking and very rigorous. Sigmund Freud, an early psychologist post-Nietzsche, “in the minutes of a 1908 meeting of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society devoted to a discussion of Nietzsche, the secretary notes that: ‘Prof. Freud would like to mention that he has never been able to study Nietzsche … partly because of the wealth of his ideas, which has always prevented Freud from getting beyond the first half page whenever he tried to read him.’ Once I understood this, I began to feel less un-intelligent.
WHO NIETZSCHE HAS INSPIRED
A man who influenced the work of psychological pioneers, such as Sigmund Freud, Adolf Adler, and Carl Jung, has clearly had an impact on human thought and thinkers in the 20th and 21st century. Besides the aforementioned psychologists that he influenced, you can also include: the great American journalist H.L. Menken, scores of artists, therapists, philosophy majors, economists, Ayn Rand, Adolf Hitler, Martin Luther King, Jr, and countless other individuals. I have also been influenced and highly inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s work as well. I find Nietzsche’s philosophical writings express a love for humanity, creativity, and a way to better ourselves.
We see great problems in our Western societies, as well as the rest of the world. There has got to be a way forward, and not get mired down in obstacles and traps (mental or physical). Thus far, we have been doomed to repeat history by building a great civilization, becoming complacent, civilization fall apart, we live in a dark age, and then rebuild.
I strongly believe that we need to find a way to surpass that and our current state. Thusly, I know that the philosophical of ideas Nietzsche provided us a road map to overcome this repetitive cycle.
I will highlight Nietzsche's philosophical work in my articles for now. This is also just part one of my biography of Nietzsche. In subsequent parts I will highlight and discuss some of his key ideas and modernization of philosophy.
References:
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1889). Twilight of the Idols. Wordsworth Editions Limited.
Wittgenstein L (1982). Conversations on Freud, excerpt from 1932–1933 lectures. In: Wollheim R, Hopkins J (eds) Philosophical Essays on Freud. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–11.