Friedrich Nietzsche Quiz

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has had a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He became the youngest person ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24. Nietzsche resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life. Nietzsche's writing spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Nietzsche developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and his doctrine of eternal return. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy, art, literature, poetry, politics, and popular culture. Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became the curator and editor of his manuscripts after his death. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism. Nietzsche contracted diphtheria and dysentery while serving in the Prussian forces during the Franco-Prussian War. Nietzsche met Richard Wagner in Leipzig in 1868 and later Wagner's wife, Cosima. Nietzsche admired both greatly and during his time at Basel frequently visited Wagner's house. In 1872, Nietzsche published his first book, The Birth of Tragedy. Nietzsche began to accumulate notes that would be posthumously published as Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks in 1873. He published four separate long essays between 1873 and 1876 that shared the orientation of a cultural critique, challenging the developing German culture suggested by Schopenhauer and Wagner.The Life and Works of Friedrich Nietzsche

• Nietzsche's work changed after the publication of Human, All Too Human in 1878, which was highly influenced by Afrikan Spir's Thought and Reality.
• Nietzsche's health was poor throughout his life, with various illnesses plaguing him since childhood and forcing him to resign from his position at Basel due to declining health.
• Nietzsche spent his later years as an independent author, travelling frequently to find climates more conducive to his health and living in different cities.
• Nietzsche's friendship with Deussen and Rohde cooled after the publication of Human, All Too Human.
• Nietzsche's secretary, Peter Gast, became a close friend and transcribed and proofread most of Nietzsche's work.
• Nietzsche's relationship with Lou Andreas-Salomé was tumultuous and ended in a falling out between Nietzsche and Salomé in 1882.
• Nietzsche's health deteriorated in the late 1880s, and he suffered a mental breakdown in 1889, after which he was hospitalized in various clinics.
• Nietzsche's sister, Elisabeth, took control of his unpublished works after their mother's death in 1897 and allowed visitors, including Rudolf Steiner, to meet her uncommunicative brother.
• Nietzsche's insanity was originally diagnosed as tertiary syphilis, but some commentators have suggested that it may have been related to his philosophy or a worshipful rivalry with Richard Wagner.
• Nietzsche's works were largely unsold during his lifetime, and he had few remaining friends after distancing himself from Wagner and Schopenhauer.
• Nietzsche broke with his publisher Ernst Schmeitzner in 1886 after becoming disgusted by his antisemitic opinions and printed Beyond Good and Evil at his own expense.
• Nietzsche completed five major works in his last year of writing, including Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist.The Life, Citizenship, Relationships, and Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche

Life:

• Nietzsche suffered from at least two strokes in 1898 and 1899, partially paralyzing him and leaving him unable to speak or walk
• After contracting pneumonia in August 1900, Nietzsche had another stroke and died on August 25th
• His sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, compiled The Will to Power from his unpublished notebooks, but scholars consider it a forgery

Citizenship, nationality, and ethnicity:

• Nietzsche was born a citizen of Prussia, which was mostly part of the German Confederation
• He applied for annulment of his Prussian citizenship when he accepted his post at Basel and remained stateless for the rest of his life
• Nietzsche believed his ancestors were Polish, but scholars dispute this claim
• His name derives from the forename Nikolaus, abbreviated to Nick; assimilated with the Slavic Nitz; it first became Nitsche and then Nietzsche

Relationships and sexuality:

• Nietzsche proposed to Lou Salomé three times and was rejected each time
• Some theorists blame Salomé's view on sexuality as one of the reasons for her alienation from Nietzsche
• Nietzsche's sexuality has been the subject of debate, with some scholars suggesting he was homosexual and others arguing that he preferred women
• He never married and may have frequented heterosexual brothels

Philosophy:

• Nietzsche's philosophy generates passionate reactions and remains controversial

• The Apollonian and Dionysian is a two-fold philosophical concept based on two figures in ancient Greek mythology, Apollo and Dionysus

• Nietzsche believed the fusion of Dionysian and Apollonian forms dramatic arts or tragedies

• He rejected the idea of objective reality and argued that knowledge is relative to various perspectives, leading to constant reassessment of rules

• This view has acquired the name perspectivism.Nietzsche's Philosophy: A Summary

• Nietzsche believed that the act of valuing is what makes people great, rather than the content of their beliefs.

• He argued that the values a community strives to articulate are not as important as the collective will to see those values come to pass.

• Nietzsche attacked traditional philosophers such as Kant, Descartes, and Plato, and criticised the concepts of the thing in itself and cogito ergo sum.

• He presented a genealogical account of the development of modern moral systems, arguing that a shift took place from thinking in terms of "good and bad" to "good and evil".

• Nietzsche characterised the initial form of morality as "master morality", associated with the ruling castes of ancient civilisations, and "slave morality" as a reaction to it.

• He saw slave morality as a source of the nihilism that has overtaken Europe, calling for exceptional people to follow their own "inner law".

• Nietzsche believed that Christianity is an antidote to nihilism, providing people with traditional beliefs about the moral values of good and evil, belief in God, and a framework with which one might claim to have objective knowledge.

• He believed that the death of God may lead beyond bare perspectivism to outright nihilism, the belief that nothing has any inherent importance and that life lacks purpose.

• Nietzsche's theory of human behaviour is based on the "will to power", which provides a basis for understanding human behaviour.

• He rejected the idea that happiness is an aim per se, instead putting forth the idea that happiness is a consequence of overcoming hurdles to one's actions and the fulfilment of the will.

• Nietzsche speculated that the material world is also set by the dynamics of a form of the will to power, rejecting the concept of atomism.

• Nietzsche's philosophy has had a profound impact on modern social science, shaping the philosophical and cultural endeavours, as well as the political understanding of scholars such as Max Weber and Martin Heidegger.