Friedrich Nietzsche

Grækenland i det sjette og femte århundrede f. Kr. var både forbillede og udgangspunkt for Friedrich Nietzsches filosofi. Som så mange andre tænkere før ham, og nogle få efter, så han denne periode som en fuldkommen uforlignelig guldalder. Et højdepunkt i menneskets historie, hvor menneskets ånd udfoldede sig mere frit end nogensinde. Men samtidig så han også begyndelsen på et forfald. I Filosofien i grækernes tragiske tidsalder, der indeholder portrætter af fem græske filosoffer - Thales, Anaximander, Heraklit, Parmenides og Anaxagoras - fremstår det antikke Grækenlands betydning som ideal for Nietzsche tydeligt og anslår mange temaer i hans senere filosofi. Også den kortere tekst Fem fortaler til fem uskrevne bøger og Nietzches tiltrædelsesforelæsning Homer og den klassiske filologi behandler aspekter af den antikke græske kultur og livsform: den pessimistiske livsfilosofi, den politiske organisationsform og betydningen af rivalisering: agon.

Written in a series of frenzied bursts between 1883 and 1885, Thus Spoke Zarathustra is Friedrich Nietzsche's masterpiece. It is also one of the most controversial books in the history of European literature - a founding classic of modernism in philosophy and poetics, which promised to "break the history of humanity in two." Zarathustra - "Star of Gold" - the sun-worshipping prophet of the earliest strain of monotheism, returns to recant and condemn his own ideas in the name of an entity he calls the bermensch (super-human). He wanders through a strangely familiar land whose customs, laws, and values have been mortgaged to religion and commerce. The people who live there believe they exist at the summit of civilization, wealth, freedom and good taste; Zarathustra's chosen mission is to educate them that the very opposite is true. This revelatory new translation by Dr. Stephen J Metcalf strips Thus Spoke Zarathustra down to its foundations in Gothic horror, and discovers a much darker book than previously suggested - not content with the empty refrain of "God is dead," it sings a dithyramb to the earth at the same time as it mercilessly hunts down the concept of humanity to its theological bedrock. Epic and neo-classical, minimalist and ultra-modern; at times aggressive and confrontational, at others tender, lyrical, grotesque and comical - this is the closest reproduction of the tone and tenor of the German original available in English today.

Written in a series of frenzied bursts between 1883 and 1885, Thus Spoke Zarathustra is Friedrich Nietzsche's masterpiece. It is also one of the most controversial books in the history of European literature - a founding classic of modernism in philosophy and poetics, which promised to "break the history of humanity in two." Zarathustra - "Star of Gold" - the sun-worshipping prophet of the earliest strain of monotheism, returns to recant and condemn his own ideas in the name of an entity he calls the bermensch (super-human). He wanders through a strangely familiar land whose customs, laws, and values have been mortgaged to religion and commerce. The people who live there believe they exist at the summit of civilization, wealth, freedom and good taste; Zarathustra's chosen mission is to educate them that the very opposite is true. This revelatory new translation by Dr. Stephen J Metcalf strips Thus Spoke Zarathustra down to its foundations in Gothic horror, and discovers a much darker book than previously suggested - not content with the empty refrain of "God is dead," it sings a dithyramb to the earth at the same time as it mercilessly hunts down the concept of humanity to its theological bedrock. Epic and neo-classical, minimalist and ultra-modern; at times aggressive and confrontational, at others tender, lyrical, grotesque and comical - this is the closest reproduction of the tone and tenor of the German original available in English today.

I denne boken tilbyr Nietzsche nøkler til sin egen tenkning. Men den er ingen selvbiografi i tradisjonell forstand. Skrevet like før Nietzsches sammenbrudd i 1889 markerer den et sluttpunkt og et høydepunkt i forfatterskapet, der forfatteren gir av sitt liv, sitt arbeid og sin utvikling som filosof. Bokens undertittel, «Hvordan man blir den man er», forteller om at dette er et testamente, der Nietzsche forsones med skikkelser han har kritisert og identifisert seg med: Schopenhauer, Wagner, Sokrates og Kristus. Her er selvtillit og selvkritikk, kamp og overvinnelse. Oversatt og revidert av Trond Berg Eriksen. Etterord av Benedikt Jager.