Friedrich Nietzsche

German philosopher and philologist known for his critiques of religion, morality, and truth.

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher, essayist, and cultural critic who spoke of "the death of God" and foresaw the dissolution of traditional religion and metaphysics.^[1] He claimed the exemplary human being must craft their own identity through self-realization without relying on anything transcending life.^[1] Nietzsche came into the world on October 15, 1844, in the town of Röcken, which is situated near Leipzig within the Prussian Province of Saxony.^[2][1]

Quick Facts

Region: Western philosophy
Era: 19th-century philosophy
Birth name: Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Born: 15 October 1844
Birthplace: Röcken, Prussia
Died: 25 August 1900
Place of death: Weimar, Germany
Resting place: Röcken Churchyard

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

From ages 14 to 19 he attended the boarding school Schulpforta, where he received Prussia's finest preparatory education in Humanities, Theology, and Classical Languages.^[3][1] On January 3, 1889, while in Turin, Nietzsche experienced a mental breakdown that left him an invalid for the rest of his life.^[3] He died on August 25, 1900, apparently of pneumonia combined with a stroke.^[3] Following these deaths, the family relocated to Naumburg, where Nietzsche resided with his mother Franziska, his grandmother Erdmuthe, and his two aunts Auguste and Rosalie.^[3]

In 1864 Nietzsche began his studies at the University of Bonn; the following year, in 1865, he transferred to the University of Leipzig to continue working under his professor Friedrich Ritschl.^[4][1] During the Franco-Prussian War, Nietzsche served as a medical orderly in the Prussian forces and there contracted both diphtheria and dysentery.^[5] After his health deteriorated significantly, Nietzsche resigned his professorship at Basel in 1879 and subsequently lived as an independent author in various cities until 1889.^[6][7]

What the cited sources add

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that Nietzsche's father was a Lutheran minister and that young Friedrich drew upon the paternal guidance of his maternal grandfather after his father's death.^[1] The same source states that Nietzsche's first contribution to an extracurricular society was an essay on the Greek poet Theognis, which impressed Professor Ritschl enough to publish it in his academic journal.^[1] A faculty interview from the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research explains that Nietzsche turned a saying of Seneca into a motto: "what was once philology has now been made into philosophy"^[8] That interview also reports that The Birth of Tragedy was a professional disaster for Nietzsche, attacked by defenders of traditional philological-historical method.^[8]

The Classic FM article states that Richard Strauss based his Also sprach Zarathustra on Nietzsche's novel of the same name.^[9] Wicks' account notes that Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth returned from Paraguay in 1893 and assumed responsibility for his welfare after their mother's death in 1897.^[3]

References

"Nietzsche, Friedrich Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy". facts only, no text reused. iep.utm.edu
Wikipedia, "Friedrich Nietzsche" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Nietzsche, Friedrich Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wicks, "Friedrich Nietzsche", 2014. facts only, no text reused. plato.stanford.edu
Wikipedia, "Friedrich Nietzsche" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Magnus 1999 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Friedrich Nietzsche" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Deussen, "Erinnerungen a Friedrich Nietzsche", F.A. Brockhaus, 1901; Sax, "What was the cause of Nietzsche's dementia?", Journal of Medical Biography, 2003, p. 47–54; Schain, "The Legend of Nietzsche's Syphilis", Praeger/Bloomsbury, 2001 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Friedrich Nietzsche" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Friedrich Nietzsche" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Güntzel, "Nietzsche's Geophilosophy", Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 2003, p. 78–91 (85) (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
"Faculty Interview: Bruce King on Nietzsche's Greeks", Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. facts only, no text reused. thebrooklyninstitute.com
"Who knew? Friedrich Nietzsche was also a pretty decent classical composer", Classic FM. facts only, no text reused. classicfm.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Friedrich Nietzsche (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.