Basic Writings of Nietzsche (Modern Library Classics) by Friedrich Nietzsche (EPUB)

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Introduction by Peter GayTranslated and edited by Walter Kaufmann Commentary by Martin Heidegger, Albert Camus, and Gilles Deleuze One hundred years after his death, Friedrich Nietzsche remains the most influential philosopher of the modern era. Basic Writings of Nietzsche gathers the complete texts of five of Nietzsche’s most important works, from his first book to his last: The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals, The Case of Wagner, and Ecce Homo. Edited and translated by the great Nietzsche scholar Walter Kaufmann, this volume also features seventy-five aphorisms, selections from Nietzsche’s correspondence, and variants from drafts for Ecce Homo. It is a definitive guide to the full range of Nietzsche’s thought. Includes a Modern Library Reading Group Guide

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Amazon.com Review A better title for this book might be The Indispensable Writings of Nietzsche. Indeed, the six selections contained in Walter Kaufmann’s volume are not only critical elements of Nietzsche’s oeuvre, they are must-reads for any aspiring student of philosophy. Those coming to Nietzsche for the first time will be pleased to find three of his best-known works–The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, and On the Genealogy of Morals–as well as a collection of 75 aphorisms drawn from Nietzsche’s celebrated aphoristic work. In addition, there are two lesser known, but important, pieces in The Case of Wagner and Ecce Homo. Kaufmann’s lucid and accurate translations have been the gold standard of Nietzsche scholarship since the 1950s, and this volume does not disappoint. Anyone who has slogged their way through the swamps of German philosophical writing—in Kant or Hegel or Heidegger–will find Nietzsche a refreshing and exhilarating change. The selections are well chosen, and a cover-to-cover read will aptly depict Nietzsche’s philosophy. In this volume the reader will find many of Nietzsche’s polemical (and frequently misunderstood) ratiocinations on Christianity, Socrates, Germany, and art. Here, too, are his seminal and unforgettable critiques of Western morality (“That lambs dislike great birds of prey does not seem strange: only it gives no ground for reproaching these birds of prey for bearing off little lambs”). For philosophical fireworks, Nietzsche can hardly be matched. His brazen defiance of intellectualism’s conventions still rings in contemporary thought because he practiced philosophy with a hammer. –Eric de Place Review “Nietzsche is one of the few philosophers since Plato whom large numbers of intelligent people read for pleasure.”–Walter Kaufmann From the Inside Flap One hundred years after his death, Friedrich Nietzsche remains the most influential philosopher of the modern era. Basic Writings of Nietzsche gathers the complete texts of five of Nietzsche’s most important works, from his first book to his last: The Birth of Tragedy; Beyond Good and Evil; On the Genealogy of Morals; The Case of Wagner; and Ecce Homo. Edited and translated by the great Nietzsche scholar Walter Kaufmann, this volume provides a definitive guide to the full range of Nietzsche’s thought.Included also are seventy-five aphorisms, selections from Nietzsche’s correspondence, and variants from drafts for Ecce Homo. From the Back Cover One hundred years after his death, Friedrich Nietzsche remains the most influential philosopher of the modern era. Basic Writings of Nietzsche gathers the complete texts of five of Nietzsche’s most important works, from his first book to his last: The Birth of Tragedy; Beyond Good and Evil; On the Genealogy of Morals; The Case of Wagner; and Ecce Homo. Edited and translated by the great Nietzsche scholar Walter Kaufmann, this volume provides a definitive guide to the full range of Nietzsche’s thought. Included also are seventy-five aphorisms, selections from Nietzsche’s correspondence, and variants from drafts for Ecce Homo. About the Author Peter Gay is Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University and the former director of the Center for Writers and Scholars at the New York Public Library. His works include The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom and Modernism: The Lure of Heresy. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Attempt at a Self-Criticism Whatever may be at the bottom of this questionable book, it must have been an exceptionally significant and fascinating question, and deeply personal at that: the time in which it was written, in spite of which it was written, bears witness to that—the exciting time of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. As the thunder of the battle of Wörth was rolling over Europe, the muser and riddle-friend who was to be the father of this book sat somewhere in an Alpine nook, very bemused and beriddled, hence very concerned and yet unconcerned, and wrote down his thoughts about the Greeks—the core of the strange and almost inaccessible book to which this belated preface (or postscript) shall now be added. A few weeks later—and he himself was to be found under the walls of Metz, still wedded to the question marks that he had placed after the alleged “cheerfulness” of the Greeks and of Greek art. Eventually, in that month of profoundest suspense when the peace treaty was being debated at Versailles, he, too, attained peace with himself and, slowly convalescing from an illness contracted at the front, completed the final draft of The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music.— Out of music? Music and tragedy? Greeks and the music of tragedy? Greeks and the art form of pessimism? The best turned out, most beautiful, most envied type of humanity to date, those most apt to seduce us to life, the Greeks—how now? They of all people should have needed tragedy? Even more—art? For what—Greek art? You will guess where the big question mark concerning the value of existence had thus been raised. Is pessimism necessarily a sign of decline, decay, degeneration, weary and weak instincts—as it once was in India and now is, to all appearances, among us, “modern” men and Europeans? Is there a pessimism of strength? An intellectual predilection for the hard, gruesome, evil, problematic aspect of existence, prompted by well-being, by overflowing health, by the fullness of existence? Is it perhaps possible to suffer precisely from overfullness? The sharp-eyed courage that tempts and attempts, that craves the frightful as the enemy, the worthy enemy, against whom one can test one’s strength? From whom one can learn what it means “to be frightened”? What is the significance of the tragic myth among the Greeks of the best, the strongest, the most courageous period? And the tremendous phenomenon of the Dionysian—and, born from it, tragedy— what might they signify?— And again: that of which tragedy died, the Socratism of morality, the dialectics, frugality, and cheerfulness of the theoretical man—how now? might not this very Socratism be a sign of decline, of weariness, of infection, of the anarchical dissolution of the instincts? And the “Greek cheerfulness” of the later Greeks—merely the afterglow of the sunset? The Epicureans’ resolve against pessimism—a mere precaution of the afflicted? And science itself, our science—indeed, what is the significance of all science, viewed as a symptom of life? For what—worse yet, whence—all science? How now? Is the resolve to be so scientific about everything perhaps a kind of fear of, an escape from, pessimism? A subtle last resort against—truth? And, morally speaking, a sort of cowardice and falseness? Amorally speaking, a ruse? O Socrates, Socrates, was that perhaps your secret? O enigmatic ironist, was that perhaps your—irony? 2 What I then got hold of, something frightful and dangerous, a problem with horns but not necessarily a bull, in any case a new problem—today I should say that it was the problem of science itself, science considered for the first time as problematic, as questionable. But the book in which my youthful courage and suspicion found an outlet—what an impossible book had to result from a task so uncongenial to youth! Constructed from a lot of immature, overgreen personal experiences, all of them close to the limits of communication, presented in the context of art—for the problem of science cannot be recognized in the context of science—a book perhaps for artists who also have an analytic and retrospective penchant (in other words, an exceptional type of artist for whom one might have to look far and wide and really would not care to look); a book full of psychological innovations and artists’ secrets, with an artists’ metaphysics in the background; a youthful work full of the intrepid mood of youth, the moodiness of youth, independent, defiantly self-reliant even where it seems to bow before an authority and personal reverence; in sum, a first book, also in every bad sense of that label. In spite of the problem which seems congenial to old age, the book is marked by every defect of youth, with its “length in excess” and its “storm and stress.” On the other hand, considering its success (especially with the great artist to whom it addressed itself as in a dialogue, Richard Wagner), it is a proven book, I mean one that in any case satisfied “the best minds of the time.”1 In view of that, it really ought to be treated with some consideration and taciturnity. Still, I do not want to suppress entirely how disagreeable it now seems to me, how strange it appears now, after sixteen years—before a much older, a hundred times more demanding, but by no means colder eye which has not become a stranger to the task which this audacious book dared to tackle for the first time: to look at science in the perspective of the artist, but at art in that of life. 3 To say it once more: today I find it an impossible book: I consider it badly written, ponderous, embarrassing, image-mad and image-confused, sentimental, in places saccharine to the point of effeminacy, uneven in tempo, without the will to logical cleanliness, very convinced and therefore disdainful of proof, mistrustful even of the propriety of proof, a book for initiates, “music” for those dedicated to music, those who are closely related to begin with on the basis of common and rare aesthetic experiences, “music” meant as a sign of recognition for close relatives in artibus2—an arrogant and rhapsodic book that sought to exclude right from the beginning the profanum vulgus3 of “the educated” even more than “the mass” or “folk.” Still, the effect of the book proved and proves that it had a knack for seeking out fellow-rhapsodizers and for luring them on to new secret paths and dancing places. What found expression here was anyway—this was admitted with as much curiosity as antipathy—a strange voice, the disciple of a still “unknown God,” one who concealed himself for the time being under the scholar’s hood, under the gravity and dialectical ill humor of the German, even under the bad manners of the Wagnerian. Here was a spirit with strange, still nameless needs, a memory bursting with questions, experiences, concealed things after which the name of Dionysus was added as one more question mark. What spoke here—as was admitted, not without suspicion—was something like a mystical, almost maenadic soul that stammered with difficulty, a feat of the will, as in a strange tongue, almost undecided whether it should communicate or conceal itself. It should have sung, this “new soul”—and not spoken!4 What I had to say then—too bad that I did not dare say it as a poet: perhaps I had the ability. Or at least as a philologist: after all, even today practically everything in this field remains to be discovered and dug up by philologists! Above all, the problem that there is a problem here—and that the Greeks, as long as we lack an answer to the question “what is Dionysian?” remain as totally uncomprehended and unimaginable as ever. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Nietzsche was the greatest polemist ever. He played the role of Saint-Michael, the dragon slayer, in his Homeric battle with the existing dragons (the Christian moralists). He tried to revalue all generally accepted `good and evil’ values and really felt that mankind was pregnant with a new super-species, the `Übermensch’.His influence on philosophy, literature, psychology and politics is immense.Of course, some aspects of his vision on mankind are unacceptable.The all important influence on his Nietzsche’s life and philosophy came from Schopenhauer: `I very earnestly denied my `will to life’ at the time when I first read Schopenhauer.’The life of a Nietzschean immoralistLife is to express one’s will to and lust for power. The cardinal instinct of man is not self-preservation, but the discharge of strength. Everything evil, terrible, tyrannical in man, everything that is kin to beasts of prey and serpents serves the enhancement of the species `man’. This enhancement has always been the work of an aristocratic society. The noble man creates his own morality, his good and bad, with egoism and exploitation as his real nature. He despises the slaves, the unfree, the doglike people who allow themselves to be maltreated.Christian morals, democracyWhen the aristocratic value judgments declined, the plebeians imposed their own morality of unegoism, pity, self-sacrifice, self-abnegation and ascetic ideals on mankind. The egoistic `good’ of the masters became the `evil’ of the Christian faith.This faith constitutes not less than a sacrifice of all freedom, enslavement and self-mutilation. By preserving all that is sick, it breads `a mediocre herd animal’.Democracy, `the nonsense of the greatest numbers’, with its `equality of rights’, is the heir of Christianity.It is a gruesome fact that an anti-life morality received the highest honors and was fixed as a law and a categorical imperative.ArtArt is a saving sorceress. She alone knows how to turn the nauseous thoughts about the horrors of life into the sublime and life’s absurdity into the comic.Musically speaking, Nietzsche himself was a composer.`The Case against Wagner’ compares the Dionysian opera `Carmen’ by Bizet, with the Christian opera `Parsifal’ by Wagner, the redeemer.EvaluationBesides his unacceptable profound misogyny (`woman’s great art is the lie, her highest concern is mere appearance’), Friedrich Nietzsche’s brutal evangel is not less than a call for war, not peace. But in an age of nuclear, bio- and chemo-weapons, of veiled State terrorism and of demographic explosions, his call for an uninhibited exploitation of man’s basic instincts to fight for the spoils should be categorically rejected.His romantic anti-rational and anti-scientific stances became pipedreams.On the other hand, his attacks on the power of the moralists, his sincere call to live in `Dionysian’ freedom and not for `eternal bliss’, as well as his vision that art is the only truly metaphysical activity of man, will continue to appeal strongly to many and remain the bright parts of his virulent diatribes.His work is a must read for all philosophers and lovers of truly essential polemics.

⭐The author’s footnotes can sometimes take up more than half a page! They view Nietzsche with an incredibly critical modern eye which is neither helpful nor constructive.

⭐This volume contains ‘The Birth of Tragedy’, ‘Beyond Good and Evil’, ‘The Genealogy of Morals’, ‘The Wagner Case’, and ‘Ecce Homo’. Together with the ‘Viking Portable Nietzsche’, the two contain all of Nietzsche’s major writings. The translation and introductions by Kaufmann are fantastic, faithful to the original, and quite useful. His footnotes are useful, especially in the ‘Genealogy of Morals’, which is the text I recommend new Nietzsche readers begin with.

⭐Walter Kaufmann’s learnedness of German & English, as well as his deep insight into the mind of this genius, bring light to the path for those trying to summit Mt Nietzsche: tendentiousness is not found in these translations . FWN was too complicated a personality to be trusted to just anyone’s interpretation. Kaufmann provides rational discussion to the reader for why he opts for the translations he does. He even reveals how other translations (particularly in the first several decades after FWN’s death) were not only misleading, but clouded FWN’s writings to such a degree that many still do not understand FWN.

⭐The best introduction Nietzsche available. I would recommend starting with “Genealogy of Morals” then read “Beyond Good and Evil.”Jordan Peterson places Nietzsche as a 1 in a billion man. He places his mind in the stratosphere of human intelligence.”Genealogy” actually changed my life. This isn’t an exaggeration. You can listen to people talk about Nietzsche’s idea, but it’s not until you actually read the words yourself the ideas truly come to life.The mindset shift I experienced isn’t unique to me. Many people’s lives have been changed by the mind warp of the words inside this book.When you put the book down, and really think about the ideas and apply them to society as a whole, you might just realize how society really works. What civilization is meant to do for us, or against us. Whose morals do you follow?Sometimes it’s best when more questions come to you instead of answers.I still haven’t finished all the works in the “Basic Writings” but I recommend starting with the two above. I will be reading Zarathustra next.(And Walter Kaufman remains the numero uno in translations).

⭐I think you have to be highly intelligent or very bored to read Nietzsche, and understand him. It seems you have to live with his books for a long time to really get it. While I love to read, I have taken a few stabs at this one, and I find I don’t have the dedication to finish just yet, and will reserve full judgment until I do. In the meantime, I see Nietzsche being quoted in almost everything else I read, so maybe over time I’ll pick up enough in passing that I will be spared having to read him first hand. From what I’ve gathered so far he is tedious, depressing and often insightful. When Nietzsche says “I am not a man, I am dynamite” he means to explode all preconceptions of morals, or the concept of good and evil. He questions everything, while enjoying nothing. I think he was one miserable wretch, but that is his loss and our gain. It could take years to crack his code…don’t know how necessary that is, so I choose to keep him around as reference material instead. He is easier to digest that way, on your own terms, in small chunks rather than as an elephant, although you are likely to get indigestion either way.

⭐Some more translation of Nietzsche a great compliment to the portable Nietzsche also by Kaufmann

⭐With this and “Thus spake…” you are set for Nietzsche. And what a journey it is! An oft-misunderstood and misrepresented philosopher, who it is both exciting and unnerving to read.

⭐Paperback edition is worth no more than 200 Rs, the cover, pages and overall quality feels cheap and pirated. Better go for hardcover and the book will last for years.

⭐Even though this is a great collection of writings of Nietzsche, this print has very poor quality of pages. Very thin, even utmost care doesn’t feel enough.

⭐The print of the book was so bad,pages so thin and poor quality.One could see the impression of texts printed on the previous page in whole book.Very disappointed ,had to return the book.

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