Walking the Tightrope

In The Antichrist , Friedrich Nietzsche writes favorably toward Buddhism, especially in comparison with Christianity.  But Nietzsche probably only had a superficial understanding of Buddhism (and he never mentions Zen at all), which was just becoming widely known in Europe during his lifetime.  Nevertheless, one does not have to know everything about a systemic discipline or perspective in order for that system to match much of one’s personal beliefs, arrived at independently. In Nietzsche and Zen: Self-Overcoming Without A Self (2011) by Andre van der Braak the reader is introduced to numerous similarities (as well as differences) between the German philosopher and the ancient religion.  The two are not an exact fit, but van der Braak has done a decent job of bringing to light the importance of self-overcoming to both sources and in delineating the specifics of this essential concept to understanding Nietzsche’s theory of psychology.   In brief, though the specifics differ, Niet

Note: This review was originally posted December 1, 2015 on my other blog, Ummagumma . It is presented here with a few minor changes. In 2014 I purchased a newly published academic work entitled Nietzsche on Art & Life .  Art, as my many posts on the subject attest, is held in high esteem by me intimately. I can not bring it into sharp focus yet, but there is something about Art that is sacred to me and is connected to my existence. Nietzsche's philosophy is rooted in the subject of Art (among other major subjects) and this new book attempts to shed insight into Nietzsche's application of Art to human life. Eleven diverse essays grace the pages of this book. Each offers a perspective either slightly or significantly different from the others.  Generally, however, it is agreed that Nietzsche's views on Art and aesthetics changed significantly over the course of his life.  Early on with The Birth of Tragedy he was under the influence of Schopenhauer and Wagner - A

In 2010, Julian Young gave us what I consider the best overall biography of Friedrich Nietzsche .  I used it, along with biographies by Safranski , Cates , and others, extensively in this bio-blog.  A couple of years prior to that Young wrote Nietzsche’s Philosophy of Religion which caught my eye a couple of years ago.  It was one of those books I bought knowing I would read it eventually, but only recently have I had time to enjoy it. Young has some slightly unconventional ideas about Nietzsche’s philosophy.  At first blush it seems that the philosopher who proclaimed “God is dead” and who was so rabidly critical of Christianity might not want to have anything to do with ‘religion.’  But, Young argues, fairly conclusively in my opinion, that for all his concern with free spirits and the Ubermensch , Nietzsche nevertheless desired a communal solution to the problem of nihilism. One of the most interesting facts that Young points out is that the origins of Nietzsche’s revolutionar

Perhaps the most accessible part of Nietzsche’s philosophy is his idea of the “free spirit.”  This comes mostly from the “middle period” of his works, when his ideas, though solid and sophisticated, were still becoming more defined.  Beginning with Human, All-too-Huma n (HH, 1878) and going through On the Genealogy of Morality (GM, 1887) the “free spirit” appears frequently in Nietzsche’s work. Rebecca Bamford has put together a collection of essays from a variety of Nietzsche scholars investigating this aspect of his philosophy in Nietzsche’s Free Spirit Philosophy (2015). One of the primary themes throughout this collection of 13 essays is how the free spirit is a student of and then the master of the multiplicity of drives that churn in each human being, giving an illusionary appearance of a singular self.  This multiplicity is inherently ambiguous for the most part, which makes understanding it and cultivating it all the more rare.  “He says that ‘the way is open for new v

Last year I read a new biography on the life of Friedrich Nietzsche by Sue Prideaux entitled I Am Dynamite!   Only now have I found time to return to it and give it a comprehensive review.  The title, obviously, is taken from one of Nietzsche’s self-proclamations in Ecce Homo .  I have read many biographies on Nietzsche since long before I started (and during) this blog back in 2008.  This book contains new material that will help flesh-out portions of previous blog posts. I Am Dynamite! is not a great biography in terms of revelations about Nietzsche’s thought.  Its strength lies elsewhere.  Namely, Prideaux concentrates on details from Nietzsche’s early life and his later years after he went insane, offering a lot of information I have not found elsewhere.  There are also wonderful little tidbit particulars throughout the biography that will I want to go back and include as updates to past blog posts.  Here are some quotes I plan to incorporate in the future: Nietzsche’s child