Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) was a famous and influential German philosopher.

Nietzsche is famous as a precursor of existentialism; his rejection of what he calls "slave morality" or altruism; his vigorous attacks on Christianity; his origination of the Übermensch? concept (translated as "Overman" or "Superman"); his embrace of a sort of irrationalism?; and something he called "the Will to Power", possibly best regarded as an early attempt at psychology.

Works:

• Die Geburt der Tragödie, 1872 (The Birth of Tragedy)
• Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen, 1876 (Untimely Meditations)
• Menschliches, Allzumenschliches, 1878 (Human, All Too Human)
• Morgenröte, 1881 (Daybreak, or The Dawn)
• Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, 1882 (The Joyful Science)
• Also sprach Zarathustra, 1885 (Thus Spake Zarathustra)
• Jenseits von Gut und Böse, 1886 (Beyond Good and Evil)
• Zur Genealogie der Moral, 1887 (On the Genealogy of Morals)
• Der Fall Wagner, 1888 (The Case of Wagner)
• Götzen-Dämmerung, 1889 (The Twilight of the Idols)
• Der Antichrist, 1895 (The Antichrist)
• Nietzsche contra Wagner, 1895 (Nietzsche vs. Wagner)
• Der Wille zur Macht, 1901 (The Will to Power, a highly selective collection of notes from various notebooks, not intended for publication by Neiztsche himself, but released by his sister)
• Ecce Homo, 1908 (Behold the Man, an attempt at autobiography; the title refers to Pontius Pilate's statement upon meeting Jesus of Nazareth)

The character of Superman has sometimes been said to be a popularization of Nietszche's concept of the [[Übermensch]].