Nietzsche

No one studying modern European history can avoid Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Events that marked and marred the modern world, including the First World War and the Nazi tyranny, and important social developments, like the secularisation of society, are closely associated with him. No philosopher, perhaps, has ever been considered so inseparable from politics, and few philosophers have ever influenced so profoundly the way people think about their lives. Many of his phrases – ‘the superman’, ‘the will to power’, ‘God is dead’, ‘live dangerously’, ‘blond beast’ – have become part of the currency of educated people’s language. According to J.P. Stern, had Nietzsche not lived ‘the life of modern Europe would be different’. Yet many of us know very little about the substance of this enigmatic figure – who once said we should philosophise with a hammer and write books in blood.