Books by Friedrich Nietzsche (Book Guide)

Source: Wikipedia. Commentary (books not included). Pages: 33. Chapters: Beyond Good and Evil, Ecce Homo (book), Human, All Too Human, My Sister and I (Nietzsche), On the Genealogy of Morality, Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks, The Antichrist (book), The Birth of Tragedy, The Case of Wagner, The Dawn (book), The Gay Science, The Will to Power (manuscript), Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Twilight of the Idols, Untimely Meditations. Excerpt: The Antichrist (German: ) is a book by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, originally published in 1895. Although it was written in 1888, its controversial content made Franz Overbeck and Heinrich Köselitz delay its publication, along with Ecce Homo. The German title can be translated into English as both "The Anti-Christ" and "The Anti-Christian". The English word "Christian" is called a weak noun in German and, in the singular nominative case, it is translated as "der Christ". Given the content of the book, the title is likely to imply both connotations (the same way as the word "Antichristianity" would in English). Further, the book is directed at broader concepts of egalitarianism and democracy which are seen as lingering effects of Christian ideals. Nietzsche claimed in the Foreword to have written the book for a very limited readership. In order to understand the book, he asserted that the reader "... must be honest in intellectual matters to the point of hardness to so much as endure my seriousness, my passion." The reader should be above politics and nationalism. Also, the usefulness or harmfulness of truth should not be a concern. Characteristics such as "Strength which prefers questions for which no one today is sufficiently daring; courage for the forbidden" are also needed. He disdained all other readers. In § 1, Nietzsche expressed his dissatisfaction with modernity. He disliked the contemporary "lazy peace", "cowardly compromise", "tolerance", and "resignation". This related to Schopenhauer's claim that knowledge of the inner nature of the world and life results in "... perfect resignation, which is the innermost spirit of Christianity ... ." Nietzsche introduced his concept of will to power in § 2. He defined the concepts of good, bad, and happiness in relation to the will to power. "What is good? - All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man. What is bad? - All that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness? - The