Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography

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Safranski's book stands out from all previous books on the thinker who spent the last years of his life in the seclusion of madness and who is still seen by many as an inspiration of fascist ideology. It is the only biography of Nietzsche that focuses on the evolution of his thought and integrates biographical details into the larger vision of his philosophy. Like few other authors, Sanfranski really attempts to get inside Nietzsche's head, and he positions the details of Nietzsche's unhappy life within the larger context of his thought. He talks about Nietzsche's boyhood obsession with music, his time in the army, his friendship with Wagner, his unrequited love for Lou Andreas Salome quoting diaries, letters, discarded writings - each of which reveal a different side of this enigmatic figure. It was one of Nietzsche's convictions that life experience could not be separated from thinking, writing and creating; for him, life became philosophy. For this reason, Safranski, unlike other biographers, keeps Nietzsche's lesson constantly in mind and treats the life as a proving ground for the thought. Safranski becomes, to use Nietzsche's words, 'an adventurer, a circumnavigator of the human mind'. The result is a biography of Nietzsche unlike any other.

Author Bio

Rudiger Safranski is one of the world's leading Nietzsche scholars. He has written two previous biographies, Heidegger: Between Good and Evil and Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy. He lives in Berlin.