1. Nietzsche

2. Who was Nietzsche? • Prodigy • Schopenhauer • University of Basil • Academic outcast • Mental Illness

3. After his death • Sister takes control • Nazism • Modern influence

4. Reading Nietzsche • Difficult to read some work • Playful and ambiguous • Various interpretations (Kaufman, Connolly, Foucault) • Somewhat like an acquired skill

5. Essential Nietzsche readings • Birth of Tragedy • Thus Spoke Zarathustra • Genealogy of Morals • Nietzsche wrote far more than these, but these three writings represent three phases of his work and key points of his philosophy

6. Important concepts in Nietzsche • Master Morality Vs. Slave Morality • Dionysian vs. Appolonian • Nihilism • Blonde Beast • Will to Power “God is Dead”

7. Master Morality Vs. Slave Morality • Geneology of morals • Master morality • Slave morality • Judaism

8. Dionysian vs. Appolonian • Birth of Tragedy • Dionysian • Appolonian • Art and music • uninhibited life

9. Nihilism • What most people think of when they think of Nietzsche • There is not objective value or meaning • Symptom of the modern world • Dissolution of Christianity

10. Blonde Beast • Previously represented the lion • Represents the powerful • Can’t shun the beast for taking what he wants and exercising his superiority • Highly controversial, often used when discussing Nietzsche’s relation to Nazism

11. Will to Power • Common drive for people • We want to obtain our highest possible station in this world • That’s okay • Natural instinct

12. Nietzsche in debate • Nietzsche did not focus on the world beyond the mesosphere • Not necessarily one way to run Nietzsche, so we will focus on the file you have been given • Inability to accept the world as it is • If you don’t accept all of life, good and bad, you reject it, erase it’s value • Affirm life (Dionysian)

13. Common arguments made against Nietzsche • permutation • Nazism • Nietzsche glorifies violence, racism, genocide • Anti-politics (Wolin)