ask me about Friedrich Nietzsche

[mbillie1]

Maybe this goes in SMP, but I'd like to avoid getting into a giant sh*tting match with those people and just answer questions and clear up basic misconceptions about Nietzsche and (more specifically) his philosophy. This is obviously inspired/plagiarized by/from the Hitler thread, and I dunno if I can live up to how good that one's been, but I'll do my best. I've read all of his major books and most of his essays and other notes. I've studied him with some relatively reputable scholars of his (M.C. Dillon, who was of fairly high regard in the academic world at least). I know some details of his personal life but not to the nth degree, so I'd prefer to discuss his philosophy / personal beliefs / attitudes towards society, religion, etc etc. Anything he wrote about, you heard someone claim he advocated, etc is fair game. I'll back up any claims I make with quotes if reasonable (eg a broad claim about him may not have one specific quote backing it up, but almost any position I'll attribute to him I can back up fairly quickly with a quote/page number/etc). I think I'm a fairly good source when it comes to Nietzsche's philosophy. If I didn't [censored] off in college I would like to have been teaching him by now.

I dunno if anyone cares, probably not, but I'm here with absolutely nothing to do for the rest of the night and the entirety of tomorrow, so fire away if anyone particularly cares. Ice breakers: "superman" (overman), alleged antisemitism, alleged nihilism/pessimism, ties to Wagner, criticisms of Christianity, etc.

A good Nietzsche quote to start out with that gives maybe a totally different picture than you previously had:

Jesus said to his Jews: "The law was for servants--love God as I love him, as his son! What are morals to us sons of God!