Decline of Religion in 20th Century Neitzsche
In this paper I am supposed to choose an existential or nihilist thinker and apply their thoughts to the 20th century problems that we identified at the beginning of class. I'm not going to do this. What I'm going to write about is one of, if not the biggest, problem mankind has ever created for itself. Christianity. While Christianity was not on the list of problems that we identified I cannot help but wonder if the man I will examine and his writings had anything to do with the decline of this outdated monolith. Of course I'm speaking of none other than Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, born Oct. 15, 1844, was a German philosopher who, together with, Soren Kierkegaard shares the distinction of being a forerunner of Existentialism. He studied at the universities of Leipzig and Bonn, receiving his doctorate degree from the Leipzig in 1869. Because he had already been published, he was offered the chair of classical philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland before the doctorate was officially conferred on him. He left the university in 1879 due to ill health caused by a short stint in the military, and began concentrating on his writings. My focus will be on three of his works that sho
Believers and their need to believe.--- Truth is hard. Let us admit to ourselves, without trying to be considerate, how every higher culture on earth has so far begun. Human beings whose nature was still natural, barbarians in every terrible sense of the word, men of prey who were still in possession of unbroken strength of will and lust for power, hurled themselves upon weaker, more civilized, more peaceful races, perhaps traders or cattle raisers, or upon mellow old cultures whose last vitality was even then flaring up in splendid fireworks of spirit and corruption. In the beginning the noble caste was always the barbarian caste: their predominance did not lie mainly in physical strength but in strength of the soul--they were more whole human beings (which also means, at every level, "more whole beasts"). BGE 257 The conditions for God.--- "God himself cannot exist without wise people." said Luther with good reason. But "God can exist even less without unwise people"---that our good Luther did not say. A dangerous resolve.--- The Christian resolve to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Nietzsche's Madman, Evidently Nietzsche, Gay Science, God--- God, Basel Switzerland, Christianity Christianity, , Leipzig Bonn, Wilhelm Nietzsche, Soren Kierkegaard, gay science, nietzsche values, friedrich wilhelm nietzsche, enhancement species, christian/slave morality, christian resolve, slave morality, ugly bad, physical strength, wilhelm nietzsche, world ugly, world ugly bad,
Approximate Word count = 1256
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
