Friedrich Nietzsche: Biography of a Vitalist Philosopher
The genealogy of morals , Beyond good and evil , Thus spoke Zarathustra … These titles are widely known worldwide because of their profound critique of the morals and philosophy of their time and their importance in the development of philosophical thought in the 19th and 20th centuries. They are works by Friedrich Nietzsche, a philosopher of Prussian origin, of whom we make a brief biography in this article .
Biography of Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche was born on 15 October 1844 in Röcken, a Prussian town then part of Germany, the first of three children.
Son of the Lutheran pastor Carl Ludwig Nietzsche and Franziska Oehler , his first years were spent in a religious environment. However, when he was four years old his father would die due to a neurological disease. This loss was compounded by the loss of his brother shortly thereafter. After these deaths the family composed of Nietzsche, his mother and his sister moved to live with his grandmother and aunts in Naumburg, being protected by the magistrate Bemhard Dächsel. What happened next was a life trajectory that generated one of the most brilliant minds of his time.
Education
The education of the famous philosopher began in public school. The schooling of the young man was not easy, since even as a child Nietzsche would suffer from various health problems, among them headaches and vision problems . This, together with his serious character, often made him the object of ridicule among students. In spite of everything, Nietzsche showed great ability for letters, which would eventually lead to his admission to the prestigious Schulpforta school. There he would receive instruction in the world of literature, writing various poetic essays.
In 1864 he began his theological studies at the University of Bonn, but a little less than a semester later he abandoned these studies to begin his studies in Philology, which he continued in Leipzig . During his studies he was inspired by Lange and Schopenhauer, an inspiration that would eventually lead the young man to take an interest in philosophical reflection. After a brief period of military service, which was terminated by a fall from a horse, he returned to his studies and completed them in 1869.
The University of Basel in Switzerland offered him a position as a professor of philology even before he finished his degree, an offer he accepted. After his transfer, he renounced his German citizenship. He would later return to serve in the Prussian army, as an orderly , an experience in which he contracted diseases such as diphtheria that complicated his state of health.
First publications and beginnings of his philosophical stance
Nietzsche would later publish his first books, receiving harsh criticism from various personalities of the time. During those years, Otto von Bismarck would end up joining what would be called the German Empire, whose cultural development would later be criticized by Nietzsche. During this period he would make a convulsive friendship with Wagner , which would finally be broken.
It is at this time that he begins to make a criticism of the prevailing rationalism and a defense of instincts and emotions, making an apology for innatism and the instinctive. His criticism is centred on the culture of reason, which is static and decadent, and which is opposed to biological impulses.
On this basis also appears the criticism of morality and religion (focusing specifically on the Judaeo-Christian vision and especially on the Church), with values that supposed that the population would submit and be enslaved according to what the weak (those slaves who do not have control over their lives and do not follow their strength and instincts) would dictate on the basis of the identification of these values with goodness. The idea would arise of the need to generate new values that take into account biological imperatives, an idea that would eventually generate the concept of the superman.
Worsening health and its neater stage
Nietzsche’s health, afflicted with various diseases (among which syphilis was speculated), would worsen over time. He was therefore forced to leave his post as a teacher in Basel.
Due to his health problems Nietzsche would often travel to different cities with a more benign climate, despite returning home from time to time to visit his family. this is his most prolific period in terms of publications and philosophical thought. He fell in love with Lou Andreas-Salome and proposed to him, but was rejected.
This, together with the loss of relationships with old friends like Wagner, would lead to an ever deeper isolation. It was at this time that he wrote “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, and “Beyond Good and Evil”, one of his best-known works. However, his publications were never widely accepted by society.
His sister would marry a well-known writer called Bernhard Förster and travel with him to Paraguay, the ideology and anti-Semitism of which Nietzsche was repelled. In 1887 he published The Genealogy of Morals , being in increasingly poor health. However, his writings began to be more and more successful and interested in the general population.
Internment and death
In 1989, at the age of 44, the well-known author collapsed, after which he was forced to retire. He was admitted to an asylum in Basel with symptoms that today suggest dementia , possibly due to syphilis, or a possible brain tumour . His secretary Gast and his friend Overbeck (known and friendly since the time in Basel), decided to publish his works “The Antichrist” and “Ecce Homo”.
Nietzsche would later be taken by his mother to a clinic in Naumburg and then to his home in 1890. After her death she moved with her sister, who had returned after being widowed, to Weimar. There she died on August 25, 1900 due to pneumonia.
The Legacy of Nietzsche
Nietzsche’s legacy is invaluable and has had great influence on the world. Aspects such as the nihilism or decadence of Western thought and classical and rational philosophy, the avoidance of Dionysian desires and impulses and the following of the morals of slaves, the criticism of religion as an instrument of control that makes the population slave and submissive due to the identification of these traits and suffering as the good thing are elements that, although they may be controversial and difficult to interpret, have aroused the interest of many thinkers and have inspired great works and social and political reinterpretations.
An example of this can be seen in Sigmund Freud, whose works have been influenced by the criticism of rationality and the defence of instinctive and innate forces.
Unfortunately, there have also been interpretations of his works with less benign purposes and consequences. Social criticism, the defence of individualism and identity, ideology and the concept of the superman would be distorted and reinterpreted by various figures who would end up using it as the basis for some of the actions and foundations of Nazism.